Former KU football coach says Texas home purchase is in limbo as he awaits $3 million

Former KU Jayhawks football coach David Beaty said in a sworn statement that he’s holding off on buying a house in Austin, Texas while he awaits the $3 million he says Kansas Athletics owes him for finishing out the 2018 season, during which he was fired.

Beaty’s residence — he’s currently living in an Austin apartment and plans to stay there indefinitely while his wife and youngest daughter remain in Lawrence — gets to a central matter in his lawsuit against Kansas Athletics.

Beaty’s affidavit was included in his lawyers’ response this week to Kansas Athletics’ attempt to dismiss the lawsuit he filed earlier this year. Kansas Athletics claimed that Beaty can’t sue in federal court in part because he lives in Kansas, the same state where Kansas Athletics and the university operate.

But lawyers for Beaty contend he lives in Texas.

To support that claim, Beaty said he’s registered to vote in Texas, where he moved in January. He also has a Texas drivers license and an insurance policy with a Texas address for a 2015 BMW.

“My wife and youngest daughter still reside in Lawrence, Kansas because we do not believe trying to purchase a home in Austin, Texas makes sense while Kansas Athletics, Inc. holds the $3 million it previously acknowledged it owed me,” Beaty said in an affidavit. “Austin has a very competitive real estate market, so the uncertainty Kansas Athletics, Inc. has created for me and my family has made evaluating where we will live in Austin difficult.”

He added that he’s in discussions for a job with an unspecified football program in Texas, but that nothing is finalized yet.

Kansas Athletics disputed the nature of Beaty’s claims, saying they mischaracterized the situation or omitted important facts.

“While disappointed in the court filing, the university is committed to seeking the truth and upholding our high standards of ethical conduct,” Kansas Athletics spokesman Jim Marchiony said in a statement to The Star.

KU fired Beaty last season with three games remaining on the schedule. The Jayhawks, who have not fared well on the gridiron in a decade, went 3-9 that season. According to Beaty, he met with Kansas athletic director Jeff Long on Nov. 4, one day after losing to Iowa State, and was told the university was terminating him without cause.

Beaty’s affidavit said Long asked him to stay on to finish the season, which Beaty agreed to do after being told he would receive $3 million from the terms of his contract. When the discussion ended, they shook hands, Beaty said.

“I believed Mr. Long, and I relied on his promises when I agreed to stay on as Head Coach until the end of the season,” Beaty said in his affidavit.

A Nov. 29 letter from Long to Beaty said the termination was without cause.

The Jayhawks lost the last three games of the season, the conclusion of which did not bring him his $3 million payout, but instead news of an NCAA infractions investigation into a subordinate of Beaty’s.

Beaty’s lawsuit said KU used the investigation, which the athletics department initiated and details of which are not known publicly, to reclassify his termination for cause and to withhold his payout. The lawsuit contains an allegation that unnamed senior Kansas Athletics officials had commented about wanting to “find something” on Beaty, “like a dead hooker in his closet” to keep from paying him $3 million.

Kansas Athletics has denied that the NCAA investigation was a pretext for not paying Beaty, saying it was discovered as it conducted exit interviews with Beaty’s staff. It also denied the salacious comments alleged in Beaty’s lawsuit.

In a statement to The Star, Kansas Athletics said that Beaty did not cooperate with the investigation, causing the NCAA to take the lead in a still-ongoing investigation.

“Due to the nature of the allegations, which, if true, would be in violation of the terms of Beaty’s contract, the university has withheld payment of money owed to Beaty pending the outcome of the NCAA investigation,” Marchiony said. “In a show of good faith, the university has placed the full amount owed in escrow.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Former KU football coach says Texas home purchase is in limbo as he awaits $3 million."