Fact checking Tiffani Dawn Sykes' latest claims

On Wednesday, the FAMU Football head coach search committee held its first meeting to discuss the timeline and process for hiring the Rattlers’ next head coach to replace Willie Simmons, who resigned to become the running backs coach at Duke University on Jan. 1.

The committee, chaired by FAMU COO & Executive VP Donald Palm, is working on an expedited time table with the hopes of recommending five candidates to President Larry Robinson and Athletic Director Tiffani Dawn-Sykes by this Sunday.

The search committee comprised of representatives of the university’s affinity groups and stakeholders was mandated by the FAMU Board of Trustees Tuesday after Sykes’ initial efforts to name a coach failed.  

Ideal profile for next coach
Sykes laid out the some of the ideal characteristics she like to see in FAMU’s next head football coach.

·      Ability to recruit athletically and academically gifted athletes 

       (citing that FAMU’s 2023 freshman class had a 4.03 avg. gpa).
·       College head coaching experience with a good competitive record
·       Appreciation of HBCU culture
·       Potential longevity in the role
·       NCAA compliance and APR knowledge
·       Communication skills
·       Fundraising and budget management experience
·       Knowledge of current trends in college football such as the NCAA Transfer Portal 

        and Name, Image and Likeness partnerships

Fact checking Sykes claims
We took a moment to fact check of some of the claims Sykes’ made during the  zoom meeting.

$200,000 maximum pay
Sykes stated that maximum budget that she had to pay a coach was $200,000, unless the alumni, Rattler F Club, and the Foundation kick-in.

The Facts:  Sykes’ comment needs context. Perhaps, she is confused and is using outdated maximum state pay rates.  And, she’s probably using Willie Simmons’ old contract which paid him a base salary of $300,000 in 2023 -- $200k from the state and $100,000 + from private sources.

The Florida Legislature, and Governor DeSantis approved, a measure SB 7026 this past legislative session raising the maximum pay to $250,000 (Ch 2023-95 pg 5).

How President Robinson and General Counsel Denise Wallace let Sykes misspeak without correcting her is beyond belief.

Anyhoo, Sykes’ found herself in the awkward position of trying to negotiate hard financial commitments to use for additional compensation for a new head coach with FAMU Foundation Board Chair Lisa LaBoo whom she had just disregarded, along with the Boosters, Alumni and other stakeholders in her previous attempts to hire a coach last week.

On top of this, Florida lawmakers this year also granted public colleges and universities the ability to waive out-of-state fees for student-athletes receiving athletic scholarships.  This was a huge windfall for cash strapped public athletic programs.  

This claim is: False

Salary would be on par with UAPB and MSVU

In another exchange with LaBoo, Sykes claimed that without alumni, boosters, and foundation, support her available salary of $200,000 would put her on par with the salaries at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff and Mississippi Valley State U.

The Facts:  Alonzo Hampton the first-year head coach at UAPB, is paid an annual salary of $82,855.26 according the University of Arkansas System database.

While the salary of Kendrick Wade, the first-year head coach at MSVU was reported as $100,000 per board documents no the (Mississippi) Institute for Higher Learning website.

This claim is: False

She has raised thousands of dollars
When pressed by Foundation Chair LaBoo about her own fundraising efforts, Sykes said she has raised “THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS” for athletics through a 50/50 raffle this year.

The Facts: This claim was technically correct, however, the total raised by FAMU Athletics 50/50 raffle this past year (2023) was  $5,137.58.  After winners payouts FAMU Athletics’ cut  was $2,568.79.

This claim is:  Partially true, but wildly misleading.