As Syracuse University continues its search for a new athletic director to replace the outgoing John Wildhack, one potential candidate may have ended her chances to win the opportunity. Heather Lyke, who is an advisor to both the chancellor and athletic director, was reportedly the subject of a human resource complaint that accused her of “harassment, bullying and abuse of authority.”

Roundtable's Brady Farkas and Thomas "Goz" Goslowski III offered their insight on Lyke's candidacy moving forward and how the university should handle things.

Remember, Lyke previously served as the athletic director at Pittsburgh and was embroiled in some controversy there as well. They also didn't believe she could handle the ever-changing world of NIL.

"...So from a purely sports perspective, I don't think she's going to work at Syracuse because they need to figure out how to up their NIL game. And if it (Pitt) thought she couldn't function in this world, then I don't think she's going to be able to function in this world at Syracuse. So that's the purely sports side of things.

But you and I know people like this, Goz. It seems to me, when you read the complaint, that she is a climber and she is willing to kind of ruffle any feather she needs to and push people out of the way in order to get where she wants to go.  And ultimately, once those people get to the top, I do think that they tend to play nice with the others at the top because they have to, but who are you stepping over in order to get there and what kind of culture are you creating and what kind of environment are you creating in order to get there? 

And it just seems to me like Syracuse needs just a full cleanse right now in a lot of ways. So new chancellor, new athletic director. I think the new athletic director needs to be somebody who has been, maybe on the outside of things, not in the inner walls..."

"...How did this information get in the hands of those people?  So maybe someone within those walls may have not wanted her. She also had a past at Pittsburgh. There's some news involving the Panthers today, involving the coach that they let go in the contract that she was a part of (women's basketball coach Tory Verdi).

There's many reports coming from the Pittsburgh athletic department that there's some financial instability. So when you add up her past from Pittsburgh, now what's happened here with Syracuse, it's just like any other job,  although this one far more public: When you have reasons you shouldn't hire somebody and fans and alumni and everybody already knows it, yes, I think there's far more candidates that might be less controversial than her now for that opportunity."

Syracuse University has now named Mike Haynie as the school's next chancellor. After being with Syracuse for over a decade, it is likely Haynie will be one of the many decision makers involving in the process. Syracuse did announce that a seven person committee has already been created to find the next athletic director for the University. 

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