Utah judge dismisses case over making NIL contracts public

A judge has sided with five public universities in Utah that challenged a State Records Committee decision requiring the schools to make college athletes’ name, image and likeness contracts public.

Third District Judge Amber Mettler agreed with the University of Utah, Utah State, Weber State, Utah Valley and Southern Utah universities that a law the Utah Legislature passed earlier this year shielding NIL agreements from the state’s open records law applies retroactively. Lawmakers passed the statute in response to a Deseret News attempt to obtain the contracts through Utah’s Government Records Access and Management Act or GRAMA.