CHAMPAIGN — For the University of Illinois women's basketball program, $651,671.03 is a lot of money.
It could buy more than a year's worth of team travel. It could pay for one year, eight months and seven days of coach Matt Bollant's salary.
And it's what a racial discrimination and abuse investigation by Chicago law firm Pugh, Jones & Johnson will cost UI athletics' least-profitable program — women's basketball, which lost $2.1 million during the 2013-14 school year, according to the most recent filing with the NCAA.
For its 67-day probe, Pugh, Jones and Johnson was paid hourly rates of $375-$425 for work by partners, $215-$300 by associates/staff attorneys and $110-$115 by paralegals.