NMSU, ex-coach settle wrongful termination fit

• Myron MedcalfAug 15, 2025, 03:45 PM ET

  Close

  Myron Medcalf covers college basketball for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2011.

New Mexico State and former guys’s basketball coach Greg Heiar reached a settlement Friday over a wrongful termination suit, his lawyers told ESPN.Fired in 2023, Heiar had implicated the school of making him a” sacrificial lamb “for a list of problems, including a hazing investigation, a self-defense shooting including a player and academic problems.In November 2022,

former Aggies player Mike Peake was lured to the University of New Mexico’s school, where he shot and killed an alleged aggressor after a group of males assaulted him in retaliation for an earlier battle. Peake was not charged in the incident.Editor’s Picks 2 Related However it was the start

of a tumultuous year for the program

and Heiar, who had actually been implicated of leaving town with his team after the shooting as local authorities sought to speak to several players.Later, a hazing investigation involving sexual attack and harassment accusations resulted in a combined$8 million payment to a pair of former players, Shak Odunewu and Deuce Benjamin, and among their fathers.In February 2023, the school fired Heiar– a first-year head coach– and canceled the rest of the 2022-23 season as

information of the hazing investigation came to light. Not long after, Heiar sought an undetermined sum when he sued the school for breach of agreement and actions that were”willful, wanton, and with negligent disregard.”” On behalf of our client, Greg Heiar, we are pleased to reveal that a settlement has been reached in the arbitration of Coach Heiar and Brand-new Mexico State University, “attorneys Ryan P. Danoff and Brett J. Danoff of Danoff Law Practice, P.C., stated in a statement to ESPN.”Coach Heiar is pleased that this matter is now totally and lastly solved to our satisfaction, and delighted to continue his training profession. Coach Heiar wishes NMSU, the guys’s basketball program, and the Aggie fans all the very best going forward.”In 2015, Heiar led Trinity Valley Neighborhood College in Athens, Texas, to the national junior college champion and was named nationwide junior college coach of the year.