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Committee advances bill to extend open-records exemption for college athletic playbooks
Summary
The House Education Committee voted to amend and advance HB 2141, which would permanently exempt public college athletic playbooks from open-records requests and add narrow third-party commercial-information exemptions. Sponsor Representative Zachary framed it as aligning Tennessee with neighboring states.
Representative Zachary asked the committee to amend and pass HB 2141, saying the legislation "simply aligns us with our neighboring states by permanently extending the open records exemption for public college athletic playbooks" and that it "also adds open record exemptions for 3rd party business information that if released could create economic disadvantage" (Representative Zachary). The amendment (14,146) was adopted without objection and members then put the bill to a vote.
Madam Clerk recorded the vote as 17 ayes, 0 nays and 1 present not voting; the chair declared "House bill 2141 moves out to the calendar and rules." Supporters said the measure protects proprietary coaching or recruiting materials and third-party vendors from competitive harm. No public testimony opposing the exemption was recorded during committee discussion.
The committee's action was procedural: amendment adoption followed by a recorded committee vote that advances the bill to the full calendar and rules process. The sponsor said he will take questions as the bill moves forward.
