Kansas State Scrambles to Invalidate Secret $3.2-Million Deal Between Ex-Athletics Officials

Kansas State University and its athletics corporation have asked a court to invalidate a secret agreement between its former athletics director and former football coach. The deal would pay the coach $3.2-million in deferred compensation through a separate company.

Kansas State officials say the arrangement — between Bob Krause, the former athletics director, and Ron Prince, the former coach — should be nullified because it was made without the knowledge of anyone else at the university.

The deal was apparently made to supplement the buyout provision in the coach’s original contract. Last August the coach was given a new contract with a $1.1-million salary, up from $750,000. The contract included a $1.2-million buyout clause, The Wichita Eagle reported. Mr. Prince was fired in November after a 5-7 season.

Mr. Krause, a former longtime vice president for university advancement, was reassigned to a fund-raising position earlier this year. After the secret deal was discovered, he was asked to resign.

The spending controversy is only the latest for the Wildcats program. Last fall the Web site Rivals.com discovered that Dalonte Hill, an assistant basketball coach at Kansas State, was being handsomely rewarded for his part in recruiting Michael Beasley, the Kansas State star who went on to become the NBA’s No. 2 draft pick last year after one season in college.

For the next few years, Mr. Hill will take home $420,000 in annual compensation, a nice bump over his previous salary of $70,000. The university’s president, Jon Wefald, earned $340,848 in total compensation in 2007-8. —Brad Wolverton