AUBURN – Former Auburn baseball coach Sunny Golloway filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court Tuesday alleging five counts of violations against several members of the Auburn athletics department.

Golloway’s complaint names the Auburn Board of Trustees, athletics director Jay Jacobs, former chief operating officer David Benedict, senior athletics director Rich McGlynn, director of baseball operations officer Scott Duval and Auburn baseball administrator Jeremy Roberts as defendants in the matter of Golloway’s termination on Sept. 27, 2015.

In a statement from the Auburn University public relations department, the university still claims Golloway “knowingly and repeatedly broke Auburn and NCAA rules” but refuses to go into details about those rules violations.

“Coach Golloway knowingly and repeatedly broke Auburn and NCAA rules, including an attempt to destroy evidence of his violations,” the university statement reads. “We appreciated his coaching skills, but his actions left us no choice but to dismiss him from his position. He now seems to be using legal action in an attempt to divert attention away from his own misconduct.”

Jacobs announced Sunny Golloway was fired with cause on the first Sunday after Auburn baseball team has completed fall workouts. Jacobs has yet to clarify the nature of the violations that led Auburn to terminate Golloway’s contract with cause but Golloway and his attorney, John Saxson, attempted to address some of the possible allegations in a media conference last November. Golloway addressed in detail every one of the 11 accusations that are specifically noted in two separate affidavits by former Auburn player & student assistant Phillip Jenkins and former Auburn player Trent Mummey. Those 11 accusations ranged from players participating in bullpen sessions without being medically cleared for action, players participating in practices without being cleared by the compliance staff, incidents that occurred at his summer baseball camps and how Golloway himself handled the internal investigation into his program.

Golloway’s complaint, which is 86 pages long and was filed in the U.S. District Court of Middle Alabama, addresses those same issues and identifies the five counts of violations against Auburn and athletics officials including: breach of contract, defamation, fraud and tortuous interference.

Saxson confirmed in a phone interview with The Montgomery Advertiser that settlement talks between the two parties were attempted from the time period of the media conference in Nov. 2015 to this week but were ultimately not successful. Saxson said “it would not be inaccurate” to suggest this lawsuit would not have taken place if Auburn had fired Golloway without cause and paid him the buyout figure of $ $1.25 million buyout on his contract that was extended by Auburn through June 2019. While trying to establish that firing Golloway, who was alleged to have conduct incidents during his two-year tenure at Auburn, didn’t make the culture around the Auburn baseball program better, Golloway says he confirmed the incidents of Thompson’s actions with current players and their families.

Thompson’s first season at Auburn ended in disappointing fashion with the Tigers recording its first losing season in a decade and failing to qualify for the Southeastern Conference tournament for the second time in three years.

In a written response, Jacobs called the lawsuit “a shakedown” of the university and the athletics department by Golloway and his representation.

“This suit is an attempt to shakedown Auburn University,” Jacob said in a written statement. “Instead of recognizing that he broke the rules, Sunny instead lashes out and attacks many members of the Auburn family. It’s sad that it has come to this but principle and decency require us not to give in. Sunny has still not come to terms with the seriousness of his violations and the reason he was terminated with cause in the first place. Instead of attacking others, it would be better if Sunny reflected on his own actions.”

Golloway was 62-50 in two seasons at Auburn after leading Oklahoma to four Super Regional appearances and one trip to the College World Series in his nine years with the Sooners program. In his 19 seasons as a college baseball head coach, Golloway has produced 15 NCAA Regional appearances, 96 All-Conference selection players and 131 Major League Baseball draft picks.

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