The battle lines have been drawn in the sand between Ole Miss and former head coach Houston Nutt after Nutt filed a lawsuit against the university after not receiving an apology. Nutt will still accept that apology and agree to a settlement with Ole Miss, should the school choose to go that route, according to a report from Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com.
“The settlement proposal we presented to Ole Miss is focused on the apology Houston Nutt has consistently asked for and fully deserves,” Nutt’s attorney Thomas Mars said to ESPN. “After all, there’s no longer any doubt about what happened here.”
According to the ESPN report, part of the proposed settlement would see Nutt donate $500,000 to establish a state commission on sports ethics in Mississippi.
As we have previously covered in this ongoing dispute between the Rebels and Nutt, it looks like this lawsuit could have easily been avoided by Ole Miss if the university just would have apologized to Nutt for what he believed to be a defamation of character due to how the university portrayed Nutt following the release of the Notice of Allegations last year. Nutt issued his warning that he would proceed with a lawsuit if Ole Miss did not comply with his demand for an apology, and he followed through on his threat last month, which ultimately led to the removal of Hugh Freeze as the head coach of the football program shortly after SEC Media Days.
Nutt believes officials from Ole Miss have spread word in conversations with media members suggesting Nutt’s actions were to blame for Ole Miss’ NCAA issues. Those comments would have been in violation of the typical NCAA investigation process, as comments about ongoing investigations are not typically allowed while the process is ongoing.
If Ole Miss does not agree to apologize to Nutt, this legal squabble will drag on. Nutt is giving Ole Miss a chance to pack it up and move on, but whether the school has a vested interest in doing so remains to be seen.