News outlets sue Florida State, NCAA
The Associated Press and other Florida news organizations sued the NCAA and Florida State University yesterday, charging they schemed to violate open government laws by not making correspondence public about an academic cheating scandal at the school.
The
Associated Press
and other Florida news organizations sued the NCAA and Florida State University yesterday, charging they schemed to violate open government laws by not making correspondence public about an academic cheating scandal at the school.
"This action concerns a scheme created to avoid public access," the 21-page lawsuit said. "The scheme developed by the NCAA and aided by FSU and its counsel is particularly insidious to Florida's constitutional and statuory guarantee of access to public records."
The dispute is over a response the NCAA gave Florida State on its appeal of sanctions resulting from an academic cheating scandal. The school would be stripped of wins in 10 sports, including football. That would seriously hurt Bobby Bowden's bid to become college football's all-time winningest coach.
Florida State president T.K. Wetherell said he wouldn't be doing his job if the school didn't get sued occasionally.
"I'm in the crossfire," added Wetherell, who is also named as a defendant in his capacity as president.
"The NCAA will reserve comment regarding this lawsuit until we have received and had a chance to review it," NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said yesterday. "As customary with NCAA processes, the outcome of Florida State University's appeal will be made public once the decision is rendered by the NCAA Division I Infractions Appeals Committee."
Boxing
* Floyd Mayweather Jr. has damaged cartilage in his ribs and will stop training for his comeback fight until a doctor says he can resume.
Richard Schaefer, chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions, said Mayweather has been in tremendous pain since suffering the injury while training on Thursday. Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) was scheduled to fight Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) on July 18 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Schaefer said both fighters have committed to rescheduling and a September date has been mentioned.
* Amir Khan's first world title fight was postponed after defending champion Andreas Kotelnik developed a tooth infection. The WBA light-welterweight bout had been lined up by promoter Frank Warren for June 27 at the O2 Arena in London. The fight will now take place on July 18.
Philly File
* Strawberry Mansion basketball players Marcus Grimes and Bilal Kelley have signed with Redlands, a Division I junior college in Oklahoma.
* West Chester fired women's golf coach Mike Thompson.
Sport Stops
* North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams will have an autobiography released in November titled, "Hard Work: My Life On and Off the Court."
* Bill Laimbeer resigned as coach of the WNBA champion Detroit Shock three games into the season in hopes of landing an NBA job. Assistant Rick Mahorn, his teammate from their Detroit Pistons days, was promoted to coach.
* Seven sports are vying for inclusion in the 2016 Summer Games, and representatives from each sport made pitches to the International Olympic Committee's executive board in Lausanne, Switzerland. Golf, baseball, softball, rugby, roller sports, squash and karate put their cases to the board, which will meet in Berlin on Aug. 13 to select two sports for ratification.
* Mixed martial artists Randy "The Natural" Couture and Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira will meet in the main event of UFC 102 on Aug. 29 in Portland's Rose Garden. *