Posted July 9

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez agreed to pay a $4 million buyout clause and settle a lawsuit that West Virginia University filed after he broke his contract there in December.
A statement released by Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin outlined the payment plan. Rodriguez will pay $1.5 million to West Virginia in three annual payments of $500,000 beginning in January 2010. The Athletic Department will pay $2.5 million in a single payment made by the end of July 2008 and will pay Rodriguez's attorney fees.

"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," Martin said in a statement released by the Athletic Department. "This situation is now resolved, and we are ready to move onward to a new era of Michigan football."

"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."

The tentative agreement, which University attorney Tom Flaherty expects will be approved by the WVU Board of Governors later Wednesday, would end a case that had been set for trial this fall. It also may end a bitter public feud.

"It's a case that should have settled a long time ago and could have settled a long time ago. It's in the best interest of everyone to resolve it," Flaherty said.

In May, Rodriguez spoke about his conviction in continuing to fight the lawsuit, calling it a matter of right and wrong.

"Not only did it affect me, lie about me, but lie about guys on my staff," Rodriguez said. "And I do take it very personally when someone tries to ruin the reputation of my staff and myself. It's not right, particularly when he's lying. That will be the case from now until the day I'm no longer sitting on this good earth."

A call to Ohio attorney Marv Robon, who is representing Rodriguez, was not immediately returned.

Rodriguez left 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.

Flaherty said he would reveal additional details about the settlement, including the period for repayment, after the deal is approved by the board. However, he said the payment would not be made in a lump sum.

The settlement was reached on what had been a key deadline in the case. 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.

Flaherty said a document was produced, but he could not immediately divulge its contents.

Adding pressure to Rodriguez was a lawsuit WVU filed in a Michigan court last week, asking a judge to order Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin and University President Mary Sue Coleman to testify in depositions. A hearing on that request had been set for Wednesday afternoon.

WVU also recently got an Ohio court to issue a subpoena for testimony and records from Mike Wilcox, Rodriguez's financial adviser.

The Rodriguez camp approached the University with a "significant and serious offer" within the past few days, and WVU responded with a counter-proposal Tuesday, Flaherty said. That set off a series of meetings with a court-appointed mediator, Frank Fragale.

"Mike Garrison and the people at Stewart Hall worked tirelessly - under the very, very difficult circumstances that he's in - to get this done," Flaherty said. "They also, in my opinion, did everything they could to keep Mr. Rodriguez here."

Garrison is stepping down as WVU's president Sept. 1 due to an unrelated scandal involving a master's degree the university wrongly awarded to the governor's daughter last fall.

The $4 million liquidated damages clause was suggested by an attorney on the WVU Board of Governors in December 2006, after Rodriguez turned down an offer from the University of Alabama.

It was double the amount of the previous contract, but a number attorney Steve Farmer said he believed would protect WVU from lost marketing, merchandising and other opportunities if Rodriguez left early.

Though Rodriguez initially balked, he ultimately signed a contract with that figure in August 2007. He then resigned Dec. 16, taking recruits and assistant coaches with him, and leaving the Mountaineers just before the Fiesta Bowl game against the University of Oklahoma.