Appellate court rules Todd McNair’s lawsuit against NCAA can move forward

A California appellate court ruled Monday that former USC running backs coach Todd McNair’s defamation lawsuit against the NCAA could move forward.

The ruling by a three-justice panel in the 2nd District Court of Appeal affirmed that McNair “has demonstrated a probability of prevailing on the merits of his defamation case,” Justice Richard D. Aldrich wrote in the 30-page opinion.

The NCAA, which wanted the appellate court to strike McNair’s complaint and dismiss the long-running case, could file an appeal to the California Supreme Court.

McNair sued the NCAA in June 2011 after he was sanctioned, along with USC, as the result of an investigation that centered on former Trojans running back Reggie Bush.

In 2012, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Frederick Shaller denied the NCAA’s motion to strike McNair’s complaint and dismiss the case. Shaller wrote that certain emails between members of the NCAA’s committee on infractions and others “tend to show ill will or hatred” by the NCAA.

During oral arguments before the appeals panel in September, an attorney representing the NCAA acknowledged that the NCAA made “honest mistakes” in the investigation but said “mistakes are not malice.”

One of McNair’s attorneys said in front of the court that the NCAA’s committee on infractions “had one agenda and one agenda only,” adding that they were going to get McNair “at any cost.”

On Monday, along with affirming the lower court’s ruling in regard to McNair’s claims of libel and slander, the appeals court ruled that McNair “had not demonstrated his likelihood of prevailing” on claims that the NCAA’s actions caused USC to not renew his contract and prevented him from finding work as a college coach.