Not sure I beleive this. After all the reporting nationwide for weeks he was going to SLU, the team was "blindsided" when he said he was leaving? I mean, if he flat out said to the team in black and white he's not leaving no matter what, then yeah he lied and they can feel blindsided. But knowing the whole time he's leaving why would he risk alienating the entire team--especially since presumably he wants to take some of them with him?
As the hours go by this whole thing is getting less and less relevant and will fizzle out, Angie/Deb will promote Graves or hire someone else, the portal will be busy with incoming and outgoing Sycamores, and that'll be that.