We’ve written recently about the multiple headaches facing the Nevada athletic department, including the recent arrest of a men’s basketball starter for confronting football players with a gun at the school’s recreation center and the AD’s sad attempt to shift the focus to the media. Now it looks like the Wolf Pack will need to go into spin overdrive over another, recurring issue: the AP reports that former women’s soccer coach Terri Patraw has rejected the school’s $151,000 settlement offer and will go to trial with her unlawful termination lawsuit.

Back in 2007, Patraw offered her resignation as part of what she called a “bargaining tool.” And an unsuccessful one at that, as the school quickly accepted her resignation and moved.  Afterwards, Patraw filed a lawsuit claiming that the real reason she was let go was because she had reported violations of federal Title IX rules by Nevada to the NCAA, something that Nevada denies.

So why offer her the settlement if Nevada says they did nothing wrong? School lawyer Kent Robison told the NEVADA SAGEBRUSH that the offer had nothing to do with admitting wrongdoing or trying to make the case go away - it was simply a matter of making a fair offer to stop the case that he knew Patraw would turn down:

“It’s not to shut her up,” Robison said. “No one can shut her up.”

Well, that’s sort of what Nevada feels about Patraw. While they are claiming that she won’t “shut up,” KOLO-TV says they are also claiming that she accepted hush money from a former assistant basketball coach to not report alleged NCAA rules violations. Complicating matters is that Patraw and the ex-assistant coach apparently had a relationship that ended with Patraw being accused of stalking Dedrique Taylor after finding him with another woman.

And so concludes another episode of “As The Wolf Pack Turns.” Remember, the lawyer’s fees to defend this case are coming from Nevada taxpayers, meaning that even if no one in the state cares about women’s soccer, they sure are paying the price tag for it.

(One note: Patraw has her own blog, which is less about herself and more posting articles about people getting fired for being whistleblowers, etc. Also, after reading post after post, one is left with the conclusion that Patraw might be completely off her rocker.)