Les Miles Loses Hall of Fame Eligibility After LSU Vacates Wins

Former LSU football coach Les Miles is no longer eligible for the College Football Hall of Fame after the school had to vacate 37 wins due to NCAA infractions. 

The NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Panel (IARP) conducted a review that led LSU to self-impose the vacating of all 37 of its football wins from 2012 to 2015. Miles, who coached LSU from 2005-2016, now sees his career record drop from 145-73 (.665) to 108-73 (.597) — meaning he no longer meets the .600 winning percentage needed to qualify for the College Football Hall of Fame.

The penalties stem from impermissible payments paid by booster John Paul Funes, former head of the Our Lady of the Lake Foundation, to the father of former Tigers offensive lineman Vadal Alexander. The payments were a recruiting violation that thus made Alexander ineligible for his entire college career, causing LSU to lose its wins from 2012 to 2015.

Miles won a national championship at LSU in 2007. He was head coach at Oklahoma State from 2001 to 2004 and at Kansas from 2019-20. The 69-year-old has not coached since he parted ways with Kansas in March 2021 amid accusations of inappropriate behavior toward female students during his head-coaching tenure at LSU. 

Former LSU basketball coach Will Wade, who now coaches at McNeese State, also received a 10-game suspension as a result of the NCAA’s independent investigation into improper payments made by LSU’s basketball and football programs.