Sportico reports that a second lawsuit has been filed to resolve a dispute involving access to student athletes' name, image, and likeness contracts and related university records:
"The debate over the public's right to know what college athletes earn through their name, image and likeness has now moved past the merely theoretical stage. A pair of public records lawsuits have been filed against two SEC powers that refused requests to disclose their athletes' NIL contracts.
"The latest legal action came last week, when the Athens Banner-Herald went to court against the University of Georgia Athletic Association, which denied copies of the NIL disclosure forms Bulldogs athletes are required to fill out. The documents, like those for other universities, include information about the financial terms of publicity deals, as well as how they were arranged and whether an online NIL marketplace was used.
"Georgia denied the request, citing state and federal student privacy laws, specifically the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. FERPA, which states that certain federal funds will be withheld from educational institutions that permit the release of 'education records' without student or parent consent, has often been more broadly interpreted by schools as the basis not to disclose any non-'directory' student information.
"The Banner-Herald's lawsuit comes two weeks after a Louisiana judge ruled against a local CBS affiliate that had sued LSU over copies of its athlete NIL agreements.
In its complaint, Gray Media, the parent company of WAFB-TV Baton Rouge, argued that because Louisiana's NIL law does not specifically include a public records exception, whatever relevant documents the university possessed should be subject to disclosure.
"The petition, filed in September, noted that LSU athletics is 'a public entity of great public interest,' which raised more than $157 million in revenue In 2018-19. It further sought to make the case that NIL agreements were 'business records,' not 'education records,' and that there was an 'overwhelming public interest' in their release that trumped athletes' privacy concerns."
