MARYLAND — The University of Maryland at College Park must make public the details of its employment contracts with athletic coaches, the Court of Appeals of Maryland ruled April 15.
The ruling by the state’s highest court ends a two-year battle between The Baltimore Sun and the university that began when a sports reporter requested the employment contracts of the school’s head football and basketball coaches.
The university denied the request, citing exemptions in state open-records law protecting personnel records and some financial information from disclosure.
The court also ruled that third-party contracts between coaches and private corporations may or may not be disclosed, depending on the how related the contracts are to the coaches’ jobs.
CASE: University System of Maryland, et al. v. The Baltimore Sun Company, Case No. CAE02-06069 (Md. Ct. App. April 15, 2004)