And UD does, she does dive below – way, way below, as must all writers who follow University of Tennessee basketball.
In finding Bruce Pearl, their latest coach, UD has had to dip substantially below what she thought was the bottom of the barrel, UT-sportswise, but it turns out there is no bottom of the barrel.
Having fired Pearl, UT will now reward him with one million dollars. From a comment thread:
[C]ommit minor violations but lie to investigators and cause them to become major violations; subject the school to be the butt of jokes; lose signees, commit additional violations while under investigation; put UT basketball in a terrible position regarding recruiting, scholarships, attendance, etc., for years to come, and get paid a million dollars.
March 23rd, 2011 at 9:36AM
I notice there was no contract involved. Pretty irresponsible to hire someone for a type of job which often leads to expensive payouts *without* putting a contract in place to define and limit liabilities. If the university had shareholders, they should be considering a lawsuit against it for violation of fiduciary responsibility.
Also, some labor attorney was quoted as justifying the payout in preference to litigation. Actually, I think organizations that develop a reputation for fighting unreasonable claims rather than settling them tend to get a lot less of same in future.
March 24th, 2011 at 7:24AM
The megabuck buy-outs may be partially to ensure an ex-coach’s …discretion. Many coaches from big-name, sleazeball programs could, paired with a ghostwriter, regale the public with stories naming names of Mr. Magoo administrators, wealthy boosters with a propensity to lose envelopes of cash, jock-sniffing faculty enablers, etc. The Mafia may have abandoned omerta, but it is alive and well in other quarters.