UNM, Alford reach agreement in principle over buyout

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The University of New Mexico and former men’s basketball coach Steve Alford have agreed in principle to a $625,000 buyout for the coach’s departure from the school, University officials announced Friday.

Final details on the agreement must be resolved, according to a news release issued by UNM, but the financial terms are “favorable” for the University. Alford announced he was leaving UNM for the same position at UCLA on March 30, two days before a 10-year contract was to take effect.

“On behalf of the UNM Board of Regents, we are pleased that Pres­i­dent (Robert) Frank and our Office of Uni­ver­sity Coun­sel eval­u­ated the costs and ben­e­fits to UNM under Coach Alford’s pre­vi­ous con­tract and the April 1 con­tract,” Board of Regents President Jack Fortner said in a statement. “This resulted in an agree­ment that is fair to all par­ties and avoids costly, lengthy arbi­tra­tion.”

The two sides earlier disagreed how much the buyout should be.

UNM stated it believed Alford owed $1 million because the March 30 announcement of his departure to UCLA served as a contractually required 30-day notice, and the University considered April 29 as Alford’s last day. That $1 million buyout came from a contract agreement reached by both parties that was to take effect April 1.

Alford, meanwhile, told UNM in a letter his final day was March 30 and that he did no work for the school after that date. He also refused to accept any salary or other compensation after that date, the letter stated. Alford said he therefore owed a $200,000 from his previous contract.

With the $200,000 buyout situation, Alford would have been ineligible for other benefits and UNM would have had a net $525,000 as a result. Under the $1 million buyout, Alford would have still received those benefits and UNM would have received a net $675,000.

“We worked dili­gently to find the best pos­si­ble out­come under the cir­cum­stances,” Frank said in the statement. “The result is within $50,000 of the net amount UNM would have received had Coach Alford paid the $1 mil­lion buy­out. The out­come is favor­able for UNM and allows us to move for­ward with the assur­ance that we have been good stew­ards of Uni­ver­sity resources.”