Published: Thursday, August 3, 2006
Ex-OSU coach wins $2.2 million decision
A judge ruled the university violated Jim O'Brien's contract.
COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio State, fresh from a trip to the Final Four in 1999, was desperate to keep Jim O'Brien as its men's basketball coach.
With no major problems in his past and a bright future beckoning, the university's attorneys crafted a contract that would lock O'Brien into the job through 2008. It also gave him the benefit of the doubt if his program ever ran into trouble with the NCAA.
That last provision will cost Ohio State $2.2 million plus interest, a judge ruled Wednesday, saying Ohio State did not follow terms of the contract when it fired O'Brien in 2004.
"The contract is extremely favorable to the plaintiff but it is not unreasonable," Ohio Court of Claims Judge Joseph T. Clark said in his decision on Wednesday. "The parties in this case negotiated a contract virtually guaranteeing plaintiff [O'Brien] that he could not be terminated for an NCAA infraction, without compensation."
Rules were broken
Clark agreed with Ohio State that O'Brien broke NCAA rules when the coach gave 7-foot-3 recruit Aleksandar Radojevic a $6,000 loan in 1999 because the player's father was near death and the family needed the money.
Andy Geiger, then the Ohio State athletic director, didn't find out about the payment for five years. Six weeks after O'Brien told him of the loan, he fired the coach — despite a contract that required Ohio State to await an NCAA investigation that determined major violations had occurred before dismissing O'Brien.
O'Brien, 56, charged that the university breached the agreement. Clark ruled in February that O'Brien broke his contract by giving the money and failing to inform university officials, but the error was not serious enough to warrant firing.
The two sides spent the past six months haggling over how much O'Brien was owed. O'Brien said it was $3.6 million. Ohio State said it didn't owe him a dime.
On Wednesday, Clark ruled that Ohio State had to pay O'Brien for the more than three years left on his contract, plus interest.
Award limited
Clark did limit the amount of money O'Brien was due because the coach's NCAA violations would have prevented him from receiving two extra years on his contract for winning Big Ten titles in 2000 and 2002.
Ohio State officials said they would appeal the ruling and the award.
"We continue to believe that the university acted appropriately in dismissing coach O'Brien," Ohio State vice president and general counsel Christopher M. Culley said in a statement. "The NCAA sanctions that followed the court's initial decision in February 2006 validated the serious nature of the violations."
Thursday, August 3, 2006
A judge ruled the university violated Jim O'Brien's contract.
COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio State, fresh from a trip to the Final Four in 1999, was desperate to keep Jim O'Brien as its men's basketball coach.
With no major problems in his past and a bright future beckoning, the university's attorneys crafted a contract that would lock O'Brien into the job through 2008. It also gave him the benefit of the doubt if his program ever ran into trouble with the NCAA.
That last provision will cost Ohio State $2.2 million plus interest, a judge ruled Wednesday, saying Ohio State did not follow terms of the contract when it fired O'Brien in 2004.
"The contract is extremely favorable to the plaintiff but it is not unreasonable," Ohio Court of Claims Judge Joseph T. Clark said in his decision on Wednesday. "The parties in this case negotiated a contract virtually guaranteeing plaintiff [O'Brien] that he could not be terminated for an NCAA infraction, without compensation."
Rules were broken
Clark agreed with Ohio State that O'Brien broke NCAA rules when the coach gave 7-foot-3 recruit Aleksandar Radojevic a $6,000 loan in 1999 because the player's father was near death and the family needed the money.
Andy Geiger, then the Ohio State athletic director, didn't find out about the payment for five years. Six weeks after O'Brien told him of the loan, he fired the coach — despite a contract that required Ohio State to await an NCAA investigation that determined major violations had occurred before dismissing O'Brien.
O'Brien, 56, charged that the university breached the agreement. Clark ruled in February that O'Brien broke his contract by giving the money and failing to inform university officials, but the error was not serious enough to warrant firing.
The two sides spent the past six months haggling over how much O'Brien was owed. O'Brien said it was $3.6 million. Ohio State said it didn't owe him a dime.
On Wednesday, Clark ruled that Ohio State had to pay O'Brien for the more than three years left on his contract, plus interest.
Award limited
Clark did limit the amount of money O'Brien was due because the coach's NCAA violations would have prevented him from receiving two extra years on his contract for winning Big Ten titles in 2000 and 2002.
Ohio State officials said they would appeal the ruling and the award.
"We continue to believe that the university acted appropriately in dismissing coach O'Brien," Ohio State vice president and general counsel Christopher M. Culley said in a statement. "The NCAA sanctions that followed the court's initial decision in February 2006 validated the serious nature of the violations."
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Ohio State, fresh from a trip to the Final Four in 1999, was desperate to keep Jim O'Brien as its men's basketball...
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