After rejecting FSU, Vince Tyra reportedly resigns as Louisville’s athletics director
Vince Tyra is not headed to Florida State, but the Louisville athletics director won’t be remaining in his present position, either.
The 56-year-old Tyra reportedly emerged last week as the top candidate for the athletics director opening at Florida State. On Wednesday, U of L’s Board of Trustees met in executive session and reportedly altered Tyra’s contract allowing him to leave the school.
But Thursday morning brought reports Tyra had in fact turned down the FSU job. Thursday afternoon, Louisville school officials confirmed reports Tyra had submitted his letter of resignation at U of L, effective Dec. 8. The resignaton letter was accepted.
That followed the Thursday morning announcement that Louisville President Neeli Bendapudi was leaving the school to become president at Penn State University.
It was believed that differences with the U of L administration was one of the reasons Tyra was considering a move to Tallahassee. Tyra’s contract with U of L included a non-compete clause that precluded him from accepting a job with another Atlantic Coast Conference school, such as FSU. He was also contractually obligated to give the school 30 days notice if he was leaving for another job. Both of those provisions were waived Wednesday.
Yet in the end Tyra apparently decided to step away from athletics and return to private business. Florida State announced Thursday that Michael Alford, CEO of Seminole Boosters, will be the school’s new director of athletics, replacing the retiring David Coburn.
A Trinity High School graduate, Tyra’s father Charlie was an All-America basketball player at the University of Louisville. Vince Tyra played baseball at the University of Kentucky before launching a successful business career in Louisville as operating partner for Southfield Capital.
He was named interim AD at U of L on Oct. 3, 2017, after the school fired Tom Jurich. Tyra was named permanently to the position in March 2018. At the time, he was given a five-year contract with a base salary of $850,000 per year.
During Tyra’s tenure, the school fired Bobby Petrino and hired Appalachian State’s Scott Satterfield as head football coach. It also hired Xavier’s Chris Mack as head basketball coach. Satterfield is 18-18 in his three years at Louisville, including 6-6 this season. The Cardinals are scheduled to play Air Force in the First Responder Bowl on Dec. 28. Mack went 57-28 in his first three season as the Cardinals’ basketball coach. After not making the NCAA Tournament last year, Louisville is currently 6-2.
Tyra has also dealt with NCAA allegations of violations brought about by the FBI investigation into college basketball corruption. Added to those were accusations made by former basketball assistant coach Dino Gaudio, who threatened to expose NCAA violations. Gaudio later plead guilty to extortion. Mack was given a six-game suspension for his handling of the matter.
Tyra also dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, taking a pay cut himself and using other measures to combat financial losses.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 3:18 PM.
