Rodriguez & WVU Settle on $4M
Isn't that the full amount?
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080709/SPORTS06/80709…Update: Another link with a bit more detail...
http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/07/rich_rodriguez_agrees_to_pay…Not much info in either article. I'll wait and wonder until a full report comes out.
Let's hope his position coaches are better than his lawyers. I was expecting something like $2 million.
Well he really couldn't go through a trial this fall. I'd bet BM kicked in a goof portion of it and said here- get it over with.
A Goof portion? Gwarsh, 4million sure sounds like a lot, ahyuk!
Ok, so this is a cheap and unfunny exploitation of an easy to make typo involving two adjacent keys. Alas, I could not resist. Will go self-flagellate now like the guy in Scarlet Letter who boned Demi Moore (in the movie version).
No case ever settles for the full amount demanded unless there's a really good reason for it. Settlements are negotiations, and the sides meet in the middle unless something else goes wrong. Possibilities:
1. Some smoking gun came out in a deposition that completely sinks Rod's argument that WVU was the first to breach the contract by not fulfilling its promises (I think this was a weak argrument to begin with; such promises probably weren't things that could be completely fulfilled within a year).
2. Some smoking gun was going to come out in either the Bill Martin or Mary Sue Coleman depositions, which would have made either Rod or U-M look really bad (this might have opened the possibility that U-M might be paying all/part of the $4 million, which isn't that big a deal if it's not a lump sum and since most employers would've paid a new employee's buyout anyway).
3. Rod's lawyers finally convinced him that his case was a loser, and he ought to settle before he ended up owing a million bucks in legal fees as well.
As, J.W. Wells Co. mentions above, this is a "settlement" in name only. That is, WVU had filed a lawsuit against RichRod for the buyout amount, and now that RichRod has agreed to pay the full amount a "settlement agreement" will be signed that says "I give you $4 million in consideration for you agreeing to drop the lawsuit against me." So, even though the result is the same as had RichRod just paid the $4 million to begin with, I guess it is still technically a settlement because it results in the end of the now pending lawsuit. Talk about a lot of wasted energy on something that is now a non-issue.
If he is able to spread the payments over several years (say 5 or 10), it is a material reduction in the net present value of the claim.
I'm just happy that this bullshit is over. I just wanted Rod to pay it off in the beginning and end all of the B.S. and non-stop whining from WV fans. Now we can focus on football and starting winning MNCs.
While none of us knows what the terms of this deal are and thus this is all speculation, I am willing to bet that West Virginia will be charging interest on the money that it is now owed, probably at least enough to make up for the whole NPV "Would you rather take a dollar today" issue.
I'm guessing there will probably be no interest on the installment payments, unless they are made late. The value of WVU's claim was $4million on paper, but the actual value was $4million minus WVU's attorney fees. By settling now, WVU doesn't have to pay attorneys to try the case. So even if there's no interest on the payments spread out over 5-10 years, it all comes out the same as far as the money WVU would've received.
J.W.-Upon reading your post and re-reading the Freep article, I think you're right and I was wrong about the interest thing.
Also, the part in the article about how-- "As part of the discovery process, a judge had given Rodriguez until the end of Tuesday to reveal whether the University of Michigan or anyone else had agreed to pay WVU on his behalf" pretty well points to the obvious reason for why this happened now.
RichRod pays with PENNIES!
Huge barrels at the Big House: a "Coppers for Coalminers" or some other slogan.
RichRod better be good; 'cause he's going to be here for awhile...
The fact that U of M is paying some large portion of the buyout may be the reason that the buyout in his current contract is the same. They don't want to pay a big chuck of his current buyout, only to have him bolt again without adequately reimbursing at least the original buyout.
@Tokyo:
Well played on the Goofy thing. Had me cracking up.
BM:
We are tremendously pleased to have been able to hire Rich Rodriguez as head coach of the University of Michigan football team. With his enthusiasm, integrity, and creative strategies he has already begun to make his mark on the program, and we are looking forward with great excitement to the coming season. 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.
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. Accordingly, Rich has agreed to pay $1.5 million out of his own pocket in three annual payments of $500,000 beginning in January, 2010. U-M Athletics will contribute $2.5 million in a single payment made by the end of July, 2008, for the total of $4 million that WVU sought. Separately, Athletics has agreed to pay Rich's attorney fees. A financially self-sustaining unit at U-M, Athletics will cover all payments from its reserve funds, which are annual operational surpluses from such sources as sponsorships, licenses, and media rights payments.
This situation is now resolved, and we are ready to move onward to a new era of Michigan football. Go Blue!
http://www.mgoblue.com/football/article.aspx?id=141160
Check this thread out on Sporting news.
the delusion is palpable:
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=432554