ORU Holds Presser To Address Firing Of Scott Sutton

Before he was let go on Monday, Scott Sutton had two years remaining on his contract at Oral Roberts.

President Dr. William Wilson and Athletic Director Mike Carter said they presented him with undisclosed "options" that would allow him to coach one more year and then resign but Sutton refused, Dr. Wilson explained, reading from a prepared statement.

“During the process, Coach Sutton met face-to-face with administration at different times, including as late as this past Sunday to discuss options,” said Wilson. “On Monday, he rejected the options presented to him, thus bringing about his release.”

A.D. Carter added, "He knew that when he rejected the offers, that his services would be terminated."

Also mentioned, the now-infamous tattoo policy.

Dr. Wilson said there was such a policy briefly in the past but that it's no longer in effect. Also, there is no such faith test required for athletes. Rather, it's a Wholeperson Scholarship assessment that may be given to any potential Oral Roberts student.

"Just as Wholeperson Scholarship recipients here at ORU are evaluated in different ways, so every athlete that is recruited to ORU is evaluated in four areas,” Wilson explained.

Those areas are athleticism, academics, social adeptness and spiritual life. This policy began a couple years ago in the athletic department at the urging of Dr. Wilson.

As for what's next, Rodney Perry has been named the interim head coach, and Carter stressed he is a candidate to be the new head coach.

He says he's gotten more than 40 resumes, and he hopes to narrow that down to ten soon and have a final decision by the end of the month.