Oklahoma State releases details of settlement with Sean Sutton

4/7/2008 4:08 PM

By MURRAY EVANS
Associated Press Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -Oklahoma State will pay Sean Sutton $2.7 million over 10 years as part of a settlement reached between the university and the former basketball coach who resigned under pressure last week.

The details of the agreement were released Monday by the university. Oklahoma State will pay Sutton $300,000 immediately and the remaining $2.4 million during the next 10 years at $20,000 per month, starting July 1. Sutton will receive the money even if he accepts another coaching position.

University spokesman Gary Shutt says all of the settlement money will come from athletic department funds and not from state appropriations.

Sutton did not immediately return a message left Monday by The Associated Press on his cell phone. He has not spoken with reporters since last Tuesday, when he was forced out of his job.

As part of the settlement, Sutton agreed ``to make no adverse comments or disparaging remarks to third parties'' about the university or its officials.

Athletic director Mike Holder and university President Burns Hargis signed the settlement agreement on Friday, while Sutton signed it on Sunday. Before it becomes official, it must be approved by the Oklahoma A&M Board of Regents, who will next meet on April 18 in Langston.

Sutton went 39-29 in his two years as the Cowboys' coach. He had three years remaining on a five-year contract that he agreed to when he still was an assistant on his father Eddie's staff.

That contract had called for him to be Oklahoma State's head coach-designate, meaning he would take over when his father left.

It also contained a clause that would have caused Sutton to forfeit any compensation owed him by Oklahoma State should he take another coaching job, but the university agreed to delete that clause as part of the settlement.

``We wanted to recognize the 17 years of service Sean Sutton rendered to the OSU program as a player, assistant coach and head coach,'' Shutt said in a statement. ``We thought Sean's contract negotiated when OSU named him head coach designate was too constraining on him and his family. We wanted to be as fair as possible.''

Eddie Sutton, who was in San Antonio Monday for the NCAA Championship game, told the Austin American-Statesman he is disappointed his son was forced to step down and will consider whether he wants his name removed from the basketball court at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

``That's something I'm going to think about,'' Eddie Sutton told the newspaper.

After transferring from Kentucky, Sutton was a guard on his father's Oklahoma State teams for two years before serving as an assistant for 13 years, a run that included Final Four appearances in 1995 and 2004.

Sutton first served as Oklahoma State's head coach during the final 10 games of the 2005-06 season, when his father took a leave of absence following a drunken-driving crash on his way to the Stillwater airport for a road game. The Cowboys went 4-6 during those games and Sean Sutton became the permanent head coach after Eddie Sutton retired that May.

As part of the settlement, the university agreed to ``make no adverse comments or disparaging remarks to third parties'' about Sean Sutton, while Sutton ``for himself and members of his immediate family, similarly agrees to make no adverse comments or disparaging remarks to third parties'' about the university's board of regents, the university or any officers, employees or agents of the regents or university.

According to the statement, ``It is the intent of the parties to present to the news media and general public a unified decision with respect to the employment relationship, ... Both parties to this agreement will act professionally toward each other when speaking to the news media now and in the future.''