Click Here to view this Link.

Click Here to view this Link.

Click Here to view this Link.

Curious folks over there in Baton Rouge, La.

For more than a week, the loose lips at LSU apparently leaked information to every reporter who asked that Les Miles was out as the Tigers' head coach and that Jimbo Fisher was their No. 1 target.

Then when that didn't happen, they now are leaking information to reporters that they were in the middle of negotiations with Fisher's representatives when power brokers at the highest levels called the deal off.

According to a report in The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge, four different unnamed sources confirmed that talks were ongoing between Fisher's "intermediaries" and LSU's "intermediaries" before LSU President F. King Alexander and other high-ranking officials pulled the plug.

The alleged reason? "Sticker shock" when they realized that the whole deal would cost them more than $30 million -- $17 million to buy out Miles and his staff, $5 million for Fisher's buyout and then an annual contract of more than $5 million a year for Fisher.

"Ultimately, the overwhelming monetary figure to secure both deals concerned the school's president and others at a time when the state and school are experiencing budget struggles," the article states. "The final price tag to part ways with Miles and hire Fisher was more than $30 million. The figure "shocked" Alexander and other officials."

Come again?

None of these numbers were top secret. They all are part of public records. They had been reported by virtually every media outlet who published stories based on the original leaks. But we're supposed to believe that LSU's president had no idea how much this thing would cost?

That is ludicrous.

To believe that, you'd have to believe that the university president was in the dark about all of this from the very beginning. And if that's true, then who exactly authorized any of these "intermediaries" to negotiate with Jimbo Fisher?

We're not talking about firing a tennis or golf coach. If you're going to fire the head football coach at LSU -- a guy who has won a national title -- you're not going to do that without the university president's blessing. And if you don't have that blessing, then what kind of "negotiations" can you really be having?

To put it bluntly, nothing that has come out of Baton Rouge on this story makes any freakin' sense.

My guess is the Miles firing was never close to a done deal. I think some boosters with deep pockets (and big mouths) wanted Miles gone, and they wanted Fisher to take his place. I believe someone from that group reached out to Fisher's agent, Jimmy Sexton, and asked if there would be interest if the LSU job came open.

At that point, one of two things happened: Either Fisher's people said no, or the political heat on LSU for running off Miles got too hot. Whatever the case, this whole fire was probably extinguished before it was much of a spark -- certainly before any real negotiations had taken place.

I don't blame the Baton Rouge media for reporting what sources are telling them. But this version of the events simply doesn't add up. And it doesn't jibe with what we've heard from our sources at FSU, either.

If Fisher was in "negotiations" with LSU, it's a very safe bet that Sexton would have let Florida State's administration know at some point. That is, after all, how you play the game -- and no one plays it better than Sexton. Even if Fisher had no interest, his agent certainly would want FSU to know he was being courted. At the very least, it would be a chance to show how loyal he is, if not for use as a bargaining chip.

But in conversations with high-ranking folks at FSU, I was told the school's officials were never once contacted by anyone about Fisher being a candidate at LSU. Not by Sexton. Not by Fisher. And not by anyone at LSU. As of Friday afternoon, they insisted they still have never heard anything credible about Fisher being offered the job or being in negotiations.

In fact, as our Gene Williams posted back when these rumors first surfaced , we were told FSU President John Thrasher reached out to Fisher to see if there was anything to the reports. And Thrasher left that conversation feeling confident there was nothing to worry about.

Is it possible that all of our sources at FSU are misleading us?

Maybe. If you've been in this business for more than a minute, you learn not to take anything at face value.

If you're asking me, no, I don't believe Jimbo Fisher's agent was ever in negotiations with LSU. Is it possible that someone called him? Sure. But the term "negotiation" implies an offer and genuine interest on both sides -- and I'm not convinced of either.

What I do believe is some big-money boosters at LSU had a plan. And they were so excited about that plan that they not only put the cart before the horse, but they ran the poor thing over. And now they're trying to clean up the mess.

Contact Warchant managing editor Ira Schoffel at ira@warchant.com and follow @IraSchoffel on Twitter.