Expert Writes about Former Coach and Lawsuit Against Auburn

(What follows is an excerpt from a piece written by Bill Robers of Sparks Willson Borges Brandt & Johnson, P.C.)

Sunny Golloway, former head baseball coach at Auburn University (Auburn), has sued the university’s Board of Trustees and a number of athletics department personnel for breach of contract and other claims related to his firing from Auburn after just two seasons.

Golloway, who is being represented by Birmingham attorney John D. Saxon, claims that he was fired “without cause” by Auburn, entitling him to a buyout of $1,000,000. Auburn did not make such a payment, however, after claiming his firing was “for cause” pursuant to his contract.

Golloway alleges that he and the university executed a written contract on June 14, 2013, which was to expire on June 30, 2019. He also claims to have had a “permanent employment” contract when the Auburn Athletic Director, Jay Jacobs, allegedly verbally agreed to hire Golloway for “as many [years] as you want.”

Auburn alleged that it terminated Golloway for cause, specifically for eleven various breaches of the contract and NCAA rules, including encouraging participation by student-athletes who had not been medically cleared, deleting video of such offense, permitting an all-star game at a baseball camp that was not open to all campers, endangering the health and safety of campers by failing to remove them from the playing field after confirmed lightning strikes in the area, exceeding the number of permissible coaches by allowing a non-coaching staff volunteer to participate in coaching activities, and misleading the administration about NCAA violations and failing to report such violations.

Golloway claims (for the entire story, visit www.sportslitigationalert.com)