The Supreme Court refused to let Southern...

The Supreme Court refused to let Southern Methodist University take part in a lawsuit to force the NCAA to reveal results of an investigation into the school’s athletic recruiting.

The high court offered no comment in its rejection of SMU’s attempt to intervene in the suit brought by Belo Broadcasting Corp. and its reporter, Carole Kneeland, against the NCAA and the Southwest Conference.

The suit, which seeks records of NCAA investigations since 1980 of football recruiting practices at SMU, said the Texas Open Records Act required disclosure of the material.

SMU, a member of both the NCAA and the SWC, sought to join in the case as a defendant to make its own arguments why the records should not be made public.

The university said disclosure would violate rights of privacy and academic freedom, and argued that the NCAA and SWC would not represent its interests adequately.

But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the NCAA and the SWC “have the same ultimate objective as SMU . . . to prevent disclosure of the documents.”