Which the committee is there for? I mean one hundred percent that comes up in the review and selection process. I mean there's no way a new Chancellor and a BoT committee would just gloss over a person's experience. Especially with all the back channel discussions that would happen in this situation. Guarantee a guy like Lally or Tirico has a call off the record with someone at Pitt to get the full picture.
I am having flashbacks to the Cantor/Gross years…"Lyke was fired in September 2024. And she left quite the mess behind.
Today, Pitt’s athletic department is in shambles. The football team is losing some of its top players in the transfer portal. The men’s basketball team is unwatchable. The women’s team is equally bad and is allegedly an even a bigger issue off the court. And some non-revenue sports might not be around much longer.
What went wrong
Lyke had a noted desire for “comprehensive excellence,” treating every Pitt athletic team with equal importance. While in theory this was a fair stance, in reality, that’s simply not how the world of college athletics works.
Two sports matter above all else: football and men’s basketball. If those two programs do well, there is more money for all. Lyke’s inability to appropriately allocate resources toward what actually mattered has brought Pitt to where it is now.
Her most notable misstep was the Victory Heights initiative, an ambitious multi-sport facility that would serve as a replacement to the aging Fitzgerald Field House."
“For far too long, a significant percentage of our student-athletes have been forced to compete in facilities that do not reflect the lofty standards and aspirations of the University of Pittsburgh,” Lyke said in a university issued press release in 2023. “Today’s announcement is the first step in transforming that liability into a game-changing asset in our quest for comprehensive excellence.”
Lyke’s heart was in the right place. She wasn’t wrong to believe Pitt’s current athletic facility for those sports was outdated. But she ignored one key component that makes or breaks every major decision made in today’s world of college athletics: money.
Lyke signed up for a $240 million project with little to no funding secured beforehand. She hoped her big swing would inspire alumni to donate more. It did not. And to make things worse, that facility, whenever it is finished, will add no legitimate revenue moving forward.
Lyke also wasted money on her numerous coaching hires and firings. She gained notoriety in town for canning nine head coaches in her first two years in Oakland. Some coaches were dismissed with remaining years on their contract, meaning Pitt was paying two head-coach salaries for one non-revenue sport — again, meaning that the additional money spent wasn’t ever going to be recuperated.
Her final major sin pertains to NIL, the biggest determining factor of success in today’s college sports. Some athletic directors immediately embraced the concept when it was legalized in 2021. Lyke, instead, pushed back.
When seeking donation money from alumni, the Victory Heights project or other athletic facility upgrades took priority over laying the foundation of a productive and competitive NIL collective. Rather than learning innovative ways for Pitt to compete in the NIL space, Lyke was known to speak against the concept as a whole, at times even encouraging other ACC athletic directors to do the same, per multiple sources.
Even when things seemed great during Lyke’s tenure, time would eventually prove those days to be nothing more than a house of cards. Pitt athletics fell way behind the times under her leadership, and by the time the university acted, it was already too late."
Noah Hiles: This year won't be a fun one for Allen Greene, Pitt athletics
In the summer of 2023, I crafted an extensive profile on then-Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke. At that time, she could do no wrong. The football program...www.post-gazette.com
"Lyke was fired in September 2024. And she left quite the mess behind.
Today, Pitt’s athletic department is in shambles. The football team is losing some of its top players in the transfer portal. The men’s basketball team is unwatchable. The women’s team is equally bad and is allegedly an even a bigger issue off the court. And some non-revenue sports might not be around much longer.
What went wrong
Lyke had a noted desire for “comprehensive excellence,” treating every Pitt athletic team with equal importance. While in theory this was a fair stance, in reality, that’s simply not how the world of college athletics works.
Two sports matter above all else: football and men’s basketball. If those two programs do well, there is more money for all. Lyke’s inability to appropriately allocate resources toward what actually mattered has brought Pitt to where it is now.
Her most notable misstep was the Victory Heights initiative, an ambitious multi-sport facility that would serve as a replacement to the aging Fitzgerald Field House."
“For far too long, a significant percentage of our student-athletes have been forced to compete in facilities that do not reflect the lofty standards and aspirations of the University of Pittsburgh,” Lyke said in a university issued press release in 2023. “Today’s announcement is the first step in transforming that liability into a game-changing asset in our quest for comprehensive excellence.”
Lyke’s heart was in the right place. She wasn’t wrong to believe Pitt’s current athletic facility for those sports was outdated. But she ignored one key component that makes or breaks every major decision made in today’s world of college athletics: money.
Lyke signed up for a $240 million project with little to no funding secured beforehand. She hoped her big swing would inspire alumni to donate more. It did not. And to make things worse, that facility, whenever it is finished, will add no legitimate revenue moving forward.
Lyke also wasted money on her numerous coaching hires and firings. She gained notoriety in town for canning nine head coaches in her first two years in Oakland. Some coaches were dismissed with remaining years on their contract, meaning Pitt was paying two head-coach salaries for one non-revenue sport — again, meaning that the additional money spent wasn’t ever going to be recuperated.
Her final major sin pertains to NIL, the biggest determining factor of success in today’s college sports. Some athletic directors immediately embraced the concept when it was legalized in 2021. Lyke, instead, pushed back.
When seeking donation money from alumni, the Victory Heights project or other athletic facility upgrades took priority over laying the foundation of a productive and competitive NIL collective. Rather than learning innovative ways for Pitt to compete in the NIL space, Lyke was known to speak against the concept as a whole, at times even encouraging other ACC athletic directors to do the same, per multiple sources.
Even when things seemed great during Lyke’s tenure, time would eventually prove those days to be nothing more than a house of cards. Pitt athletics fell way behind the times under her leadership, and by the time the university acted, it was already too late."
Noah Hiles: This year won't be a fun one for Allen Greene, Pitt athletics
In the summer of 2023, I crafted an extensive profile on then-Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke. At that time, she could do no wrong. The football program...
You really think the university gives 2 t. sh#T’s what people should know. They don’t and wont, we are talking politics and immage and they don’t.
We don’t have very many 3 point makers. Therein lays the problem.
I would not say very likely to not get it
We don’t have a lot and could probably use 1 more guy for that but, betsey, kingz and when Donnie and George take good open shots can hit from deep.
Isn't bh in the lead right now?
Signals a change, we’ll see if it’s for the better or worse. It’s not great now anyway lol.
Thank you.
Things are fluid and we still have 3 weeks to the finish line. Just wait until Dan Mullen gets involved ;-)
wow - didn't see this coming from his side.
I believe this is a leverage play…
I agree with this 100%. That is why I am a proponent of an announcement before the end of the season. Give a new coach time to build excitement and recruit guys like Nate Kingz (if he gets a waiver) to come back.
Is the leverage that he would take his backers to fund BC and hurt SU recruiting?
If it’s a leverage play I think he is a little early
Before the end of who's season? If its Bh we can't announce it until the end of usf season. Can you really tell any of the players who you are planning on hiring, and trusting it won't leak?
