Like It Is

Bielema, foundation both think they're right

Bret Bielema is shown in this file photo. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Tuesday's column stated the disagreement continues between the Razorback Foundation and Bret Bielema.

That was an understatement.

Bielema and his attorneys on Friday filed a lawsuit against the foundation asking for $7.05 million, basically what was left on his buyout agreement, as well as punitive damages, attorneys fees and court costs.

Bielema was fired at the end of the 2017 season, but an incredibly lucrative buyout given to him by former athletic director Jeff Long meant Bielema was owed more than $11 million.

The first $4,555,833.29 was paid.

Then foundation President Scott Varady reviewed the year and decided Bielema had breached the agreement by not actively seeking another coaching job. He consulted his own board, then quit paying the buyout.

Bielema had become a "consultant" to Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots.

That year was referred to in this column as volunteering, which the lawsuit took exception to. But in my opinion if you go from making more than $3 million a year coaching football to making five figures for consulting, then you are generously donating your time.

Bielema played along with Long's ridiculous guidelines to keep his buyout paying out.

Now Bielema is ready to fight, and he's put together a five-star team of attorneys in Tom Mars; R. Craig Wood and Benjamin P. Abel of Charlottesville, Va.; John C. Everett of Farmington; John E. Tull of Little Rock; and Ryan K. Culpepper of Hot Springs.

Representing the foundation is Marshall Ney, one of Arkansas' great legal minds, from Friday, Eldredge and Clark in Rogers.

The lawsuit is about 60 pages of stuff only an attorney would enjoy reading.

There's a lot of disagreement. The foundation thinks it is right, and Bielema knows he is.

None of it is personal, though. This is business.

The foundation had to expect there would be a lawsuit. It may be asked to open its books wider than it is comfortable doing.

Bielema's lawyers will want to prove the foundation can afford the $7 million and whatever princely sum the his attorneys charge.

Bielema is a good guy, he just never adjusted to SEC football. It is great to have the biggest offensive line in the country, but the need is for speed in the SEC.

He got lucky after his second year when he beat a not-very-good Texas team in a second-tier bowl, and Long started throwing money and a crazy buyout agreement at him.

For his 29-34 record at Arkansas, he was paid more than $12 million.

Bielema is now the defensive line coach for the New York Giants, and he is scheduled to make $400,000 a year. If he had done that from the start, we wouldn't be having this lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims current Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek is encouraging the foundation not to pay, but Bielema was fired before Yurachek was hired at Arkansas.

The lawsuit also claims yours truly had unauthorized documents and quoted them correctly in a column.

What happens now is Ney will respond for the foundation, which will take some time. Then the case will get bogged down in an already overworked judicial system that has been hampered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Perhaps Mars and Ney, who know each other, will sit down in the future to discuss a settlement. It will start with Bielema getting to keep the more than $4 million he already has been paid.

Or it could end up in a jury trial in federal court in Arkansas.