Kansas athletic director Jeff Long has joined football coach Les Miles as former employees in the Jayhawks athletic department, the fallout from Miles alleged involvement with incidents of sexual misconduct during his time at LSU.
Long resigned as KU’s athletic director on Wednesday, while Miles reached a “mutual agreement” with school officials to leave the head coaching job in Lawrence on Monday. On Tuesday, Long vowed to lead the search for Miles’ replacement, only to be gone himself less than 24 hours later.
Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod, in a statement, said “We will immediately begin our search for a new athletics director. I will lead the process with the assistance of a search firm and four alumni advisors, each of whom have experience in collegiate athletics. My hope is to new a new athletics director in place within the next few weeks.”
The pressure on Long from KU’s influential alumni and boosters became strong after the ouster of Miles, who was brought to Kansas not only because of his success at previous stops at Oklahoma State and LSU, but also the result of a long-time friendship with Long, who was hired by Kansas to help revitalize a football program very much overshadowed by Bill Self’s basketball program, finding itself buried in the Big 12 basement.
