Amid the ongoing debate that is the transfer portal within college football, one of the common refrains is, "Why is it a problem when players leave their teams for more money when coaches have been doing the same thing for decades?" The retort to that is that coaches can't just up and leave with no recourse, they have buyouts that are actually enforceable. Admittedly, the school that hired the coach away ends up paying the buyout on their new employee's behalf in the majority of cases, but there are times where a coach has to buy his way out of his own contract.
Like Carlos Locklyn.
According to The Oregonian, Oregon is suing its former running backs for $400,000, which the school claims is the buyout owed according to his contract.
Locklyn's agent claimed that his contract dictated a $200,000 buyout, which is the amount that his Ohio State contract set forth to get him out of his Oregon deal. Locklyn mailed a $200,000 personal check to Oregon last May, but the school returned the check in July, claiming it would not accept partial payments.
Oregon says Locklyn's contract dictated he pay 50 percent of his remaining salary through the full term of his contract, and that payment would be due within 60 days. With more than a full year now passed since Locklyn's departure, Oregon now says it's owed $400,000 plus 9 percent interest.
“Coach Locklyn lawfully terminated his employment agreement with the University of Oregon and promptly delivered a check fully satisfying any possible obligation under the buy-out provision,” Locklyn's attory John Berg told the paper. “The University declined the check, and now asserts an untenable interpretation of the agreement. We welcome the opportunity to present the facts to a judge and are confident the litigation will be resolved to Coach Locklyn’s satisfaction.”
In his first season at Ohio State, Locklyn made $650,000 in salary and $227,500 in bonuses on Ohio State's march to the national title.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.