Ex-BYU assistant coach sues Kentucky, NCAA, SEC

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Kentucky's former recruiting coordinator for football -- the central figure in an NCAA investigation that led to major sanctions -- has sued the university's Athletic Association, the NCAA and the Southeastern Conference, claiming they conspired to keep him from getting another college job.

Claude Bassett, who also was an assistant coach at BYU, is asking for $50 million in damages in the federal lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Covington.

Bassett resigned at Kentucky in November 2000, shortly before the NCAA began investigating allegations of wrongdoing in Kentucky's program. In 2002, the NCAA placed Kentucky on probation for more than three dozen recruiting violations committed between 1998 and 2000. It banned the Wildcats from a bowl game for one season and ordered the forfeiture of 19 scholarships over a 3-year period.

Bassett, who worked for coach Hal Mumme, was found in violation of NCAA ethical conduct bylaws and effectively was banned from working for any NCAA school for eight years. At the time, Bassett acknowledged breaking NCAA recruiting rules.

Bassett is the athletic director and football coach at a high school in Robstown, Texas, near Corpus Christi. He came to BYU in 1986 as a graduate assistant and two years later became a full-time assistant, leaving in 1993.

In the suit, Bassett asks the court to find that the three defendants violated federal antitrust laws by banning him from coaching.

Bassett also claims that the defendants committed fraud and civil conspiracy against him by encouraging him to take actions depriving him of due process and the NCAA has "intentionally and improperly interfered" with his prospective contract negotiations with NCAA- member institutions.

University spokeswoman Mary Margaret Colliver and SEC spokesman Charles Bloom declined comment Monday, saying they had not seen a copy of the lawsuit.

NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson said that "Mr. Bassett's claims are completely without merit and will eventually be dismissed by the courts."

The suit said that by imposing the eight-year ban on Bassett, the NCAA, SEC and university "branded him a liar and cheat, rendering the coach unemployable as a college coach even beyond the ban."

Bassett also said NCAA rules violations "were the rule, not the exception for SEC schools pursuing the best players."

Bassett's attorney, Robert Furnier of Cincinnati, did not immediately return a phone message left at his office by The Associated Press.

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