ILL-inois: Coach who left under cloud of allegations got $48K payout

University of Illinois Student Union

Once again my alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is embarrassing itself. Mike Divilbiss, a women's assistant basketball coach who resigned amid allegations of ill-treament of players--received a $48,500 payout when he left the school.

From the News-Gazette:

The allegations about the basketball program arose in April, when the parents of several former players wrote letters to UI officials.

They alleged that Divilbiss and head coach Matt Bollant tried to create racial tension among the team, verbally abused and berated players on personal — not basketball — matters, tried to discourage players to the point of voluntary scholarship withdrawal and threatened to take players' scholarships. One family also alleged that their daughter was forced to play while struggling with cardiac problems and mononucleosis.