There is no reason to feel bad for Les Miles, the once storied college football coach who led LSU to a national title in 2007. Miles has made his own bed, through a confluence of alleged improprieties at Oklahoma State and LSU before his final seasons at Kansas, where stories of prior sexual misconduct led to his departure. His coaching success, and it was considerable if but a bit unconventional, was clouded by life off the field.
That aside, Miles was likely to be recognized for his head coaching career, one that lasted nearly 20 years at three Division I Schools and included two national title games. That recognition would come by way of an induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, something he had seemingly qualified for and would soon enjoy. That is, until last week, when LSU self-sanctioned itself for rules broken under Miles’ watch. In short, LSU voluntarily surrendered 37 wins from 2012 to 2015 basically for illegal payments to the father of a player from a booster. So LSU’s record during those four season, and Miles’ head coaching record, went from 37-12 to 0-12. Which also brought Miles’ overall head coaching record from 145 wins and 73 losses to 108 wins and still 73 losses. And that will likely cost Miles recognition in the Hall.
See, to qualify, you have to coach at least 100 games and have at least a 60% win percentage. Which Miles did have, until just a few days ago, when losing 37 wins brought his win percentage to 59.7%. Which means that technically, Miles is not eligible to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. We’ll get clarity soon enough, when he’s three years into retirement. But it seems altogether likely that LSU’s violation, and how they’ve chosen to adjudicate itself, will be the determinant.
Vacating wins isn’t all that unique in college athletic compliance. It’s a low cost to solution to a common problem, one that could otherwise result in things like losing scholarships or not going to the postseason. Stuff that might actually impact your team’s future. Giving up wins, that’s in the past. You don’t have to give back the money you made from ticket sales or TV. And no matter what the records say, everyone knows who actually won those 37 games.
I won’t pontificate over whether this surrender fits the crime, especially now in far more lawless landscape of name, image, and likeness money of big-time college sports. Given the longstanding abundance of cheating in major college football, trying to resolve fairness is like trying to eyeball the distance to some random star in the horizon. At best, it’s highly inaccurate. What’s more interesting here is to figure out whether Les Miles, or any coach really, should be memorialized based on the somewhat arbitrary decisions of one of several athletic bodies – whether it be the NCAA or, in this case, LSU.
It's not like we haven’t asked similar questions. Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens – their history and Hall of Fame consideration will always be viewed in the context of cheating. I’ve always considered that fair, since their steroid abuse felt like such a personal betrayal of their fans, if not the game itself. But for whatever reason, a coach turning a blind eye to boosters paying off players, well, that just felt less awful – which is probably why the NCAA basically allows it now anyway. And maybe my distinction is unfair, holding professional baseball players to a different standard than a college football coach. But for what it’s worth, I can’t see how Les Miles turns from a Hall of Fame caliber coach to one just shy of that through a somewhat arbitrary change in the historical standings. In that case, it’s hard to buy into the mere construct of any Hall of Fame, the chronicle of excellence, with a litmus so arbitrary.
Is Les Miles a Hall of Fame coach? I’d say he probably is, despite what the numbers now indicate. But as I said before, there’s absolutely no reason to feel bad for Les Miles.