Michigan State’s dismissal of football coach Mel Tucker last year over a sexual harassment scandal is now at the center of Tucker’s civil rights, breach of contract and defamation lawsuit against his former employer.
Last Wednesday, Michigan State and members of its administration and board of directors filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which claims Tucker suffered “hundreds of millions of dollars” in damages. Two days later, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney said he read the defendants’ motion and, without expressing an opinion on the merits of the motion, the Michigan-based judge gave Tucker the “opportunity to “remedy” the alleged deficiencies by filing an amended complaint.
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Tucker filed a lawsuit in July, accusing the school and its leaders of acting against him “because of his race.” The 52-year-old says the defendants destroyed “the career of one of the most prominent and successful black head coaches in college football.” Michigan State fired Tucker after a university provider, national sexual assault victims’ rights advocate Brenda Tracy, accused him of inappropriate conduct. During a phone call with Tracy in 2022, Tucker allegedly masturbated; Tucker insisted he was engaged in consensual “phone sex.”
Through Rita M. Glavin and other attorneys, Tucker contends that Michigan state leaders conspired to manipulate and interfere with a “supposedly independent” investigation into his alleged misconduct. He says they were motivated to empower the university to “weaponize” investigative procedures and fire him for cause. The “for cause” designation meant the school was exempt from paying Tucker about $80 million remaining on the 10-year, $95 million contract he signed in 2021. The deal made Tucker, who won the Coach of the Year award the Big Ten in 2021, the highest-paid Black coach in college football history.
The contract contained a provision that said the school could terminate the deal for cause if Tucker engaged in “any conduct” that constituted “moral turpitude” or that, in the “reasonable judgment” of the state of Michigan, “would tend to create lack of respect, contempt or ridicule of the University.” The school determined that Tucker’s conduct triggered this clause.
But as Tucker sees it, Michigan State used what it described as a “private and entirely mutual event between two adults living on opposite sides of the country” to fabricate “transparently pretextual reasons” as a ruse to save $80 million. He also maintains that the school treated its “white counterparts”—specifically former football coach Mark Dantonio and current men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo—much more favorably when their programs faced “much more serious allegations.” Tucker references sexual assault allegations leveled against Spartans football players while Dantonio was coach and alleged recruiting violations, but the school stood by Dantonio and continued to employ him as an advisor after his retirement in 2020. Izzo’s program also He faced accusations of sexual and violent incidents. , but Izzo was retained.
As Terri L. Chase and other attorneys at Jones Day and Zausmer argued, Michigan State maintains that Tucker’s lawsuit does not establish plausible claims. The school maintains that Tucker’s due process claims are invalid since his employment contract determined the due process he was owed. In that regard, the State of Michigan cites precedent from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit for the proposition that “the availability of a state remedy for breach of contract defeats the due process claim.”
Michigan State also maintains that Tucker’s conspiracy claim is intercepted by basic legal doctrine. The school emphasizes that conspiracy allegations require allegations with specificity, while Tucker’s complaint “offers nothing more than conclusive allegations.”
The school is also dismissive of Tucker’s claim that he is a victim of racial discrimination. Michigan State maintains that the fact that Tucker is black “does not by itself establish” an inference of discrimination, “especially” when “the most obvious explanation” for his firing was not race but rather “his own admitted misconduct.” . The school also notes that Tucker’s complaint repeatedly refers to the school firing him “for financial reasons” and not racial ones.
Michigan State further contends that Tucker does not offer a plausible breach claim because the termination clause explicitly empowered the school to determine in its own “reasonable judgment” whether Tucker engaged in misconduct. The school says the provision “does not allow a court to question that determination.”
Michigan State adds that even if its determination was reviewable, it was easily justified. Tucker, the school maintains, engaged in “misconduct toward a survivor of sexual abuse and a coach who had been hired to provide sexual misconduct training to the football team he coached.” Tucker also “admitted” (as the school says) that he made comments about Tracy’s “appearance” and engaged in extramarital “flirtation.” Furthermore, the scandal caused “lack of public respect, contempt and ridicule for the University.”
The case could remain in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan for a while. It remains to be seen if and when Tucker’s coaching career will resume. He previously was head coach for one season at the University of Colorado and defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears. Until the scandal he was considered a rising star in the technical field. The Spartans, now coached by Jonathan Smith, are 4-4 (2-3 in the Big Ten) so far in the 2024 season. The team lost to the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday.
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