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NCAA paid former chief legal officer $2.4 million "severance" in 2021, new tax records show

NCAA's new federal tax records show former chief legal officer Donald Remy received total of more than $3.5 million in 2021, while former president Mark Emmert received $3.3 million

The NCAA’s former chief operating officer Donald Remy, who helped lead the legal strategy during two antitrust cases that went against the association, received a “severance payment” of just over $2.4 million during the 2021 calendar year, according to the association’s new federal tax records.

The association provided the records on Wednesday in response to a request from USA TODAY Sports.

The new return also revealed that during the 2021 calendar year, the NCAA paid just over $5.4 million to the law firm that conducted a gender-equity review of NCAA championships after after then-University of Oregon women’s basketball player Sedona Prince posted a video that created an uproar over inequities between the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

Like other non-profit organizations, the NCAA reports its revenues and expenses to the IRS on a fiscal year basis and its employee-compensation and independent-contractor information based on the calendar year the ends during the applicable fiscal year.

Remy left the NCAA in July 2021 to become the deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs for the Biden Administration, a position from which he departed on April 1 of this year. With the NCAA, he served in a variety of roles, including chief legal officer.

According to a statement from the NCAA that accompanied the records, the payment was made under a “separation agreement was entered into by the employee and the former president of the NCAA,” Mark Emmert, although the statement also says that the NCAA Board of Governors’ Executive Committee determines NCAA executive salaries.

The association announced in April 2022 that Emmert would step down by mutual agreement with the Board of Governors. A year earlier, the board had voted to extend his contract through Dec. 31, 2025. Emmert remained on the job until March 1 of this year, when he was succeeded by Charlie Baker.

Remy’s total compensation for 2021 was more than $3.6 million, which also included just under $860,000 in base salary for the partial year worked for the association and nearly $50,000 in bonus pay, the new documents show.

Emmert was credited with nearly $3.3 million in total compensation for the 2021 calendar year, including nearly $2.8 million in base salary and nearly $83,000 in bonus pay.

Emmert’s compensation for 2021 was about 10% greater than the amount reported for him for 2020, in part because he and other NCAA executives took temporary salary reductions due to financial issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remy joined the NCAA in 2011, a little less than a year after Emmert became the association’s president. Remy initially worked as an executive vice president and chief legal officer. He eventually became the chief operating officer, ranking second in the organization to Emmert.

He inherited the O’Bannon antitrust case, but was in charge throughout the Alston case. In both instances, he oversaw outside counsel and worked with lawyers representing various athletic conferences. While the NCAA settled damages aspects of both cases for a combined total of more than $250 million, it fought matters related to the association’s rules to the Supreme Court.

The justices refused to hear the O’Bannon case, then unanimously ruled against the NCAA in the Alston. The cases also cost the association tens of millions more in legal fees and costs for plaintiffs’ attorneys, although insurance covered some of the overall costs of the cases.

All of the other 14 executives whose compensation was listed on the new tax record also received five-figure bonuses in 2021, the document showed. While there have been years when most of the NCAA’s employees in this category have received bonuses — usually four-figure amounts — there has been no year since at least 2011 in which they all have gotten bonuses.

"Bonuses given to executives were consistent with bonus programs given to all NCAA staff coming out of a difficult pandemic year," the NCAA said in a separate statement to USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday afternoon. "After a year of pandemic merit freezes and mandatory furloughs, all staff received a one-time nominal percentage bonus, in addition to performance-based bonuses."

As for the gender-equity review, the NCAA announced its hiring of the firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP in March 2021. The firm made public reports in August and October of that year.

The amount attributed to the firm was part of nearly $53 million in overall outside legal expenses reported in the new tax documents for a fiscal year ending on Aug. 31, 2022. Going back to fiscal 2014, when the Alston case began, the NCAA has reported $371.4 million in outside legal expenses and $103.5 million in legal-cost recoveries from insurance.

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