Judge denies media access to NIL deals for Utah student-athletes

A judge has issued a ruling that local newspaper, Deseret News, cannot review name, image, and likeness contracts for college athletes.

The judge sided with Utah's public universities that opposed the newspaper's public records request for those contract that allow college athletes to earn money. The newspaper's request for such contracts went to court in 2023. Then earlier this year, the Utah Legislature changed state law to eliminate such contracts from public view.

The Deseret News argued in court that it should still be allowed to view at least those contracts drafted before the law went into effect. Deseret New's attorney Jeff Hunt told the court in August the case was about asking whether the contracts are equitable and making sure that the universities are doing their jobs in enforcing NCAA policies and state law.

“This is about whenever you have millions of dollars washing around in a system like this,” Hunt said in court at the time, “and the state is undertaking a regulatory review process and saying, ‘We're going to regulate these contracts to make sure that it doesn't run afoul of the law or the NCAA regulations,’ there needs to be some oversight.”

The judge in her written ruling, said the plain language of the Utah statute applies to all NIL agreements.

Hunt would issue the following statement on behalf of his clients, " While we respect the court's decision, we strongly disagree with it. At the time The Deseret News filed its GRAMA request, no law existed putting student-athlete NIL agreements and related compliance records off limits to the public. And while the legislature did eventually pass such a law, it did not make it retroactive to GRAMA requests and appeals filed before the effective date. The court's ruling unfortunately guts the rights of journalists to rely on GRAMA to inform the public on issues of public concern, including whether Utah's public universities are actually reviewing NIL agreements for compliance with the law and NCAA eligibility requirements."

It isn't clear whether the newspaper intends to appeal the ruling. Utah is one of a growing list of states which have sealed NIL contracts from public view.

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