LSU athletic director Scott Woodward resigned under pressure from the post he\u2019s held for six years on Thursday night, four days after the firing of football coach Brian Kelly and a day after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said Woodward would not hire Kelly\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n
Woodward, a Baton Rouge native and LSU graduate, was hired as athletic director at his alma mater in April 2019. Since then, LSU has won national championships in football, baseball (twice), women\u2019s basketball and gymnastics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thank Scott for the last six years of service as athletic director,\u201d LSU Board of Supervisors chairman Scott Ballard said. \u201cHe had a lot of success at LSU.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus now is on moving the athletic department forward and best positioning LSU to achieve its full potential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the coaches hired by Woodward was Kim Mulkey, who led LSU to its first women\u2019s basketball national title in 2023. Her team played an exhibition game on Thursday night, and Mulkey declined to attend a postgame news conference, sending assistant Bob Starkey instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s heartbroken,\u201d Starkey told reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 40 years of coaching, I\u2019ve worked with two phenomenal athletic directors,\u201d Starkey added. \u201cOne was Skip Bertman (at LSU). The other one was Scott Woodward.\u201d<\/p>\n Verge Ausberry, LSU\u2019s executive deputy athletic director, will replace Woodward on an interim basis and lead the search for a football coach, the university announced.<\/p>\n In an open letter to LSU fans, Woodward said, \u201cOur University will always hold a special place in my heart and I will never be too far from LSU.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOthers can recap or opine on my tenure and on my decisions over the last six years as Director of Athletics, but I will not,\u201d Woodward said. \u201cRather, I will focus on the absolute joy that LSU Athletics brings to our state\u2019s residents and to the Baton Rouge community.\u201d<\/p>\n When Woodward was hired in 2019, James Carville, a political pundit who graduated from LSU, taught there and was named to the university\u2019s Manship School of Mass Communications\u2019 Hall of Fame, hosted a welcome party for him at his house in New Orleans.<\/p>\n In a phone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday night, Carville, a Democrat, expressed disgust at the circumstances surrounding Woodward\u2019s sudden departure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Louisiana governor and the LSU board has damaged the reputation of our university,\u201d Carville said. \u201cLandry\u2019s IQ is the equivalent of the temperature of dishwater.<\/p>\n \u201cThe LSU board is weak and pathetic,\u201d Carville added. \u201cThis is not about my politics. It\u2019s about my university.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Woodward\u2019s contract, he is owed more than $5 million through 2029. LSU has not yet announced the financial terms of his separation agreement.<\/p>\n Landry on Wednesday was hosting a news conference about government matters not concerning LSU when he was asked about the Tigers\u2019 coaching situation and asserted that Woodward would not be involved in the selection of the next coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under Woodward, the football program bought out former coach Ed Orgeron for about $17 million in 2021. The buyout for Kelly, whom Woodward signed to a 10-year contract worth about $100 million in December 2021, is about $53 million, which is among the largest in the history of college sports.<\/p>\n Texas A&M\u2019s $77 million buyout of former coach Jimbo Fisher, who was fired in 2023, is the largest.<\/p>\n Woodward was Texas A&M\u2019s athletic director when Fisher was hired to coach the Aggies in December 2017. But Woodward already had been at LSU for two years when A&M, in 2021, gave Fisher a contract extension that effectively doubled the cost of his buyout.<\/p>\n Still, Landry assigned blame for Fisher\u2019s buyout to Woodward.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a pattern,\u201d Landry said. \u201cRight now, we\u2019ve got a $53 million liability. … We are not doing that again.\u201d <\/p>\n Kelly\u2019s firing on Sunday came a day after LSU lost at home to Texas A&M, 49-25<\/a> \u2014 the Tigers\u2019 third defeat in four games.<\/p>\n Kelly went 34-14 at LSU, never reaching the College Football Playoff, which was expanded from four to 12 teams in 2024.<\/p>\n LSU does not currently have a president. Its most recent president, William F. Tate IV, left to become president of Rutgers in July. The next president will be hired by the Board of Supervisors, whose members are appointed by the governor to six-year staggered terms.<\/p>\n Since Landry took office in January 2024, he has appointed nine of the 18 board members, and will have the chance to appoint four more in 2026.<\/p>\n The board has announced that it expects to select the next president on Tuesday.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LSU athletic director Scott Woodward resigned under pressure from the post he\u2019s held for six years on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":344945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[591,114736,169652,44753,1428,1369,166047,19419,59,15782,355,132945,361,353,91149,118060,169650,166044,221,62,2732,67,132,68,169651,169653],"class_list":{"0":"post-344944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-baton-rouge","10":"tag-bob-starkey","11":"tag-brian-kelly","12":"tag-college-football","13":"tag-college-sports","14":"tag-ed-orgeron","15":"tag-gymnastics","16":"tag-inc","17":"tag-james-carville","18":"tag-jeff-landry","19":"tag-kim-mulkey","20":"tag-la-state-wire","21":"tag-louisiana","22":"tag-louisiana-state-tigers","23":"tag-louisiana-state-tigers-football","24":"tag-scott-ballard","25":"tag-scott-woodward","26":"tag-soccer","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-sports-transactions","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-unitedstates","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-william-f-tate-iv","33":"tag-woodward"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115467351755280280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}