Snap judgement

(RedEye illustration)

For those keeping score at home, LSU and its boosters ponied up roughly $44,056 each time someone snapped the ball last Saturday during Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford. Whether they got their money’s worth is a call for the governor and those eight-figure boosters in the suites. We just ran the numbers.

Why it matters: LSU is spending Tiffany money and expecting championship results. One loss doesn’t end those hopes, no matter how painful it was.

Doing the math: Start with $48 million, a conservative estimate of what LSU and its boosters are spending on the roster through revenue sharing and NIL deals.

Add Kiffin’s $13 million salary and $14.6 million for his on-field coaching staff.
That brings the annual tab to $75.6 million—and does not include LSU’s collection of analysts, specialists and front-office personnel.
Spread that across 12 regular-season games and the cost is $6.3 million per game.
LSU and Ole Miss combined for 143 plays, putting LSU’s per-snap tab at $44,056.
For what it’s worth, Ole Miss and its Hotty Toddy boosters spent an estimated $30,280 per snap.

The bottom line: LSU’s cost per snap was within a Sam Leavitt incompletion of the $45,520 a typical Louisiana worker earns in a year.