Houston Nutt files breach of contract lawsuit against Ole Miss
By Zach Bigalke
What is the suit specifically claiming?
- Breach of contract
- Breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing
Houston Nutt and Ole Miss signed a severance agreement on November 26, 2011. That agreement ending his time as the Rebels head coach. The section most relevant to the current lawsuit is Section 8. That section of the agreement prohibits Ole Miss from saying anything about Nutt “that may damage or harm his reputation as a football coach.”
As is filed later in the lawsuit, the school and its employees and representatives were “contractually prohibited from making any statement whatsoever, truthful or not, that may damage or harm Coach Nutt’s reputation.” The suit alleges that Ole Miss flouted this clause in order to downplay culpability in the ongoing NCAA investigation of the school.
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How did Ole Miss allegedly breach the severance agreement?
The lawsuit lists dozens of specific allegations against many prominent Ole Miss figures. Featured among those individuals are athletic director Ross Bjork, school chancellor Jeffrey Vitter, and current head coach Hugh Freeze. The suit claims that the school knowingly spread false information about the NCAA’s notice of allegations.
It alleges the false information was spread in a variety of ways. Recruits were told that the NCAA investigation regarded only past misconduct. Ole Miss worked to focus the media narrative around the investigation on Nutt. This occurred even as the NCAA’s notice exonerated Nutt of guilt in many of the alleged cases. The suit offers multiple cases where Ole Miss press releases and interviews explicitly directed this narrative.