re: What’s your biggest gripe with Alleva

If you are willing to hire a convicted felon, you can get a yes man for way less than that.

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After watching Louisana's Kim Mulkey win another championship while we gave Nikki Fargas a contract extension instead of a kick out the door makes my blood boil. I hope the new AD has it in him to bring Mulkey home to LA.

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That's the second thing I would do after hiring Jacksonville State's Ken Bodiford to take over the Department of Bands.

his boss

There are really only two main gripes to have about Alleva, but they permeate everything he does:

1) Joe cannot understand or manage a media narrative. He consistently puts himself and the university on poor footing that makes us look incompetent and stupid in both the public sphere and in private dealings. This results in us constantly getting played by more sophisticated actors. See Jimmy Sexton or Jeremy Foley.

2) Joe does not understand/care who he works for. He wants to play the role of a 100% transparent AD who has no ties whatsoever to anything shady. Fact is, this is about goddamn college sports, not some federal agency in D.C. The fans expect Alleva to be somewhat defensive of the institution when there is enough plausible deniability to use. No one ever had their reputations ruined by saying "you know, I appreciate your questions, but this matter is tied into ongoing litigation and we will be working within that framework to resolve these issues. The time for comment will be later." Instead, Joe lights fires and then looks on in surprise as things start to burn. This pisses off the fan base, which wants to see him actually stick up for our coaches and players unless there is gross evidence of wrongdoing. Joe plays the virtuous disciplinarian instead of the competent defense attorney.

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Edit for Posterity: On this date, April Seventeenth in the Year of Our Lord 2019, one hour after I posted the above screed, news broke that Joe Alleva is expected to step down from the Athletic Director position at LSU. WE HAVE OVERCOME.

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Agreed but equally just as bad he lets the media guide his decisions

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It's not even that he goes with the way the media wind is blowing, it's that he is often responsible for the wind itself. He makes idiotic moves, allowing the media to start speculating, and then swims in that sea. Think about the Florida game debacle. Here is what he should have said when all of that was brewing:

"Hurricanes are serious business, as Louisiana knows all too well. We are concerned with two things in the following order of importance: 1) ensuring the safety of all SEC student athletes and fans and 2) getting this important rivalry game played, regardless of venue. The Florida Gators are a force to be reckoned with in any stadium. For that reason, we propose the following alternatives to playing the game in Gainseville: List of stadiums x, y, and z. LSU plays anytime, anywhere and we know the Florida Gators to be no different. We are confident that their leadership will choose to put their side on the field in 8 days rather than forfeit the opportunity."

This would have set the narrative. ESPN headlines would have read: "LSU committed to playing in alternative venue; is Florida game?"

Instead, we somehow came out of the entire thing as the "bad guy" because Joe couldn't frame the issue. It still gobsmacks me to this day that we lost that PR battle. Stuff like that kills me.

The man cost Duke Lacrosse a national championship because a crazy whore made up false allegations. What if it had been Duke basketball? Does anyone think he would still be working?

As someone who is in the top 2% of TAF donors (#humblebrag), i have a lot of gripes with Alleva, almost all of them pertaining to football... it seems that LSU and our fans always get the short end of the stick with Alleva running things, starting with the fact that we should have gotten the hiring of either Jimbo Fisher or Tom Herman locked down, one of those should have been done deal.. i don’t think Orgeron has done a terrible job, but tbh LSU is better than that.. Then there’s the fact that we got totally bent over and penetrated in the Florida hurricane debacle.. how many times in a row have we played in Gainesville now, like 18 or 19 years?? Also, this year UT has allotted us, what, 3500 tickets for the game in Austin? I promise you that if Alleva were in charge next year, we would bend over again and give them 2 or 3 times the number of tickets they gave us.. there’s a lot more, but ultimately, i just think LSU can do better in terms of who we have in charge of the organization.

My gripe: He changed the Wally Pontiff Classic Video.

I'm still mad that he apologized publicly to Nick Saban for drunk students chanting "F*** you Saban!".

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Joe Alleva won't put his job on the line for anything he really believes. He thinks Miles needs to go, but he won't stand by that call. Thinks Wade shouldn't be suspended, but won't fight F. King on that. And on, and on. It's never his fault, and it's always somebody else's call that he's saddled with - but that's because he's never willing to say "This is my best call, and if you don't like it then fire me."

In short, he's a yes man. And I don't need to pay a yes man 750K - I can get a yes man for 75K.

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I think people can get carried away with criticism sometimes, but this is a perfect case detailed with facts and only a little emotion. And it cuts straight to the core of what was wrong with Alleva as an AD. Great post.

Everything