A day after the whirlwind news of a shakeup in the LSU athletics department, the school has officially announced former Texas A&M Athletic Director Scott Woodward will take the same position in Baton Rouge. The news began to circulate Wednesday when it was announced Joe Alleva would be leaving the Athletic Director position he's held since 2008. LSU later announced he would shift to the new position of special assistant to the president for donor relations. “We are happy to welcome a fellow Tiger back home,” said LSU President F. King Alexander in a statement Thursday morning. “Scott brings a strong track record of winning championships, graduating student-athletes and building an infrastructure for future achievement. His leadership will take us into a new era for Tiger Athletics.” A formal welcome will be held on Tuesday with the public invited to join. Texas A&M AD Scott Woodward will replace Joe Alleva at LSU, sources say By the time afternoon rolled into evening Wednesday, LSU had pulled off a stunning and major coup, striking a deal to bring Texas A&M athl… The decision to remove Alleva as athletic director was made Tuesday night during a tight-lipped executive meeting held by the LSU Board of Supervisors, according to a board member who asked not to be identified because university officials asked members to remain quiet. Woodward, a Baton Rouge native, comes to LSU by way of the Aggies, where he was behind two major coaching hires the past two years. He had held that position since 2016. Woodward is just weeks removed from luring Buzz Williams from Virginia Tech to replace Billy Kennedy as men's basketball coach, and last year he hired Jimbo Fisher to a 10-year, $75 million deal from Florida State to replace Kevin Sumlin as football coach. “Returning home to the LSU family to lead the department of athletics is incredibly humbling and exciting,” Woodward said in the release. “The state university has been a part of my life for more than five decades, and I know – and I embrace – the high expectations of Tiger Nation. We will win championships and we will do it the right way, representing LSU with pride and dignity every step of the way.” LSU sports news in your inbox If you're a Tiger fan you won't want to miss this newsletter. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up According to The Dallas Morning News, Woodward earned $900,000 in base salary as part of a five-year deal that expires in January 2021. He owes Texas A&M about $40,000 for leaving, according to the terms of the contract. Woodward was the athletic director at the University of Washington from 2008-15 and served as the school's vice chancellor of external affairs from 2004-08. The latter was a similar position to the one he held at LSU from 2000-04, when he was then-Chancellor Mark Emmert's representative to the athletic department as the director of external affairs. Before that, Woodward was a political consultant and legislative liaison in Baton Rouge, where he founded a government and public relations firm in the mid-1990s. Along with Ed Orgeron, a Larose native, Woodward's hiring marks the first time since 1955 that LSU's athletic director and football coach are both from Louisiana. T.P. "Skipper" Heard was athletic director then, and Gaynell Tinsley was the football coach before being succeeded that year by Paul Dietzel. The hiring also comes amid scrutiny over the Tigers' basketball program and coach Will Wade, who was reinstated over the weekend after a suspension by the school lasting more than a month. The decision to suspend Wade on March 8 came after he declined to meet with LSU officials to answer questions regarding leaked FBI wiretaps that detailed phone calls between the coach and a federally convicted middleman. Wade missed the entirety of the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament, but met with school officials for the first time Friday before his reinstatement was announced Sunday evening. +2 Rabalais: For Scott Woodward, what led him from Texas A&M back to LSU? Mama called The reason Scott Woodward was able to turn his back on Texas A&M’s millions, its proximity to a bottomless talent pool and two top-tier co… As far as Alleva, his $725,000-per-year contract with the university is set to expire June, 30, 2020, and if he were fired by LSU without cause, Alleva would be entitled to 100 percent of the remaining base salary, which is about $650,000. LSU would have needed to pay Alleva 35 percent of the balance, or about $227,500, within 30 days of his termination, and the rest would have been paid in equal monthly payments over the next 30 months. Information from The Advocate's Brooks Kubena was used in this report.<doc-sep>LSU introduced new Director of Athletics Scott Woodward on Tuesday afternoon, and it’s clear the Baton Rouge native couldn’t be any happier to be back in his home state of Louisiana. Woodward previously functioned as a liaison between LSU and government and corporate officials under current NCAA CEO Mark Emmert from 2000-2004. He comes to LSU by way of Texas A&M, where he earned a base salary of $900,000 as part of a five-year deal that is set to expire in January 2021. According to the contract with Texas A&M, he owes the university roughly $40,000 for parting ways. “Let me clear, and very clear, I didn’t come back here because it was just my alma mater,” he said in the Holliday Forum of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication “... I’m at LSU because I believe in who we are and what we can do together.” He showed his support of Will Wade, saying the recently reinstated basketball coach had his support “100 percent.” When asked about the timeline and circumstances of his hire, Woodward provided little detail about an already cloudy situation. University officials asked members to not release information on the matter after Joe Alleva was removed from his position of Athletic Director last Tuesday evening. Moving forward, Woodward stressed transparency and cooperation at the position, emphasizing that he didn’t want to tamper with long-standing traditions or make any radical changes. “I view this job more like an executive producer than an autocratic leader,” Woodward said. Woodward also made it clear that the opinions of the fans and those working around him were important to him. “God gave you two ears and one mouth,” he said. “So I’m going to do a lot of listening.” The event was concluded with the presentation of the symbolic “Win!” bar. #LSU AD Scott Woodward presented with the “Win!” bar. pic.twitter.com/pJX0xO5cJh — Crissy Froyd (@crissy_froyd) April 23, 2019 It will be interesting to see how Woodward handles the situation at hand with Wade - among other issues - as he settles into his new position. Regardless of what moves he makes next, fans can rest assured he has the Tigers’ best interest in mind. “I’m not one who seeks the spotlight. I want our student athletes and coaches to have that shine. And I want to be behind them 100 percent.”<doc-sep>Scott Woodward scanned the room at his first LSU news conference, seeing longtime family friends and professional colleagues. Woodward's parents, Sylvia and Warren, sat to the right of the stage inside the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication, looking on as their son spoke about his return home. "Thomas Wolfe once said that you can't go home again," said Woodward, who was formally introduced as LSU's new athletic director Tuesday. "Clearly, they've never been to Baton Rouge." Yes, the Louisiana native was back. The graduate of Catholic High and LSU, who spent more than a decade in state politics before venturing into a career in college athletics. The former LSU liaison to the Capitol, whom the university hired away from Texas A&M last week, hours after it had removed Joe Alleva as athletic director. But Woodward told the crowded room full of reporters, administrators, coaches and fans he wanted to "be clear and very clear. "I'm not solely back at LSU because it's my alma mater," he said. "I did not return because this is home to me and my entire multi-generational family. I did not come back because of the pull of any one individual. I am at LSU because I believe in who we are and what we can accomplish together." Woodward said LSU "will win SEC and NCAA championships," that the athletic department "will do our small part in elevating this university." He said his first steps as athletic director will involve "a lot of listening," that he'll stick to the Hippocratic Oath of "First Do No Harm." "We're not going to screw up traditions," he said. "We're not going to go about changing things radically. I'm going to listen. I'm going to talk to people. We're going to make things to figure out how to continue the success." Woodward's 30-minute talk outlined a main point: He was not brought in to change things radically. Sources close to the LSU athletic department told The Advocate last week that Alleva had lost confidence within the university's core support base, and the school needed an athletic director who could galvanize donors and had a reputation for being a successful fundraiser. In late March, the LSU system launched a $1.5 billion fundraising campaign, the largest target amount for any such fundraising effort in Louisiana history. Woodward became known as a program builder and deal-maker at the University of Washington and Texas A&M, and Tuesday, he spoke about fundraising at LSU in a way that may have endeared to natives: quoting the university's first president, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who said the North won the Civil War because it had the resources. "We have to be cognizant that you win wars with resources, and that's the most important thing," Woodward said. Of course, Woodward was also referring to LSU's athletic battles with its Southeastern Conference rivals, like Alabama, which has beaten the Tigers in football in eight consecutive seasons. LSU sports news in your inbox If you're a Tiger fan you won't want to miss this newsletter. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up "We have to compete, and we have to compete at the highest level with all of the great institutions," Woodward said. "That means everyone. That means people are going to have to donate. That means people are going to have to do what they have to do, keep their eyeballs on the TV and do everything that we need to do to mount resources to be hyper, hyper-competitive." In the fiscal year 2018, the LSU athletic department's overall revenue fell to $145.4 million, a drop of nearly $2.3 million from the previous year. One of the largest chunks of that revenue came from donation contributions, $33.2 million — a drop of about $2 million from fiscal 2017. Aside from maintaining LSU's mammoth athletic budget, Woodward inherited major issues that still linger within the program. Although men's basketball coach Will Wade has returned from a university-enforced suspension, he and the school are still tied to a sprawling college basketball corruption scandal with a lengthy FBI investigation that includes wiretapped conversations of Wade and a middleman accused of funneling bribes to assistant coaches and cash to families of recruits. Woodward said he has yet to meet personally with Wade, and that he still needs "to be briefed and I need to find out what's going on. But coach Wade is LSU's coach, and until then he's going to have my 100 percent support." There's also the ongoing battle with attendance at Tiger Stadium. Ticket sales dropped about $1.7 million from the 2016 football season to the 2017 season, when it did not post a sellout. Some of that was mitigated by LSU's 10-3 season last year, when the Tigers recorded three sellouts. Woodward said attendance is "a nationwide problem" that "we're going to have to figure out," and he said he was aligned with Alleva's opinion for the SEC to let schools have more open alcohol policies inside stadiums. "We have a different belief system down here in South Louisiana," Woodward said, and he called out the "elephant in the room." Sports gambling. "It's legal in Mississippi," Woodward said. "It's here. We'd better embrace it because people are going to be doing it, and it saved the NFL, and it might be a savior for our sport. I don't know that. But at least we have to talk about it. "And I know the presidents in their meetings at the SEC are talking about it seriously: How do we do it with integrity? How do we do it with protections? How do we do it to keep student-athletes from being influenced and to protect them? Because it's here whether we like it or not, and then (it's), 'Hey, do we embrace it for fan experience?' I don't know that, but it could be something that we look at." Woodward said he understood the public scrutiny that was going to come with his new job, and that his approach to the job will include "collaboration" and "transparency." "We can talk and we'll have plenty of time about what's going on and what's right and what's wrong, and there is some wrong, I'm not denying that," Woodward said. "But God darn there's a lot right."<doc-sep>
New LSU athletic director Scott Woodward gave evidence Tuesday that he isn’t your average Joe. At his packed news conference at the Manship School of Mass Communication, Woodward quoted an impressive assemblage from Thomas Wolfe to William Tecumseh Sherman to B.B. King. He worked the room like the one-time political operative he is, mentioning coaches (Ed Orgeron) and friends (Collis Temple) who were present, and deftly answering questions about those who weren’t (Will Wade). And of course he expressed his deep love for LSU and Baton Rouge, the school and the town to which he returns at a critical time for the university and its athletic program. Woodward had everyone in the room and Tigers fans the world over hanging on his every word — most of them hoping he will be the one to lead LSU athletics to that mythic “next level,” whatever they conceive that level to be. Woodward spoke with vision, in remarks not dissimilar to former football coach Gerry DiNardo’s introductory “Bring back the magic” news conference in 1995, raising a call for LSU to realize the greatness it can achieve. “I didn’t just come back here because it was just my alma mater,” Woodward said. “I’m at LSU because I believe in who we are and what we can do together.” If you were looking to be inspired, Woodward delivered. He practically spoke in terms of truth, justice and the LSU way. He did so in a way his predecessor, Joe Alleva, could not. Alleva was pushed out into a hastily created fundraising position to fill out the term of his contract — not because things had gone horribly off the rails under his directorship, but because Alleva came to be seen as a divisive presence. The new athletic director’s job is to lead a department that, first and foremost, wins and wins big. There was no missing the symbolism when Woodward was presented with a piece of the “Win!” crossbar from LSU’s 2003 football national championship season. LSU won that title when Woodward was there in first stint, from 2000-04, as director of external affairs under then Chancellor Mark Emmert. Woodward lifted the “Win!” bar with embattled LSU President F. King Alexander — a rather curious scene considering how much speculation there is about how much longer Alexander will be holding up his end. Can't see video below? Click here. LSU sports news in your inbox If you're a Tiger fan you won't want to miss this newsletter. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up “I’m not one who seeks the spotlight,” Woodward said. “I want our student-athletes and our coaches to have that shine, and I want to be behind them 100 percent. And while there are challenges here at LSU and there are challenges from time to time, there are so many great things happening and so much already in place for us to have success across the board. “We will win SEC and NCAA championships. We will not only graduate our student-athletes, but we will provide them with a world-class experience and with world-class help after they graduate. We will conduct ourselves with integrity, and we will do our small part in elevating this university.” Sure, Woodward’s message was loaded with uplifting stock phrases, historical references and folksy witticisms (“God gave you two ears and one mouth. So I’m going to be doing a lot of listening”). But that wasn't all. There was a sober edge to his message, too. At the top of the list was the Wade situation. True, the LSU basketball coach was reinstated April 14, more than a month after being suspended for refusing for weeks to talk to school officials about the potential recruiting violations he was caught referring to in an FBI wiretap. But there is a broad sense that Wade’s problems, and by connection LSU’s problems, may be far from over. Even Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey, asked Monday about Wade, told reporters “We’ll see how this whole story concludes.” Woodward said Wade has his “100 percent support.” He later said he wants Wade to continue to be LSU’s basketball coach. But he was quick to say he does not know all the facts in the Wade case. One was left with the impression that Woodward agreed with Sankey’s assessment that the Wade story has yet to reach its conclusion. Then there is the other elephant in the room. The red elephant.