UConn’s ugly breakup with Kevin Ollie took another twist this week as Ollie and his attorneys sent a letter to school president Susan Herbst demanding that the school issue a retraction regarding damaging documents that were released last week while threatening to sue the university for defamation and invasion of privacy.
That letter was in response to documents that were released to local papers as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request. Those documents included UConn’s internal investigation into violations that were committed by Ollie during his UConn tenure, and those violations -- which included Ollie shooting around with a recruit during an official visit and trips that were paid for for players on his roster to fly to Atlanta to workout with a trainer -- were used as justification to fire Ollie with cause.
And that is the root of the issue here.
Ollie was fired by UConn with cause, meaning that he did not receive the $10.5 million that he was owed for the final three years of his contract.
Also mentioned in the documents were two more alarming allegations: That Ollie had ensured a recruit’s mother was paid $30,000 to be able to move closer to campus, and that he had fired his agent after the agent refused to help pay to funnel players to UConn.
“UConn released the documents in direct response to a Freedom of Information request by Mr. Ollie’s own attorneys,” the school said in a statement released to ESPN. “Other parties, including the media, also requested and received these same documents as required by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in Connecticut. The FOIA, which governs public agencies such as the University, does not permit the selective release of public records to certain parties while denying those same records to others.”
