(Radio Iowa) – The University of Iowa’s Athletics Department will be covering the entire cost of this week’s legal settlement with ex-football players. The announcement came at an early (Thursday) morning House subcommittee meeting on a bill to force the university to make that move, rather than use two million dollars in taxpayer money to cover nearly half of the payout. Keith Saunders is chief government relations officer for the board that oversees the university. He read legislators a statement from University of Iowa president Barbara Wilson.

Wilson expressed appreciation to Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird for negotiating the settlement and to the State Appeal Board for approving the agreement on Tuesday. These were Wilson’s first public comments on the settlement. Saunders read all three sentences aloud, including this final sentence from Wilson.

An statement from the university emphasized that the Athletics Department “is a self-sustaining unit that does not receive tuition revenue or taxpayer support. Representative Carter Nordman, a Republican from Adel, says taxpayers should never have been required to cover this.

Nordman said also…

Attorneys for a dozen former University of Iowa players who alleged the Hawkeye football program was a racially hostile environment will be paid about half of the settlement and the 12 players will split the rest equally.