The state of Florida is privatizing its sports department to evade attention

Florida State University's board of directors decided Friday to create a new organization that would manage the school's sports department, the Florida State University Athletics Association. According to Orlando SentinelThe FSU boasted that the new organization would "streamline the relationship" between the athletics department and the boosters, and if it sounds so bleak, it's not even half. This operation will privatize FSU's sports department, which will give it all the benefits of being a private company, including by refraining from any public inquiry, while operating on behalf of a taxpayer-funded institution. . The state of Florida expects the changes to take effect by the fall.

The privatization of the state of Florida is far from being the first in Florida, as schools like University of Florida and University of Central Florida have enjoyed for years a national law allowing them to classify their athletic programs into "direct support organizations", essentially a private non-profit corporation distinct from the university. In the case of the State of Florida, this change is particularly evident in the light of a parade of recent scandals and controversies at school, all of which deserve to be explained and understood through applications for registration. public. With this new privatization, the FSU Sports Department will be able to deny any public record demands it does not want to meet, thereby removing public records from foreigners.

The state of Florida gets these new privileges without the major inconvenience: the sports department will still be subject to an immunity clause that will limit jury judgments or regulations to only $ 200,000. All that is superior should be approved by the state legislature because it would be paid by taxpayers. Obviously, this is not an advantage that a private company normally enjoys.

This tiny limit came into play at the beginning of this decade, to the benefit of the UCF sports association, after the collapse of Ereck Plancher and his death during a practice In 2011, a jury awarded $ 10 million to the family of Plancher. at the Florida Supreme Court, they did not have to pay more than $ 200,000.

Under this arrangement, Florida's sporting leadership would not have to be transparent in the event of a scandal or tragedy – similar to the way Maryland was held responsible after Jordan McNair's death – but there would also be an artificial ceiling on the judicial consequences for their actions. Florida is not the only state where sports departments have found ways to operate outside of any public control (Georgia and Pennsylvania are two others), but given the few reasons to trust a department of university sports, it is disturbing to note that the trend is going towards more secrecy, not less.