The legal battle between Ole Miss and former head coach Houston Nutt continues to wage on and it doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon.
Nutt's legal representatives, Thomas Mars and Walter Morrison sent Ole Miss a settlement proposal, which reportedly asked the university to publicly apologize to the former coach and pay $500,000 to fund an integrity for college sports commission in Mississippi last week.
Attorney Cal Mayo, who is part of Ole Miss' outside counsel, confirmed to the Clarion-Ledger that both parties failed to reach a settlement on Tuesday.
"And here I thought we'd done them a huge favor," Mars said. "As they say, no good deed goes unpunished."
Ole Miss, however, disagreed with Mars' sentiments and kept its previous stance from a week ago.
"We're in the same position we were in last week," said Ross Bjork, Ole Miss' athletic director. "We don't think it (the case) has any merit and they ought to drop it.
"The nature of the proposal does not allow us to even negotiate with them."
Ole Miss' outside counsel responded to Morrison on Tuesday morning, however, Mars hasn't received any notification from the university.
"I have no idea where they got that idea," Mars said. "We never said anything to suggest we weren't willing to negotiate. Bubba Morrison sent them a detailed written proposal last Friday. End of story."
Last month, Nutt filed a lawsuit against the "Ole Miss Athletic Foundation, The University of Mississippi and The Board of Trustees for institutions of Higher Learning." The lawsuit alleges many things but most notably Nutt's assertion that the combination of former coach Hugh Freeze, Bjork and SID Kyle Campbell attempted to "carry out a carefully orchestrated misinformation campaign" against the former coach.
Nutt's only public response to the lawsuit is as follows:
"The lawsuit filed today speaks for itself. I'm going to let the federal court in Mississippi take it from here. I won't be making any comments about the lawsuit. Please direct any questions you have to my lawyers."
Nutt filed the lawsuit just prior to Freeze's resignation as head coach. Ole Miss remains under NCAA investigation for several rules violations, which the former coach alleged was falsely placed on him by Freeze, Bjork and Campbell.
