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Several universities in Utah are challenging a state panel’s determination that contracts laying out the terms of college athletes’ compensation for use of their name, image and likeness must be made public, The Deseret News reported.
The State Records Committee in October sided with the newspaper in ruling that the contracts—which govern how much athletes can be paid by companies and other groups for use of their name, image and likeness—are not “education records” protected by the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which shields transcripts and other records related to students’ educations. The state panel based its decision largely on the fact that the institutions do not “maintain” the records, as the federal law requires; the contracts are shared with them for review, but they do not produce or control the documents.
The panel ruled that Utah’s Government Records Access and Management Act, or GRAMA, mandated their release.
“It seems axiomatic that an athlete signing a contract to exploit his or her name, image, and likeness into the marketplace for pecuniary gain loses an expectation of privacy,” the panel ruled.
The five universities—Southern Utah, Utah State, Utah Valley and Weber State Universities, and the University of Utah—appealed the committee’s decision to a state court.
