What the hell has happened to LSU sports?

a combination of alleva, Mike VI, and an uncompleted student union

Skip Bertman is personally responsible for removing the track program from the elite status despite the fact that they won a national championship in 2008. He ran off Pat Henry, who upon his arrival at Texas A&M immediately sealed off the Texas-Louisiana border. Since then, we haven't gotten anything out of Texas. The days of LSU putting on the track all-Texas relay teams are over with. Barrett Nugent is a tremendendous athlete, but Louisiana doesn't produce enough blue chip talent to sustain an elite track program.

Furthermore, during his eight years as A.D., LSU did not spend a cent on its track and field facilities. In 2002, the last time LSU hosted an NCAA championship, Bernie Moore was rated as one of the top three facilities in the country, but as we know, college athletics is a never-ending arms race and today, LSU doesn't even have one of the top three facilities in the conference.

In 2001, when Bertman became the A.D., Henry was the highest paid track coach in the nation and made slightly more than Sue Gunter. During Bertman's first three years as A.D. (2001-2004), Henry won six national championships (3 men and 3 women), but at the end of that three year period, Henry was no longer in the top ten highest paid coaches in the nation and was making half of Gunter's salary. Bertman's resentment of the track program went back to his days a baseball coach when he had fight for everything he got, and in his eyes, the track program was given everything on a silver platter.