Les Miles Sues LSU After Being Ineligible for CFB Hall of Fame Due to Vacated Wins
Joseph Zucker@@JosephZucker
Featured Columnist IVJune 17, 2024
Former LSU football coach Les Miles has filed suit against the school, the NCAA and the National Football Foundation in a bid to regain his eligibility for the College Football Hall of Fame.
After the Tigers vacated all of their wins from 2012 to '15, Miles' career winning percentage fell from .665 to .597. As a result, he fails to meet the .600 career win percentage threshold for Hall of Fame consideration.
His suit is centered around his candidacy, per multiple reports:
Pete Nakos @PeteNakos_In a complaint filed against LSU, Les Miles challenges the decision to vacate wins cost him a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame.<br><br>He calls on the court to declare him eligible for CFBHOF and declare the vacated wins be considered wins so he's eligible for nomination. <a href="https://t.co/gR8g05biGR">https://t.co/gR8g05biGR</a> <a href="https://t.co/kECLp3TkTv">pic.twitter.com/kECLp3TkTv</a>
LSU self-imposed the penalty that removed its wins across four seasons after the NCAA found former offensive lineman Vadal Alexander and his family received impermissible benefits. Alexander was retroactively ruled to be ineligible from 2012 through 2015.
Miles coached the Tigers for 12 years. He led them to a national championship in 2007 and a runner-up finish in 2011. Things steadily went downhill after that run to the BCS National Championship Game.
It looked like LSU was moving on from Miles following a 9-3 finish in 2015. Instead, he stayed on and was let go only four games into the 2016 campaign.
The 70-year-old returned to the coaching ranks with Kansas in 2019. The Jayhawks went 3-18 in his two years, and his time in Lawrence was arguably more costly toward his Hall of Fame case than anything that LSU ultimately decided.
Dennis Dodd @dennisdoddcbsInteresting in the Les Miles lawsuit. It says LSU "deprived" him of College Football Hall of Fame eligibility. Miles is at .5966 (.600 is needed for the hall) counting 37 vacated wins at LSU. He was 3-18 at Kansas. If he had won one more game -- 1! -- at Kansas (4-17 instead of…
When it comes to the lawsuit, Miles' legal team may face an uphill climb considering the vacating of wins is a common remedy when a program was deemed to have used an ineligible player. Just ask USC.
All things considered, Miles put together a Hall of Fame-worthy resume between his time at Oklahoma State and LSU. He took the Cowboys to three straight bowl appearances after they had qualified for one postseason bowl in the 12 years before he arrived. He then built on the foundation Nick Saban laid in Baton Rouge and made the Tigers a steady contender in the SEC.
Absent an intervention by the courts, though, Miles will remain on the outside looking in.