
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 5, 1990                   TAG: 9004060798
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

VALVANO SEEKS TO PLEAD CASE

North Carolina State and Jim Valvano could be close to reaching a financial settlement, the coach's lawyer said. Valvano, meanwhile, continues to seek a chance to speak before the school's Board of Trustees.

"My feeling is we're not terribly far apart," Woody Webb, a Raleigh lawyer, said Wednesday. "What I know and I will say is that . . . Valvano has come more than halfway."

Valvano's base salary is $100,035, but it is estimated he makes several times more in product endorsements.

Webb said a compromise proposal would be delivered to the university's lawyers, who have told Valvano he can't remain as coach. Webb has said N.C. State is softening on its initial offer of a $106,000 payoff but wouldn't give specifics.

Valvano's contract calls for a $500,000 payment if he is fired without cause, but Webb said, "It's safe to say he's willing to come off that."

"He doesn't want to stick it to the university that's been good to him," he said. "By the same token, he's been good to it, too."

Webb said Valvano wants to deliver the settlement proposal in person. In a letter sent to the school's lawyer on Wednesday, Webb asks that Valvano be allowed to plead his case before the trustees.

Howard Manning, a lawyer hired by the school to handle this case, and chief deputy attorney general Andy Vanore haven't acted on Valvano's requests to be heard by trustees, Webb said.

Meanwhile, N.C. State guard Chris Corchiani continued to press Wednesday for an exemption from an NCAA rule requiring a transferring player sit out a year before playing with another university. Corchiani, who has said he likely would leave N.C. State if Valvano is fired, filed an appeal Tuesday with the NCAA Rules Interpretation Committee through his lawyer, Mark Rodgers. A hearing will be held by telephone on April 13.

In a telephone interview from West Palm Beach, Fla., Rodgers said it would be unfair for Corchiani, who will be a senior, to sit out a year before playing for another team.

"For him to transfer to another school and sit out a year means he will have to stay in school one more year than he'd anticipated," Rodgers said. "It's almost like a one-year probation to the kid."

by CNB