Former coach Ollie wins arbitration ruling on union protection vs. UConn

Kevin Ollie has scored a legal victory in his fight with UConn for the nearly $11 million left on his contract.

An arbitrator has ruled UConn must prove it fired Ollie due to a showing of “serious noncompliance of … NCAA rules and regulations” or “serious misconduct.”

Essentially, the ruling states the collective bargaining agreement between Ollie, UConn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and UConn takes precedence over the individual employment agreement between Ollie and UConn.

The CBA contains language indicating a higher standard for justcause firing. Former UConn president Susan Herbst had stated that the school believes the individual employment agreement is the governing document in the case.

According to arbitrator Marcia Greenbaum’s 56page decision, UConn indicated that since Ollie’s individual employment agreement was signed by UConn AAUP executive director Michael Bailey, it amounted to a waiver of the terms of the CBA. But Bailey has denied he was giving a waiver and, rather, simply indicating he had received the document — and Greenbaum agreed.

The decision means UConn has a higher standard to prove Ollie deserved to be fired in March, 2018 after consecutive losing seasons. Of course, the NCAA recently handed Ollie a threeyear showcause penalty, largely due to what it deemed to be lying to or evasiveness with NCAA investigators. But Jacques Parenteau, Ollie’s attorney, doesn’t believe the NCAA hearing should have much bearing on the arbitration case.

“Unlike the NCAA,”

Parenteau told Hearst Connecticut Media, “which has a proceeding that is devoid of due process, so that Kevin never had the opportunity to put on a full dissent of these claims, in arbitration, Kevin will be entitled to crossexamine, and the university will have to produce all witnesses who

have made claims that the university is relying upon to prove just cause.”

In other words, witnesses who testified against Ollie at the NCAA hearing in Indianapolis in May will have to answer to contrary evidence at an arbitration hearing.

“It would be wrong to assume,” Parenteau added, “that the NCAA finding will have any relevance to the arbitrator’s decision.”

That won’t likely be known for months. Currently, both sides are serving depositions for outofstate witnesses that will probably occur over September and October. So far, only Ray Allen and former assistant coach Dwayne Killings have provided outofstate depositions. At least a dozen more are expected.

It will also be interesting to see how the decision for

the CBA to take precedence over the individual employment agreements might affect the numerous current UConn head and assistant coaches who have signed IEAs. According to a source, there are a stack of IEAs currently on Bailey’s desk for him to sign, though there’s no guarantee that he will.

Jessica Hill / Associated Press The arbitrator in the dispute between UConn and former coach Kevin Ollie has ruled he is protected by a union contract when it comes to the standard the school must meet in proving his firing was justified.