Jay Jacobs announces plans to resign as Auburn AD

Matthew Stevens
Montgomery Advertiser
Auburn University has announced Jay Jacobs' tenure as the school's athletics director has ended.

AUBURN — A scandal-ridden year will end with the announcement of a new athletic director at Auburn University.

Jay Jacobs announced in a statement on the Auburn athletics website that he will step down on June 1, 2018, or sooner if his successor is in place. Jacobs has been in that position for nearly 13 years.

"Earlier this week, I informed (school) President (Steven) Leath that I will step down as Director of Athletics on June 1, 2018, or sooner if my successor is in place," Jacobs' statement said. "I have come to this decision after a lot of prayer, deliberative discussions with my wife, Angie, and with the realization that it is time for a new leader of an incredible Department."

A national search, which will likely include Auburn hiring a private firm, will begin immediately to find the 15th athletic director in school history. In the summer of 2016, Auburn hired Parker Executive Search of Atlanta before announcing the hiring of Texas A&M deputy athletic director Marcy Girton to be chief operating officer in the athletic department.

“Auburn and Auburn Athletics are both better because of Jay’s years of service to his alma mater," Leath said in a statement. "Under his leadership, Auburn teams have won 11 national and 24 SEC championships, student-athlete academic achievement has risen to its highest level, revenue has grown dramatically, and Auburn consistently ranks among the nation’s best in game day experience. Jay is an Auburn man through and through. Janet and I wish Jay and Angie the very best, and we look forward to his continued service to Auburn as Athletics Director Emeritus.”

Auburn Althetic Director Jay Jacobs looks on after Auburn defeated Louisville 31-24 on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015, in at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Ga.

Jacobs made the announcement during a tremulous 2017 calendar year.

It included a Title IX complaint against the women’s softball program in August that revealed a former player, Alexa Nemeth, alleging multiple sexual harassment violations by then-assistant coach Corey Myers and an organized cover-up by his father and, at the time, Auburn head coach Clint Myers. The internal investigation, which led to Corey Myers’ midseason resignation and Clint Myers’ retirement, included Jacobs writing a public statement where he admitted a “wrongdoing took place by the assistant coach on the softball team” and that “I could have been more forthcoming about the investigation."

A month after the accusations against the softball program surfaced, men’s basketball assistant coach Chuck Person was arrested and charged with six federal crimes including bribery conspiracy, solicitation of bribes and gratuities, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and travel act conspiracy. Person’s arrest was part of four NCAA assistant basketball coaches indicted by federal authorities in a fraud and corruption scheme that included managers, financial advisers and representatives of a major international sportswear company.

Person’s arrest led to the school to conduct an internal investigation of the men’s basketball program.

Less than a month after Person’s arrest, ESPN reported that an unidentified source claimed a mentor in Auburn's athletic student services department took an online final exam for at least one football player. This resulted in the same law firm Auburn hired to conduct an internal investigation into softball and men’s basketball being asked to look into the 2015 matter with the football program.

New Auburn baseball coach Butch Thompson shakes hands with Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn Thursday as Tigers athletics director Jay Jacobs looks on.

Last week, a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama against the university’s board of trustees and athletic department claims an assistant coach with Auburn's track and field team from 2014-2016 was discriminated against and his contract wasn't renewed due to an altercation with assistant track and field coach Henry Rolle.

Jacobs’ decision-making had been questioned by many outside the athletic department for years following puzzling coaching hires that would end following confusing contract extensions, embarrassing firings, lawsuits or, in some cases, all of the above.

Jacobs was responsible for the hiring of Myers, men's basketball coach Tony Barbee (who presided over Auburn’s worst four-year stretch in the sport), baseball coach Sunny Golloway (who was fired with cause but now has sued for wrongful termination) and football coach Gene Chizik. Chizik was paid $7.5 million after getting the largest buyout in school history following an extension after a national championship season in 2010, but he was fired two years later after the school’s first winless Southeastern Conference record since 1952.

Jay Jacobs, Auburn Athletic director, speaks to members of the media on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016, before the Quarterback Club event in Montgomery, Ala.

Until Friday, Jacobs held the second-longest tenure among athletic directors in the SEC just one year behind Vanderbilt’s David Williams. Jacobs was named athletic director in December 2004 after spending nearly his entire adult life and professional career involved in some form with Auburn athletics. Jacobs was a walk-on football player under Pat Dye while earning his undergraduate and master's degrees in business administration from Auburn in 1985 and 1988.

"Auburn is a special place that means so much to my family and me," Jacobs said in March. "The greatest honor of all is serving my alma mater and having the chance each day to impact the lives of our incredible student-athletes. They make me proud to be an Auburn man."

Jay Jacobs speaks to a fan at the SEC Softball Tournament semifinals in 2015 in Baton Rouge, La.

During Jacobs’ near 13-year tenure, Auburn has won 11 national championships, including the 2010 football, and 24 conference championships. Before being named athletic director, Jacobs was in charge of Tigers Unlimited, the private fundraising operation related to the athletic department, from 2001-2004. After he was promoted to AD, he oversaw more than $200 million in spending on facilities for all of Auburn’s athletic programs. Jacobs also oversaw the initial partnership with the national brand Under Armour apparel company in 2006, which also included a $78.1 million extension through 2025. The extension, signed in October 2015, was at that time the largest apparel contract agreement by an SEC school. Jacobs was named a 2016-2017 Under Armour athletic director of the year presented by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics following a vote by a select committee of athletic directors. This particular honor has seen blemishes after its selected awardees over the years have included former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, who was sentenced in June to a seven- to 23-month jail term after pleading guilty to child endangerment charges following his role in the attempted cover-up of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Other winners included former Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw and former Georgia athletic director Damon Evans, both of whom saw their tenures end in scandal and subsequent embarrassment for the universities.

The announcement of the end of Jacobs’ AD tenure comes just a few weeks after he was named to the Collegiate Advisory Council, which is a newly formed 11-member committee sponsored by the United States Olympic Committee with intentions to guide and strengthen Olympic sports at the college level.