Recent scandals have led the leadership at Auburn to lay the groundwork to dismiss Athletics Director Jay Jacobs.

Auburn’s president and board of trustees have laid the groundwork to end Jay Jacobs’ tenure as athletics director, AL.com’s Kevin Scarbinsky reported. Two major scandals involving the softball team and men’s basketball team are the main issues related to Jacobs’ status at the school.

Scarbinsky reported that unless the leadership changes its current position, which it discussed in a conference call this week, the only variables are who will replace Jacobs and when the transition will take place.

That transition was expected to take place after the current football season, but recent scandals involving the school’s softball and men’s basketball programs have accelerated the process, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Earlier Friday afternoon, Leath declined to comment when asked by AL.com if he still maintained confidence in Jacobs’ ability to run the program given the scandals.

The softball incident was related to the resignations of head coach Clint Myers and associate head coach Corey Myers after a Title IX complaint alleged the younger Myers had and pursued improper relationships with student-athletes and the elder Myers, his father, allowed the behavior to occur, AL.com reported.

The men’s basketball review is related to an FBI probe that has resulted in the arrests of 10 different people connected to the sport, including Auburn associate head coach Chuck Person. Person has been charged with six federal crimes for his alleged involvement in a bribery and conspiracy scheme to steer Auburn players to a disgraced financial adviser named Martin Blazer, who was working as an FBI informant.

In August, Jacobs said he “could have been more forthcoming” about the school’s own investigation into former softball assistant Corey Myers. The basketball scandal has called into question Jacobs’ selection of head coach Bruce Pearl, who was still under a show cause for NCAA violations in his previous coaching position at Tennessee when Auburn hired him.

Jacobs has strong ties to the Auburn program. He walked on to the football team and later earned two letters as an offensive tackle in 1982 and 1983. As a senior, he started for the SEC Championship Tigers that finished the season No. 3 in the country. He was named Auburn’s 14th athletics director in 2004 after he worked in the athletics department for two decades.

Auburn has won 12 national championships during Jacobs’ tenure as AD, but the program has been plagued in recent years by a series of coaching hires that went wrong and scandals that put the university in a bad light.

Birmingham law firm Lightfoot, Franklin and White is conducting separate reviews at the request of the university of the softball and men’s basketball programs.