Ball State Settles Retaliation Case for over $700,000

The last time we wrote about former tennis coach Kathy Bull's retaliation case against Ball State University, it was to report that her Title IX claim against the university had survived a motion to dismiss, allowing the case to proceed to trial.  Often times, however, a victory on a preliminary ruling like that  puts pressure on a defendant to settle instead, and that is what we're told happened yesterday in Bull's case.  According to one of her attorneys, Bull will receive a package of cash plus health benefits for life, together worth over $710,000, in exchange for dropping her case.

Bull claimed that she was terminated in the middle of her 21st season as head women's tennis coach, on false charges of NCAA rules violations, in order to discredit and silence her criticism of Ball State's Title IX compliance in the context of an OCR investigation. Interestingly, Bull was one of 12 women's head coaches to leave the university under circumstances that suggest discrimination and retaliation during a five-year period.