Gov. Landry’s interest in LSU harkens back to Huey Long. Could it backfire?

Huey Long’s involvement at LSU in the 1920s and ‘30s nearly cost the university and its law school their status as reputable institutions with legitimate credentials. 

Nearly a century later, Gov. Jeff Landry’s interest in the state’s flagship school has been cited as a reason LSU could be kicked out of the Southeastern Conference. 

Almost from the moment he took office in 2024, Landry has expressed an outsized interest in the affairs of Louisiana’s colleges and universities — especially LSU. And immediately, his interest has drawn comparisons to Long, an extremely powerful, populist and polarizing politician who was at various points an outspoken LSU critic, its de facto president, chair of its governing board, unofficial band director and unwanted football coach. 

Though fans and sports commentators often draw this comparison, they are almost always a glossed-over, glamorized version that romanticizes the long-running politicization of the university and its athletics program.  

In reality, Long’s meddling undermined LSU’s institutional integrity, nearly costing the university its accreditation. His hand-chosen university president, James Monroe Smith, was charged with embezzlement, leading him to flee the state before being sent to federal prison. 

Long, then a U.S. Senator, “exerted undesirable political influence” on LSU’s law school, the Association of American Law Schools wrote in its censure of Long, according to a 1935 Associated Press report. 

This aspect of Long’s legacy was recalled this week when the Southeastern Conference updated its First Amendment lawsuit against LSU, alleging that its current president, Wade Rousse, does not have control over the university, and that state actors, including Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill, have an outsized impact on the school’s actions. 

“That is completely and totally fictional. Maybe it makes for good drama. But it is false,” Landry spokeswoman Kate Kelly said in a statement. 

Citing the influence of the governor and attorney general, presidents of the SEC’s member schools had planned to vote Thursday on expelling LSU from the league but ultimately postponed the decision. 

Landry did not directly appoint Rousse as LSU president, unlike Long did Smith, but the governor’s support helped Rousse land the job. 

“Governor Landry is an enthusiastic supporter of LSU. However, I have full autonomy to run this institution and expect to be held accountable for the decisions I make,” Rousse said in a statement to the Illuminator. 

Landry and LSU

Landry has been in the spotlight the past two weeks as a legal fight unfolded in Louisiana. It involves former college athletes who had briefly pursued pro careers before an NCAA rule change awarded an extra year of eligibility to the classes that followed theirs. The group of 43 plaintiffs are suing the NCAA to be allowed to compete again at Louisiana colleges, including LSU. 

Landry and Murrill support the athletes and LSU, which is not a party in the lawsuit. Murrill even attended last week’s nine-hour-plus court hearing that ended with a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs. 

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” Landry said in a statement to The Advocate in regards to the conflict. 

Though the conflict seems to have reached a ceasefire, the governor continued to bash the Southeastern Conference and its commissioner this week, saying it’s “extremely dangerous for Greg Sankey” and the league to continue threatening LSU. 

Landry’s interest in LSU athletics — and higher education as a whole — intensified after he became governor in January 2024. He pushed for a slew of bills to increase the governor’s power. One in particular, in its original version, would have given him the power to directly hire university system presidents, as Long could. 

Critics dubbed it the “King Landry bill,” a reference to Long, who was known as The Kingfish. 

The bill was watered down but Landry still gained the power to directly appoint university system board chairs, authority that Long did not possess. 

Landry used that power to appoint mega-donor Lee Mallett chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors. Mallett, a Lake Charles businessman, was among the most ardent supporters of Rousse’s hiring and also advocated for the return of LSU basketball coach Will Wade, who also had Landry’s support. 

Wade had previously served as LSU’s coach from 2017-22 but was fired for recruiting violations. His return to college basketball was in 2023 at McNeese State, where Rousse became president the next year.  

Landry’s support has also been vital for several other university president hirings, including Ramesh Kolluru at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Jimmy Genovese at Northwestern State. 

The Landry president

Landry’s interest in state university affairs has drawn concerns about accreditation. Most university evaluators, including the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, require the administration of its accredited schools to remain free from undue external influence. 

The accreditor has given notice to several schools where its reviews determined that politics played an outsized role in the university’s operations.

In 2020, the commission determined Gov. Henry McMaster had undue influence on the University of South Carolina’s search for a new president. 

In 2017, the University of Louisville was given two years to address the commission’s concerns after it found Gov. Matt Bevin had exercised undue influence by abolishing the University of Kentucky’s governing board. 

In 2021, the commission opened an inquiry into the University of Florida for denying requests from professors who wanted to serve as expert witnesses in a voting rights case. 

A spokesperson for the accreditor has not responded to questions about whether it has received recent complaints or opened an investigation into LSU. 

And like Long, Landry has taken a strong interest in LSU’s athletics. In 2024, Landry petitioned the university to bring Mike VII, LSU’s live mascot, back to the sidelines of its football games, a practice it ceased in 2015 over animal welfare concerns. 

In 2025, Landry played a role in the firing of football coach Brian Kelly and athletics director Scott Woodward. 

Landry also hosted LSU athletics donors at an event at the Governor’s Mansion in July to discuss the program’s fiscal outlook. 

The Long of it all

Huey Long, a native of Winnfield, started out as a critic of the state’s flagship university. As time went on, he saw what he could do for the university — and what the university could do for him. 

Long’s patronage and interest helped grow LSU in terms of its student body size, acreage and new buildings. Much of it happened during the Great Depression, when Long took advantage of the economic downturn to lure high-profile faculty to Baton Rouge. 

But Long’s involvement with the university was also controversial, such as when he expelled a group of journalism students, now known as the “Reveille Seven,” who wanted to publish a letter to the editor critical of the governor. Or when he attempted to run off a tenured LSU professor who was critical of a Long protegé. 

Landry similarly has called for the dismissal of two LSU professors: Ken Levy, an LSU law professor who criticized the governor and President Donald Trump in profane comments to his class; and Bob Mann, a mass communications faculty member and frequent critic of Louisiana Republicans, publicly called out one of Landry’s deputies when he was attorney general.

Levy was suspended from the law school in January 2025. Mann went on to write “Kingfish U,” a book about Long’s influence at LSU, and resigned from the university shortly after Landry’s election, citing fears for his job. 

The investigations into Long’s influence at LSU stopped only when the senator died from a gunshot wound after an assassin attacked him at the State Capitol. 

According to some accounts, Long’s last words were about LSU: “I wonder what will happen to my poor university boys.”