ONLY ON ABC 17: Todd McNair attorneys eye MU in lawsuit against NCAA

Attorneys for the former football coach suing the NCAA are looking for records the University of Missouri might have.

The Boone County Circuit Court granted the subpoena for Todd McNair’s legal team on Friday. The request seeks any records the school might have regarding the Reggie Bush investigation that rocked the University of Southern California in 2010.

McNair worked as the team’s running backs coach from 2004 to 2010, which included a national championship title his first year. The NCAA ruled that he and the school knew or should have known that Bush, the school’s star running back, received improper benefits while there. McNair claims the infractions against him caused him to lose his job at USC, and sued the NCAA in 2011.

MU’s connection to the situation comes from law professor Rodney Uphoff. He served as the coordinator for the NCAA and its Committee on Infractions when McNair and USC appealed their punishments. The Infractions Appeals Committee upheld the punishment, which included a one-year “show cause” infraction for McNair, requiring any NCAA school that wished to hire him to get permission from the organization.

Uphoff told ABC 17 News he had nothing to do with the investigation, and only represented the NCAA and the Committee on Infractions during the appeal.

The subpoena seeks all records the school may have that came from Jack Friedenthal, the George Washington University law professor who served as chair of the Infractions Appeals Committee at the time, and several others, including Uphoff. It also orders those records be delivered to California on July 25.

The subpoena also requests emails the school may have between Friedenthal and Rich Johanningmeier, the NCAA investigator and former head coach of the Missouri State football team.

McNair’s lawsuit has been delayed by several appeals in California. The NCAA appealed when the court refused to toss the lawsuit, citing emails from the NCAA committee that appeared to show “ill will or hatred” toward McNair. That included an email from Office of Committees on Infractions director Shep Cooper to Uphoff in 2010.

“He’s a lying, morally bankrupt criminal, in my view, and a hypocrite of the highest order,” Cooper’s email said, according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times.

Judge Frederick Shaller set the case for trial on April 18, 2018, according to the Times.

USC football received a two-year postseason ban and had to vacate its wins. The organization cited numerous improper benefits given to Bush, the Heisman Trophy winner of the 2004 season, by aspiring sports marketers while Bush was in school. The NCAA said USC had a lack of institutional control over the situation, which extended to the men’s basketball program and women’s tennis program.

Bush eventually returned his Heisman Trophy and the Bowl Championship Series stripped USC of its 2004 title. Pete Carroll, the head coach of USC at the time of the violations, left months before the sanctions became public.

McNair played professionally for six seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs.