Former UK men’s basketball coach Billy Gillispie has filed a petition to move a lawsuit UK filed against him in Franklin County Circuit Court to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky in Frankfort.

Gillispie claims that as a resident of Texas, the case should be moved to a federal court because it involves parties in multiple states, said Kevin Henry, one of the outside trial council members for UK.

The lawsuit questions whether Gillispie’s “memorandum of understanding” between he and Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart constitutes a formal contract and whether UK owes Gillispie $6 million under that agreement. Gillispie was fired in March, two years into a seven-year agreement to coach the basketball team.

Gillispie filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas on May 27 against the UK Athletics Association alledging breach of contract and fraud. The next day, UK countered Gillispie’s suit in Franklin Circuit Court.

Since May, UK has maintained Gillispie’s federal suit in Dallas was filed against the wrong entity because UK — not its athletics association — was Gillispie’s employer.

The next step for Gillispie will be to file a copy of the notice in state court. The university will then have 30 days to file a motion to remand the case back to state court, Henry said.

Henry said the case was scheduled to take place in Franklin County Circuit Court initially because Franklin County Circuit Court has the exclusive authority regarding all contracts with state agencies and the university is regarded as a state agency.

Calls to Darran Winslow, Gillispie’s Louisville attorney, were not returned.