MORGANTOWN - The thought herein is that West Virginia University had Rich Rodriguez in a corner, but let the former head football coach to wiggle out easier than perhaps its legal minds should have allowed.

Granted, the state's highest institution of learning is going to get the $4 million buyout from the liquidated damages clause in the last contract he signed with his alma mater. But it won't be clear profit.

Under the late Tuesday night agreement, the University of Michigan, which hired Rodriguez last December, will pay $2.5 million by July 31. He will pay the remaining $1.5 million in three annual installments of $500,000 beginning in January 2010.

What's more, U-M also will pay Rodriguez's legal fees. He's quoted as saying, "We've got to do what's right, and we feel for us (this is right)."

WVU is responsible for its legal fees from its lingering lawsuit against Rodriguez. Another question is did the plaintiff agree to write off the penalty of some $300 a day during the months that none of the buyout had been paid?

I have not seen where those matters were answered publicly. And I'm told that legal fees can add up in high-profile cases such as this one, which was in its eighth month.

Didn't the Big East litigation against the Atlantic Coast Conference litigation cost West Virginia and the other football members about $2 million each?

Make no mistake, it's good for both sides that the Rodriguez case was settled without having to go to trial. Members of the WVU legal team have said all along that they had no doubt their solid case would be the winner.

But there are those who think West Virginia didn't get as much in the settlement as it apparently did. Rodriguez and Michigan obviously were in a mood, along with West Virginia, to put this behind them at this time.

Having done that, the lawyers eliminated the necessity of taking scheduled depositions from U-M President Mary Sue Coleman and Athletic Director Bill Martin, who met with Rodriguez while he was still coaching the Mountaineers, or Rodriguez's wife, Rita.

But you've got to give outgoing President Mike Garrison and his people credit for insisting all along that WVU wanted the full $4 million.

It will be interesting to see how much of that is left after payment of legal fees and whether the money will go to the athletic department or elsewhere in the university.