Kansas football: Just pay David Beaty what he’s owed and move on

Kansas football has been withholding former head coach David Beaty’s contract buyout and the whole situation has been nothing short of embarrassing.

Kansas football has struggled to build credibility over the past decade and 2020 isn’t off to a great start. When David Beaty was fired back in 2018, nobody was surprised. Beaty went 6-42 in his four years at Kansas and showed little to no improvement in those four seasons.

According to Beaty’s contract, he should have received a $3 million buyout for being fired. That’s where the problem is. By the time March 2019 rolled around, Kansas still hadn’t paid the buyout and Beaty sued in federal court.

After initially agreeing to make the payments, Kansas Athletics performed a “self-investigation” that uncovered an apparent violation committed by Beaty’s coaching staff, voiding the $3 million buyout.

The Athletics department claims that Beaty had an extra assistant helping, thus violating NCAA rules. Here’s the fun part though: Beaty’s lawsuit claims that Jeff Long and another athletics exec talked about trying to find a “dead hooker” in Beaty’s closet, or in other words, a way to get out of paying the buyout.

Yes, $3 million is a lot of money and Beaty failed at Kansas, but this is a horrendous look for the university. The buyout is clear in the contract, Long said the payments would be made, and then Kansas all of the sudden decided that a self-investigation needed to be done. That’s convenient timing at best, and downright dirty at worst.

Since Beaty sued, things have gotten ugly, but they need not be. Just pay the man what he’s owed. This is a ridiculous waste of time and effort on something that should have been over and done with by now. Instead, this has become yet another embarrassment to the Kansas football program.

Just think, how does this bonanza look to potential recruits and their families, or potential assistant coaches? For a program that’s struggled to bring in high-quality coaches and players, this doesn’t seem like a good way to convey solidarity and positive change in the program.

Kansas football has been a cellar dweller for far too long, and Jeff Long was brought in to fix that. So far, we’ve gotten Snoop Dogg controversy, Beaty buyout problems, embarrassing press releases, and ESPN+ from Jeff Long. I guess we did get another 3-9 football season though, so that’s cool.