Sportico analyzes the debate about public access to contractual information between the companies and individual players involved in NIL deals:
"In April, Sportico reported on what a number of college head coaches earned in 'athletically related' outside income, which the NCAA requires athletic department employees to disclose to their institutions on an annual basis. The information was gleaned through freedom of information requests to public universities, many of which turned over copies of the income disclosure forms.
In a similar way, could media outlets, industry competitors and curious college sports fans soon obtain the financial details of college athlete endorsement deals—at least for those who attend public schools?
"Legal experts note that there are already laws and norms in place that will do some work in concealing this information—at least in its unredacted form.
"Many state public record statutes include exemptions for materials that are deemed to contain student information or company trade secrets, both of which are likely to be weighed by university record custodians.
In denying public record requests, schools routinely cite the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which states that federal funds can be withheld from any university that, in policy or practice, releases 'education records' or non-directory, 'personally identifiable information' of students to unauthorized parties.
"LeRoy Rooker, the former director of the Department of Education's Family Policy Compliance Office, says that college athlete NIL deals would fall squarely within FERPA's scope of protection.
"'Once a copy of [an endorsement contract] is given to and maintained by the institution, it becomes an "education record," because it fits that broad definition, and it doesn't fit under any of the exceptions,' said Rooker, who now serves as senior fellow for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
"But Frank LoMonte, director of Florida's Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, said that while schools may be inclined to claim a FERPA-related exemption for this information, they shouldn't be.
"'FERPA has been interpreted to say that, if you hold a job that can only be held by virtue of being a student, like a graduate teaching assistant, then your employment records are part of your federally protected "education record,"'LoMonte said. 'I do not think an athlete endorsement agreement qualifies as a FERPA record because the position of '"endorser" is not a position exclusively reserved for students.'
"That said, LoMonte notes that judges have typically sided with schools in public record disputes over the parameters of student privacy.
"LoMonte, a leading national advocate for the free speech rights of college athletes, says from a public interest standpoint, there's much greater value in knowing the side deals of coaches and athletic officials.
"'At a state university, those people are government employees drawing a nice healthy government paycheck,' LoMonte said.
"Then again, LoMonte thinks there's a 'real and compelling public interest' in the forces that may threaten the 'integrity of the sport.'
"'Billions of dollars are changing hands on sports gambling, and if Soprano Family Waste Management is putting college players on the payroll, we probably need to know that,' LoMonte said.
"Others, however, argues that disclosure of this kind is both an unfairly invasive and ultimately impotent means to curb impermissible benefits to college athletes.
"'If schools and boosters want to violate the rules, they will violate the rules, and most of the time, with impunity. It is happening now, and it will continue to happen so long as there are restrictions on paying the players."
