Bowling Green head coach fired after alleged off-campus incident
Bowling Green fired basketball coach Chris Jans on Thursday, a little less than two weeks after Jans was involved in an incident at an off-campus bar on the night Bowling Green's season ended.
A person involved in the incident told FOXSportsOhio.com that Jans acted "aggressively and inappropriately" toward at least one female bar patron on the night of March 21.
Jans was asked to leave after a woman slapped him, the source said. At least one of his assistant coaches was involved in getting Jans out of the bar.
The news of his firing came late Thursday morning via a university press release that read: "Jans was terminated following an investigation into his recent public conduct. The university concluded that Jans' public conduct failed to meet his obligations as a head coach and the expectations that BGSU Athletics has for its coaches."
The source guessed that Jans and some staffers had been in the bar "for about three hours" and the brief altercation probably actually took place early on March 22. The source said the woman who slapped Jans has not talked with local police or university officials.
Earlier Thursday, Deadspin posted what it claimed to be a 7-second video of the incident at the bar, which apparently shows Jans slapping a woman on the butt, as well as an email exhange between the university and the person who shot the video, along with the actual termination letter from the school to Jans.
Among the findings made by the university outlined in its letter to Jans:
It's not known if university officials saw the cell phone video of the incident. The source estimated that as many as 50 people were in the bar at the time Jans was escorted out.
Bowling Green went 21-12 in Jans' lone season at the helm, getting the school's first postseason win in 40 years with a first-round victory in the CollegeInsider.com tournament. An assistant at Wichita State before signing a six-year contract worth $325,000 per year with Bowling Green last March, Jans became the first Bowling Green coach to win 20 games in his first season at the school.
Jans is not currently facing any charges.
The university said it will have no further comment on the matter.
