BATON ROUGE - An audit report released Monday showed that, despite the university and the student-athletes raking in multiple national titles in 2023, the LSU Athletics Department posted a nearly $4 million deficit for the fiscal year. 

The report showed the department spent just over $200 million for the year—$204,351,240, to be exact—in student aid, coach salaries, team travel, and various operating expenses among other things. The heaviest expense across all specific categories and sports was the $18 million spent on salaries for the football coaches with men's basketball and women's basketball coaches seeing $4.6 million and $4.4 million respectively.

In turn, the biggest portion of revenue for the athletics department was, unsurprisingly, football ticket sales, which netted LSU Athletics nearly $41 million across the year. Behind ticket sales, donations comprised the second-biggest chunk of revenue, seeing $39 million. 

Despite these large numbers, the department still saw a deficit for the 2023 fiscal year. 

Expenses added up to $204 million with revenue coming up just short with $200 million. 

The full audit can be read here.