
The Razorback Foundation, in a countersuit filed Thursday in federal court, accused former University of Arkansas Head Football Coach Bret Bielema and his agent of fraud in an escalation of a dispute over the terms of Bielema’s 2018 buyout.
Bielema, the foundation claims, signed a buyout agreement that required him to look for a job that maximized his earning potential even though “Bielema had already brokered a deal with the New England Patriots where he would be making less than the $150,000 threshold amount” that would allow the foundation to reduce its monthly payments of nearly $321,000.
More: See the full lawsuit here.
Bielema’s agent, Neil Cornrich, is also named as a defendant in the countersuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville by Marshall S. Ney and other attorneys with the Friday Eldredge & Clark law firm.
The suit is a response to a civil suit Bielema filed in June. In his complaint, Bielema is seeking $7 million because the Razorback Foundation stopped paying him in 2019.
The foundation claims in its countersuit that Bielema had a contractual duty to maximize his earnings and to minimize the amount the foundation owed him. Instead, the foundation alleges, “Bielema took himself off the job market — at a pay rate far below his actual earning potential — for two years … when he signed with the New England Patriots in violation of his legal obligations to the Foundation.”