{"id":783731,"date":"2026-05-09T06:58:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T06:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/783731\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T06:58:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T06:58:45","slug":"former-ohio-football-coach-brian-smith-files-wrongful-termination-lawsuit-disputes-for-cause-firing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/783731\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Ohio football coach Brian Smith files wrongful termination lawsuit, disputes for-cause firing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Ohio University football coach Brian Smith filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the school on Friday. Ohio fired Smith for cause in December 2025,<\/a> citing allegations that he had a romantic relationship with an undergraduate student and was intoxicated during a public appearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case arises from Ohio University\u2019s\u2026decision to destroy the career and reputation of its head football coach first and justify it later,\u201d Smith\u2019s lawsuit reads. \u201cThose allegations were never adjudicated, never proven, and never subjected to the fair and contractual process OU promised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s complaint, filed in the Ohio Court of Claims, seeks compensatory damages, including the value of his remaining contract, consequential damages, interest, attorneys\u2019 fees, and additional relief. Smith signed a five-year contract with the Bobcats in December 2024 that included an annual base salary of $615,000, supplemental compensation of $135,000 and retention bonuses of up to $100,000. Had Smith been fired without cause before Dec. 16, 2026, he would have been owed 100 percent of the daily rate of pay remaining under his contract.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges that Ohio University breached its employment contract \u201cby terminating (Smith) \u2018for cause\u2019 without a good-faith investigation or substantiating any grounds for cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bobcats went 8-4 under Smith in 2025, his first and only season as head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University rushed to judgment, ignored its contractual obligations, and prioritized its financial interest over a fair process,\u201d Rex Elliott, Smith\u2019s lawyer, said in a statement provided to The Athletic. \u201cThis case is about accountability. OU\u2019s actions have irreparably harmed Coach Smith\u2019s coaching career, and he is owed the full balance of his contractually agreed-upon compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohio University, in a statement to The Athletic, called the lawsuit \u00ad\u201cunfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the University stated in December 2025<\/a>, Brian Smith\u2019s termination for cause was based on violations of the established terms within his employment agreement. This lawsuit is unfounded, and the University will strongly defend itself in court. Consistent with its longstanding practice, the University declines to comment further on pending litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Athletic\u00a0recently\u00a0documented a rise in for-cause firings<\/a> of college head coaches, which allow universities to terminate employment without paying contractual buyouts, often following off-field incidents. These firings often spark legal battles. Seven FBS head football coaches were fired for cause from 2021 to 2025, including Smith.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 1, 2025, three days after Ohio football concluded its regular season, the athletic department released a brief statement that Smith \u201cwill be on leave for an undetermined period of time.\u201d On Dec. 17, the university announced that it had fired Smith for cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe termination follows an administrative review of allegations that Smith violated the terms of his employment agreement by engaging in serious professional misconduct and participating in activities that reflect unfavorably on the University,\u201d Ohio said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n

According to documents later obtained by The Athletic, the university had previously sent Smith a notice of termination letter, citing five grounds for firing him for cause and voiding any buyout. The first citation was \u201cextramarital affairs, including one with an undergraduate student.\u201d The school claimed such a relationship violated Smith\u2019s contract by bringing \u201cdisrepute, scandal and ridicule\u201d to the university and the athletic department.<\/p>\n

In a response to the university, Elliott wrote that Smith and his wife had already separated, and divorce proceedings were ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, Coach Smith didn\u2019t participate in an extramarital affair, and you know it,\u201d Elliott wrote to Ohio University\u2019s president in December 2025. \u201cCoach Smith did not hide the relationship, and even his now ex-wife didn\u2019t accuse him of engaging in an extramarital affair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s lawsuit further states, \u201cthere is no University policy prohibiting consensual relationships between employees and students whom the employee does not have a direct supervisory or evaluative control over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohio University\u2019s termination notice also cited a report that stated Smith \u201csmelled of alcohol\u201d and acted intoxicated in his demeanor during a public appearance. Smith was previously reprimanded in November 2025 for drinking and storing alcohol in his on-campus football office. During that investigation, Smith acknowledged he periodically had a single drink of bourbon with assistant coaches after normal business hours, but Elliott claimed Smith was never inebriated at an Ohio event and that the bourbon in Smith\u2019s office was provided by the husband of the university\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s lawsuit argues \u201cthe University rushed to judgment and retrofitted a corrective reprimand and a permissible consensual relationship into grounds for termination.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Dec. 26, 2025, the Bobcats promoted defensive coordinator John Hauser to head coach. As interim coach, Hauser led Ohio to a 17-10 win over UNLV in the Scooter\u2019s Coffee Frisco Bowl on Dec. 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ohio University football coach Brian Smith filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the school on Friday. Ohio…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":783732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1428,1318,1317,1315,1316,57463,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-783731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-ohio-bobcats","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116543325023418973","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}