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A spirit that is not afraid

Is Jay Jacobs gone? AU president says no, pushes back against reports

Auburn President Steven Leath is combating a report from AL.com that said athletic director Jay Jacobs' near-13-year tenure at the University is coming to an end.

"The report is inaccurate," Leath said in a statement to The Plainsman.

The AL.com report said Leath and the board of trustees are near a decision on Jacobs' removal and have "laid the groundwork" to end his tenure. Jacobs would be out before the end of the 2017 football season but recent scandals may have sped up the process, AL.com reported.

The report also said Leath and the board of trustees discussed the plan in a conference call earlier this week.

"Jay Jacobs is the Athletics Director, and I have had no such conference call with the Board of Trustees," Leath said in his statement.

The University, according to the report, was just trying to decide who would succeed Jacobs as the top athletic administrator ahead of a final decision. Jacobs has come under fire after two scandals engulfed the athletics program.

Last month, an ESPN report said that former Auburn softball head coach Clint Myers and his son, former assistant head coach Corey Myers, had been implicated in a Title IX complaint filed with the University.

Both coaches resigned and retired in March and August, respectively.

And on Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged associate head basketball coach Chuck Person with bribery and corruption in connection with a nationwide investigation spreading across NCAA Division I basketball.

In an interview with The Plainsman on Thursday, Leath sidestepped a question about Jacobs' job security amid the growing list of scandals and intensifying calls from alumni, donors and fans for his resignation. The president refused to give Jacobs a vote of confidence.

"I don't have the time or the bandwidth right now to speculate on what might happen in the future," Leath said in the phone interview with The Plainsman. "I'm running the university, making sure the students are successful and dealing with these serious misconduct charges."


Chip Brownlee | Editor-in-chief

Chip Brownlee, senior in journalism and political science, is the editor-in-chief of The Auburn Plainsman.


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