FOIA for coaches ballots?

Cute.
Gutless editors and publishers at their best.

 

The downside of FOIA's... If the paper won't back you, you are SOL.

 

To my paper's credit, we pursued legal action on another FOIA issue. So I wouldn't call them gutless by any stretch. But in this particular case, I guess the nugget of information wasn't worth the hassle.

I somewhat agreed, though I was pissed that the athletic department called our bluff and surely had a cheese-dick smile afterward.

 

The national FOIA doesn't apply to state governments or government entities at all. If he tries to use the national FOIA, he won't get anywhere.

State public records acts or open records acts or FOIAs might get better results. Might. I still think even the most receptive states would compel him to show why revealing the secret votes of coaches in a college football poll are in the public interest.

 

Ban the coaches poll.

 

Not in Florida. Here you don't have to have a reason, other than wanting to see a specific public document — and nearly every document generated by a public employee (like a college football coach) is a public document. Obvious exceptions: medical records, student records. A poll ballot wouldn't qualify.

 

The NCAA and the BCS have nothing to do with the coaches' ballot. The American Football Coaches Association is the organization that should be sued on FOI.

 

Actually, the FOIA should be used for important things, not bullshit like football polls.

 

I tend to agree with you on this.
Doesn't mean I don't like the fact that the coaches are keeping this private just so they can avoid a potential headache.

 

Or in the case of state schools, the school itself (it's a state agency).

 

spnited made his point better the second time. The logical extension of his first post is who cares about sports, period? Why cover it at all?

 

The national level FOIA wouldn't apply. Unless a state calls its open records law the Freedom of Information Act, it would have to be an Open Records Act or Public Information Act, depending on what the state calls it.