Let's grade Jordon Hudson's UNC FOIA requests

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

I’m happy to admit I’m a huge proponent of open records requests. I file dozens every week, and information we get via FOIA is a foundation of the reporting at Extra Points. From coaching and vendor contracts to fan reactions, video game news and even toilet paper costs, we’re committed to using open records to bring you useful and entertaining information.

But you don’t have to be a nosy reporter or an academic to use FOIA or any state-level open records laws. Anybody can file an open records request, usually for just about any reason.

One of those anybodies appears to be Jordon Hudson, the girlfriend of UNC head football coach Bill Belichick and America’s most famous pageant contestant. Apparently, Hudson has been filing her own FOIAs to get information about UNC athletics staffers and communications with investigative journalist and podcaster Pablo Torre.

I am not here to cast judgement about the wisdom of constantly filing, under your own government name, multiple FOIAs about your boyfriend’s employer. Personally, I think it would be a bad idea to try and get on the wrong side of Torre, a guy who is internationally known for being good at the whole Finding Stuff Out thing — but as an advocate of open government, I believe FOIA is for everybody. If Hudson wants to go through all the trouble of setting up a NextRequest account, more power to her.

If you’d like more context behind why Hudson is so mad and why she’s filing a bunch of open records requests, this story from the Assembly provides useful context. But I am not here to untangle Who Knew What, When or How: Hudson being banned or potentially not banned from athletic facilities. I understand why that storyline fascinates so many other people, but it doesn’t especially interest me.

I am here to discuss the art and science of the FOIA request. And while I do not want to suggest that I am the best at this by any means, I do think it’s fair to say I have a lot of college sports FOIA experience, and I’ve learned a thing or two about the quirks in state laws, or how to get on the good side of a records clerk.

In the spirit of helping this young woman’s quest for government transparency … let’s take a look at those requests. Maybe we have some advice to offer.

Request 25-1194

According to the UNC Open Records Portal, Hudson filed the following request on Dec. 3, 2025:

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Pursuant of North Carolina Public Records Law § 132-1, I am requesting the following public records:

Public Record Type: Emails and text messages / iMessages.

State Employee: Senior Associate Athletic Director Robbi Pickeral Evans <[email protected]>

Timeframe: December 1st, 2024 and December 3rd, 2025.

Search Criteria:

Correspondence received or sent that include the terms “Hudson”, "Jordon", "Belichick", "Girlfriend" in the subject or body of the email.
Correspondence received or sent that include the terms “Hudson”, "Jordon", "Belichick", "Girlfriend" in the subject or body of the text message / iMessage.

I would prefer to obtain these records electronically via email, if possible.

If there are any fees for searching or copying these records, I am happy to pay them.

If any part of this records request is denied, please cite the specific exemption to North Carolina Public Records Law that justifies its exemption.

Thank you.

Matt’s Feedback: Normally, I don’t actually recommend leading with the citation of a particular state statute, even though that’s pretty common if one were to download a template of a North Carolina open records request.