As we’ve said before, Kentucky’s hiring of John Calipari signaled the complete end of the reform era.  This story tends to add to that impression:  while there may be disagreements about what is and isn’t protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, quite a few schools are more open about various bits of information than is Kentucky.

The Columbus Dispatch requested public records from 119 schools about passenger lists for travel to sporting events, comp tickets athletes are given and what happens to them, summer jobs for athletes, and NCAA violations for all programs at the various schools.

Kentucky gave the passenger lists, but limited the other requests sharply and blacked out names of students and non-students when it came to NCAA violations. 

There’s reasonable disagreement about what should and shouldn’t be private – the Department of Education draws a broader line than former Senator James Buckley, who pushed the act through: he says it was only intended to protect grades and academic issues.  Certainly you could easily make an argument that non-students shouldn’t be protected.

Back to Elmore’s view of things:  most schools keep up with what their student-athletes are doing if only to keep big donors from setting kids up with well-paying no-show jobs. Not Kentucky:  Frank Butler, the university’s official custodian of records, told The Dispatch that "most scholarship football players are enrolled in summer classes and do not take summer employment. However, if they should choose to get a summer job, it would be done so independently of the University. Accordingly, we have no records responsive to this request."

You know, there are some schools that just shouldn’t mess around.  USC, Auburn and Kentucky are near the top of that list.  A lot of Kentucky fans have argued that there is no evidence of any problem with John Calipari and so far at least, nothing has come up in the current investigation.  Looking at the broader picture, though, what do you see?  Tubby Smith run out of town.  Billy Gillispie run out of town.  The zero tolerance policy quietly abandoned.  The hiring of John Calipari and the misleading statements about the NCAA "clearing" him.  And now the notion that Kentucky doesn’t keep track of summer jobs. 

The groundwork is being laid for another disaster in Lexington.