UM/Rodriguez to split $4M payment to UWV

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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<p>ESPN</a> - Michigan to pay $2.5M, Rodriguez $1.5M to satisfy WVU buyout - College Football

[quote]

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Former West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez and the University of Michigan have agreed to pay a $4 million buyout clause and settle a lawsuit that WVU filed after he broke his contract in December.</p>

<p>Rodriguez will pay $1.5 million in three annual payments beginning January 2010. The Wolverines athletic department, his new employer, will pay $2.5 million by the end of July and cover Rodriguez's legal fees, the University of Michigan said in a statement.</p>

<p>"To help Rich focus on the challenges ahead, we have worked with him to resolve the dispute between him and West Virginia University over the terms of his buyout," Michigan athletic director Bill Martin said. "Although he continues to disagree with the validity of the terms, Rich and the rest of us at Michigan felt that it would be best to get this distracting issue behind us."</p>

<p>The WVU Board of Governors held a special meeting Wednesday and approved the agreement, settling a case that attorneys Tom Flaherty and Jeff Wakefield were set to try this fall.</p>

<p>"It's a case that should have settled a long time ago and could have settled a long time ago. It's in the best interest of everyone to resolve it," Flaherty said.</p>

<p>WVU will be responsible for its own legal bills, which Wakefield said "will be very reasonable."</p>

<p>A call to Ohio attorney Marv Robon, who represents Rodriguez, and WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong were not immediately returned.</p>

<p>Rodriguez's agent, Mike Brown, declined comment.</p>

<p>Gov. Joe Manchin, meanwhile, issued a statement urging an end to the acrimony.</p>

<p>"I am happy that this seems to be coming to a conclusion and believe, as I'm sure many other West Virginians do, that with this agreement in place, it's now time to move on," he said.</p>

<p>Rodriguez quit the Mountaineers in December for the head-coaching job at Michigan, only a year after extending his contract with WVU. He had argued that WVU broke the contract first by failing to honor certain promises -- a charge WVU denied.</p>

<p>Adding pressure on Rodriguez was a lawsuit WVU filed in a Michigan court last week, asking a judge to order Martin and school president Mary Sue Coleman to testify in depositions. A hearing on that request had been set for Wednesday afternoon.</p>

<p>WVU also recently got an Ohio court to issue a subpoena for testimony and records from Mike Wilcox, Rodriguez's financial adviser.</p>

<p>The Rodriguez camp approached the university with a "significant and serious offer" within the past few days, and WVU responded with a counterproposal Tuesday, Flaherty said. That set off a series of meetings with a court-appointed mediator, Frank Fragale.</p>

<p>WVU president Mike Garrison said he was pleased the matter was resolved.</p>

<p>"It was a valid contract. We entered the contract in very good faith. We worked very hard to create an experience here for our former coach that was a very good one, but he made a decision and I respect his decision," Garrison said.</p>

<p>Garrison is stepping down as WVU's president Sept. 1 over an unrelated scandal involving a master's degree the university wrongly awarded to the governor's daughter last fall.</p>

<p>The $4 million liquidated damages clause was suggested by an attorney on the WVU board of governors in December 2006, after Rodriguez turned down an offer from Alabama.</p>

<p>It was double the amount of the previous contract, but a number attorney Steve Farmer said he believed would protect WVU from lost marketing, merchandising and other opportunities if Rodriguez left early.</p>

<p>Though Rodriguez initially balked, he ultimately signed a contract with that figure in August 2007. He then resigned Dec. 16, taking recruits and assistant coaches with him, and leaving the Mountaineers just before the Fiesta Bowl game against Oklahoma. Bill Stewart replaced Rodriguez after a 48-28 victory over the Sooners.</p>

<p>Stewart has a five-year contract worth $800,000 a year, plus incentives. The base salary totals $4 million, the same amount WVU aimed to recover with its lawsuit.</p>

<p>Rodriguez testified recently in a deposition that he signed his contract under pressure from board members and Gov. Joe Manchin. He argues that WVU failed to honor some of his demands and Garrison assured him the buyout clause would be reduced or eliminated if he were to resign -- a promise Garrison denies making.</p>

<p>Rodriguez also testified that while he considered the amount "excessive" and "unfair," he acquiesced when he was told a major WVU donor had insisted on it.</p>

<p>WVU booster Ken Kendrick, managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, had insisted on the $4 million.</p>

<p>"I don't think that anybody wins in litigation," he said. "The university needs to get on with its business and Rich Rodriguez needs to get on with his business at Michigan."</p>

<p>Rodriguez has agreed to a similar $4 million damages clause at Michigan.

[/quote]

I know that the football team is important to the school. Both in terms of school spirit and in terms of the money it brings in, but is this excessive or will this be a bargain by the time Rodriguez builds his team? I question the school's use of resources. Not that $2 million is a lot of money in the whole scope of things, but I would hope that this is coming out of athletic boosters and not out of stuff for academics, facilities, or financial aid.</p>

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<p>Please. They can find $2.5 million just by digging under the couch cushions in Bill Martin’s office.</p>

<p>More seriously, this money comes 100% from athletics. Not from the money that was going to aid or to academics, unless the athletic department was planning to actually give up some scholarships to pay for this. Not at ALL likely. I don’t know what they might have spent the $2.5 million on had they not had to send it to Morgantown, but it was very likely NOT aid for athletes. They’re still going to pay that.</p>

<p>The athletics budget is completely separate from the general fund budget of the U. It’s called an “auxiliary unit.” Money flows from athletics to the academic side, not vice versa. The athletic department basically transfers money over to the University every single term for every tendered athlete’s tuition. They pay the athlete’s tuition bills–it’s not like the University just forgives the charges.</p>

<p>If you hire away a guy with a $4 million penalty clause, you’re either going to pay the $4M yourself, pay him enough so that he can pay it, or some combination thereof.</p>

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<p>Geez.. $2.5 Million?? That’s big</p>

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<p>My question is, as Hoedown stated, what they would have spent the money had they not sent it to Morgantow? Someone gets shorted somewhere, the question is where?</p>

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<p>They can probably cut back in a lot of little places and get to $2.5 million pretty quickly in a budget that’s over $70 mill. Make the hospitality tent a little less swank. Put off replacing some staff computers. Fewer color photos in a media guide. Don’t put out snacks and soft drinks at staff meetings. And then there’s the savings on not having to buy the buckets of kittens for Carr every week.</p>

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<p>"Embarrassing ordeal reveals ugly truths about Rodriguez
By MICHAEL ROSENBERG • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • July 9, 2008</p>

<p>Finally, somebody at Michigan was embarrassed enough to settle West Virginia’s lawsuit.</p>

<p>Not Rich Rodriguez. He is way too bullheaded. And not Bill Martin. He was never going to stand up to Rodriguez.</p>

<p>It took Mary Sue Coleman, the school president, to end this mess. Coleman was on the verge of being deposed, and she obviously didn’t want to be dragged into it. Not so coincidentally, Rodriguez finally settled.</p>

<p>Predictably, Rodriguez got absolutely nothing out of this except embarrassment. His buyout did not go down a dime. The U-M athletic department has to pay his legal fees. Rodriguez got a delay in his payment schedule, but that is a small victory.</p>

<p>This whole thing could have, and should have, been settled long ago. But RichRod was determined to fight West Virginia all the way to the bitter end. Anybody who has even driven past a law school knew he had no case, but that didn’t matter to Rodriguez.</p>

<p>Martin should have told Rodriguez that this whole ordeal was embarrassing the university, and that the case was a lost cause. But Martin’s legacy is in Rodriguez’s hands, so he let his coach do whatever he wanted.</p>

<p>There are only two winners here. One is West Virginia, which will get the $4 million it is rightfully owed. The other is those of us who just wanted the truth.</p>

<p>We now know Rodriguez to be a serial job-shopper. His agent, Mike Brown, had pitched Rodriguez’s services to Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana State in recent years before pursuing Michigan.</p>

<p>We now know Rodriguez doesn’t believe in contracts. He signed an amended contract with West Virginia just four months before he left. He then claimed that the signed contract was not as important as a verbal agreement that preceded it — a laughable legal argument.</p>

<p>Rodriguez said in December that he was battling the buyout because “we have to do what we feel is right.” He meant right for him, not the school.</p>

<p>Michigan is just a name to him. The school is just a platform for winning championships. This is evident in everything Rodriguez does, from his abandonment of a century-old captains tradition to his bristling at the notion that Michigan holds itself to a higher standard.</p>

<p>“The Michigan way is just the right way,” he said in December, before adding that a lot of schools do it the right way.</p>

<p>Rodriguez is an excellent coach. I’m not sold that he is the right coach for Michigan.</p>

<p>He can charm the media, which is nice. But those who have attended his practices say Rodriguez’s staff uses some of the foulest, most degrading language imaginable. I know coaches curse, and I’m no prude, but this goes way beyond a few dirty words. He belittles his players. This is a big part of why offensive lineman Justin Boren left the team. He felt his dignity was at stake.</p>

<p>Of course, a lot of Michigan fans would rather think of Boren as a traitor who couldn’t handle tough coaching. They tell themselves Rodriguez is no different from Bo Schembechler, whose rigorous 1969 practices are part of the program’s legend. And there will always be some people who happily make that comparison, especially if their income comes from Michigan football.</p>

<p>Tell yourself what you want. I find it sad that the University of Michigan is paying a man millions of dollars a year to humiliate some of its students.</p>

<p>When Rodriguez was hired, he and Martin spun the story well: Martin landed a premier coach, and Rodriguez, who loved West Virginia, couldn’t turn down Michigan. The truth is not as simple, or as pretty.</p>

<p>On the night of Dec. 6 — several days after the Les Miles fiasco — Martin told several people he had hired a coach. He thought he had landed Rutgers coach Greg Schiano. But the next day, Schiano turned down the Michigan job, sending Martin scurrying for another plan.</p>

<p>Schiano’s financial adviser, Mike Wilcox, nudged Michigan in the direction of another of his clients: Rich Rodriguez.</p>

<p>Rodriguez wanted a chance to compete for national championships. Martin saw a chance to hire a big name. They were in love with each other’s names — so much so that they failed to do their due diligence.</p>

<p>Martin met with Wilcox before he ever talked to Rodriguez. When Martin finally met Rodriguez at Wilcox’s office in Toledo, he brought Coleman with him.</p>

<p>Martin and Coleman did not go to Toledo to interview Rodriguez. They went there to hire him.</p>

<p>At Rodriguez’s introductory news conference, he was still selling the line that he was in Toledo to meet with his financial adviser. You know, like they were discussing tech stocks and all of a sudden the president and athletic director at Michigan magically appeared in the room.</p>

<p>Rodriguez might win big at Michigan. But if he does, and he demands a big raise every year, or flirts with other employers, or ignores his contracts, or refuses to put the school’s interests ahead of his own, then Michigan fans should not be surprised. As we have seen in the last few months, this is who he is."</p>

<p>Ouch. I recall some folks being unhappy with the Free Press (even though they were right on the Pryor story). No wonder.</p>

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<p>Wow, that guy doesn’t like Rodriguez.</p>

<p>It would stink if it turns out he’s some kind of serial job-seeker and is bad a person as this writer would have you believe. I don’t know. If he felt he was getting a raw deal from WVU, that’s a pretty good reason to be looking hard for another job. So I don’t think that’s an automatic signal that he’s disloyal and wouldn’t stay at a place that fit better. </p>

<p>As for the contract… my husband’s no hotshot coach with a million-dollar contract, so how applicable this is I don’t know, but… we signed his employment contract even though we didn’t agree with some clauses in it. Truly, it seemed wiser to just sign the thing and fight it out later, if it came to that, rather then spend the legal fees and incur rancor over changing something that might never actually come up. I don’t think Rodriguez’ fighting it (temporarily) means the guy has no respect for what his own signature means.</p>

<p>I hope RichRod isn’t a big tool. I’m not taking the freep’s word for it as I make up my mind.</p>

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<p>It’s going to be so fun watching Michigan lose to Utah.</p>

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<p>I know many people expect U-M to have a losing season given all the new variables, but I don’t know anything about Utah. Fun because they’re a good team? Fun because they are a bad team? Fun because you’re hoping U-M has a no-win season?</p>

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<p>Utah’s ok, and I think the above poster hopes U-M has a no-win season :)</p>

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<p>*"Finally, somebody at Michigan was embarrassed enough to settle West Virginia’s lawsuit.</p>

<p>Not Rich Rodriguez. He is way too bullheaded. And not Bill Martin. He was never going to stand up to Rodriguez. </p>

<p>It took Mary Sue Coleman, the school president, to end this mess. Coleman was on the verge of being deposed, and she obviously didn’t want to be dragged into it. Not so coincidentally, Rodriguez finally settled." (Rosenbeg)*</p>

<p>"Hello! Right out of the box we are treated to multiple enormous assumptions, all dubious. We know that Michigan and Rodriguez had an agreement about the buyout from the day Rodriguez was hired, and we know that the deposition Mary Sue Coleman was about to give was about this agreement. Since Rodriguez’s case was (perhaps unwisely) largely based on the validity of a clause he felt was not valid, clear evidence that he acknowledged the validity of the clause and planned ways to pay it equals lawsuit FAIL. Michigan knew they were going to lose and bailed. (Michigan did not pay or plan to pay any portion of Beilein’s buyout, BTW, which appears to be the critical difference between the cases.)</p>

<p>This had absolutely nothing to do with embarrassment. It was about poor legal strategy and a hurried negotiation process that contained slipups…"
Continue to read the rest of the response from MGOBLOG on July 10[mgoblog</a> | Michigan football, basketball, hockey, and general what-have-you](<a href=“http://www.mgoblog.com/]mgoblog”>http://www.mgoblog.com/)</p>

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<p>Utah is an exciting team with a spread offense. College Football prognosticator Phil Steele has them ranked 14th in the nation, while Michigan is unranked. Michigan has trouble with the spread (see opening 2 games last year) and has trouble with the Mountain West Conference. The two times Michigan played MWC teams they lucked out, winning 24-21 over SDSU in 2004 and 10-7 over Utah in 2002. Rodriguez has been 2-8, 1-7-1, and 3-8 in his first season’s where he has been a head coach.</p>

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<p>Stats don’t mean much in football. It’s a whole new team with a whole new coach. They had trouble with the spread but what’s to say that will continue? I’m not saying Michigan is going to be Utah, frankly I don’t know, but I don’t think you can judge based on the team’s or coach’s past performance as they have never been together.</p>

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<p>That’s what makes me even more sure of the loss. No more Hart. No more Henne. No more Manningham. No more Long. No more Arrington. The past Michigan team that may have beat them by 3 is long gone. </p>

<p>"I see you leave out the University of Michigan in your spring rankings. Even with the new coach, the new system and a question mark at QB, you don’t see them as a top 25 team?
– Aaron Wolfgang, Ft. Jackson, S.C.</p>

<p>Isn’t that like saying, “Even with the ongoing mortgage crisis, plunging stock market and $4-a-gallon gas, you don’t see the economy doing well?”</p>

<p>If they haven’t already, I would strongly advise all Michigan fans to significantly lower their usual expectation level this coming season. I saw it for myself this spring, and I’ve talked to fellow writers who visited Ann Arbor as well. All of us came away with the same impression that it’s going to be pretty ugly for the Wolverines in Rich Rodriguez’s first season. (Rodriguez has insinuated as much himself.) They have no quarterback, no offensive linemen, no experienced receivers, and because it’s a completely new system, none of them have any idea what they’re doing out there." - Stewart Mandel, SI.com</p>

<p>This is going to be a GREAT year for College Football!</p>