The State of North Carolina and the NCAA have been busy fighting over access to documents regarding findings from the NCAA’s investigation of past NFLPA agent activity on the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s campus. On July 29, 2011, North Carolina’s Secretary of State Elaine Marshall issued a subpoena asking for said documents, which are apparently under the NCAA’s control. Elaine Marshall’s office wants access to transcripts of the interviews that the NCAA conducted at Chapel Hill in the past year, a copy of John Blake’s credit report, and other relevant material.
After not receiving a favorable response, Marshall’s office filed a petition for an order to compel the NCAA to release the documents. The NCAA objected on jurisdictional grounds, claiming that Marshall should have filed the petition in Indiana (the NCAA’s principal place of business) instead of North Carolina. The hearing on the petition commenced two days ago in the Wake County, North Carolina Superior Court. Instead of ruling one way or the other, the judge (Judge Paul C. Ridgeway) provided the parties an additional 60 days to attempt to resolve their dispute; however, Ridgeway did state that Marshall’s office should re-file the subpoena in Indiana. The NCAA’s attorney promised that the requested documents will be delivered, in unredacted form, thereafter. The petition filed by Marshall’s office noted that the NCAA previously aimed to redact “confidential information.”
Now that the NCAA has changed its stance, the assumption is that the State of North Carolina will file the subpoena in Indiana and gain access to the documents. Perhaps at some point in time, the state will be able to get to the bottom of many agent related issues, including the relationship between John Blake and Gary Wichard.
