RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 N.C. State is investigating potential legal claims against LSU tied to men\u2019s basketball coach Will Wade leaving for a second stint coaching the Tigers. That includes whether LSU violated a North Carolina state law.<\/p>\n
N.C. State vice chancellor and general counsel Allison B. Newhart wrote to LSU counterpart Carlton Jones last week about the matter, a development first reported by WRAL in Raleigh. The letter was later obtained by The Associated Press in a records request.<\/p>\n
According to N.C. State, it has received three email messages from LSU asking the school to \u201csign a release of claims\u201d against LSU in the Wade matter.<\/p>\n
Letter cites a state law with potential financial damages<\/strong><\/p>\n Newhart’s letter from last Thursday states the school \u201chas not agreed \u2014 and does not agree now \u2014 to release LSU from any liability\u201d tied to Wade\u2019s departure after one season with the Wolfpack in March.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, N.C. State is investigating whether LSU improperly induced Coach Wade to breach his Employment Agreement, induced Coach Wade to terminate his Employment Agreement, and interfered with the timing of termination of the Employment Agreement to result in lower liquidated damages \u2013 all to N.C. State\u2019s detriment,\u201d Newhart wrote.<\/p>\n That includes whether LSU violated the state\u2019s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act; violations can result in financial damages and attorney fees.<\/p>\n Reached by the AP on Wednesday, N.C. State spokeswoman Lauren Barker said the school had no additional comment beyond the letter’s contents. LSU spokesman Michael Bonnette declined comment to the AP.<\/p>\n The timing of Wade’s buyout payment is a key factor<\/strong><\/p>\n LSU hired Wade on March 26, two weeks after Wade publicly stated he was determined to win big at N.C. State in Year 2.<\/p>\n The buyout in Wade\u2019s contract was for $5 million, but was scheduled to drop to $3 million after April 1. At the time, athletic director Boo Corrigan said the school agreed to lower that to $4 million to close the matter and not delay the search for a successor that landed former Wolfpack player and Tennessee assistant Justin Gainey in less than a week.<\/p>\n Newhart\u2019s letter states the N.C. State received a $4 million wire from LSU on May 8 for Wade’s buyout. But she also writes that N.C. State considers the issue resolved \u201conly as to Coach Wade\u2019s personal obligations\u201d and that the payment \u201cdoes not absolve LSU from potential legal exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n Specifically, the letter states N.C. State \u201chas reason to suspect \u201cLSU may have influenced efforts to avoid or delay\u201d notifying the school of the pursuit to trigger the lower buyout payment from after April 1.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP Sports Writer Brett Martel in New Orleans contributed to this report.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP college basketball: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 N.C. State is investigating potential legal claims against LSU tied to men\u2019s basketball coach Will Wade leaving for a second stint coaching the Tigers. That includes whether LSU violated a North Carolina state law. N.C. State vice chancellor and general counsel Allison B. Newhart wrote to LSU counterpart Carlton Jones last … Continue reading NC State looking into potential legal claims against LSU tied to coach WIll Wade’s exit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1514750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-13 03:40:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1514750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1514751,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514750\/revisions\/1514751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1514750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1514750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1514750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}