The LSU Athletic Department announced Thursday that Athletic Director Skip Bertman’s contract has been extended until 2010.
Bertman will step down as athletic director in June 2008 and will assume the role as athletic director emeritus beginning July 1, 2008, until his contract expires.
Bertman said a new athletic director will be in place by the beginning of July 2008.
As emeritus, Bertman will assist in fundraising for both the athletic department and the University as a whole. Bertman said he anticipates helping wherever he can in the expansion of the Flagship Agenda and the “Forever LSU” capital campaign.
Chancellor Sean O’Keefe said Bertman’s new contract will be on the Board of Supervisors’ agenda for their next meeting, which takes place in March.
Bertman, who turns 70-years-old in May 2008, joked his age is somewhat a factor in his decision to step down next year.
“I know people say, 70 isn’t old … if you’re a tree,” Bertman said. “My wife Sandy and I figure 70 years and 25 years at LSU are round enough numbers and time to step back a little and spend some more time with the grandkids and yet still be able to help LSU.”
Bertman has been a staple of LSU athletics since he arrived in Baton Rouge as baseball coach in the fall of 1983. In 17 seasons at the helm of LSU baseball, Bertman guided to Tigers to five national championships and seven Southeastern Conference titles.
Since Bertman became LSU’s eigth athletic director on Jan. 18, 2001, the LSU athletic program has seen profound advances on and off the field.
Bertman oversaw the creation of the Cox Communications Academic Center, which opened in 2002, as well as renovations to the PMAC and Tiger Stadium and the construction of a Football Operations Center.
During Bertman’s tenure, LSU has won eight conference championships and seven national titles; six have come from men’s and women’s track and field teams.
O’Keefe said the athletic program is as successful as it has ever been, and the majority of that success can be attributed to Bertman.
“We are at the very, most extraordinary period of sustained athletic performance and student-athlete performance than we’ve ever seen at this University,” O’Keefe said. “So much of that is attributed to his leadership, [and] to his dedication to improvement.”
O’Keefe said a program with the prominence and national reputation of LSU serves as a “window” into what the University does overall.
[The athletic department] is the opportunity for a first look,” he said. “And if folks, on that first look, see something they like they’ll be back for a second, a third and a continuous look. That first look is as good as it’s ever been.”
Neither O’Keefe nor Bertman said who the frontrunner is to be Bertman’s successor. Bertman said he will only be slightly involved in the selection process of his replacement.
“I’m going to be a part of that, [but] I’m not going to pick anybody,” he said. “That’s not happening.”
Bertman said he anticipates a search committee will select about five possible candidates to replace him and then narrow the list down based on qualifications and experience. Bertman also said he hopes longer-tenured and successful coaches will have as much of say as him in who is named the new athletic director.
“I’d like this to happen,” he said. “That [football coach] Les Miles or [men’s basketball coach] John Brady or [gymnastics coach] D.D. Breaux or other coaches will have a chance to have some input.”
—–Contact Tyler Batiste at [email protected]