A college football coach, who was fired last year for violating NCAA rules, has sued his former employer, after the NCAA found that he did not violate its rules.
Billy Joe had coached at Florida A&M University for 11 years, accumulating an 86-46-0 record when FAMU fired him on June 14.
“We truly regret having to make this move today,” FAMU Interim Athletic Director E. Newton Jackson, Ph.D said at the time. “Coach Joe and his staff have given many years of quality service to the football program and the university.
“However, rules compliance must be paramount in any program, and given the fact that we are under intense NCAA scrutiny at this time, we felt it necessary to address any program concerns in an expeditious manner to protect the integrity of the institution and the athletic program.”
Joe, in a suit filed in Leon County Circuit Court, claimed that his dismissal constituted a breach of his contract. Specifically, he argued that “even if this were just an honest mistake, it appears that FAMU falsely accused (me) of such wrongdoing to deflect the NCAA’s attention from FAMU’s own wrongdoing.”
Joe is seeking at least $270,000, or the amount he says was remaining on his contract when he was terminated.
One of his attorneys, Mark E. Walker of Pelham, Andrews & Walker, told the Tallahassee Democrat that the university “clearly has no intention of honoring the contract or negotiating with Coach Joe. That is why we had to file the lawsuit. … Coach Joe has tried everything to amicably resolve this and keep it out of the courtroom.”
Walker appears to have strong evidence of Joe’s innocence at his disposal, thanks to the NCAA. In its press release, the association noted that “an allegation against the former head football coach was not found by the committee. The committee determined that there was insufficient evidence presented at the hearing to support a finding.”
Further, Joe received an overnight letter dated Jan. 31, 2006, from Gene Marsh, the chair of the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions, which stated: “The committee did not name you in any findings of violations or impose any penalties against you. Your name will not be included in our list of individual record files.”
Interestingly, Marsh’s full-time job is as a professor of law at the University of Alabama, meaning he has had a ringside seat to the allegations made by former UA football assistants, who have claimed, among other things, the NCAA unfairly damaged their reputation as coaches
The 65-year-old Joe has said he would like to coach again.
“’I’m hopeful that a representative of FAMU will apologize and make this situation right . . . and make my contract right so that we can move forward.”
