In announcing Wade’s firing, University President William F. Tate IV and Athletic Director Scott Woodward noted that the university and the men’s basketball program “have operated under an exhausting shroud of negativity.”
Their statement also said the decision to fire Wade and Armstrong is not an acknowledgment of agreement with any of the allegations, to which the school is in the process of responding.
However, this is only the latest scandal at the school.
An investigation, spurred by reporting by USA Today, found last year that L.S.U. athletic department administrators covered up sexual assault complaints against a former running back and fought to keep quiet sexual harassment allegations against a former coach, Les Miles. Two administrators who failed to act on the assault complaints were disciplined, but not fired.
Included with the recent men’s basketball accusations by the N.C.A.A. are also allegations that a booster paid $180,000 to the father of a former football player for a sham job, and that former L.S.U. star Odell Beckham Jr., provided approximately $2,000 in cash to players after they had won the national championship game in 2000.
The allegations against Wade and Armstrong are more wide-ranging and systematic. They include:
Wade paying hush money to keep the former fiancée of a player from talking about illegal payments.
Armstrong offering to provide a recruit’s family or associates with $300,000 cash (in $50,000 installments) as well as providing a job, an apartment and a car for the player’s cousin.
Wade directing payments from a bank account in his wife’s name to a recruiter who in exchange would direct a prospect to L.S.U.
Smart played three seasons for L.S.U., leaving a year ago to enter the N.B.A. draft. He was undrafted but last month signed a two-way contract with the Miami Heat.
Wade, 39, coached at L.S.U. for five seasons after previous stints at Chattanooga and Virginia Commonwealth. His best team was in 2019, when L.S.U. finished 28-7 and won the S.E.C. regular season championship with four players who have gone on to play in the N.B.A.
But those Tigers finished their season in the N.C.A.A. tournament without their head coach — just as this year’s team will have to do.