Kill sues SIU over money due to school

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University's former football coach is suing the Carbondale school, disputing claims that he owes nearly $58,000 for breaching his contract when he recently defected to Northern Illinois University.

Jerry Kill coached the Salukis for seven seasons before taking a job at Northern Illinois in December.

His old contract requires him to pay SIU one-third of a year's salary -- $57,772 -- for taking another head coaching position before his contract expired. Kill's deal was to run through 2011.

But in his Jackson County lawsuit -- filed Feb. 5, just days before SIU's deadline for Kill to pay the money -- the former coach called the payback provision illegal and unenforceable because it gave him no option to leave without penalty unless he died, became disabled, quit football or was fired.

"He never has, at any point in time, the right to just say, 'OK, at the end of X, I just don't want to work for you anymore,"' Shari Rhode, a Carbondale attorney for Kill, said Thursday. "If he decided to become a shoe salesman, he could leave. But as long as he stayed coaching football, he can't.

"Only the university has the right to say this contract is going to end and we both walk away without you paying a penalty. That's what makes it illegal."

If SIU had ever breached Kill's contract, the university would have been required to pay him the remainder of the salary.

Mario Moccia, Southern's athletic director, said the university included a buyout in Kill's contract because the cost of undertaking a search for a new coach on short notice -- and quickly moving that coach and his nine assistants to Carbondale -- can be expensive.

Moccia said that, while he believes Kill's contract is clear and that he owes the money to the university, the flap has not diminished his respect for Kill.

"What I think a lot of people overlook is that this is also a business and there are contracts and sometimes, you know, individuals don't see eye to eye on those contracts," Moccia said.

The lawsuit also claims that the university has refused to pay Kill for 25 vacation days he said he took after he accepted the Northern Illinois job Dec. 13, less than a week after he guided the Salukis (12-2) to the semifinals of the Football Championship Subdivision, the former Division I-AA.

Deborah Nelson, the school's associate general counsel, said the university disputed the vacation payments because Kill no longer was with the university at the time, making him ineligible for paid vacation.

In Kill's seven seasons in Carbondale, the team went 56-32, won three Gateway Conference titles and made five straight postseason appearances.