The Oklahoman, USA Today sue University of Oklahoma over coach payment records
The Oklahoman and USA TODAY have sued the University of Oklahoma over its refusal to provide records of contracts and payouts for several athletic coaches.
The lawsuit, which was filed this month in Cleveland County court, accuses the university of violating the state’s Open Records Act.
The Oklahoman and USA TODAY, which are both owned by Gannett Co. Inc, sought contract terms and payment records for several athletic coaches, including men’s basketball head coach Porter Moser, and multiple football and basketball assistant coaches.
The records request also sought info on payments made to other universities in order to buy out coaching contracts. Records obtained from other universities showed OU paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy multiple coaches out of their former contracts.
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The university denied having contracts or other records related to many coaches, “even though they are some of the State of Oklahoma’s highest-paid public employees,” the lawsuit claims.
In September, The Oklahoman reported that OU received more than $6 million from USC to cover contract buyouts after Lincoln Riley and several members of his football coaching staff departed last year.
The payment information, which covers six former Sooners coaches, was obtained from an open-records request by The Oklahoman and USA Today.
The biggest payout, unsurprisingly, was $4.5 million to cover the contract buyout of Riley, who left Nov. 28, 2021, to take the Trojans’ head coaching job.
The University of Oklahoma did not immediately response to a request for comment on the records requests or lawsuit.
Some of the records requests date back to May 14, 2021. The most recent request was made on June 15, 2022.
The Oklahoma Open Records Act allows the public to request most types of records and documents from a government entity, including a public university.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: The Oklahoman, USA Today sue OU over coach payment records
