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Court Dismisses Houston Nutt's Lawsuit Against Ole Miss

Houston Nutt's lawsuit against Ole Miss was dismissed Wednesday.

A judge has granted a motion to dismiss Houston Nutt's lawsuit against Ole Miss and the Board of Trustees for Institutes of Higher Learning, Antonio Morales of The Clarion-Ledgerreports.

The lawsuit, filed on July 12 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, alleges the school defamed Nutt's character in connection with an NCAA investigation, thus breaching his severance agreement.

The motion filed to dismiss the lawsuit says the university and IHL are not citizens. The order to dismiss says "since the issues are not between 'citizens of different states,' the federal court lacks jurisdiction under the pleadings as presented."

Nutt's lawyer Tom Mars released a statement saying, "All the lawyers involved in this case know we could have easily avoided this jurisdictional defense and stayed in federal court by just suing the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation and dropping Ole Miss and the Board from the lawsuit." The statement goes on to say that they wanted athletic director Ross Bjork and the university to have a chance to "fully participate in the lawsuit" and they plan to refile in state court with more details next week if the two sides cannot agree on a settlement.

Examining Houston Nutt's complicated lawsuit against Ole Miss

Nutt was reportedly seeking an apology from the school and $500,000 to help fund a commission on integrity in Mississippi college sports.