Ohio court case to impact college coaches nationwide

Kent State University won a $1.2 million judgement against Geno Ford, who was accused of breaching his contract when he left Kent State to go coach at Bradley University in Illinois.

A $1.2 million judgement for an Ohio college against its former hoops coach is a wake-up call for colleges and universities to enforce their coaching contracts, a local expert says.

The award came late last week from a Portage County judge in the case of Kent State University and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine against Gene Ford, who was accused of breaching his contract when he left Kent State to go coach at Bradley University in Illinois.

Peter Titlebaum ? a professor and coordinator of the sport management program at the University of Dayton ? told me Wednesday that the ruling means coaches may not be so quick to leave if they know they are going to have to honor their contracts or buyout clauses within those deals.

At the same time it may cause schools on the hunt for new coaches to pause before hiring someone in the midst of a contract.

?It makes it a little clear that somebody is going to be responsible if you break your contract; the question is, who is going to pay for it,? Titlebaum said. ?This is a risk that these schools are taking by poaching other coaches.?

In April 2010, the school and Ford, who goes by Geno Ford, agreed to a new contract extending his employment through the end of the 2014-2015 season that boosted his annual salary to $300,000, making Ford the highest-paid basketball coach in the Mid-American Conference. In March 2011, Ford agreed to become the head basketball coach for Bradley University.

A clause in Ford?s contract said the school would be entitled to damages totaling the balance of Ford?s annual salary due for the remaining amount of his contract term if he left early. With four years left and a $300,000 annual salary that added up to $1.2 million.

E-mail jcogliano@bizjournals.com. Call (937) 528-4424. Twitter.com/joecogDBJ

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bizj_dayton/~3/fDpz9sSZ4PM/ohio-court-case-to-impact-college-coach.html

dominos Michelle Obama Oscars Wissam Al Mana seth macfarlane oscar winners anne hathaway Castel Gandolfo