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Rodriguez Settles Suit With WVU

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A Tribune wire report

Published: July 10, 2008

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

Rodriguez will pay $1.5 million in three annual payments beginning in 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, UM said in a statement Wednesday.

"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."

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

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

A call to attorney Marv Robon, representing Rodriguez, and WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong were not immediately returned. Rodriguez's agent, Mike Brown, declined comment.

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.

As part of the discovery process, a judge had given Rodriguez until the end of Tuesday to reveal whether UM or anyone else had agreed to pay WVU on his behalf. Flaherty said a document was produced, but he could not immediately divulge its contents.

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