Hello there. It’s your Thursday FOIAball. I hope everyone is doing well.
You may not know this, but tomorrow is our first birthday! FOIAball launched just 12 short months ago. I may write something longer and more sentimental next month, but for now, I just want to say one thing:
Thank you for being a part of this.
I’m, like, immeasurably proud of how this first year has gone. But the thing that makes me beam the most—more than any big scoop—is having readers who genuinely enjoy this newsletter. You have no idea how rewarding that feeling is.
Keep your eyes peeled tomorrow for a big FOIAball sale. It’s my birthday present to you.
As you probably can tell, I love the process around public records, almost as much as I love getting documents back.
I find the system so fascinating, and such an important civic good. Yes, I prank and troll it, but it really is something I cherish.
Matt Brown of Extra Points recently listed his most and least-favorite colleges to FOIA, and I agree with his rankings. But he left off my favorite. I think UNC is one of the better schools for public records. They’re extremely prompt and thorough, and they’ve never charged me a penny.
One of the main reasons the Bill Belichick era has been such a headline-grabbing spectacle is because the school’s record office has been more than willing to show us.
But I do have to call them out for one big thing.
It appears that Mike Lombardi’s tenure at UNC is about to end. And we shouldn’t forget that the school withheld something about him that the public has every right to know.
Who he met with in Saudi Arabia.
To keep it private, UNC jumped through a big hoop. They cited a law that wasn’t in effect at the time. That wasn’t passed to protect the identity of donors to the school. And that seems to have a carve-out that would let them release it.
Naturally, I have a theory why.
You know the backstory. In October 2025, Pablo Torre revealed that UNC GM Mike Lombardi and his assistant traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet with a potential donor.
The news—a major college football team entertaining Saudi dollars—exploded. It came at a time when cash from the country was flooding the sports landscape. In recent years, Saudi Arabia poached Cristiano Ronaldo, created a breakaway golf league, hosted the WWE’s marquee event, bought naming rights across professional tennis, and tried to get a bowl game.
Most, if not all, that money came from a sovereign wealth fund (the PIF) run by the Saudi royal family.
Rightfully, people wanted to know more about it.
In the days after the news broke, UNC’s FOIA office got over a dozen requests asking for documents surrounding Lombardi’s trip. In response, requestors received a mix of emails, travel forms, expenses, and a questionnaire from the school’s export control office that confirmed it was to meet a potential donor.
But UNC redacted the answer regarding his “hosts/sponsors.”
Pressed by the great Matt Baker at The Athletic, the school justified the redaction with a link to the text of North Carolina's Personal Privacy Protection Act.
It “prohibits public agencies from collecting, disclosing, or releasing personal information about members, volunteers, and financial and nonfinancial donors to 501(c) nonprofit organizations.”
Seems pretty straightforward.
Except there’s a few screwy things going on. That bill isn’t about government agencies, like UNC’s athletics department, disclosing its donors to concerned citizens. It’s about stopping the government from forcing non-profits to reveal their donors
It keeps an attorney general from demanding Planned Parenthood give up a list of its supporters. It also protects really sketchy non-profits from having to disclose who funds them.
The law includes a provision stating that “a public agency shall not ... release, publicize, or otherwise publicly disclose personal information in possession of the public agency.”
But there is a pretty big carve-out. It allows for the “disclosure of personal information derived from a donation to a nonprofit organization that is affiliated with a public agency.”
What’s more maddening, though, is that the law wasn’t on the books when UNC said it prevented them from releasing the records.
The Personal Privacy Protection Act didn’t go into effect until Dec. 1, 2025. And it only “applies to offenses committed on or after that date.”
After all this happened.
I spent months speaking to First Amendment lawyers in the state, trying to get them to take this case up. All of them said variations of the same thing. It’s a sketchy move by the school. The law probably doesn’t prevent them from releasing this person’s identity.
But appealing FOIA denials in North Carolina is extremely hard. And most judges wouldn’t want to rule against a law protecting individual privacy.
So UNC could have, but didn’t, release the name. The question is why.
When the story broke, initial reports said Lombardi met with the PIF, which the school quickly called “inaccurate.”
The meeting, they said, was just with a Saudi national who also happened to be a “college football fan.”
Put these factors together.
1. Not to besmirch the good name of Mike Lombardi, but he doesn’t strike me as an erudite citizen of the world. He wouldn’t just pop over to the Middle East for a meeting with some Saudi he’d never heard of.
2. This trip came together very quickly. Lombardi and his assistant submitted their forms two days before they were about to leave. UNC wasn’t going broke that week. Would they drop everything to rush to the Middle East for just anyone? Even if he was rich?
3. A direct flight from D.C., the closest place that flies non-stop to Riyadh, is 14 hours. UNC’s first game was two weeks away. Bill Belichick’s college debut. In football’s workaholic culture, who would willingly agree to over a day of flight time then? You’d only do that for someone very important. Very important.
Asked another way, why couldn’t a filthy rich Saudi who loves college football fly to North Carolina? Catch the TCU game. Heck, wouldn’t UNC want to wine and dine a potential big donor? Isn’t that how the whole thing works?
Unless appearing with this specific person would go over very, very poorly.
Because, come on: Who else could make a well-known GM of a prominent program under the biggest of spotlights just up and fly around the globe right before the season started?
Ever since this story broke, I’ve been convinced Lombardi met with Mohammed bin Salman. Or, to be kind, someone in the royal family. There ain’t a lot of other rich Saudis funding athletics ventures.
Call me a crank and a conspiracy theorist. I’ll be the first to agree. I have no proof. But I think calling the PIF report “inaccurate” is a way to dance around it. Nothing else makes sense to me.
Then again, I don’t know. I think UNC should tell us. I’m guessing this post won’t shame them into action.
So if you have any knowledge, I’m at [email protected].
Anyway. Happy birthday to FOIAball! Please have a drink tomorrow night and raise a glass to Sleuthy the Seal. He’s no longer a pup!
I’ll see y’all next week.
Riyadh via Xavierarnau/Getty; Mike Lombardi via Inside Carolina/YouTube
