FOIA request info....

[Coach34]

Once an FOIA request is granted- the school has 14 days to respond to it per Mississippi state law. Tomorrow is Jan 18th- Signing Day is Feb 3rd. Reporters better get stepping.

While I can see Mississippi reporters dragging their feet on it- the guys like Clay Travis, Pat Forde, and others need to be made aware. Get some New Orleans, Baton Rouge (The Advocate), and AL.com involved. I'd love seeing them scoop the C-L anyway. Let FatBurger and crew remain the incompetents they are

[Statefan]

We need Dan Wolken on it. He hates Ole Miss

[BrunswickDawg]

Once an FOIA request is granted- the school has 14 days to respond to it per Mississippi state law. Tomorrow is Jan 18th- Signing Day is Feb 3rd. Reporters better get stepping.

While I can see Mississippi reporters dragging their feet on it- the guys like Clay Travis, Pat Forde, and others need to be made aware. Get some New Orleans, Baton Rouge (The Advocate), and AL.com involved. I'd love seeing them scoop the C-L anyway. Let FatBurger and crew remain the incompetents they are
Wow - 14 days is a ridiculous response window. Georgia gives you 3 days. Makes working in government in GA interesting on occasion.

[Big4Dawg]

Can anyone request one? How does this work

[PassInterference]

Maybe ED should become the 1st message board in America to file a FOIA request.

Journalists are not the only song people that can file a FOIA request. Arkansas fans did it with their own school to get Nutt kicked out, amirite.

[Op4isabitch]

Let's do it, how does one go about it?

Disregard, answered my own question:

http://www.nfoic.org/mississippi-sample-foia-request

[msstate7]

Who are our lawyers here? I don't know their professions, but johnson85 and boomboom are pretty knowledgable about stuff like this... Maybe they'll chime in

[DancingRabbit]

Here's the form you use:

http://www.ago.state.ms.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Open-Records-Request-Form-Oct2014.pdf

[MetEdDawg]

Yeah me and Boom have severely different views on the political board, but I would have to say if there's someone that's got good info on how to proceed here, I would think it would be him and would love to see him do so.

[Op4isabitch]

I'll donate a $100 toward the cost of the request.

[PassInterference]

I'm in for a hundy.

[BrunswickDawg]

Anyone can make a FOIA request - they are public records. The key is asking the right question so they can't dodge you and you get what you are looking for.

[Op4isabitch]

So I guess a starting point would be to request all of the emails sent to the Ole Miss compliance dept when Freeze made his silly statement.

[DancingRabbit]

So I guess a starting point would be to request all of the emails sent to the Ole Miss compliance dept when Freeze made his silly statement.

I'd think the request should be for all correspondence received from NCAA Compliance division within the last 90 days.

[Op4isabitch]

I'd think the request should be for all correspondence received from NCAA Compliance division within the last 90 days.

Yeah that would be great. I'd still like to see the emails they wouldn't turn over

[ScoobaDawg]

Yeah that would be great. I'd still like to see the emails they wouldn't turn over

If the CL couldn't get them... (was that Veazy?? I can't remember) I doubt they would get turned over now.

[TheRef]

If the CL couldn't get them... (was that Veazy?? I can't remember) I doubt they would get turned over now.

Yeah it was Veazey

[DancingRabbit]

If the CL couldn't get them... (was that Veazy?? I can't remember) I doubt they would get turned over now.

It was Veazey, but it was the Commercial Appeal. CL doesn't bust OM.

https://twitter.com/kyleveazey/status/305088079448911872

[WinningIsRelentless]

This is just a thought, but if the SEC notifies other member schools when one of the other members receives a NOI from the NCAA; why not send a FOIA request to our athletic department to get the letter from the SEC? Screw dealing with Ole Miss on getting it, just break it ourselves.

[7dawg]

Can you FOIA the NCAA directly concerning a certain school or conference?

[Coach34]

Gonna have to be the school

[Jack Lambert]

Once an FOIA request is granted- the school has 14 days to respond to it per Mississippi state law. Tomorrow is Jan 18th- Signing Day is Feb 3rd. Reporters better get stepping.

While I can see Mississippi reporters dragging their feet on it- the guys like Clay Travis, Pat Forde, and others need to be made aware. Get some New Orleans, Baton Rouge (The Advocate), and AL.com involved. I'd love seeing them scoop the C-L anyway. Let FatBurger and crew remain the incompetents they are

Any American can do it can't they?

[Coach34]

I think so

[ShotgunDawg]

There could be an issue with how much they allowed to redact in the documents though. Not sure the legalities of that.

Ole Miss could hand over the emails & documents but redact every once of meaningful information

[Coach34]

They cant redact the allegations

[Reason2succeed]

If the Clarion Ledger is afraid to write stories about Ole Miss then why doesn't the Commercial Appeal in Memphis pick up that slack? Ole Miss can't control all of those papers? Or are they really the "national program" they claim to be and everyone is scared of them. Someone should get the scoop and put their business out there.

[ShotgunDawg]

Can an out of state media company file an FOIA request in MS?

Wasn't sure if it was restricted to MS residents or not.

If not, the I'm sure AL.com, specifically Marshmellow & Talty, would do this

[Bubb Rubb]

If they are using attorneys to handle the correspondence, I don't believe they will have to share anything under a FOIA request. That stuff would then fall under attorney/client privilege. That's how they've gotten around stuff like that in the past, so I'm told.

[Op4isabitch]

Anyone sending this to national media guys like Forde, Wolken etc. Those guys can get it done.

[Political Hack]

FOIA the IHL. They have to know and they won't stiff arm the tax paying public the same way OM would.

Probably has to be a MS resident I'd imagine if you're using the MS FOIA process. Federal FOIA laws likely won't apply to OM. That's typically reserved for executive branch level government agencies. Even the congress is technically exempt from FOIA, although most congressional agencies abide by the intent of FOIA as a matter of best practice and transparency. I doubt you get the same level of cooperation from OM. They told the commercial appeal to shove off. They aren't going to hand everything over to Joe the Plumber.

Be smart, go to the IHL.

[Op4isabitch]

So can we take up a collection and have a point person submit the request? Any MSU attorneys on the board who'd know how to proceed?

I'm good for a $100 or 2.

[spbdawg]

#

[msstate7]

The MS Public Records Laws are reserved for the public generally. Not Mississippians but every member of the public. Most states are the same. Here's a hint....if other SEC institutions (not named Vanderbilt) have possession of the notice from NCAA....whether hard copy or digital...pop a public records request on those school(s). Intentionally pick the school in the state which has the fastest turnaround time on records requests. MS's is 14 business days which is practically three weeks....not the fastest out there.

On MS public institutions and records law....all public bodies have a duty to maintain records once they come into possession of records. They really can't "give away" some records to their legal counsel and then they "no longer have possession" It doesn't really work this way. They have a duty to retain all originals OR make copies....but a likeness of the record must remain in their possession once they've received the record(s).

On attorney/client privilege here....I think too much has been made about the privilege. Their attorneys are representing them in a non-profit organization v. member dispute. This isn't civil litigation and it sure isn't a criminal investigation. On this same note....UM can't "give away" a copy of the Oxford phone book (which is technically a public record if possessed by UM) to their attorneys and act as though all records requests for Oxford phone books in possession by UM are exempt under attorney/client priviliege....that's stupid and BS.

Two years ago the MS Ethics Commission was tasked with enforcing all public records laws of MS. The Commission can make UM hand over all public records which are not specifically exempt under state law. Before anyone asks....there is no exemption in state law for records which are a part of an NCAA investigation..... UM's lawyers tried this nonsense recently, and it was offensive to the intellect of everyone.

Ok, you're in charge of filing it

[Johnson85]

They cant redact the allegations

Anything touching on academics they can redact and claim that it involves the academic records of a student. Maybe not properly, but it will give them a fig leaf that would easily push the production out months. The challenging part would be preventing the disclosure of the existence of the record.

But most public agencies that are trying to avoid a FOIA/sunshine request have tried and true methods they go to. One of the first is just redacting any sensitive information and claiming an exemption applies, and force the requesting party to spend money to get it. Lots of them will just give up, which is I believe what the Commercial Appeal did. Another common method is to interpret the requests overbroadly in order to overload the requesting party, essentially load up the requestor with thousands of irrelevant documenst and then send them a bill for the production. Often, they will combine this method with the first one, so they simultaneously redact anything the requestor actually wants while they send him/her a bill for thousands of dollars for the production of worthless documents the requestor is not interested in. Another benefit to this method is that it can be used as an excuse for not responding timely, i.e., "we've had to review 40k documents; not reasonable to expect us to respond within the statutory deadline to such a broad and onerous request.

Another step down the unethical lane is disposing of any records you expect to be within the scope of a FOIA. In this case, immediately send all correspondence they receive to their attorneys and direct the NCAA to send all future correspondence directly to the attorneys. This probably violates applicable record retention policies (although maybe not for a university; they may have complete flexibility w/r/t their record retention policies), obviously violates the spirit of the law, and I would assume violates the letter of the law, as the records would still really be under their control even if technically not within their possession.

Most likely UM wouldn't do anything other than delay and redact to get past signing day. IF they really have a letter and know they're going to get hit, there's not much hope of keeping it quiet for next year, but it will be easy to delay and deny until this class is signed.

[Really Clark?]

What would be blacked out would be what ULL blacked out. The actual players names and their scores. The adults involved and the bulk of what was discovered cannot and was not blacked out. There was a lot of meat left to read in the ULL response.

[Mjoelner34]

IF they really have a letter and know they're going to get hit, there's not much hope of keeping it quiet for next year, but it will be easy to delay and deny until this class is signed.

IF they now have a letter and a recruit asks about it before signing day and its existence is denied, can the recruit later sue them if he becomes a commit and sanctions such as bowl bans are handed out?

[Coach34]

IF they now have a letter and a recruit asks about it before signing day and its existence is denied, can the recruit later sue them if he becomes a commit and sanctions such as bowl bans are handed out?

Thought of that also- brings up a very important issue. One I hope our coaches are reminding recruits of. OM could be accused of lying to recruits and jeapordizing their pro potential and ability to earn a living in the NFL due to the lies and impending sanctions

[NeshobaChuck]

What kind of timeline are they looking at to be hit with sanctions

[RougeDawg]

I'll throw in $100. What's total costs?

[Coach34]

Ive been told a few requests have already been filed- including one by the C-L. We'll see what happens