Tiger Rag magazine executive editor Todd Horne is among a trio of Baton Rouge reporters who are suing LSU for refusing to disclose records of public money it’s paying to student athletes. Piper Hutchinson of Louisiana Illuminator and Chris Nakamoto of WAFB-TV are the other two. They’re being represented by Scott Sternberg, who says while the game may have changed, the law has stayed the same.
“Since the advent of NIL and revenue-sharing, it’s a whole new world,” Sternberg said. “But what’s not new is the law that says we are supposed to see how government funds are being spent.”
The owner of Tiger Rag magazine also owns Louisiana Radio Network.
Sternberg says Horne, Hutchinson and Nakamoto want to know how much public money is going to the student athletes – and, specifically, how much to which ones.
“The baseball team is really good, how much do they get,” Sternberg said.
Sternberg says other schools in Louisiana are being just as evasive with this information as LSU, and this is likely happening at other schools across the country. He makes it clear that this lawsuit is only about public money.
“If this is money is private money, we don’t get to see that, we’ve never been able to see that,” Sternberg said.
LSU lawyers claim the records are exempt from public disclosure under federal student privacy law, a state law that exempts Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) agreements, and because disclosing the information would result in a competitive disadvantage for LSU.
Neither LSU’s attorneys nor athletic director Verge Ausberry and athletic department spokesman Zach Greenwell had any immediate comments on the lawsuit.
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