Florida State court ruling upsets NCAA
Published 2:19 am Friday, August 21, 2009
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A court ruling that documents concerning academic cheating at Florida State University are public records will ‘‘rip the heart out of the NCAA,’’ one of the organization’s top officials said Thursday.
Circuit Judge John Cooper also rejected other legal and constitutional arguments by NCAA lawyers but will reconvene a hearing Friday to decide a few remaining issues including whether to put the documents’ release on hold pending appeal.
Cooper rejected the NCAA’s claim that the documents are not public shortly before David Berst, the organization’s vice president for Division I, took the witness stand to testify on the other issues.