MEN'S BASKETBALL: What happens next?
Contract could force Thompson to pay university $175,000
Ryan Wood
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"Ronny resigned [Thursday] and the terms of the contract will be honored" Collins said. "We owe him [money] for his vacation time, and then he's got a provision in his contract where I believe he owes the university some money back."
In his only season, Thompson led the Cardinals to a 9-22 record. Thompson's coaching staff also committed the same NCAA secondary violation two times in a one-year period.
According to Thompson's contract, he could legally terminate his employment after April 1, 2007 by giving 30 days notice and sending the athletics department his future employment plans in writing. It is uncertain whether Thompson followed through on that. The Daily News has turned in Freedom of Information Request forms to the Office of University Compliance in attempts to attain Thompson's resignation letter.
According to his contract, Thompson will owe the university the "amount equal to his annual base salary for the contract year in which such termination occurs." Thompson's base salary was $175,000 in his first year, which ran from April 4, 2006 to March 31, 2007. Thompson would have made $181,000 in his second season at Ball State.
The university and Thompson have not yet discussed the financial situation, but Associate Vice President for Marketing and Communication Tony Proudfoot said those discussions will begin soon.
"The provision is there; there will be no buyout," Proudfoot said. "The university will sit down in the near future to discuss the financial situation."
There is another provision in Thompson's contract that could potentially complicate matters. Section 17 of the contract is a Force Majeure clause, stating he may leave the university if any cause of "hostilities" beyond Thompson's control is brought against him or his program.
Anonymous notes containing racial slurs were found in the men's basketball offices June 24 and could classify as a hostility. However, attorney Jerry Drook, from Marion, said he doesn't believe that situation would qualify.
"Force Majeure is saying you're not bound to the contract due to things beyond your control," Drook said. "It comes from a force greater than what we anticipated. For a human act to be Force Majeure, it would have to be something like a racial riot, like what they had in L.A. with the Rodney King situation. But this would not be it."
Viewing Comments 1 - 9 of 13
BSU senior
posted 7/16/07 @ 8:56 AM EST
this all still sounds very fishy.
Mark
posted 7/16/07 @ 7:04 PM EST
Anyone taking bets that he planted those notes himself with that contract clause in mind? You heard it here first... The evidence that the notes were planted by someone employed by the university are overwhelming, not to mention the large amount of evidence pointing to someone who is employed by the athletics department with an intricate knowledge of the basketball schedule. (Continued…)
Ken Kristiansen
posted 7/16/07 @ 10:30 PM EST
I agree with Mark. I think the notes were planted by Ronny Thompson. If you remember/heard, his father did a similar trick in 1985, when he coached the first all-Black starting lineup in college major college basketball history at Georgetown. (Continued…)
tom
posted 7/18/07 @ 1:47 AM EST
To say the Thompson basketball family is not related to racism would be just plain stupid. John Thompson is a bigot, flat out. I don't even need to go into all the details of his career at Georgetown. (Continued…)
Anonymous
posted 7/18/07 @ 8:11 AM EST
The hell of it is, we can't verify whether he planted the notes or not because he ran and hid like a coward instead of taking his resignation like a man. (Continued…)
Anonymous 2
posted 7/18/07 @ 3:10 PM EST
Run Ronnie Run...Run fast to daddy "daddy fix it, daddy fix it."
This ass-clown is nothing more than a charlatan riding on his dad's coat tails. Let us recognize Ronnie as "Whiny Ronnie" for his constant bitching about everything. (Continued…)
butch
posted 7/18/07 @ 4:48 PM EST
What a mess. I feel sorry for whoever comes into this place. The 1st person to be let go should be collins. They should have given dick falls the A D position and maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. (Continued…)
Steve
posted 8/08/07 @ 10:56 AM EST
Someone please show me the evidence that John Thompson Jr. hung that bedsheet in 1975 when it occurred just before tipoff and he was on the bench. No one knows who did it, but even hiring somebody else to do it seems impossibly unlikely. (Continued…)
Mike Lee
posted 8/17/07 @ 5:12 PM EST
I guess Ken Kristiansen doesn't know much about college basketball history. John Thompson did not coach the first all black starting line up in major college basketball history. (Continued…)
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