Court backs Ohio State University in open-records lawsuit

COLUMBUS (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court today sided with Ohio State University in an open-records lawsuit brought by ESPN over documents it sought from the university related to the 2011 football team scandal and NCAA investigation.

The network had sued the university alleging it violated state public-records law by denying requests for items regarding the forced resignation of football coach Jim Tressel and star quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

Among records sought were correspondences referring to Ted Sarniak, reportedly a mentor of Pryor in his hometown of Jeannette, Pa.

Ohio State had already released hundreds of pages of documents to ESPN and other media outlets, including The Associated Press, by the time ESPN filed its lawsuit in July and argued that the university improperly cited a federal student-records privacy law in denying some records and improperly removing names from others.

But the court said unanimously today that for the most part the university properly shielded records covered by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.