Ideas for dealing with agents

[Saw31]

Obviously this has become a big topic of late. It also is readily apparent that this has been going on for years and years. No school is immune. No coach is immune. I guess the next step is to find ways in dealing with it.

So it seems to me that a possible solution could be to go ahead and legitimize the process by allowing the schools to bring in the agents for a formal "meet and greet". Instead of the runners and back alley dealings, bring the whole process out into the light of day using a legitimate, formalized process. Kinda of like a "job fair" that would be ok in other lines of work. Make it part of the academic process for athletes. The agents get what they want, the opportunity to meet future clients. The schools can have some control over who is approaching their athletes. Coaches can be in a position to advise their players. If particular agents break the rules, they can be blackballed by the school, or across all participating schools. The agents who break rules face real consequences by losing the ability to meet the kids in this formal process, which in turn puts them at a severe competitive disadvantage in luring clients compared to the agents who follow the rules.

To me it seems that if their were "legal" ways of having contact with agents while still maintaining amateur status and eligibility, a lot of this could be controlled above board. And preparing these athletes for future employment in their field of endeavor (pro football in this case) seems like something schools should be doing anyway.

Just my thoughts...

 

[k2onprimetime]

1. Hire a guy to overlook all the players on the team. His job would be to just make sure they arent talking to agents.

2. If the agent is caught, He will be suspended for 1 year.

3. If the player takes money, he cant be picked in the first or second round. Which means he wont make that much money.

 

[LightningRod]

1. Allow recruits the option for a deferred education. The recruit can choose to attend classes while playing or after his playing days as a pro are completed. 1 year of free education, room, board, meals and books for every year in the program. The school is only obligated to provide an education at its school.

2. NFL certified agents (or certified NBA agents, certified MLB agents, certified NHL agents, etc. as the case may be) are free to go bankrupt paying these guys. Let the market determine the money. There is no need to regulate this economic activity.

3. Repeal 501(c)(3) status for college athletic operations and treat these revenues as Unrelated Business Taxable Income. It's time to treat college athletics as nothing different from the for profit professional sports leagues.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

1. Hire a guy to overlook all the players on the team. His job would be to just make sure they arent talking to agents.

While I appreciate the sentiment, I just don't think it's "doable" to expect zero contact. Frankly, considering the nature of sports today, and football in particular, it's unfair to the agent and player to not allow them to communicate. That is to say, I don't have a problem with players and agents meeting to discuss future representations. Money should not exchange hands, however. An agent should be able to say "I represented this guy, and I got him this deal, bla bla bla" and gain clients based on merit rather than his check book.

Thus, I would prefer an "Agent coordinator" or some such as a solution.

Likewise, states need to enforce laws which criminalize agency and professional leagues should also have strict policies where if an agent is found to have improperly obtained a client, they are no longer permitted to be an agent in the NFL (or NBA, whatever). Not only would a agent face jail time, he would be out of a job. That levels the playing field, in my opinion.

 

[A Pac]

the biggest problem with the agents/violations is that there is no risk for the agent. these agents know the rules and they blatantly go against them. they risk these players getting suspended and don't get any discipline themselves. if an agent gets caught, he shouldn't be aloud to sign new clients for a year: that's there only warning shot. if he does it again, he's done for good. it's that simple. they won't learn if you just keep giving them slaps on the wrists.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

2. NFL certified agents (or certified NBA agents, certified MLB agents, certified NHL agents, etc. as the case may be) are free to go bankrupt paying these guys. Let the market determine the money. There is no need to regulate this economic activity.

I, frankly, don't necessarily have a problem with this either (on its face), but I do think doing it this way would completely undermine the coach's authority. Who do you play for, the coach or the man who's giving you 10,000?

I'd be more in favor of some kind of scholarship players could apply for... or even just a loan, with the expectation that they be made to re-pay all the money they borrow.

 

[Saw31]

I think many have the preconception that being an agent is some kind of illegitimate business. It is not. What we're trying to do here is allow for these legitimate business activities to take place without negatively effecting the schools and the athletes involved. While I understand the motives behind "allow it all-no regulation", what we don't want is a free for all where "buying" recruits becomes the problem instead. There has to be some sort of oversight and agreed upon rules/process imo.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

if an agent gets caught, he shouldn't be aloud to sign new clients for a year

Could he then sign them silently?

 

[A Pac]

Could he then sign them silently?

do you mean verbal agreements? really, it is meant to be a warning. the real penalty would be if/when he got caught again. then he's done forever.

 

[colobuck79]

1. Any agent or bagman caught giving money to a student athlete gets 2 years in jail, no probation
2. Second offense 5 years in the hole.

I am only half joking.

 

[jlb1705]

3. If the player takes money, he cant be picked in the first or second round. Which means he wont make that much money.

How big of an effect is the next CBA in the NFL going to have on the agent issue? From what I've seen it seems like a done deal that rookie contracts are going to be capped and their value reduced substantially. Are agents going to keep throwing all that money at college players that don't create a significant return for several years after they get drafted? Currently, projecting first and second round picks is fairly easy and there is a high return in a short amount of time. Soon, the return might not be as high and agents might have to hold on to their meal tickets a lot longer before seeing the payout.

 

[Zurp]

1. If an agent gets caught once, all his agent friends get to point and laugh at him.
2. If an agent gets caught a second time, all his agent friends get to throw him in a river.
3. If an agent gets caught a third time, he has to dye his hair the school colors of a team he hates and sing their fight song.

Unfortunately, players accepting money is only illegal for the players in the NCAA. The NCAA is the only group who can do anything about it, and they only people to whom they can do it is the players. The NFL doesn't give a pooping crap whether the college players are eligible - just as long as they're ready to play when they get drafted. And if I were commissioner, I wouldn't see it as my responsibility to govern the agents. I think the only way to get this under control is to make it a federal law against it. (Can't just be individual state laws.) And I think the federal government has more important things to do than worry about what college football players are doing.

However, I think that agents who are making these players ineligible ought to be destroyed. Something the fans can enjoy, like a good ol' fashioned annual Roman gladiator contest. Throw all guilty agents in the ring, last man standing gets to live until next year's contest.

 

[Esoteria]

3. Repeal 501(c)(3) status for college athletic operations and treat these revenues as Unrelated Business Taxable Income. It's time to treat college athletics as nothing different from the for profit professional sports leagues.

It is completely different. OSU is one of a few (less than 6 I believe) colleges in the country whose sports programs are completely self sufficient.

News Flash, The Ohio State University Athletic Department is a not for profit organization. All proceeds from Football and Basketball (the two programs which consistently make more than they spend) go back into their respective sport and the rest pays for the 100+ other sports offered to the rest of the student body to participate in, including intramural sports.

You can't treat a nonprofit organization like a for profit one. There's a reason they are regulated differently. The athletic department is not at fault with this stuff.

 

[JBaney45]

And if I were commissioner, I wouldn't see it as my responsibility to govern the agents.

I disagree, the NCAA provides the NFL with it's own developmental league at no charge. Think about the value of these players coming into the league that's created by NCAA football (check out how many jerseys are sold of players that haven't even played a down in the nfl yet). There is a reason these players are getting huge deals right out of school, they are already huge names and they bring excitement for teams even if the team has done poorly the previous year. I am SURE that the NFL wouldn't want any part of trying to run an expensive farm system which would basically have little or no chance of making money. Because of this the NFL should be interested in regulating agents and making sure not to upset it's perfect little "minor league" partner.

 

[3074326]

This would take collaboration from all sports, which might be tough, but it would work.

If an agent is caught giving illegal benefits to a player, he's banned for two years from ALL sports. If he's caught a second time, he's banned for life. The banned agent forfeits all bonuses/commission from current contracts with future bonuses.

Punish the players as well. Suspend them for a year, fine the shit out of them when they turn pro. Make it such an unnecessary risk that it's just completely stupid to even try to get around it.

The coordinator idea that was mentioned earlier is a good idea too, not sure why there isn't one of those already. League verification of agents should be there too.