BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana State University Chancellor Mike Martin could be leaving his leadership position at Louisiana’s flagship university after being tapped as the lone finalist for a job overseeing the Colorado State University System. In an email Thursday, Martin said he will carefully consider the offer to be chancellor of the three-campus system.

“My single criteria for deciding what to do at this stage of my professional life is this: Where do I have the best chance of making a positive difference?” he said.

Colorado State University governing board members called Martin a visionary and proven leader who can build strong relationships with civic leaders, lawmakers and businessmen. Martin, an economist originally from Minnesota, was recommended to the board by an 11-member committee after an eight-month search.

“I’m confident that the CSU System and broader state of Colorado will greatly benefit from Dr. Martin’s strong track record of successfully championing public higher education and building strong relationships among civic leaders, state and federal lawmakers, the business community and the general public,” Joseph Zimlich, chair of the CSU Board of Governors, said in a statement.

Martin now enters into discussions with the CSU board about possible terms of employment.

He said he’s received boilerplate language for a contract, but without details of proposed salary. He said if he decides to leave, he’d stay until at least August, to see the campus into the start of the new budget year. And he said he expects to decide about the move quickly.

“We’re not going to drag this out,” Martin said in an interview. “I’m not going to dance, and I’m not going be coy, but in all candor, I just haven’t decided yet. It is an appealing offer. I can’t deny that.”

If he accepts the job, Martin would replace Joe Blake, who retired as chancellor of the Colorado State University system in December. The CSU chancellor oversees an annual operating budget of $950M and about 37,000 students spread across three campuses, including an online campus.

If Martin is on his way out, it would be LSU’s second high-profile departure within a month. The LSU Board of Supervisors fired university system President John Lombardi in April after criticism that he didn’t work well with campus leaders or state lawmakers.

Martin said the discussions with CSU didn’t have to do with Lombardi’s firing.

“It has been my plan to finish my career at LSU. Sometimes plans change. I was first informally contacted by Colorado State in December and then formally contacted in January. I did not seek out this opportunity, and my conversations with Colorado State are in no way related to recent changes at the system office,” Martin said.

Martin, 65, a former president of New Mexico State University, has a year remaining on his LSU contract. Since he was hired in 2008, he has been charged with leading a university with 28,000 students that has faced repeated budget cuts in recent years – with more slashing on the horizon.

He described the continued budget crises as “fatiguing.”

“And if there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, it’s a little difficult to face,” Martin said. “You don’t want the very last thing that you do (in your career) to be doing an autopsy on the institution that you serve.”

Martin’s base salary at LSU is $400,000 a year, but his contract included deferred payments that would increase his total compensation to $525,000 per year, if he stayed at LSU through 2013.