UT paying $2.5M to settle with former athletic director

The University of Tennessee will pay $2.5 million to its former athletic director, John Currie, under a settlement agreement announced Thursday, reports the News Sentinel. His employment with the university officially ended at 6 p.m. Thursday. He was suspended in December.

Currie will be paid $2,220,454.60 no later than April 1 and will have his salary up through Thursday.  The money will come out of the school’s athletics department and will not involve taxpayer dollars, student tuition or fees or donor funds.

The university’s general counsel, Matthew Scoggins, announced the settlement at the Board of Trustees committee meeting held in Memphis Thursday afternoon. The board’s audit and compliance committee approved the settlement. It does not have to go before the full board, which is meeting Friday.

The presentation from Scoggins and comments from the board were brief, lasting a total of five minutes at the end of the meeting.

“In my opinion, it is in the university’s best interest to put this behind us and move forward in a positive way,” Trustee Brad Lampley said.