Indiana University Gets Creative in Drafting Coach's Contract

Mark Alesia of the Indianapolis Star reported last week that the contract of newly-hired Indiana University basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson (former Oklahoma basketball coach), contains a provision that permits IU to fire him with no financial obligations if the NCAA "imposes more significant penalties or sanctions than the University of Oklahoma's self-imposed sanctions." Oklahoma's self-imposed sanctions included recruiting restrictions and freezing Sampson's salary at $1.01 million. The NCAA is expected to announce its ruling early next month regarding 550 impermissible phone calls made to Oklahoma recruits from 2000 to 2004. Alesia obtained a copy of Sampson's contract through a public records request.

The contract also contains a provision giving the school the right to fire Sampson without obligation if his assistant coaches or players commit serious or repeated violations of NCAA rules. Last February, Michael McCann discussed on the blog Jim O'Brien's case in which he successfully sued Ohio State for breach of contract because O'Brien's contract with Ohio State did not specify that an NCAA violation could trigger a termination of the contract, and absent that specific language, the judge reasoned that Ohio State could not terminate it. Michael ended his post by stating: "As to the significance of the employment contract's lack of specificity, you can expect...that we'll now be seeing more carefully-tailored deals between colleges and coaches."

Nice prediction Mike....

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