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Kent State parted ways with football coach Kenni Burns in 2025. He spent just two seasons at the helm before being cut loose.
The coach is now suing the Golden Flashes for wrongful termination and breach of contract. He alleges shady activity which allowed the school to fire him for cheap.
Burns took over for predecessor Sean Lewis after a 5-7 campaign. He failed to meet expectations. Across two seasons, his teams went a combined 1-23.
His tenure ended after a winless 2024 stint. He was paid pennies to leave.
Kenni Burns has filed a lawsuit.
ESPN broke the story this week. It detailed Burns’ conspiracy accusations in a piece on Tuesday.
The coach cites a number of reasons for his wrongful termination case. The first relates to his “significant and repetitive violations of the purchasing card.”
The university claims that he misused his school issued credit card on more than one occasion. They also cited a conflict of interest linked to his acceptance of loans issued by a Kent State booster.
Burns’ house flooded forcing a relocation. He was strapped for cash, which he says was partially the result of the school not paying his full salary. His lawyer states that he was not paid for an entire month at one point during his tenure.
Burns says he repaid the loans, with interest, across a 14-month period.
Investigators looked into the payments. Burns was not informed of their findings. He also claims that the school approved the financial help and was fully aware of the loans.
Kent State will not comment with the lawsuit ongoing. Burns feels that he was slighted.
Furthermore, he claims that the university formed a “malicious scheme” to force his ouster. While signing an extension in early 2024, an amendment was made as it relates to his buyout.
Previously, he was owed a percentage of his remaining contract, which ran through 2028, if fired. The wording in the new deal was changed to put the Golden Flashes on the hook for only a percentage of his ’24 base salary.
That decreased the payout from an estimated $2 million to just $371,000.
Burns says the buyout agreement was never discussed. It was his understanding that no changes to the termination language were made. His agent did not read the fine print.
Upon learning of the amendment, his agent reached out. He was told, allegedly, that the wording would be changed to reflect the initial terms. They the school backtracked.
Kent State asked Burns to “quietly walk away.”
They made an offer, which started at five figures according to the lawsuit, and asked him to leave. When he refused, the offer went up to $371,000, which Kenni Burns again turned down.
Kent State would not rectify the situation. Burns was formally fired in April of 2025.
He now seeks full compensation. The coach says he was not given proper training on credit card use. He also believes that there was a department-wide push to force him out at a much lower price.
“People can defend those actions to say, ‘Well, Kenni and his agents messed up. They should read the print,’ but that’s not a defense when you are talking about the grand scheme,” said Burns’ representation.
“They actually communicated with them and said, ‘Hey, this is wrong. We got to fix this. This is not what we discussed.’ And there was delay after delay after delay, and then the [2024] season didn’t go as planned…
“The choice is theirs. Nobody wants to waste taxpayer money on a lawsuit that could have been settled appropriately. Kenni is in a situation where, because of the way they terminated him and the leaking of the report, the confidential report, has completely disturbed his chances to coaching.
“We waited long enough, and a year out of coaching is too much. So, if we need to try this case, we’ll be ready.”
It will be interesting to see if he receives the amount he believes he’s owed.