There are a lot of things you can say about the current state of UL right now, and not all of them are fun conversations. But let’s start with the fair part.

Dr. Ramesh Kolluru inherited an absolute mess.

This wasn’t a small budget hiccup. This wasn’t a “tighten the belt for a few months” situation. UL was staring at a massive financial hole, and the number that has been put out there publicly was roughly $50 million when you combine the structural deficit with prior-year payables. That is not a typo. That is not something you fix with a bake sale, a couple of extra parking tickets, and a new sponsorship on the left field wall.

So credit where credit is due: Dr. Kolluru has done a heck of a job getting the university pointed back toward fiscal sanity. Tough decisions were made. Cuts were made. Positions were eliminated. Budgets were squeezed. And from everything that has been reported, the university has made real progress toward getting out of the red and back into a healthier financial position.

That matters. It absolutely matters.

But here’s the part that Cajuns fans are allowed to ask about:

At what cost?

Because when you look at Louisiana Athletics right now, it is hard to ignore the number of empty chairs. It is hard to ignore the “To Be Announced” names scattered all over the staff directory. It is hard to look at the current structure and not wonder how many people are being asked to do two jobs, three jobs, and maybe even a fourth job on gameday when something breaks, somebody calls in sick, or a major event needs to be pulled off.

And let’s be clear: that is not a shot at the people still inside the building.

If anything, it is the opposite.

The people who are still there deserve a ton of credit. They are the ones keeping the train moving while the track is being repaired underneath them. They are still putting on games. They are still helping coaches. They are still taking care of athletes. They are still dealing with donors, tickets, marketing, social media, development, events, operations, compliance, sports medicine, nutrition, academics, and all the other stuff fans only notice when something goes wrong.

But that is exactly the point.

College athletics in 2026 is not slowing down. It is speeding up.

The transfer portal doesn’t care if you are short-staffed. NIL doesn’t care if you are short-staffed. Revenue sharing doesn’t care if you are short-staffed. Your conference opponents don’t care. Recruits don’t care. Parents don’t care. Fans buying tickets don’t care. ESPN+ doesn’t care. Corporate partners don’t care. And honestly, they shouldn’t have to.

This is the world Louisiana is trying to compete in. It is bigger, faster, messier, and more expensive than ever before.

So the question becomes simple: How is Louisiana supposed to compete at the highest level it possibly can with a skeleton staff?

That question gets even louder when you look at the larger conversation happening around campus.

According to recent reporting by The Advocate, faculty have gone multiple years without cost-of-living raises while the university is also moving forward with high-level vice president appointments carrying salaries of at least $245,000. Now, maybe there are legitimate reasons for those hires. Maybe those roles are important. Maybe the university believes it needs those people in place to execute the long-term recovery plan.

Fine. Make the argument.

But from the outside looking in, the optics are rough.

You cannot ask people across campus to live through cuts, freezes, eliminated positions, and no raises, while also telling athletics to operate with a bone-thin staff, and then expect nobody to notice when upper-level salaries and administrative appointments keep moving forward.

That does not automatically mean the hires are wrong. But it absolutely raises the question of priorities.

If money is tight, where is it going first?

If positions are being restored, which ones matter most?

If raises are not happening for some, why are high-salary administrative roles being approved?

And if athletics is being asked to generate revenue, grow the brand, improve the fan experience, support athletes, sell tickets, raise money, manage NIL-era expectations, and compete in a tougher Sun Belt, then why does it feel like athletics is being asked to do all of that with one arm tied behind its back?

That is the part that should concern Cajuns fans.

Because athletics is not just some random line item on a spreadsheet. Athletics is one of the most visible front doors to the university. For a lot of people, it is the front door. It is what keeps alumni connected. It is what puts the school on TV. It is what gives the community something to rally around. It is what gets donors engaged. It is what helps grow the brand beyond Lafayette.

So if athletics is expected to be a revenue generator, then it has to be staffed like one.

A good ticket office makes money. A good development staff makes money. A good marketing department builds crowds. A good creative team builds the brand. A good events staff makes the fan experience better. A good nutrition and sports medicine setup helps athletes perform. A good communications team tells the story. A good operations staff keeps the whole thing from falling apart behind the scenes.

You cannot cut your way into growth forever.

At some point, staffing is not just an expense.

Staffing is an investment.

That is why the turnover inside athletics matters, too. We have seen a multitude of people leave the department over the last year or so, and that deserves a real conversation. Why is that happening?

Is it pay?

Is it workload?

Is it burnout?

Is it uncertainty?

Is it morale?

Is it simply people finding better opportunities because college athletics is already a grind even when things are going well?

Maybe it is a little bit of all of the above. Maybe every case is different. But when enough people leave, and enough positions remain open, and enough names on the staff directory turn into “To Be Announced,” it stops looking like normal turnover and starts looking like a warning light on the dashboard.

And again, that is not meant to attack anyone inside the building.

It is meant to ask the obvious question before the problem gets worse.

What is the plan to get Louisiana Athletics fully staffed again?

Not “eventually.” Not “when things settle down.” Not “we will monitor it.” What is the actual plan?

Which positions are considered mission critical? Which jobs have to be filled first? Which departments are being prioritized? What does the timeline look like? What has to happen financially before those jobs come back? Are we talking months? A year? Multiple years?

And maybe the biggest question of all: what do the budgetary numbers look like specifically for athletics?

Because fans have heard a lot about the university deficit. They have heard about the $50 million hole. They have heard about reductions. They have heard about the university trying to balance the books.

But athletics is its own animal.

What does the athletic department’s budget look like today? What did it look like before the cuts? How much has actually been reduced? How much of the deficit problem was tied directly to athletics? How much institutional support is available going forward? How much is expected from RCAF? How much new revenue does athletics have to generate on its own just to get back to even?

And maybe more importantly, how much revenue is being lost because there are not enough people in place to chase it?

That last question matters.

Because when you are short in ticketing, you may leave sales on the table. When you are short in development, you may miss donor opportunities. When you are short in marketing and creative, your brand suffers. When you are short in event management, the fan experience takes a hit. When you are short in sports medicine, performance, nutrition, academics, or operations, the student-athlete experience gets squeezed.

And when all of that happens at once, it becomes harder to win.

That is the thing people outside of athletics sometimes miss. Winning is not just about the head coach. It is not just about the quarterback, the Friday night starter, or the cleanup hitter. Winning is infrastructure. Winning is support. Winning is alignment. Winning is having enough people in the building to make sure the details do not get skipped.

The Cajuns have had moments where everything lined up. We have seen what this place can become when the right resources, staff, culture, and momentum all hit at the same time.

Football proved it. Baseball has shown it. Softball built a national reputation on it. This fan base has proven over and over again that it will show up when it believes the university is serious.

But that is the key.

Fans want to believe there is a plan.

They understand the university had to get its financial house in order. Most reasonable people get that. Nobody wanted to wake up and find out the university was facing that kind of deficit, and nobody expected it to be fixed painlessly.

But now that the ship appears to be turning, fans want to know what comes next.

Because Louisiana Athletics cannot just survive. It has to compete.

This is not the old version of college sports where you could just keep the lights on, hope the football team got hot, and pray baseball or softball carried the banner every spring. The Sun Belt is better now. The arms race is real. Schools around us are investing. Facilities matter. Staff matters. Branding matters. Athlete support matters. Fan experience matters.

And the Cajuns have too much going for them to willingly drift backward.

That is why the salary conversation matters. That is why the staffing conversation matters. That is why the turnover conversation matters. That is why fans are asking questions.

It is not because people want the university to be reckless.

It is because people want the university to be serious.

There is a difference between being lean and being undermanned.

There is a difference between being efficient and being stretched to the point of breaking.

There is a difference between making smart cuts and cutting so deep that the athletic department has to operate like a small business trying to compete with national brands.

And older Cajuns fans know exactly where that road can lead if you are not careful.

We lived through the Authement years. We remember when Martin Hall ran athletics on a shoestring budget. We remember what it felt like when athletics was treated like something to be managed, not something to be built. We remember the missed opportunities, the small thinking, the lack of investment, and the damage it did to the overall perception of the university’s athletic programs.

And to be blunt, fans do not want to go back.

Nobody wants to go back to those days.

Not after seeing what Louisiana can be. Not after seeing Cajun Field packed. Not after seeing conference championships. Not after seeing baseball and softball become legitimate brands. Not after seeing the community show up when it believes the university is serious.

That is why this moment matters so much.

Dr. Kolluru deserves credit for doing the hard work on the university budget. That part should not be ignored. But now the next step is just as important.

What is the plan to protect athletics from being permanently weakened by the cure?

Because getting out of a deficit is important.

But getting out of a deficit while still having an athletic department capable of winning, growing revenue, serving athletes, retaining good employees, and giving fans a product worth believing in?

That is the real challenge.

And that is the one Cajuns fans are watching now.