Former Baylor coach Art Briles reached a settlement agreement with the university on Friday, according to NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt, just a day after Briles' attorney filed a motion that included a claim of wrongful termination.
Briles was removed as head coach following a report from the law firm of Pepper Hamilton that the school's administration, athletic department, and coaching staff shared in failing to properly respond to allegations of sexual assault by players. He's been replaced by coach Jim Grobe.
On Thursday, Briles requested new counsel in a federal Title IX lawsuit brought by a Baylor sexual assault victim which named Briles and the school as co-defendants. In the motion filing, Briles' attorney Ernest Cannon questioned the motives of Baylor attorneys in their previous discussions with Briles.
"The conclusion is inescapable that the motive of Baylor and the Board of Regents was to use its head football coach and the Baylor athletic department as a camouflage to disguise and distract from its own institutional failure to comply," Cannon wrote.
Briles' attorneys withdrew the motion for new counsel, according to ESPN's Mark Schlabach.
Longtime Baylor regent Clifton Robinson told the Waco Tribune, "the Briles era is over. Robinson said he was informed that Briles had come to a settlement with Baylor, but does not know the terms of the deal.
"I was thrilled when I heard that," Robinson said. "I think it's a very positive thing for Baylor University to put this behind us and move forward."
The Pepper Hamilton report has not been released in full, but the school's release on the report began a series of actions that included the removal of school president Ken Starr, probation for athletic director Ian McCaw, and a parting with Briles the school initially described as "suspended indefinitely with intent to terminate."
On the same day Grobe was named interim coach, May 30, McCaw announced his resignation. Starr, initially reassigned to a role as chancellor, resigned from that post but is to remain on at Baylor as a law school professor.
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