LSU Makes Duke's Alleva Its New Athletics Director

Joe Alleva, who rose to athletics director at Duke in 1998 and oversaw the department during the tumultuous lacrosse investigation, accepted the same position at Louisiana State on Friday.

The move stunned the Duke community, where Alleva had been re-appointed to his position last summer and was praised by Duke president Richard Brodhead.

Alleva had also recently hired David Cutcliffe as football coach in an effort to fix the one sport he had failed to solve in his tenure. Alleva played football and baseball at Lehigh and was captain of the football team in 1974. But football floundered in his term as athletics director as Carl Frank and Ted Roof failed to turn the program around.

Alleva did produce an athletics program that continued its remarkable success in men's basketball and reached remarkable heights in its nonrevenue sports.

But he had his detractors. He pushed out lacrosse coach Mike Pressler after lacrosse players were accused of rape, and Pressler said Alleva told him, "It's not about the truth anymore."

He was injured in a boating accident in 2006 when his son was driving the boat and officers said they smelled alcohol on the younger Alleva.

And John Feinstein, a Duke graduate, once wrote in The Washington Post, "Everyone at Duke knew that Alleva was a pleasant man whose next original idea would be his first, someone whose main asset when applying for the job was the fact that his racquetball partner was Mike Krzyzewski."

Also, some Duke baseball players accused former coach Bill Hillier of encouraging steroid use. Hillier resigned in 2006.

Alleva resigns after spending 32 years at Duke.

"After deliberating with my family and several colleagues here at Duke, I have decided to accept the director of athletics position at Louisiana State University," Alleva said in a statement. "For over 30 years, I have committed myself to Duke University, and for the past 10, I have been fortunate to lead one of the nation's best departments of athletics. I am appreciative of my time at Duke, and even more grateful for the relationships I have forged while working here, particularly in the Department of Athletics. I hope that Duke continues to enjoy the success it has maintained for so many years."

Six Duke teams have won national championships since his appointment as director of athletics, and 44 Blue Devil teams notched ACC championships – the second-highest total among ACC schools since 1997-98.

Alleva and his wife, Annie, have two sons, J.D. (Duke, '01) and Jeff (Duke, '03), and a daughter, Jenny (Duke, '07), all of whom played sports at Duke.