The NCAA ejected a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter from a NCAA Division 1 Baseball tournament today citing a violation of it’s media credentialing agreement as the reporter live blogged the game. I have to admit the reporter did break the NCAA’s media credentialing agreement– I’ve signed the same agreement and it does bar any reporting of game results before the event. Similar events have occurred with Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA restricting media coverage during the game.

The real question is whether the NCAA or these organizations owns the facts of the game and can prohibit the results from being published. The argument that I’ve read from the organizations side is that it spends a lot of money on the event and restricts the results to allows them to license the results and create value out of the results. The media argues that once a home run has been hit, it’s a fact and can’t be restricted. I’ve also read the argument that the majority of these events take place in facilities paid for with public dollars and public access should be given.