An NCAA misdemeanor decision against LSU’s football program on Thursday sees the cancellation of 37 wins under former coach Les Miles. With the penalty reducing Miles’ official career record to 108-73 (.597) from 145-73 (.665) to 108-73 (.597), the former national championship coach no longer achieves the .600 win ratio required to qualify for the College Football Hall of Fame.
The NCAA penalties stem from a scandal surrounding former offensive lineman Vadal Alexander, who played for the Tigers from 2012-2015. Alexander was retroactively disqualified because his father received $180,150 from a sponsor who embezzled funds from a children’s hospital in Baton Rouge.
LSU previously imposed a postseason ban and scholarship cuts of its own in 2020. Thursday’s additional punishment came through the resolution of a case by the NCAA Independent Accountability Resolution Panel that focused primarily on former men’s basketball coach Will Wade.
Under College Football Hall of Fame criteria, a coach may be considered for selection three years after retirement or at age 70 if they have coached for at least 10 years and played 100 games at a win rate of .600. The hall recognizes the coach’s official NCAA record.
Miles, 69, has not been a coach since 2021, when Kansas split from him following allegations of sexual misconduct at LSU.
Miles coached at Oklahoma State for four seasons before moving to LSU, where he spent 12 seasons, winning a national title in 2007 and playing for another in 2011. In seven of his first nine seasons, he won at least ten games and produced five top players. 10 teams.
However, in 2021, a university-commissioned investigation uncovered previously unreported allegations of sexual harassment against Miles at the hands of a student assistant. Joe Alleva, then LSU’s athletic director, recommended that LSU’s president and board fire Miles in 2013, but he was allowed to keep his job. LSU fired Miles in September 2016 after a 2-2 start.
Miles was in Kansas at the time, where he went 3-18 in two seasons. The school and Miles split after the LSU report was released.
(Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)