College Football Hall of Fame changes rule, making Mike Leach eligible

A major change to the College Football Hall of Fame should find the late former head coach Mike Leach now eligible for induction.

The Hall of Fame will lower its win percentage qualification required for entry down from 60 percent to 59.5 percent starting in 2027, the National Football Foundation said in a statement.

That minor tweak should pave the way for Leach to become eligible for induction in the near future.

“The NFF is committed to preserving the integrity and prestige of the NFF College Football Hall of Fame,” NFF president and chief executive Steve Hatchell said.

“This adjustment reflects thoughtful dialogue with leaders across the sport and allows us to better recognize coaches whose contributions to the game extend beyond a narrow statistical threshold.”

The decision follows considerable debate on the Hall of Fame’s requirements when it was revealed that Leach would not be eligible for membership, despite his contributions to the game, given his career win percentage.

Leach, who died suddenly late in 2022, is credited with helping popularize the Air Raid offense, an aggressive, pass-oriented strategy that has strongly influenced the game of football at both the college and NFL levels in the 21st century.

But the rule that excluded Leach from the Hall of Fame was as follows: A candidate for the honor "must have been a head coach for a minimum of 10 years and coached at least 100 games with a .600 winning percentage."

Leach checked out on two of those three demands: he coached for more than a decade and in 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 needed to be eligible for the Hall of Fame.

That is, until now.

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