Former LSU football coach Les Miles filed a lawsuit against LSU on Monday, claiming the university went back on a promise to restore 37 victories taken away from the football program and the Mad Hatter due to NCAA penalties handed down in 2023.
A winning percentage of .600 over 100 games is one of the main criteria for a coach to be on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot.
Before the NCAA penalties, Miles had a winning percentage of .665. Take away those 37 victories and the figure drops to .596, just below that key threshhold.
The 37 vacated victories from 2012 to 2015 are the result of LSU admitting that former offensive lineman, Vadal Alexander, received money from a booster. The infractions certainly sound much less damning in 2024, considering the current NIL landscape around the nation when it comes to paying NCAA athletes.
LSU admitted to the improper payments as part of the NCAA investigation looking into illegal recruiting activities by former men’s basketball coach Will Wade.
According to the lawsuit filed by Miles, LSU betrayed its former coach that led to them to a national championship in 2007 by vacating the wins without any due process. The suit points out Miles never had the opportunity to defend himself when the decision was made to vacate the victories.
LSU also allegedly told Miles that it would fight to restore the victories, which apparently has not happened.
“In my many years as a sports agent, while I have seen instances of institutional disloyalty, this LSU action is particularly disappointing,” said Miles’ longtime agent George Bass. “Les clearly earned the right to appear on the HOF ballot, and LSU’s wanton action depriving Les of that opportunity inexplicably sacrificed LSU in exchange for protecting those who put LSU in its compromised position. For all those helped make LSU football so successful, the action is a slap in the face and reflects a disregard for the entire program’s hard work and dedicating under Les’ leadership.
“LSU went back on its word, forcing us to take this unfortunate action of suiting in order to regain LSU’s rights,” said Bass.
LSU says it will not comment on pending litigation.
There were a lot of fun times during the Miles era, but the relationship between the quirky coach and LSU has turned very frosty in recent years.
There are accusations of Miles’ making sexual advances towards former female student workers within the football program and the disturbing instances of cover-ups of sexual assaults involving a couple of former football players.
It’s unknown how this lawsuit will turn out, but Miles, who was such a powerful person at LSU from 2005 to 2016, will certainly never be back on campus.
One key question: Would he be a College Football Hall of Famer anyway?
I believe he is. Going 114-34 at one school is Hall of Fame stuff. Miles averaged 10 wins a season at LSU and don’t forget from 2005 to 2015, no other program in the SEC won as many games as LSU did during that time.
He’s basically not eligible for the college football HOF because a booster paid a player. That happened on every major college football campus in America.
Maybe the easier thing is for the College Football Hall of Fame is to adjust its eligibility requirements. The same winning percentage benchmark also keeps former college football coaching greats Mike Leach and Howard Schnellenberger out of the Hall of Fame.
Without Schnellenberger there’s never a Miami Hurricane football dynasty and I doubt Texas Tech and Washington State will have type of sustained success as they had when Leach was there coach.
Miles was at the helm of several thrilling victories at LSU and some agonizing defeats and to think, if he had only one more victory, he would be on the College Football Hall of Fame.
