KANSAS CITY, Mo. Former KU Jayhawks football coach David Beaty said in a sworn statement that hes holding off on buying a house in Austin, Texas, while he awaits the $3 million he says Kansas Athletics owes him for finishing out the 2018 season, during which he was fired.
Beatys residence hes currently living in an Austin apartment and plans to stay there indefinitely while his wife and youngest daughter remain in Lawrence gets to a central matter in his lawsuit against Kansas Athletics.
Beatys affidavit was included in his lawyers response this week to Kansas Athletics attempt to dismiss the lawsuit he filed earlier this year. Kansas Athletics claimed that Beaty cant sue in federal court in part because he lives in Kansas, the same state where Kansas Athletics and the university operate.
But lawyers for Beaty contend he lives in Texas.
To support that claim, Beaty said hes registered to vote in Texas, where he moved in January. He also has a Texas drivers license and an insurance policy with a Texas address for a 2015 BMW.
My wife and youngest daughter still reside in Lawrence, Kansas because we do not believe trying to purchase a home in Austin, Texas, makes sense while Kansas Athletics, Inc. holds the $3 million it previously acknowledged it owed me, Beaty said in an affidavit. Austin has a very competitive real estate market, so the uncertainty Kansas Athletics, Inc. has created for me and my family has made evaluating where we will live in Austin difficult.
He added that hes in discussions for a job with an unspecified football program in Texas, but that nothing is finalized yet.
KU fired Beaty last season with three games remaining on the schedule. The Jayhawks, who have not fared well on the gridiron in a decade, went 3-9 that season. According to Beaty, he met with Kansas athletic director Jeff Long on Nov. 4, one day after losing to Iowa State, and was told the university was terminating him without cause.
Beatys affidavit said Long asked him to stay on to finish the season, which Beaty agreed to do after being told he would receive $3 million from the terms of his contract. When the discussion ended, they shook hands, Beaty said.
I believed Mr. Long, and I relied on his promises when I agreed to stay on as Head Coach until the end of the season, Beaty said in his affidavit.
A Nov. 29 letter from Long to Beaty said the termination was without cause.
The Jayhawks lost the last three games of the season, the conclusion of which did not bring him his $3 million payout, but instead news of an NCAA infractions investigation into a subordinate of Beatys.
Beatys lawsuit said KU used the investigation, which the athletics department initiated and details of which are not known publicly, to reclassify his termination for cause and to withhold his payout. The lawsuit contains an allegation that unnamed senior Kansas Athletics officials had commented about wanting to find something on Beaty, like a dead hooker in his closet to keep from paying him $3 million.
Kansas Athletics has denied that the NCAA investigation was a pretext for not paying Beaty, saying it was discovered as it conducted exit interviews with Beatys staff. It also denied the salacious comments alleged in Beatys lawsuit.
