Former UConn head coach and player Kevin Ollie, who was wrongfully terminated in 2018, was awarded a settlement in January 2022 of about $11.2 million after nearly four years of legal battles.
According to the Boston Globe, “Arbitrator Mark Irvings ruled last month that Ollie had been fired improperly under the school’s agreement with the American Association of University Professors, of which Ollie was a member. He noted the school had past NCAA violations in the men’s and women’s programs without going as far as firing the coaches. The school was ordered to pay Ollie $11,157,032.95.”
That amount was the remaining balance owed on his contract upon wrongful termination. It was ruled that UConn “violated the collective bargaining agreement when it terminated Ollie without just cause.”
UConn said that while it continues to disagree with the ruling, it believes it is in the school’s best interest to move on and take no further legal action, and this week it paid Ollie.
An elated Ollie, who played four years at Connecticut before embarking on a 17-year NBA career, addressed the ruling.
Ollie went (127-79) in six years, leading the program to its fourth national championship in his second season (2014). UConn felt that it had “just cause” to terminate Ollie, but the underlying thought is that the school took that route, hoping to avoid having to pay the $10 million buyout of his contract which had been extended until 2021.
UConn had concluded Ollie committed various NCAA infractions before firing him on March 10, 2018 and hiring Danny Hurley. The program has gone on a complete downhill trajectory since Ollie’s dismissal.
In fact, his recruits “are still carrying the program”
Read full story at The Shadow League here.
