CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — The University of Illinois has announced a pair of legal settlements involving former female basketball players and its former football coach, Tim Beckman.
Campus officials said Tuesday, April 12, 2016, that the seven former players will receive a one-time payment of $375,000 to split among them. The University of Illinois Board of Trustees must approve the settlement.
The women sued in 2015, claiming basketball coaches created a racially hostile environment. The women, through their attorney Terry Ekl, said in a statement that they’re happy “no other student athlete may have to experience what we have.”
The school also said Beckman would receive a one-time payment of $250,000, which doesn’t need approval from trustees. Allegations of player abuse led the school to fire Beckman a week before last season started, and Beckman will lose $3.1 million remaining in the last two years of his five-year contract.
