There is a combination of self-insurance and a very large excess policy from what I know, but do not have exact figures.
I have no direct experience or knowledge, but that is at odds with what I’ve heard from folks very close to the situation.
I will address a couple of things which will include attorneys fees, insurance, and punitive damages. I retired six years ago, so my thoughts may be dated, but I was on the civil defense side. If I am wrong, I hope someone will correct me. I do not know the policy limits, the self isured retainer (sir) or the contract languauge, or the pleadings, but I will speak in some generalities.
Punitive Damages. These are not covered by insurance. It is against public policy. In Illinois, you cannot seek punitive damages in your initial complaint. You have to bring a motion and supply the court with evidnec that the defendant acted intentionally, wilfully or wantonly, or with a reckless disregard for reasonable conduct.
Insurance. I did not do insurance coverage work, but was involved with insurance coverage issues. When one is involved in an accident, the insurance carrier will pay for the costs of the litigation, your attorney's fees and and a judgment up to the policy limits. If you have an umbrella policy, this will not come into play until you exhaust the underlying policy limits. The umbrella carrier could be the same company or a different one. For years, I had American Family as my underlying carrierand AIG as my umbrella carrier. Generally, American Family would be on the hook for all the attorney fees, even though AIG might have to pay from its policy. There are plenty of exceptions and manuevers for responsbility of the attorney fees, but there are so many variables that it is not worth exploring
I can think of three diferent insurance coverages that might be involved for NU: general liability, errors and omissions and/or directors and officers, and employment insurance for race claims, discrim and etc. All these policies will have specfic exclusions, such as breach of contract, and etc. NU has to tender to each of these carriers on each of these cases. The carriers then have to respond which can be acceptance of the claim, acceptanceanc with a reservation of rights if facts come out which changes the circumstances, or a denial of coverage fo the claim.
For an entity like NU, I would expect the SIR might be different on each policy, but I will use $3 million. From there, one company may be the next level to $5 million, and then excess insurance can go into many layers to a huge number. The insurance companies will do everything to avoid their policy limits being triggered. Thus, under my scenario, NU will be responsbiel for all attorneys fees, costs and a judgment up to $3 million. Let's say a player hits NU for $2.5 million judgment. Northwesten will have to pay for $2.5 million and all the attorney fees and costs associated with it. The next level of insurance is not triggered. NU could spend $4 million in satisfying the judgment and defending itself.
Attorney Fees NU has to defend itself. It gets interesting when you have the players' lawsuits which I guess names Schill, Fitz, Gragg, Phillips, Morty and etc. both as agents and individaully. Generally, you try to put all the defendants under one firm and defend them, but there are so many conflicts of interest between the defendants and Northwestern. On the players' suits, they could be open to punitive damages. If I am Phillips, I tender my defense to NU, but demand that they provide me with my own, independent counsel to protect me and my family. I have no idea what the insurance policies or their employment agreements provide, but NU could be on the hook for the counsel for all the individual defendants. The attorney fees will be quite large.
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