Melinda Grier on the Way Out.
Melinda Grier the attorney in the middle of the Mike Bellotti pay out scandal is on her way out, and she is not leaving for ESPN. The controversy started when Bellotti resigned from the Athletic Director position after nine months on the job to become a college football analyst for ESPN. When Bellotti left he received a very healthy compensation package of $2.3 million or around $255,555 for each month as Athletic Director.
The outcry over a public institution paying millions of dollars in what is being called a “handshake deal” has become a source of controversy for the University of Oregon. The deal was negotiated orally but never formally, written down or signed, similar to wagers one would make a golf course only a million times more money. The UO is claiming that the compensation will come from the Athletic Department’s well endowed private donors.
Now the UO has a interm Athletic Director, no head basketball coach for it’s new $200 million dollar arena and no general counsel. What a year to become president Mr. Lariviere!
