LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva Stepping Down

Embattled LSU athletic director Joe Alleva is expected to step down from his positions, according to multiple reporters. The Baton Rouge Business Report was first with the news.

"Though Alleva is coming off one of LSU’s strongest seasons in years for its football, basketball, gymnastics and softball teams, among others, the embattled athletics director has been an unpopular figure among fans and, more importantly, boosters, since failing to fire football coach Les Miles in 2015 to ink a deal with Jimbo Fisher, now the head coach at Texas A&M. More recently, Alleva drew fan ire for suspending men’s basketball coach Will Wade, who was caught on an FBI wiretap investigating a recruitment scandal. Wade was reinstated earlier this week."

One Wade was reinstated, this move appeared inevitable. Alleva’s handling of the situation, and one of the most promising Tigers basketball teams falling relatively early in the tournament, left a bad taste in the mouth of many fans.

It would have been tough to predict things shaking out this way a month ago, but here we are. LSU is one of the the most attractive jobs in the country, so competition will be stiff for a successor.