Wednesday, July 9, 2008

RR and Michigan pays the $4 Large

In a unique turn of events, the AP is reporting that RR has reached an agreement with WVU to pay the $4 Million buyout of his contract with West Virgina. West Virgina's attorney said an agreement was reached late Tuesday night.

At this point there are allot of unanswered questions, like:

  • What was negotiated Tuesday night?
  • Does he pay the $4 M over the next 20 years?
  • Why pay now? It seemed from the outside that the trial was going well and that most of the WVU staff were found to be less then honest and had lost their jobs for other transgressions.
  • Did he just want to be done with this? Maybe he didn't want it to be a distraction for the season and camp should start in a couple of weeks.
  • Will he use "Sailboat Bill" bank (Ann Arbor Bank) to finance the Buyout?
  • What will WVU do with the money? Will they name a building after Rich at WVU? Maybe the Barwis Training Center?
  • WVU is getting over $6 Million from Michigan's basketball and football head coaches. At least let us have Pat White for one season! That seems fair to me.

Update:

Flaherty (WVU's attorney) said he would reveal additional details about the settlement, including the period for repayment, after the deal is approved by the board. However, he said the payment would not be made in a lump sum.

Adding pressure to Rodriguez was a lawsuit WVU filed in a Michigan court last week, asking a judge to order Michigan athletic director Bill Martin and President Mary Sue Coleman to testify in depositions. A hearing on that request had been set for Wednesday afternoon.

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

In my opinion, Rich didn't want to bring his boss and his bosses boss into his lawsuit and wanted it settled right away.

Update #2 Per the Freep:

Rodriguez is expected to pay $1.5 million spread over three years, beginning in 2010. U-M is expected to pay the balance of the sum, $2.5 million, immediately and cover Rodriguez’s legal fees later, two people with knowledge of the agreement told the Free Press this morning.

Now it looks like Michigan asked RR to do the lawsuit to see if they could get the number whittled down since they were on the hook for the majority of the buyout.

When it says Michigan is expected to pay $2.5 maybe it's really Bill Davidson, Pistons owner paying it (pure speculation by the BHB). Either way, it's Done and Done. Now it's time to focus on Utah. Play on boys!

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