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NCAA Basketball Investigation/Lawsuit Thread (merged)

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Steve19 said:
By the way, knowing what I know today, if I were President of Ohio State, would I pay $10 million to see O'Brien never grace the doorstep of the VCA again? Yes, yes, yes!
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I agree, I dont think ANY individual is above the Ohio State Unversity sports program. Clarett tried it and look at where he is (wasted talent), so lets just pay Obrien what he wants and get on with it all before Obriens face alone becomes the moniker of OSU BBall.

PS. Just for a national news perspective: Tony K, on Pardon the Interuption, said that he has known Obrien for a long time and is glad he won the suit, however he was shocked at the same time.
 
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In the ruling, the judge reveals that he has great difficulty with O'Brien's explanation that gave this money thinking that Radojevic would never play college ball and without any notion that it might influence him to play for Ohio State if he became eligible. I agree. I don't believe that O'Brien believes that he did nothing wrong, in fact he admitted differently in the past.

Nevertheless, it also is clear that Andy Geiger was reacting to a far greater storm swirling around Ohio State at the time in the football program with Clarett. Does that make Andy a bad guy? No. If you go to his state of mind at the time, he was signalling that he was tired physically and mentally by the onslaught. He possibly erred in not taking O'Brien's offer to resign, but firing O'Brien had the effect of taking the war on that front out of the equation and there was a synergy taking place at the time.

Someday, when this is all over, we will consider Andy Geiger's actions from a distance. I think it will emerge that he did just about as good a job as one could have done in the circumstances.
 
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Dispatch

2/18/06

O’Brien’s contract gave him advantage

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Kathy Lynn Gray
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




Ohio State gave Jim O’Brien an extremely generous contract in 1999, a sports law expert said yesterday.
"They wanted this guy so much they were willing to draft a contract that was so beneficial to him," said Mark Conrad, a sports-law professor at Fordham University. "He had leverage. Ohio State wanted this guy more than he wanted them, no doubt about it."
Conrad evaluated O’Brien’s contract in light of the former men’s basketball coach’s win in his breach-of-contract lawsuit against Ohio State. O’Brien sued after being fired in 2004.
Ohio Court of Claims Judge Joseph T. Clark ruled that O’Brien’s contract did not allow him to be fired for the reason OSU stated. Ohio State had called O’Brien’s loan of $6,000 to a potential recruit in 1998 a material breach of his contract, but Clark ruled that O’Brien’s actions didn’t reach that standard.
An NCAA investigation concluded that the loan was an infraction; the NCAA Infractions Committee has yet to rule on the finding.
Clark’s ruling has caused a stir among lawyers nationwide who specialize in sports contracts because few coach-contract cases are fully litigated.
"This is pretty rare," Conrad said, adding that disputes usually are settled out of court.
Professional athletes’ contracts generally are the same with a few unique clauses added, but coaches have no standard contract.
"I have reviewed hundreds of these; none are alike. They’re much more sophisticated contracts than the players have," said Marty Greenberg, a Milwaukee sports lawyer who has negotiated contracts for professional and college coaches for 20 years.
In that light, termination clauses often are as important as compensation. Ohio State’s contract with current men’s coach Thad Matta gives the university far more leeway to fire him, Conrad said.
Matta’s contract states that he can be fired if he or anyone he supervises — including athletes — commits "a significant or repetitive or intentional violation" of Ohio State, NCAA or Big Ten rules, or even if OSU has a "reasonable" belief that a violation occurred.
O’Brien’s contract said Ohio State "may terminate this agreement at any time for cause," then lists the acceptable reasons. Ohio State fired O’Brien under the clause that requires "a material breach of this agreement by Coach."
The words material breach can be interpreted many ways, Greenberg said.
"There’s no perfection to these contracts, but every word is negotiated if the lawyer is truly sophisticated," said Greenberg, who founded the National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University in 1989.
"What we tell our students is: If you don’t know what every word in the contract means, don’t use them," Greenberg said.
OSU lawyer Julie Vannatta negotiated the agreement with O’Brien’s attorney, according to court documents. She would not discuss the contract.
But OSU spokesman Jim Lynch said the contracts are written by in-house lawyers with the help of athletics department officials.
Contract disputes between coaches and universities rarely go to trial, Greenberg said.
He cited as an example the case of former University of Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins, who was told by UC President Nancy Zimpher in August that he could quit or be fired after a 2004 drunk-driving arrest and a history of players who had academic and off-court troubles.
Zimpher said the school would buy out the remaining two years of Huggins’ contract and pay him $3 million if he quit, or would fire him "without cause" and pay him $2 million. Huggins took the buyout.
"Usually the university tries to keep its dirty laundry out of the press," he said. "Lots of time the university has just cause to fire, but there’s a check produced and it’s ‘Goodbye and nice knowing you’ instead of a lawsuit."
[email protected]
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Fascinating article

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/seth_davis/02/20/hoop.thoughts/index.html

Caught in the middle
Ohio State stands to lose either way in NCAA ruling
Posted: Tuesday February 21, 2006 2:10PM; Updated: Tuesday February 21, 2006 3:25PM


Strange as it sounds, Ohio State may be hoping for a "major violation" so it doesn't have to pay former coach Jim O'Brien major damages.

The bizarre saga of Jim O'Brien's demise at Ohio State is inching toward closure, but the end comes with a twist. When the NCAA infractions committee issues its final ruling some time in the next couple of weeks, Ohio State will actually be hoping that the NCAA deems its infractions to be "major." In other words, the school will be rooting for the hammer, not a slap on the wrist
 
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only if it doesn't come with a major penalty. OSU will be a force to be reckoned with for years with a light punishment. The alternative is not very pretty, regardless of how much money they don't have to pay OBie.
 
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tibor75 said:
Fascinating article

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/seth_davis/02/20/hoop.thoughts/index.html

Caught in the middle
Ohio State stands to lose either way in NCAA ruling
Posted: Tuesday February 21, 2006 2:10PM; Updated: Tuesday February 21, 2006 3:25PM


Strange as it sounds, Ohio State may be hoping for a "major violation" so it doesn't have to pay former coach Jim O'Brien major damages.

The bizarre saga of Jim O'Brien's demise at Ohio State is inching toward closure, but the end comes with a twist. When the NCAA infractions committee issues its final ruling some time in the next couple of weeks, Ohio State will actually be hoping that the NCAA deems its infractions to be "major." In other words, the school will be rooting for the hammer, not a slap on the wrist
Click to expand...
I don't see it the way Seth Davis does. If it comes down to either a harsh penalty that loses Oden & Co or even costs OSU this seasons tourney OR a light one that pays Obrien his money.....it's a no brainer. Pay Obrien and make that money back in Oden merchandise alone.
 
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Fascinating article

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...hts/index.html

Caught in the middle
Ohio State stands to lose either way in NCAA ruling
Posted: Tuesday February 21, 2006 2:10PM; Updated: Tuesday February 21, 2006 3:25PM


Strange as it sounds, Ohio State may be hoping for a "major violation" so it doesn't have to pay former coach Jim O'Brien major damages.

The bizarre saga of Jim O'Brien's demise at Ohio State is inching toward closure, but the end comes with a twist. When the NCAA infractions committee issues its final ruling some time in the next couple of weeks, Ohio State will actually be hoping that the NCAA deems its infractions to be "major." In other words, the school will be rooting for the hammer, not a slap on the wrist
Click to expand...

What a bunch of BS this is........lets see hope for a major violation that will set your program back 5-6 years along with returning all NCAA monies or pay O'Brien a few million and call it a day?

No brainer if you ask me, I can't believe they still employ that moron.
 
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Steve19 said:
In the ruling, the judge reveals that he has great difficulty with O'Brien's explanation that gave this money thinking that Radojevic would never play college ball and without any notion that it might influence him to play for Ohio State if he became eligible. I agree. I don't believe that O'Brien believes that he did nothing wrong, in fact he admitted differently in the past.

Nevertheless, it also is clear that Andy Geiger was reacting to a far greater storm swirling around Ohio State at the time in the football program with Clarett. Does that make Andy a bad guy? No. If you go to his state of mind at the time, he was signalling that he was tired physically and mentally by the onslaught. He possibly erred in not taking O'Brien's offer to resign, but firing O'Brien had the effect of taking the war on that front out of the equation and there was a synergy taking place at the time.

Someday, when this is all over, we will consider Andy Geiger's actions from a distance. I think it will emerge that he did just about as good a job as one could have done in the circumstances.
Click to expand...

Geiger did exactly what he was supposed to do. He took all the heat personally to protect the University. He's one of the great ADs of all time in my opinion.
 
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