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NEW ORLEANS—Mere moments after hoisting the crystal national championship trophy, Tigers coach Les Miles announced that LSU had made the decision to "go out on top" and retire after almost 150 years as a public university.

"Believe me, beating the Ohio State Buckeyes was tough, but coming to this decision was much tougher," said Miles, who said he reached the decision after a Christmas day meeting with LSU chancellor John O'Keefe, university president John Lombardi, and Tigers quarterback Matt Flynn. "But I really feel that after winning our second national chamionship in five years, Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College has nothing left to prove—to others or to ourselves."

"There were so many good times and so much great football with so many wonderful people that I have no regrets," said LSU architecture professor Marsha Cuddeback. "Sure, I'll miss teaching here. But there's not a doubt in my mind this is the right thing to do."

"You get to a point where there's just nothing else to accomplish," President Lombardi told reporters Tuesday, in between completing the paperwork that would cancel the spring semester and arranging for the sale of LSU's 2,100-acre campus. "From here on out, we at the university would just be padding our career stats. That's not how we want to be remembered."

"When people think of LSU, we want them to think of a class act," Lombardi said. "We want them to say, 'There's a school that really knew when it was time to walk away.'"

GoApps70 wrote:Just read three posts saying that ABC or ESPN was getting together a football game on national television between Appalachian State and LSU for 9/6 or 9/13/08. Going to promote it as the Champions from BCS vs. Champion from FCS. Understand it is pretty definate, so LSU much have reopened their doors and found a reason to stay open.

dbackjon wrote:Just saw a bunch of items from LSU on e-bay - the contents are for sale!