Athletic director Jeff Long has been fired by the University of Kansas, The Star has confirmed.
Long’s removal was announced to KU Athletics staff during a meeting Wednesday afternoon. Kurt Watson will serve as KU’s interim AD.
Long, who started with KU in August 2018, barely made it halfway through his five-year contract that paid him $1.5 million annually. He also had a clause in his deal that would add years on his contract if any of KU’s major sports programs were put on probation or found to have committed NCAA violations before his arrival; the Jayhawks men’s basketball team and coach Bill Self are currently facing a NCAA infractions case where five Level I violations are alleged.
Per his contract, Long was set to be due the remainder of his salary if he was not fired for “just cause” ahead of its completion.
How that will play out is not yet known.
Long came under fire in recent days following the revelation of sexual harassment allegations against KU football coach Les Miles while he was coach at LSU in 2013. Miles, who was hired by Long in November 2018, was accused of kissing an LSU student worker twice in his parked car while also suggesting at times they go to a hotel or his condo, with the two parties eventually signing a settlement agreement that was first reported by The Times-Picayune and New Orleans Advocate last week.
Another LSU student worker also came forward to say she was “very upset” about something that took place when she was alone with Miles. She requested a meeting with Miles, and during it, another LSU Athletics employee reported that she was “completely traumatized.”
The two accusations were enough that former LSU athletic director Joe Alleva even suggested to his school’s president in 2013 that Miles should be fired because of his alleged conduct against female student workers, according to an investigation released Friday into how LSU responded to Title IX complaints.
Following that report’s release, KU Athletics and Miles reached a $2 million settlement Monday to mutually part ways.
That brought into question how much Long knew about those Miles allegations before he hired him ... and also how set he was on landing Miles in 2018. Long admitted in a deposition that a film crew hired by KU Athletics for a documentary was shooting footage in Miles’ house before he had been given — or had accepted — KU’s coaching job. Long explained that by saying the crew “took the chance (the hire) was going to be Les Miles, and they felt like the opportunity to be with someone of Coach Miles’ stature, it was worth their risk of going there should he get the job.”
Long, in that deposition, also could not accurately recall the names of the other three coaches he had in-person interviews with.
The two main attributes University of Kansas chancellor Douglas Girod was seeking when hiring Long were this: an ability to build a football program and also energize a fanbase that will need to give money if KU Athletics hopes to raise its proposed $350 million for a Booth Memorial Stadium renovation.
Neither went as planned. KU’s football program, while making strides in recruiting, went 3-18 under Miles in two seasons before needing to undertake another coaching transition that could push the window back even further. Meanwhile, KU’s football stadium project has been pushed back with no real momentum recently.
Long also had other moves that made him unpopular with parts of the fanbase as well.
After firing former coach David Beaty, Long withheld his $3 million buyout after KU Athletics reclassified the termination as “for cause” after an investigation alleged one of Beaty’s non-coaching staffers engaged in impermissible coaching activities outside of NCAA rules.
Beaty sued KU Athletics for his buyout, and after 15 months, the two sides settled for $2.55 million, with KU Athletics spending more than a half-million in legal fees on the case. Discovery for the lawsuit also brought about some unwanted media attention, which included the release of public depositions that included allegations that Long had made crass remarks of a sexual nature about an elderly female donor and a female school staffer.
Long also was criticized by some following 2019’s Late Night in the Phog, when rapper Snoop Dogg shot fake $100 bills out of a money gun at the KU bench while four scantily dressed dancers performed on stripper poles around him.
Afterward, Long sent an original statement that said he took “full responsibility for not understanding what acrobatic dancers are in today’s entertainment world.”
That comment was later altered.
“We made it clear to the entertainers’ managers that we expected a clean version of the show and took additional steps to communicate to our fans, including moving the artist to the final act of the evening, to ensure that no basketball activities would be missed if anyone did not want to stay for his show,” Long said. “I take full responsibility for not thoroughly vetting all the details of the performance and offer my personal apology to those who were offended. We strive to create a family atmosphere at Kansas and fell short of that this evening.”
Long also was quick to apologize for KU’s role in a bench-clearing brawl with Kansas State during a January 2020 men’s basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse. K-State’s athletic department did not follow with any similar statement.
“The conduct of a few of our student-athletes at the conclusion of tonight’s game vs. Kansas State was simply unacceptable and not reflective of who we are,” Long said then. “I would like to apologize to the Big 12 Conference, Kansas State University, Gene Taylor, Bruce Weber and all fans for the lack of sportsmanship from members of our team this evening.”
Before arriving at KU, Long previously was athletic director for Arkansas, Pittsburgh and Eastern Kentucky.
