Two years ago, former USC assistant Todd McNair sued the NCAA for libel, slander, breach of contract and negligence in the Reggie Bush case. The suit also alleged that NCAA officials “arbitrarily and capriciously decided to ruin his career to further their own agenda.”
According to USCFootball.com, two newspapers -- the New York Times and Los Angeles Times -- at least want to see if McNair was right. The two papers have reportedly filed an application to intervene with the California Court of Appeals asking that the appellate record in the McNair vs. NCAA case be unsealed.
“On June 3, 2013, the NCAA filed an extraordinarily overbroad and improper sealing motion in this Court, which asks to keep secret seven hundred pages [emphasis not added] of the appellate record, as well as to redact key portions of its opening brief to this Court,” the argument states.
Furthermore, “The NCAA’s remarkable bid for secrecy comes in a case of substantial public interest... the NCAA delayed until the last possible day to file its brief on appeal -- even to the point that this Court warned that the appeal might be dismissed if the NCAA did not file an Opening Brief by June 5 -- meaning that the records relied on by the trial court have been kept under seal for more than six months.”
USCFootball.com also has a link to the application.
Last November, a report from CBSSports.com claimed an NCAA staff member and two non-voting members of the Committee on Infractions attempted to influence voting members of the COI. Emails allegedly showed “ill will or hatred” toward McNair as well. The NCAA, according to the report, desperately tried to keep the files from seeing the light of day.
McNair did not have his contract renewed with the Trojans in 2010 after the NCAA concluded he had knowledge of Bush’s dealings with two would-be agents, who the NCAA found had given the former Trojan RB upwards of $300,000 in illegal benefits. McNair was given a show-cause penalty as part of the fallout.
What would the opening of the records would do now for USC? Tough to tell at the moment, but given the severity of the sanctions handed down in the case, there’s little doubt they should be made public.
