The buzz keeps buzzing.
But when you’re successful, the buzz will always buzz.
That’s a good thing – a great thing, really.
When you take a place, flip it on its ear and make it so much better, the buzz keeps buzzing.
When you raise the property value by doing a total tear down and rebuild and make it shine, the buzz keeps buzzing.
That’s Heather Lyke. That’s what she has done. And the buzz keeps buzzing.
There have been rumblings since late last month when University of Southern California athletics director Mike Bohn had a messy exit from the school that one true, viable candidate for the opening is current Pitt director of athletics Heather Lyke.
Again, the buzz is a good thing. Please don’t take any of this as a negative because it is exactly the opposite.
Lyke was named the Cushman and Wakefield AD of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. Lyke, 52, is widely considered one of the real difference-makers and successes in college athletics from a bunch of different perspectives --- which is exactly why a big-time entity like USC might just come calling. It also could be a very appetizing place considering USC would significantly boost Lyke’s current salary, which as of 2021 at Pitt was $777,000.
Again, let me clearly state there’s nothing known and zero in cement, but seemingly every single list of “Potential Replacements” for Bohn that has been disseminated by a media member far closer to the USC situation than me includes Lyke at, or near, the top of people who would fit the job perfectly.
To wit: she played softball at Michigan and worked under Gene Smith at Ohio State for 15 years. With the Trojans making the move to the Big Ten, it is crucial they hire someone with a profound knowledge of the conference and Midwest. Lyke has both.
As far as fundraising? She crushes it. Absolutely smashes it. You have seen the cranes and heavy machinery around Pitt’s campus since pretty much the moment she took over, right?
Just look at what is happening with the Victory Heights project. Lyke helped raise $40 million for the project and a school like USC, which plays monetary ball in the big leagues of college athletics, has to be impressed by such.
On top of that, all powerful schools love their ADs to be part of various committees and boards. Lyke is on the Division I Council and is the chair of the Division I Football Oversight Committee. Those, along with her post as president of the Women Leaders in College Sports board of directors, are not just impressive resume builders but true power broker stations.
She also gets her teams to win.
All of the teams, pretty much. And, after all, that’s what is most important.
At Pitt, the football team has won 20 games over the past two seasons and has back-to-back finished in the Top 25.
Once left for dead, Lyke made the decision to stick with men’s basketball coach Jeff Capel after four less-than-stellar seasons. That program came through and found themselves in the NCAA tournament, shocking the ACC and a lot of people around the country.
The women’s volleyball team has made two consecutive Final Fours. Women’s soccer advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history and the men’s team made the College Cup for a second consecutive season.
For good measure, Pitt wrestler Nino Bonaccorsi won a national title and Pitt’s swimming and diving team sent 12 athletes to the NCAA Championships.
Categorically, Lyke has performed. She has produced. She has positively got it done.
Who knows what her future holds? She might be at Pitt for the duration, retiring from the place and continuing to build it on this arc and plane she has started --- which is one of seismic improvement.
She might have absolutely no interest in going anywhere, nailing her posts deep into the ground and making Pitt her permanent place of employment forever.
But let’s say it is either with an opportunity in the near future (like this USC one) or one down the road a bit --- and Lyke looks at it and it is just too good to pass up for a variety of reasons.
Know what the sentiments should be? That she left the place in a much better place and much more stable than she found it. Because that would be the truth.
And that is the truth. Pitt is positioned right now in an incredible spot from an athletics standpoint. If Heather Lyke is here for the long haul, they have one of the most dynamic ADs in the game. If USC or another opportunity among the true blue bloods of the NCAA pops up and is too good to pass up, Pitt would have won too. As they would have been shaped by someone who industrialized an incredible turnaround.