Unless Marvelous Robon breaks his silence or P-Rod says something indignant and irresistible — and I wouldn’t bet against the latter — it’s probably time to end to our focus on the long-lasting, rapidly-concluded WVU v. Rodriguez lawsuit. Yesterday was fun and funny and wrought with good content and good comments. There was a need to not only present all of those things, but to do it at that moment and get it out of the way. And it was great. Just great.

But before we move on, a few more points:

– If yesterday was a bad day in P-Rod’s office, imagine the mood in John Beilein’s office. Not only is the University of Michigan paying $2.5 million to the buyout, but when A.D. Bill Martin announced he’d hired Beilein two Aprils ago, one of the first things he said was the buyout was Beilein’s responsibility. True, Beilein negotiated $1 million off his sum and Rodriguez and UM will have to pay every penny of the $4 milion, but Beilein and P-Rod are both on the hook for the same amount. Trouble is, Beilein’s $1.5 million was due over three years. Rodriguez has five years.

– UM is not innocent in all of this. Let’s accept that. The President and A.D. hid behind the general counsel, declined requests to voluntarily submit themselves to depositions and repeatedly said they had no knowledge relevant to the case. WVU disagreed to the extent it was headed to court Wednesday to win the right to subpoena the President and A.D. WVU was going to win that right and UM knew the world would soon learn it did have knowledge relevant to the case.

They previously had declined requests to be deposed and claimed they had nothing to do with the lawsuit, but WVU discovered Monday night the terms sheet drafts showed UM agreed to pay 75 percent of the buyout up to $2.5 million.

WVU was confident a settlement agreement would be reached, perhaps before Wednesday’s hearing, because UM wouldn’t want to subject Martin and Coleman to depositions.

– Team Rodriguez had known for quite some time its case was not a winning case.

Flaherty said Rodriguez’s attorneys made the first overture to settle last month, but it wasn’t nearly what WVU wanted.

“It was a figure we rejected outright without even making a counter proposal,” he said.

It was, however, the first sign of a weakened defense Rodriguez’s side had pursued vigorously, but without any great results.

“They had the opportunity to do this earlier, but it’s clear what the lawyers were trying to do was establish or create or manufacture a defense that didn’t exist in hopes that West Virginia would cave in and resolve the case for something less than full value,” Flaherty said.

– There was no reasonable way for WVU to collect legal fees because P-Rod’s contract didn’t have a provision saying he’d pay legal fees if he one day breached the contract, was taken to court and lost the lawsuit. Additionally, WVU isn’t concerned about not collecting the interest on the $1.3 million Rodriguez didn’t pay by Jan. 17, as his contract stated.

WVU also dropped its pursuit of interest, but did so by reasoning UM’s payment is significantly greater than the $1.3 million Rodriguez did not pay within 30 days of his resignation, plus interest.

“The interest right now is something in the neighborhood of $55,000, and we told them all along that if they were willing to resolve this quickly, we’d be willing not to pursue interest,” Flaherty said.

– With that in mind, the $2.5 million UM will pay by the end of this month is still greater than the $1.3 million plus interest and WVU’s legal fees — and the legal fees could be steep.

Flaherty said WVU’s legal team will be “fairly compensated” and a bill will be turned in soon. WVU’s attorneys, ranging from assistants to associates, were being paid between $175 and $245 per hour.

“We’ve kept track of the time and the expenses and we’ll submit an itemized bill broken down to tenths of an hour – every six minutes – for everything we did to date, who did it and how much time it took, plus the expenses we incurred defending the university,” Flaherty said.

It could be a steep bill. Flaherty said just expenses – travel, hotels, filing fees, paying court reporters and videographers, etc. – will be in excess of $35,000.