The NCAA's bid to delay a court order to release its records on academic cheating at Florida State was rejected Tuesday by the Florida Supreme Court. In a terse one-sentence order, the high court denied the NCAA's emergency motion. However, that decision does not preclude them from considering the merits of the case later. Attorneys for the NCAA provided the records to a Tallahassee law firm to prepare for release, although they aren't expected to vary much from documents already made public by Florida State University. The school released copies earlier this month from "screen shots" of documents posted on a secure, read-only Web site, but not the originals. The Associated Press and other media sought immediate release after an appelate court on Oct. 13 upheld an earlier ruling that the documents are public records. A circuit judge last week ordered the NCAA to release the documents by 2 p.m. Wednesday unless it could win a stay. The AP sued to get the records on the college athletics governing body's plan to strip coaches and athletes of wins in 10 sports. Longtime football coach Bobby Bowden stands to lose 14 victories that would make it difficult for him to overtake Penn State's Joe Paterno in their race to be major college football's winningest coach. Paterno now leads with 390 victories to 385 for Bowden, who hopes to hang on long enough to reach 400. |