Reporters sue LSU for records on public payments to student-athletes

BATON ROUGE, La. — Reporters from three different Louisiana news organizations have filed suit against LSU for refusing to disclose records of the public dollars it paid its student athletes.

The Louisiana Illuminator’s Piper Hutchinson, WAFB’s Chris Nakamoto and Tiger Rag’s Todd Horne have joined forces in order to protect a bedrock principle of the Louisaina Public Records Law: how the state’s dollars are spent. All three sought, via the Louisiana Public Records Law, records seeking details of the university’s direct payments to student athletes.

In general, money paid to student-athletes is paid directly from the university and is considered public dollars. LSU is funded by taxpayer dollars appropriated from the legislature and its own-generated income like tuition, ticket prices and other fees, which is also spent with legislative approval.

“Louisianians have a right to know how public money is being spent,” Hutchinson said.

Scott Sternberg of Sternberg, Naccari & White, LLC is representing the reporters. He filed their lawsuit Thursday with the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge.

“The expenditure of public funds is what our transparency laws are all, at their bedrock, about,” Sternberg said. “It’s usually not even a question that the money our state spends is public record. Here, it shouldn’t be – LSU is a public body spending public money.

“These news organizations have joined together to file suit because they believe the public’s right to know how our money is spent is sacred. NIL and revenue sharing may have changed a lot about college athletics, but it did not change the fundamental, constitutional rights of access that we in Louisiana have earned the hard way—in this state, public funds mean public records,” Sternberg added.

Sternberg’s filing is attached to this release.

This lawsuit is one of the first of its kind filed following the landmark House v. NCAA settlement last June, which allowed universities to share up to $20.5 million in revenue with student athletes.

Since then, universities have sought to shield how much public money they are paying to student athletes.

“Petitioners seek records that concern LSU’s use of public dollars to make revenue-sharing payments to student athletes. The public has a compelling interest in understanding how much public money is being expended and to whom,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit specifically seeks records related to payments made with university funds. It does not seek records related to athletes’ name, image and likeness (NIL) deals with private businesses.

**Press Release**