Jim O'Brien wins suti....

[Ohio_Fireman]

By RUSTY MILLER, AP Sports Writer



COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio State must pay former basketball coach Jim O'Brien about $2.2 million plus interest for wrongly firing him for giving a recruit $6,000, a judge ruled Tuesday

The award in the Ohio Court of Claims ends two years of controversy at Ohio State, which was handed NCAA sanctions for the money given to the recruit in addition to losing the lawsuit brought by O'Brien.

[Nate]

Not surprising.  The wording in his contract said he could only be fired if he was guilty of an NCAA infraction.  At the time they fired him he wasn't guilty.  They had to wait to fire him.  

I think it's crap but OSU gave him the contract with that verbiage so now they have to pay the money.

I hope O'Brien never coaches again.  He definitely wasn't the guy I thought he was.

[Ohio_Fireman]

so what ur saying nate is that bad timing cost OSU 2.2 Mil! geesh!

[Nate]

From what I understand OSU breached the contract because they terminated him because of his actions.  However at the time they terminted him it was against the contract language.  

Not necessarily bad timing.  Bad contract language.  They had every right to fire him.  But they didn't have the right under the contract not to pay him under the circumstances under which they fired him.

Make sense?

[Nate]

And the latest........

O’Brien awarded interest on top of $2.25 million

[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]A court awarded former OSU basketball coach Jim O'Brien $241,353 in interest today in his lawsuit against the university.

Judge Joseph T. Clark of the Ohio Court of Claims had already awarded the fired coach $2,253,619.45, saying Ohio State breached its contract with O'Brien and did not have sufficient reasons to fire the coach on June 8, 2004.

The decision today — minus $35,609 in bonuses O'Brien already received for winning Big 10 co-championships in 2000 and 2002 — increases O'Brien's final award to $2,459,388.83.

The former coach also received $25 back for filing the lawsuit, but court officials said no attorneys fees were granted.

“The court normally does not award attorneys fees,'' said Myles Durfey, the clerk of the court. “This is the end of the case for us.''

Ohio State officials have said the university will appeal to the Franklin County Court of Appeals.

Then Athletics Director Andy Geiger fired O'Brien after learning he had loaned the mother of a potential recruit $6,000. O'Brien sued for breach of contract.

In his original decision on Aug. 2, Clark agreed with OSU that the loan was improper, but called it a “single, isolated incident,'' not a material breach of the coach's contract with the university.[/quote]

Link

Hopefully now it's over and O'Brien can go away and stay away.