Mike Leach may be ineligible for College Football Hall of Fame over NFF rule
The sudden death of Mike Leach brought out a tidal wave of tributes and memories of the head coach who helped innovate the sport of college football while leaving a legacy as a wit and an inquisitive mind who seemed able to hold forth on almost any subject.
Leach is credited with helping popularize the Air Raid offense, an aggressive, pass-heavy strategy that has influenced the game of football at both the college and NFL levels in the 21st century while at Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State, helping create a coaching tree across FBS.
It would seem that a man like Leach would be bound for the College Football Hall of Fame, but as Fox Sports analyst RJ Young revealed, a current National Football Foundation rule seems to make the coach ineligible for the Hall.
On its website, the NFF says a "coach becomes eligible three years after retirement or immediately following retirement provided he is at least 70 years of age. Active coaches become eligible at 75 years of age."
But the rule that seems to exclude Leach from the honor is as follows: A candidate for the Hall of Fame "must have been a head coach for a minimum of 10 years and coached at least 100 games with a .600 winning percentage."
Related: College football world mourns, pays tribute to Mike Leach
Leach checks out on two of the last three demands; he coached for longer than 10 years and more than 100 games.
But his career record in that time was 158 wins against 107 losses — a .596 winning percentage. Just .004 percent away from the mark he needs to become eligible.
The National Football Foundation paid tribute to Leach as chief executive Steven J. Hatchell saying, "Coach Leach always had time for us and what we were trying to do at the College Football Hall of Fame."
Whether the Hall has time for Leach, likely in the form of a waiver to become eligible for membership, time will tell.
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