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Minnesota, VCU spent $300,000 to settle complaints against former AD Norwood Teague

Minnesota Smith Fired Basketball

Minnesota director of athletics Norwood Teague pauses before speaking at an NCAA college basketball news conference announcing that men’s head coach Tubby Smith has been fired Monday, March 25, 2013, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/The St. Paul Pioneer Press, John Doman)

AP

The scandal surrounding former Minnesota athletic director Norwood Teague took another turn on Tuesday morning, as news surfaced that Minnesota and VCU -- where Teague held the same position prior to heading north -- had paid at least $300,000 to settle gender discrimination claims since 2012.

In April 2012, then-VCU women’s basketball coach Beth Cunningham filed a suit against the school and Teague claiming gender discrimination. The winningest coach in program history, Cunningham left the school in May of 2012 for an assistant coaching position at Notre Dame, eventually settling with the school for $125,000 that July. She’s currently the associate head coach with the Fighting Irish.

Less than a year later, a woman named Regina Sullivan, formerly an associate AD, filed a lawsuit against Minnesota claiming that she was fired because she was expected “to take a passive role and defer to men’s opinions”, particularly when it came to issues surrounding Title IX, a gender equity law. She was paid out $175,000 by Minnesota.

Teague resigned from his position on Friday after the school received two sexual harassment complaints involving Teague, which included vulgar text messages that he had sent one of the women. On Sunday night, Minnesota’s beat writer for the Star-Tribune shared her story of being sexually harassed by Teague.

The school is currently under investigation by the US Department of Education regarding their compliance with Title IX.