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Speculation on Pitt AD Heather Lyke as next AD

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dillonpgp

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Feb 21, 2006
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pittsburghsportsnow.com

Update on Heather Lyke Pitt/Northwestern Situation

Will Heather Lyke be Pitt’s athletic director when the 2024 college football season starts on Saturday? While there isn’t a definite answer to that at this minute, we do have an update. A well-placed source tells Pittsburgh Sports Now that the “the sense is that this resolves itself today one...
pittsburghsportsnow.com pittsburghsportsnow.com

I can’t speak as to this website’s veracity or standards, but the name makes some sense based on her career trajectory.

This was posted Wednesday (28 Aug) morning, so the speculation is a decision (not necessarily an announcement) could be done today.

If I were at Pitt, I’d be doing anything to launch an escape pod.
 
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Have to wonder how much the paucity of NIL support will weigh on her evaluation of the opportunity at NU. Personally, I would think it would be short-sighted to let our NIL situation be a deterrent. The job has tons of attractive attributes: top revenue conference; several highly successful programs, huge facilities investments, good place to live, and a unique institution in the college sports landscape.
 
As you say, the NIL limitations will be offset by bringing the stadium online. Frankly, I would expect her to see Northwestern as another stepping stone, not a final destination, probably around 2028 or so.

She’s a Michigan grad, got her administrative feet wet at Cincinnati and Ohio State, did a great job at dead end Eastern Michigan (got football turned around) and then went on to Pitt.
 
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dillonpgp said:
As you say, the NIL limitations will be offset by bringing the stadium online. Frankly, I would expect her to see Northwestern as another stepping stone, not a final destination, probably around 2028 or so.

She’s a Michigan grad, got her administrative feet wet at Cincinnati and Ohio State, did a great job at dead end Eastern Michigan (got football turned around) and then went on to Pitt.
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Why do you say "the NIL limitations will be offset by bringing the stadium online"?
 
dillonpgp said:
pittsburghsportsnow.com

Update on Heather Lyke Pitt/Northwestern Situation

Will Heather Lyke be Pitt’s athletic director when the 2024 college football season starts on Saturday? While there isn’t a definite answer to that at this minute, we do have an update. A well-placed source tells Pittsburgh Sports Now that the “the sense is that this resolves itself today one...
pittsburghsportsnow.com pittsburghsportsnow.com

I can’t speak as to this website’s veracity or standards, but the name makes some sense based on her career trajectory.

This was posted Wednesday (28 Aug) morning, so the speculation is a decision (not necessarily an announcement) could be done today.

If I were at Pitt, I’d be doing anything to launch an escape pod.
Click to expand...

Lou has the inside scoop on the AD search!
 
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julescat said:
Why do you say "the NIL limitations will be offset by bringing the stadium online"?
Click to expand...

My apologies for not making my point more clear. I was trying to suggest that being the presiding AD over the successful completion of the stadium construction and opening will shine a bright light that would likely overcome challenges in the NIL game.

my opinion is that shortcomings in the NIL game at NU will come with some asterisks that will put into context that it’s not a failing of AD “X” vs somebody else. I think the overall culture of the University will play an oversize role in NIL no matter who is hired as AD.
 
Pretty cynical move for NU to leak the black guy and the woman before hiring the white man. The same thing was done before Polisky was elevated.

Jackson seems like a very good hire. NU’s got all the facilities taken care of, though that may be less relevant given the way NIL and direct compensation are changing the game, again.

Good thing Gragg is still here to evaluate the changing landscape of college athletics in a biweekly 25 minute one-on-one with Schill (usually cancelled the night before).
 
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NUCat320 said:
Pretty cynical move for NU to leak the black guy and the woman before hiring the white man. The same thing was done before Polisky was elevated.

Richardson seems like a very good hire. NU’s got all the facilities taken care of, though that may be less relevant given the way NIL and direct compensation are changing the game, again.

Good thing Gragg is still here to evaluate the changing landscape of college athletics in a biweekly 25 minute one-on-one with Schill (usually cancelled the night before).
Click to expand...

Groan.
 
NUCat320 said:
Pretty cynical move for NU to leak the black guy and the woman before hiring the white man. The same thing was done before Polisky was elevated.

Jackson seems like a very good hire. NU’s got all the facilities taken care of, though that may be less relevant given the way NIL and direct compensation are changing the game, again.

Good thing Gragg is still here to evaluate the changing landscape of college athletics in a biweekly 25 minute one-on-one with Schill (usually cancelled the night before).
Click to expand...
Lol what. You think this was schemed out to screw over a black guy (who is OUR guy!) and a woman? Lay off the woke.
 
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Baz=Heisman said:
Lol what. You think this was schemed out to screw over a black guy (who is OUR guy!) and a woman? Lay off the woke.
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Three names were leaked. None needed to be leaked. It’s an excellent hire.

Nobody really cares about the NU AD role. There didn’t have to be any leaks. Nobody was covering the ‘story’ until someone on the search committee gave reporters the ‘finalists’. They could’ve just dropped the press release today, and the general reaction would’ve been, ‘Oh, I forgot that was open. Seems like a good hire.’

I don’t think anybody got screwed. I just think it was silly for NU to leak those names. Anticipating the question — oh, a white guy, eh? — then being able to say, “See, Pete Thamel talked about the other finalists. We had very diverse finalists.”

They open themselves to more questions by releasing the names than by not. But they’re not real good at PR these days.

Again, no reason to leak any names.
 
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NUCat320 said:
Three names were leaked. None needed to be leaked. It’s an excellent hire.

Nobody really cares about the NU AD role. There didn’t have to be any leaks. Nobody was covering the ‘story’ until someone on the search committee gave reporters the ‘finalists’. They could’ve just dropped the press release today, and the general reaction would’ve been, ‘Oh, I forgot that was open. Seems like a good hire.’

I don’t think anybody got screwed. I just think it was silly for NU to leak those names. Anticipating the question — oh, a white guy, eh? — then being able to say, “See, Pete Thamel talked about the other finalists. We had very diverse finalists.”

They open themselves to more questions by releasing the names than by not. But they’re not real good at PR these days.

Again, no reason to leak any names.
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The list shows they had a strong list of choices.

Could be one of the AD’s people. The Pitt AD has been rumored to be in on lots of interviews, maybe she has an agent trying to juice up her salary by making her seem in demand. Not a big deal, it’s the kind of info that comes out everywhere and is usually more intensely follower.
 
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NUCat320 said:
Pretty cynical move for NU to leak the black guy and the woman before hiring the white man. The same thing was done before Polisky was elevated.

Jackson seems like a very good hire. NU’s got all the facilities taken care of, though that may be less relevant given the way NIL and direct compensation are changing the game, again.

Good thing Gragg is still here to evaluate the changing landscape of college athletics in a biweekly 25 minute one-on-one with Schill (usually cancelled the night before).
Click to expand...
Good grief. Could it be that she used NU for leverage? She just signed a multi year deal with Pitt. Or that she might have reservations working for Schill?
 
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NUCat320 said:
Pretty cynical move for NU to leak the black guy and the woman before hiring the white man. The same thing was done before Polisky was elevated.

Jackson seems like a very good hire. NU’s got all the facilities taken care of, though that may be less relevant given the way NIL and direct compensation are changing the game, again.

Good thing Gragg is still here to evaluate the changing landscape of college athletics in a biweekly 25 minute one-on-one with Schill (usually cancelled the night before).
Click to expand...
Maybe the candidates leak it... Heather Lyke just parlayed her popularity as a candidate into a multimillion dollar extension at Pitt:

pittsburghsportsnow.com

BREAKING: Pitt Extends Director of Athletics Heather Lyke

Heather Lyke is staying at Pitt after all. Lyke, who has served as the Director of Athletics at Pitt since 2017, is signing a multi-year deal to remain with the Panthers, a source close to the situation told Pittsburgh Sports Now. The extension comes following heavy links to Northwestern over...
pittsburghsportsnow.com pittsburghsportsnow.com

It doesn't say the new amount she will make but she previously Pitt's 3rd highest paid employee at $777K a year.
 
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NUCat320 said:
Three names were leaked. None needed to be leaked. It’s an excellent hire.

Nobody really cares about the NU AD role. There didn’t have to be any leaks. Nobody was covering the ‘story’ until someone on the search committee gave reporters the ‘finalists’. They could’ve just dropped the press release today, and the general reaction would’ve been, ‘Oh, I forgot that was open. Seems like a good hire.’

I don’t think anybody got screwed. I just think it was silly for NU to leak those names. Anticipating the question — oh, a white guy, eh? — then being able to say, “See, Pete Thamel talked about the other finalists. We had very diverse finalists.”

They open themselves to more questions by releasing the names than by not. But they’re not real good at PR these days.

Again, no reason to leak any names.
Click to expand...
Wtf are u talking about? It got NU in the news as a destination for highly qualified and sought after candidates. A reversal of the image we had after hiring Gragg. Overall, it was good press for NU.

There is no such thing as bad PR.

Unless it involves car washes and other creepy behaviors or dwelling on 1 win seasons and craptastic offenses and D’s.
 
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NUCat320 said:
Pretty cynical move for NU to leak the black guy and the woman before hiring the white man. The same thing was done before Polisky was elevated.

Jackson seems like a very good hire. NU’s got all the facilities taken care of, though that may be less relevant given the way NIL and direct compensation are changing the game, again.

Good thing Gragg is still here to evaluate the changing landscape of college athletics in a biweekly 25 minute one-on-one with Schill (usually cancelled the night before).
Click to expand...

That’s your take on this?

Heard Lyke was supposedly the favorite but seems to have used NU for leverage in getting an extension from Pitt. Committee preferred a more experienced AD given circumstances and Wright’s situation in DC is apparently kinda messy.
 
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I think NU leaked it, just like NU leaked the names when Polisky was elevated.

(Wazzu guy and Duke woman. I don’t remember names because who remembers AD names unless they’re havahahahahahahahah Trev Alberts hahahahahahahahahahah Trev Alberts hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha)

Lyke also leaked and gotten a great bump from it.

Maybe Wright leaked it and got something out of it. I didn’t realize that he actually resigned from the pres role and is now just a consultant. (Oh man does that mean he and Snyder are tight? Oh no!)

Anyway, that was my reaction because I’m also a cynic in some regard. I think the new guy is a great hire. I regret that I have detracted from some of the discussion of the hire itself, but that appears limited to, “looks like a solid hire.”

I dropped a great joke in my initial post about how Gragg is going to solve this with his biweekly (usually cancelled) meetings with Schill. (“Hey, on the Wildcat football board, they’re saying OSU has $20 million. Could we also get $20 million? Positively, Derrick Gragg.”) (That’s an example of his agenda email, but Schill wasn’t available this past Wednesday.)

Derrick Gragg is so bad and so rich.
 
NUCat320 said:
I think NU leaked it, just like NU leaked the names when Polisky was elevated.

(Wazzu guy and Duke woman. I don’t remember names because who remembers AD names unless they’re havahahahahahahahah Trev Alberts hahahahahahahahahahah Trev Alberts hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha)

Lyke also leaked and gotten a great bump from it.

Maybe Wright leaked it and got something out of it. I didn’t realize that he actually resigned from the pres role and is now just a consultant. (Oh man does that mean he and Snyder are tight? Oh no!)

Anyway, that was my reaction because I’m also a cynic in some regard. I think the new guy is a great hire. I regret that I have detracted from some of the discussion of the hire itself, but that appears limited to, “looks like a solid hire.”

I dropped a great joke in my initial post about how Gragg is going to solve this with his biweekly (usually cancelled) meetings with Schill. (“Hey, on the Wildcat football board, they’re saying OSU has $20 million. Could we also get $20 million? Positively, Derrick Gragg.”) (That’s an example of his agenda email, but Schill wasn’t available this past Wednesday.)

Derrick Gragg is so bad and so rich.
Click to expand...
Conspiracy theories at their finest!
 
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Purple Pile Driver said:
I guess the leverage backfired, since Pitt fired her this morning.
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Wild.

They were in extension talks, but it appears Pitt was tired of her openly looking for greener pastures. Which is reasonable.

She was the school’s third-highest compensated employee in 2021, at $777k.


www.espn.com

Pitt fires AD of the Year Lyke, seeks 'new vision'

Pitt has fired Heather Lyke, who was named 2023 AD of the Year by the NACDA. Sources told ESPN that she didn't see eye to eye with new chancellor Joan Gabel.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
Pitt fans have gripped about her re: NIL, and that was really where a candidate like Mark Jackson shined I'd imagine in the interview.

So, I'd probably guess it came down to Jackson sounding much more aggressive/forward looking on revenue/NIL than she did during the interview process.

We got the right candidate; the one that will be focused on turning this into a professional organization which is what we expect things to have to look like past next year with player contracts, NIL spending by the school, revenue generation needing to be maximized with the new stadium, etc.

Everything Jackson said at his entry conference told me, he gets it; he understands what college sports will look like in 5 or 10 years, that's the candidate you want to have in charge.
 
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Yeah, here’s a Pitt fan saying exactly that. Jackson’s press conference (didn’t watch, read the stories) was all about maximizing revenue and ‘everyone’s a fundraiser’. Sounds like Lyke’s wouldn’t have sounded like that.

 
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NUCat320 said:
Yeah, here’s a Pitt fan saying exactly that. Jackson’s press conference (didn’t watch, read the stories) was all about maximizing revenue and ‘everyone’s a fundraiser’. Sounds like Lyke’s wouldn’t have sounded like that.

View embedded media
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Pitt was probably hoping that she'd get the job here and so they could move on without a messy firing (firing the AD of the year is always going to raise eyebrows)...

Problem is just that our trustees wanted someone to take us into the new era and professionalize NU sports, and Jackson sounds like he matches that 100%. No real idea whether she could have adapted to that, but I'm skeptical she would have sounded anything like Jackson at an entry press conf.

Jackson spent a couple days with Ryan Jr. going over the stadium plans already; that's pretty much exactly the first thing you'd want the new AD to be focused on along with meeting the coaches/players.

If we're going to compete at this level as a Big Ten school, we need Jackson to execute on his vision: Using donors, corporate sponsorships, events at the stadium/arena, etc. to bring in larger and regular streams of money of which a significant portion will go to players under contract, thereby enabling us to improve recruiting (i.e. outbid peer schools for players) and then win more fb/bb games.

Everyone at the AD has to be pulling in that direction.

Things will look so different in 3-5 years, and Jackson is pretty much the ideal fit to take us from here to there.
 
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zeek55 said:
Pitt fans have gripped about her re: NIL, and that was really where a candidate like Mark Jackson shined I'd imagine in the interview.

So, I'd probably guess it came down to Jackson sounding much more aggressive/forward looking on revenue/NIL than she did during the interview process.

We got the right candidate; the one that will be focused on turning this into a professional organization which is what we expect things to have to look like past next year with player contracts, NIL spending by the school, revenue generation needing to be maximized with the new stadium, etc.

Everything Jackson said at his entry conference told me, he gets it; he understands what college sports will look like in 5 or 10 years, that's the candidate you want to have in charge.
Click to expand...


The next step in turning the program into a "professional" program is to hire a gm.
 
Katatonic said:
The next step in turning the program into a "professional" program is to hire a gm.
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I think Braun is expecting that Walerius' role grows into that as CFB transitions from just recruiting/scholarships with outside NIL to internal NIL and contracts with the school and all the rest that professionalization entails.

Braun gave him the title "General Manager of Roster Development & Retention" which should tell us that Braun also realizes the way this is all going and wants him to grow into that role as the changes happen over the next 2-4 years. His role will grow as a "salary cap" gets introduced and all of that stuff (player contracts) comes into place.

He was Memphis' Director of Recruiting before.

Expect Walerius to work closely with Jackson and his accounting staff closely in the future as they portion off some of the AD budget for player salaries with most going to FB/MBB; once that starts, his responsibilities grow significantly.
 
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