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The National Collegiate Athletic Association should have stuck with athletics rather than play the costly game it lost in trying to buck Florida's public records laws.
The NCAA had to pay $260,000 in media outlet legal fees and Florida State University paid another $65,000 because of efforts to keep records about a FSU academic scandal from becoming public.
Morris Publishing Co., parent company of The Times-Union, is one of a dozen news organizations that fought efforts to make the records off limits to the public.
The company recently received a $3,122.44 check from the NCAA and FSU as reimbursement for the money it advanced to fight the secrecy in court.
COURT UPHOLDS THE LAW
The money came after the Florida Supreme Court upheld a lower court's ruling that neither the NCAA nor the university could legally withhold some documents related to the NCAA investigation, which ultimately led to the forfeiture of 12 football wins under former FSU coach Bobby Bowden.
The NCAA went to great lengths to conceal the documents relating to FSU's appeal of the NCAA's decision. In order to sidestep the public records law, the NCAA provided FSU with some documents in read-only format on a secure website that did not allow FSU to download or print them.
The NCAA argued it was a private organization that didn't fall under Florida's public records laws. Since it had created this special website, the NCAA's absurd logic went, its response to FSU didn't fall under the public records law, either.
EVASIVE TACTIC
FSU said it couldn't provide the documents in question because it did not physically have them - a disingenuous argument.
To the credit of FSU's leaders, even they objected to the lengths that the NCAA went to keep them from complying with the law. FSU filed a cross-claim against the NCAA at one point.
Fortunately, state courts didn't buy the NCAA's argument, and now the NCAA and FSU are paying for it.
Government information that belongs to the public shouldn't fall in a dark hole just because a private organization is involved in some way. Sometimes it takes a lawsuit to keep the public's right-to-know intact. The dozen news organizations that launched it picked a fight worth fighting.
Florida taxpayers have a right to know just what sort of academic shenanigans were taking place at their taxpayer-supported state university. Using a private organization as a cover for that information did not stand up to legal scrutiny.
This case matters more than first meets the eye. It could help force the sunshine on NCAA investigations in other states for their taxpayer-supported colleges and universities.
Just because the NCAA rules most college athletics doesn't make it master of state open government laws, as well.
