The Illinois attorney general’s public access bureau has issued a determination that the University of Illinois must disclose a copy of the Big Ten’s media rights deal.
This decision follows the university’s denial of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made two years ago by Michael LeRoy, a U of I law professor who studies college sports.
To date, the Big Ten’s seven-year, $7 billion deal with Fox, CBS and NBC, which took effect in July 2023, has remained undisclosed, despite numerous attempts by journalists and others to obtain the agreement through public records requests made of Big Ten universities.
Under its previous media deal, the conference distributed $60.5 million to Illinois in the fiscal year 2023.
The University of Illinois has maintained that it does not have custody of a physical or electronic copy of the Big Ten media rights agreement, and the Illinois state AG wrote in its determination this week that it had not found evidence to the contrary.
Nevertheless, assistant attorney general Matt Goodman wrote the agreement still constitutes a public record under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act “because it directly relates to a governmental function that the conference was contracted to perform on behalf of the university.”
The University of Illinois previously told the state AG that it had, “in the spirit of transparency,” asked the Big Ten for a copy of the agreement it could provide to LeRoy, but was “denied.”
The AG says that in light of its determination, the university must now “take additional measures” to obtain the agreement so it can provide it to LeRoy.
“Going forward,” the AG wrote, “the university should ensure that any contract it enters into with a third party to perform a governmental function includes a mechanism for the university to obtain its own public records from a contractor.”
Despite this directive, it remains uncertain whether the attorney general’s office will take further action if the university fails to provide the record, given that it opted not to issue a binding opinion and now considers the matter closed.
LeRoy declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday. A message left with a spokesperson at the Big Ten did not yield a response, while a spokesperson for Illinois said “we are reviewing the determination.”
The conference’s concerted efforts to maintain secrecy have sparked controversy in recent years. In March 2021, The Washington Post uncovered that league presidents were primarily using a private portal on Nasdaq’s Boardvantage software to discuss COVID-19 return-to-play plans, seemingly to shield these discussions from records requests.
In September, a Sportico reporter sued U of I in Illinois state court after being denied Boardvantage communications sent and received by the school’s chancellor Robert J. Jones, who currently chairs the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors.
(This story has been updated with comment from the University of Illinois.)
