 | Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177 |
Faced with its own wrongdoing in violating Florida open-record laws, the NCAA did what it does best: be a bully.
Instead of saying it would find a way – like every other company and private agency doing business with public agencies in Florida – to work within the law to accomplish its mission, NCAA vice president of Division I governance David Berst said it might have to punish FSU further.
"Possibly you would have to withdraw the usual due process opportunity for such an institution," Berst said.
Due process is a legal right granted under the U.S. Constitution that the government must be fair in taking away other rights from citizens through law or legal proceedings.
The NCAA, of course, is not a government. It does not make law. It is elected by no one. It has no more right to violate the law than any other entity doing business with our state.
So what it means by saying it might take away FSU’s due process is it still feels it is above the law. It might decide to punish FSU because FSU and the state of Florida insisted the NCAA follow the law.
Just a short while ago, Leon County Circuit Court Judge John Cooper ordered the immediate release of documents sought by the Tallahassee Democrat and other media outlets. Some 26 media outlets filed suit to force this to happen. Going to court to protect the public’s right to access public documents is something none of us could afford to do right now, but the NCAA gave us no choice.
The NCAA said it will appeal the ruling.
The documents have to do with information exchanged between the NCAA and FSU in the aftermath of an academic-cheat scandal at FSU and subsequent sanctions. We filed suit after we learned how the NCAA forced FSU to sign a confidentiality agreement to violate Florida’s open-records laws. In order to prepare its appeal of sanctions, FSU had to know the NCAA response to FSU’s filing.
The only way to do that was to go to a password-protected Web site. The only way to get the password was to promise not to print anything or copy it, just view it. In other words, to defend itself against more severe punishment by the NCAA, FSU had to promise to break the law.
We asked the NCAA to explain to us how it could do this, given Florida’s open-records laws. Getting a response was like pulling teeth and then a spokesperson would only say it was "policy."
So the media sued, believing the public’s right to access to its government and its records is more important in a democracy than the NCAA’s right to bully member institutions in dark, closed rooms, albeit in this case a digital backroom.
On Thursday, Cooper ruled what everyone already knew: The records the media has requested are public records under Florida law.
To which, Berst said, that the ruling could "rip the heart out of the NCAA."
That statement seems a bit overdramatic, a bit court-TV-like. But the truth is to the NCAA it probably is not. You see, what we learned during these proceedings was that the NCAA has been operating this way for a long time. Its secretive Web-site workaround of Florida law is not new. Even before it had the Web site, it would require member institutions to visit NCAA offices to view documents to prevent public knowledge of public institutions’ business.
The computer system just reduced the expense of flying for most institutions.
No one wants to "rip the heart out of the NCAA." What we do want is for its heart to be in the right place and its actions on the right side of the law.
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