Politics taketh, and politics giveth. Scott Woodward was the athletic director of the Tigers for a time. LSU fired Woodward Thursday, a day after Louisiana governor Jeff Landry slammed the LSU AD and said that he would hire no new LSU football coach. “Heck, I’ll just let Donald Trump do it before I let it.” Landry’s soundbite shocked and entertained many in college athletics. Sources say that Woodward made a unilateral decision to fire Brian Kelly as football coach on Sunday, a $54million decision which infuriated Landry and Board of Supervisors Members who were not consulted. LSU has spent (for now), nearly $60 million over a period of five days, to replace its AD and football coaches. LSU was trying to negotiate Kelly’s buyout.
Brian Kelly’s LSU demise was not sudden. It had been years in the planning.
John Talty
Woodward is in a shocking state of disgrace. An experienced political operative, he was known for his ability to work in the background and achieve what he wanted. Woodward, who was a former political lobbyist and then moved into college athletics as Mark Emmert’s LSU president, had many friends from all sides of the political spectrum. He also knew how to work in secretive ways behind the scenes. Politics, after all was what got him his job. Woodward, in a well-known backroom maneuver, knew that he was going to be the next LSU AD even before his future employer and university president F. King Alexander. He got the LSU AD position despite not having it open. In an April 2019 incident he refers to as the “Monday Night Massacre,” Alexander says he was told to go to Jubans Restaurant & Bar, an upscale creole-themed spot that serves shrimp aubergine and redfish adrian. Alexander was led back into the LSU Board of Supervisors’ meeting room as he entered the backroom.
The supervisors, who had all been appointed by then-Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards, told Alexander he had to fire AD Joe Alleva the next morning because they had already hired Woodward, then at Texas A&M, as the school’s next AD. Alexander explained that it was just a coincidence that Woodward, a LSU grad, and one of the board’s members were best friends, having attended Catholic High School together in Baton Rouge. Alexander chose to let Alleva ride out his contract until the next year, despite the fact that his decision to suspend the then-basketball Coach Will Wade was not popular with either the LSU supervisors or fans. Board members didn’t think that was good enough. They wanted Alleva gone immediately and replaced by Woodward. Alexander told CBS Sports Thursday that the board had “written down” the salary it had already paid to him. “They wrote down the salary on a piece of paper and then gave it to me on the napkin. I had never even interviewed the new AD.”
Alexander, the LSU President from 2013 to 2019, knew that Woodward would not be under his control despite what university reporting structures demanded. Alexander stated that Woodward only had to call the board members. “He did what he wanted.”Sources say that he was often out of the office, and delegated many day-today tasks to his subordinates. In SEC circles he had many detractors, but at LSU, he stayed in the shadows and operated largely in the background without getting dirty. Landry took advantage of Woodward’s rare political mistake when he fired Kelly after a meeting that was emotionally charged and went badly.
Landry’s comments and actions this week were stunning, but they are only the latest example of Louisiana governors becoming involved with LSU athletics. ****To understand the long-standing relationship between LSU athletics and politics, we need to go back to the days of “The Kingfish.Huey long loved LSU despite never having attended the school. He thought a larger and better LSU would benefit not only his political ambitions, it would also be good for Louisiana.
Long was so closely involved in LSU’s athletics, both as governor and as senator of the United States before his assassination on March 8, 1935, that you could have mistakenly thought he was their football coach. He tried to recruit football players at LSU. He wrote “Touchdown for LSU”, the LSU fight song that is still played today. He delivered pregame and mid-game speeches. Long told LSU players that they should “beat ’em” before a match against Arkansas in 1928. Robert Mann’s “Kingfish U”: Huey long and LSU, a book by Robert Mann, documents that Louisiana had better roads, free schoolbooks and better everything. Long was responsible for the dismissal at least of two LSU football coach. One of them, Captain Lawrence Jones refused to let Long give a speech during halftime.
From Long on, multiple Louisiana governors have become involved with LSU athletics. Baton Rouge and the state’s capital are just a few blocks apart, making it ripe to try to influence the major financial engine of the state. Bobby Jindal (the state’s former governor from 2008-16) was a fan of Les Miles. He once instructed LSU leaders to retain the football coach despite interest from Michigan. Michael Martin, LSU’s then-president, was upset by this. He told The Advocate that he thought it was strange that the governor’s staff had the time to monitor Les’ future, when there were other important issues in Louisiana.
Jindal simply followed the Long playbook, which said that a winning LSU team could also be good for him. Jim Engster told Sports Illustrated, in 2019, that “the governor can make or breaking a football coach.” Jim Engster is a Louisiana media figure who has been around for a very long time. “And, if the football coach is winning, it adds to his cachet.” Jindal intervened reportedly on Miles behalf during the 2015 football season, when reports circulated that LSU was preparing to fire the National Championship-winning coach in order to pursue Jimbo Fisher at Florida State. LSU AD Joe Alleva wanted to fire Miles. Jindal, however, encouraged the team to give him one more season. LSU’s Board of Supervisors also weren’t in agreement with the idea of spending 17 million dollars to fire Miles and all his assistants. A group of LSU officials, including Alexander, famously met during halftime of LSU’s regular-season finale against Texas A&M where it was decided Miles would return for another season.
(Alexander claimed that Jindal didn’t really intervene in Miles’ case and that the meeting that took place in the President’s Suite with multiple members of the Board of Supervisors was to determine whether Miles could make changes to a stale offense). Miles was only able to play four games in the next season before being fired after an 18-13 defeat by Auburn. It was his predictable offense which nearly got him fired 10 months prior that finally caught him up. Ed Orgeron was hired to replace him by Alexander and Alleva. John Bel Edwards – Jindal’s successor – would also develop a close bond with Miles’ replacement. Orgeron endorsed Edwards’ 2019 gubernatorial bid. How do Louisiana governors wield so much power? They appoint a 14-member Board of Supervisors. These appointments are accompanied by perks such as football tickets, premium parking and other benefits. In recent years, it is being used more and more as a way to reward donors and political supporters who are similar in outlook. Board of Supervisors Members serve staggered six-year terms. A governor who has served two terms can stack the board. This is not done solely to control LSU football. There are many other reasons to have friends on the board.
But there was no doubt that LSU Football was an important attraction for the board members.Alexander stated that “the most popular board member – the one who lobbied hardest – became the chair of the athletics committee of the Board.” “The unfortunate board member was the one that nobody liked. He became chair of academic affairs of the board.” Landry, who has only been in office for a year, has appointed six board members and will be able to choose four more next year. Landry, like Long before him did not attend LSU. He earned an undergraduate degree from Louisiana and a legal degree from Loyola, before launching a political career which included his appointment as the state’s attorney-general. Landry’s strong Louisiana accent is straight out of central cast. He has developed a solid reputation as a fiery politician who is not afraid to attack tenured professors or coaches who provoke his anger. Landry may have misunderstood the current state of the college football scene. He referred to it as the College Football In a radio interview on Thursday, he referred to the Bowl Championship Series as Playoff. But that hasn’t weakened his confidence in himself. He’s the right man to fix LSU Football. He has stated that he does not intend to hire a football head coach, but he can fill the power vacuum created by the absence of a permanent university leader. Landry has the power to influence his board to hire his chosen presidential candidate. Many believe that this is McNeese State’s Wade Rousse. Rousse is among three finalists to be the next president of LSU. The Board of Supervisors will select the new university president in the coming week. Landry will have a significant impact on the hiring of the next football coach and athletic director if the LSU board selects the right candidate. Landry could also use his Board of Supervisors appointments to remove another prominent figure if the current president of LSU does not comply with his demands. Landry’s increased involvement in the football coaching search has alarmed multiple industry sources CBS Sports talked to. One said that “LSU has no plan.” It is a highly unusual situation, but there are precedents. His involvement with the firing of Kelly was not unique. He hosted key officials in the governor’s office to discuss this matter on Sunday. In 42 states, governors are involved in the appointment of university trustees and board members. Brookings Institute reported earlier this summer that, “In a way, the focus is a tactical move made by governors and legislators to gain more influence over institutions.” Amy Privette Perko said, “It appears that, at the very least, in a few cases over the past two years, government officials have eschewed their normal governance procedures.” It’s difficult to imagine situations that would justify a disregard for best practices in university administration. It’s not surprising that lawmakers want to get more involved, especially given the high stakes of college sports, and the increased efforts between state governments and college sports leaders.”That’s the key to understanding what could happen in the future. ****Landry inserting himself into the LSU football coaching search has elicited strong reactions across college athletics. It has not been a positive experience for LSU.B. David Ridpath is a professor of sports management at Ohio University. He said, “I wasn’t shocked or surprised.” It was almost comical.Some say that this is what happens when you try to influence college athletics with political pressure. College sports leaders are begging politicians to intervene. From lobbying for favorable Name, Likeness and Image laws to benefit in-state universities, to making repeated trips Washington, D.C., in the hope of federal legislation, they have done everything from lobbying state legislators to lobbying Washington, D.C. Once you let them in, you may find that they do more than what you had intended. If you ask for help with a NIL, the legislator might want more power on campus in return. You can also find creative ways to increase revenue, such as a Louisiana law that directed sports gambling tax revenues to Division I schools within the state. This may encourage the governor to become more involved because state tax dollars are at stake. Landry seems to have taken this approach so far. He told Pat McAfee on Thursday that if private donors did not step up, the state taxpayers will be responsible for Kelly’s huge buyout.Landry said, “That contract binds Louisiana.” If someone does not step up to pay this bill, Louisiana will have to.Ridpath says, “Political involvement seems to be particularly prevalent in college sports down South.” Ridpath previously worked at Mississippi State. Ridpath, who previously worked at Mississippi State University, said that Landry’s Woodward remarks were “unimaginable” if Mike DeWine (the Ohio governor) had made them. “I can’t even imagine Wes Moore (Governor of Maryland) saying that.” For some reason I can imagine Mississippi doing it.”Bowen Loftin, the former president of Texas A&M, experienced the influence of then-Texas governor Rick Perry when the school was first considering joining the SEC. Perry, a Texas A&M graduate, told both Texas and Texas A&M to stand down in 2010 when they were considering leaving the Big 12. Loftin said that in Texas, the governor filled the board of directors with people who were willing to give him political money and carry out his vision. He made sure to talk with them regularly, so he could know where they stood. In many ways they were more loyal to the governor than they were to the school they represented. Loftin, who told us earlier, said that managing this was very difficult because in principle they have the power of hiring and firing presidents as well as controlling budgets. “They are oftentimes not donors. They are people with a passion for politics or who got the job because the governor placed them there. Money could have played a role in this.What’s happening at LSU may inspire ambitious governors to take over other states and frighten college administrators around the world. LSU has no permanent football coach in Baton Rouge. The university is also without an athletic director or president. A 54-year-old Republican governor has taken their places, and is now focusing on the influence of agents like Jimmy Sexton, Trace Armstrong, and promising that LSU will not be signing another 10-year contract worth $95 million, as it did with Kelly. Landry, who is undoubtedly on a tear, may be surprised to learn how limited the governor’s powers are against the power of college football agents.
2025-10-31 12:11:53
