MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- A lawyer on the West Virginia University Board of Governors said in a deposition that he suggested the $4 million damages clause in Rich Rodriguez's contract, a renewal agreement the football coach signed just four months before resigning for a job at Michigan.

Steve Farmer said the figure he proposed in December 2006, after Rodriguez turned down an offer from Alabama, was double the amount of the previous contract, but a number he felt would protect WVU if Rodriguez left early.

Under questioning for the lawsuit WVU has filed to recover that money, Farmer said he worried about "demonstrable damages'' such as lost marketing opportunities, television revenues and ticket sales.

At his suggestion, the $4 million dropped over time. If Rodriguez had left during the second year of his new contract, he would have owed only $2 million.

"That was my sense of fairness,'' he said in the deposition, given in June and released late Monday. "I mean, I just thought it was fair and he thought it was fair.''

Farmer conceded Rodriguez initially balked.

"He first told me, 'I don't want a $4 million buyout and you don't need it, Steve, because you have my word, I'm staying here for life.' I said, 'Well, then if I have your word and you're going to stay here then you don't need to be concerned about it.'''

Rodriguez, who signed in August 2007, then resigned Dec. 15, now refuses to pay. He says he was pressured to sign, ultimately induced by what he claims were unkept promises. His outstanding demands included his own paid-subscription Web site and more money for assistant coaches.

Rodriguez's lawyers argue WVU has suffered no quantifiable damage from his departure, an assertion Farmer denied.

"Rich Rodriguez is, by evidence that Michigan would hire him, a top echelon coach, and we lost a top echelon coach,'' he testified. "And it's incomprehensible to me that anyone that follows university business or NCAA sports could argue that we are better off today than we were when Rich Rodriguez was our coach, and that is damage.''

WVU released a total of five deposition transcripts, including that of assistant athletic director Mike Parsons, who emerges in the documents as a key source of Rodriguez's frustration with WVU. E-mails obtained by The Associated Press earlier this year showed the relationship between Rodriguez and the athletic department had been disintegrating for months.

Farmer even told President Mike Garrison and athletic director Ed Pastilong that Parsons should be fired.

"I don't think he's good for the department,'' Farmer testified, describing what he calls a "culture of no.''

"I mean, if there's a question, the answer from Mike Parsons is no. It's not, 'Well, what do we need to do to figure that out, or is that a good idea or a bad idea, (it's) no.''

Pastilong "told me that Mike was misunderstood, that he was a very effective number two guy and was well-regarded here and there and everywhere else,'' Farmer said. "I mean, he and I just had a major disagreement on that point.''

Parsons, meanwhile, testified he too thought $4 million "was a fair and reasonable number,'' but conceded he's never attempted to calculate actual costs to the athletic department after a coach's departure.

He was then asked about Rodriguez's replacement, Bill Stewart, in the context of damages. Stewart "does not have the successful track record that Coach Rodriguez had in place over the last three or four years,'' Parsons said, but was hired because he was "the best fit.''

"So, isn't it true that your choosing of a replacement could have a significant impact on ticket sales?'' attorney Marv Robon asked. "And if you picked the wrong replacement it could have an adverse impact right?''

Parsons agreed.

"Right,'' Robon said. "And you expect Rodriguez to pay for your mistake in choosing a coach?''

"What we're asking is damages that we projected could happen with Rodriguez leaving,'' Parsons responded.

During his seven years at WVU, Rodriguez was always asking for something more, Parsons said. That buttressed WVU chief of staff Craig Walker's assertion that even if his demands had been met Dec. 15, Rodriguez likely would have come up with a new list.

Parsons said WVU agreed to a multimillion-dollar locker room renovation even though he felt it was not needed "because coach Rodriguez wanted it and made it as part of his negotiations.''

Parsons also acknowledged opposing the coach's demand for a Web site, which would be "damaging to the athletic department as a whole'' by competing with the Mountaineer Sports Network, which Parsons runs.

"There was no need for two. If you were going to share revenue, if you're going to share advertising and if it was all about getting the message out, the message could be out on our regular web site to a much broader number,'' Parsons said. "I mean, our current Web site ranks ninth in the country in its subscription piece of it. ... If we need to get a message out we have the vehicle to do that.''