One of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against LSU over the use of public dollars to pay student athletes through revenue sharing explains the reasoning for the suit. Tiger Rag Executive Editor Todd Horne says the lawsuit is attempting to get clarity on whether public funds that LSU’s athletic department pays to student-athletes, as part of revenue sharing, are subject to the public records law.
“The only way, under the law, that that can be achieved, is to ask a judge to rule on it. There is no other recourse,” Horne explained.
The landmark federal case known as the House Settlement allows universities, starting with this athletic season, to pay their student-athletes directly. Each university athletic department can spend up to $20.5 million in direct payments to student athletes.
Horne says LSU rejected Tiger Rag, the Louisiana Illuminator and WAFB-TV’s Freedom of Information requests on payments to players, because LSU claims the payments are protected under federal student privacy laws. But Tiger Rag argues that the state’s public records law requires the university to make public compensation paid to the player. Horne says the main objective of the suit is clarity.
“Do we get the information if we want it? Do we not get the information? And what law shields it, if it does? And that’s what needs to be clarified,” Horne said.
Every year, Tiger Rag Magazine publishes a money issue. It lists the salaries of all of the employees of the LSU athletic department, including the janitors who work in the football office. Horne says the lawsuit speaks to a bigger issue. He says that with college athletics moving to a professional sports model, it is conflicting with current state laws.
“That’s why congress is constantly meeting, trying to establish what the rules and laws are that are going to control and govern college sports in this new hybrid professional model,” Horne said.
Tiger Rag is owned by Kingfish Communications, which also owns Louisiana Radio Network.
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