Haskins Agrees to $1.5-Million Buyout

Clem Haskins agreed Friday to a $1.5-million buyout of his contract with Minnesota, even though university investigators have found no evidence implicating the basketball coach in an academic fraud scandal.

University President Mark Yudof said it is “extremely likely” that fraud did occur and said a change was necessary to restore confidence in the university.

Haskins will step down June 30, three years before his contract was to expire. He compiled a 240-165 record in 13 seasons, including a trip to the NCAA tournament Final Four in 1997.

Haskins has been under pressure since March, when former tutor Jan Gangelhoff said she did more than 400 pieces of course work for at least 20 basketball players from 1993 to 1998.

Haskins asserted his innocence when the scandal broke on the eve of the Gophers’ first-round NCAA game against Gonzaga. Four players were made ineligible for that game, which Minnesota lost.

He has maintained since then that he had no knowledge of wrongdoing. Phone calls to his suburban Minneapolis house Friday afternoon went unanswered.

Jim Lord, a lawyer for several people who have alleged wrongdoing in Minnesota athletics, called the buyout “bad public policy” without considering a challenge to Haskins’ contract.

“He orchestrated the scandal and in return they stuffed his pocket so full of money he has to waddle out of Williams Arena,” Lord said.

State Sen. John Marty also said he was disappointed at the buyout.

“If someone’s innocent of wrongdoing don’t get rid of them, period,” Marty said. “But if they did something wrong, paying a million and a half bucks to push him out of the way is really unfortunate. It sends a bad signal.”