Clear the Record on Woodward "Saving" Football

Let's set the record straight on the narrative that Scott "saved football" by firing Wade. That narrative is simply not accurate. By the time Wade was fired, the horse was out of the barn. What do I mean by that?

Wade was fired AFTER the NOA was issued. At that point, it is completely out of the hands of the NCAA. The NCAA and its enforcement staff is part of the Complex Case Unit ( CCU Makeup). Once those allegations are made, however, the case is then in the hands of the IRP which is completely independent of the NCAA and is required to follow the relevant NCAA Infractions Bylaws. In fact, in the IARP's findings and press release, it listed the "self-imposed" actions taken by the university that were considered in relation to the sanctions, and not once was the termination of Wade mentioned ( IARP Press Release). Meaning, firing Wade was irrelevant to the severity of the sanctions issued. Now, if this were handled internally by the Committee on Infractions, there is no doubt, they would have held this over LSU's head. But it wasn't, it was handled by an independent body that never operated in that manner.

A simple reading of the NOA shows that NCAA tried to throw everything including the kitchen sink at Wade. They knew the vast majority would never be proven before the IRP. Most of the allegations were based on sources that were simply never going to cooperate and could not be forced to cooperate. The NCAA did everything in its power to try this case publicly, including sending numerous letters to LSU regarding the investigation (prior to the NOA). In those letters, they threw out multiple allegations against Wade. Amazingly, reporters new to submit public record requests to LSU on the same day these letter went out (almost like it was a coordinated PR event). These allegations were made to paint Wade in as bad a light as possible - while the NCAA knew they could not prove these things. This article referencing the letter which claims that there were at least 11 student athletes receiving impressible benefits. Despite putting it in the letter, it never made the NOA. ( The Advocate Article).

The NCAA tried this case in the media because it knew the IARP would never levy sanctions on these unprovable allegations.

Woody knew this and wanted it to happen so he could fire Wade with cause. He never supported him while he was here and was arrogant enough to think he could replace him. He failed. He literally had the best young coach in the country fall in his lap and he screwed it up.

The arrogance was compounded when he hired a guy with no reputation for building a program and then sent the message out that this is the guy to rebuild the program. Now that we three years and this is clearly not the guy, he refuses to admit that he was wrong.

Basketball was not sacrificed for football, it was sacrificed for arrogance. And we just keep doubling down.