Alcorn State University football coach Ernest Jones sued ASU’s president and AD as well as the Mississippi Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning last month, claiming that the defendants “refused to incorporate the terms and conditions” set forth in the contract that he signed when he was hired on Dec. 11, 2007.
Jones specifically named ASU President George Ross, ASU Athletic Director Darren Hamilton, and the Mississippi Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning as defendants in the lawsuit. He is seeking $1.5 million in actual damages and another $1.5 million in damages “suffered as a result of his detrimental reliance upon the false promises” of the defendants.
Jones’ team struggled this year, going 2-10, including a 26-21 season-ending loss to Jackson State in the Capital City Classic Nov. 22.
In response to that loss, Hamilton notified seven of Jones’ assistants, the day before Thanksgiving, that the school was not going to renew their one-year contracts.
Jones responded to Hamilton’s decision by hiring Attorney Ricky Leftt of Columbia, S.C. and Wayne Ferrell of Jackson, Miss. and seeking a temporary restraining order that would reinstate the coaches.
The coaches were reinstated on December 8, the same day Hamilton sent a letter to Jones notifying him that his contract had been terminated.
In Jones’ lawsuit, he alleges that the defendants “refused to incorporate the terms and conditions” set forth in his contract. Jones cited as an example the administration refusal to allow him additional earnings through a contract he had with New Balance shoes. He also claimed that funds from a non-conference football game at New Mexico State University earlier this season were supposed to go toward a new team weight room, but were diverted elsewhere.
Ross countered in the media, however, that Jones still has a job. “There has been no definitive action taken against Ernest Jones. Please understand no one has been fired yet. I have full faith and confidence in the athletic program at Alcorn State University.”
Lefft said Ross’s statement is based on a technicality.
“What he’s hanging his hat on is, there’s a procedural process with the (Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning),” Leftt said. “They word it as a recommendation because they simply have to go through this process. If they decide internally through the appeals process that he can be terminated on that basis, he’s terminated.”
