Brian Bennett is a reporter who writes live updates to a website during NCAA championship games. He’s done it at the Orange Bowl. He’s done it at the NCAA basketball tournament. And now he is doing it at at the NCAA baseball tournament. At least, he was providing his live updates until the fifth inning of yesterday’s game when his press credentials were yanked and he was thrown out.

“It’s clearly a First Amendment issue,” said Bennie Ivory, the newspaper’s executive editor. “This is part of the evolution of how we present the news to our readers. It’s what we did during the Orange Bowl. It’s what we did during the NCAA basketball tournament. It’s what we do.”

NCAA spokesman Bob Williams said Monday that Bennett was asked not to blog about game action before Sunday’s game. “In a nutshell, we asked the blogger repeatedly not to cover it in that manner, because it violates the policy, and he continued, and his credential was revoked,” Williams said.

The NCAA is trying to limit bloggers from covering the events because they consider it a “live representation of the game” and they do not want anybody to be able to scoop their media sponsors.

I think that anybody has the right to provide updates to a game that they are watching. Of course, the NCAA also has the right to allow or remove anybody that they choose from their games. I do not think that Bennett has the right to be in the facility if they decide that he is an undesirable. I am not sure how the process of obtaining (or losing) a press pass works, so that may very well change my mind once I looked into those particular statutes or rules, but based upon what I read in the article I don’t think that Bennett has a case.

What do you think? Does the NCAA have the right to kick Bennett out of the game?