Northern Kentucky AD fired over affairs

Cliff Peale, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

Scott Eaton had been having affairs with employees at Northern Kentucky University, and one relationship with at least one student, "for many years" before NKU President Geoff Mearns found out about the conduct March 8.

Mearns said he first heard about the conduct from someone outside the university, then started an investigation. He fired Eaton, NKU's athletics director since 2009, on March 16.

Friday, Mearns went public with the reasons he fired Eaton. He told the school's board of regents those reasons included intimate relationships with four NKU employees, including two working under his authority, and one intimate relationship with an NKU student taking a class Eaton taught.

No other employee has been disciplined, Mearns said.

Three of the female employees, and the involved student, are no longer at NKU. Mearns would not identify any of them.

One other athletics department employee, associate athletics director for compliance Chrissy Soards, resigned March 25, but Mearns would not say if that was connected to the Eaton scandal.

A financial review of the athletics department is ongoing, although Mearns said he had no specific evidence of any financial wrongdoing. He also said Eaton's conduct did not affect NCAA compliance or NKU students.

"This is about the conduct of a single individual," Mearns said. "It's not reflective of the athletic department and it's not reflective of the university."

Mearns also said Eaton misled investigators about his conduct, another reason for his firing.

"It was surprising and disappointing," said Northern Kentucky's new president. "But it was not a difficult decision."

NKU had hired Dinsmore & Shohl for the intial investigation and now has hired the accounting firm of Clark Schaefer Hackett to review the athletics department's finances. That review will take about a month, Mearns said.

Mearns said the review "reflects our collective commitment to ensuring that we understand the full scope of Dr. Eaton's management."

Eaton had headed NKU's sports programs since mid-2009 and worked as an administrator there since 1998.

He supervised NKU's transition this year into Division I athletics, including launching a $6 million fundraising campaign and helping the school become a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Cliff Peale also writes for The Kentucky Enquirer, a Gannett property.