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Congress, Ignore The Predatory Agents Trashing The ‘Protect College Sports Act’

Before Congress takes advice from the agents attacking the Protect College Sports Act, senators should ask a simple question: Who makes money if the bill fails?

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The Senate’s Protect College Sports Act is one of the rarest of all anomalies in Washington: a bipartisan bill on one of America’s most unifying traditions, college sports. Still, some in my profession — sports agents and attorneys — oppose it.

For the past 40 years, I have fought to protect and assert the rights of amateur, professional, and Major League Baseball players as an attorney and certified agent for the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). So I see the world only through the lens of the player who, in this matter, is a youthful student-athlete likely to have little or no past business experience. Therefore, it stands to reason that the student-athlete will be heavily dependent on his agent/adviser, who will influence every decision. Consequently, the quality of the agent/adviser will profoundly affect whether the student-athlete’s best interests are served, which is not just paramount, but the sole barometer of whether any undertaking is successful.

And there’s the rub. Currently, no governing body regulates the conduct of agents/advisers who deal with student-athletes. Agents certified by the player associations of major sports such as baseball, football, basketball, hockey, etc., must strictly comply with regulations or be subject to discipline. Attorneys’ conduct in this arena must meet the ethical standards set by their state’s bar association. However, if the agent/adviser is not certified or an attorney, otherwise known as a “street agent,” there are few, if any, restrictions on his conduct. While all states attempt to regulate conduct to varying degrees, most do not enforce it frequently enough to discourage behavior. We all know that when laws aren’t regularly enforced, anarchy ensues, and that’s exactly where we are in this industry. 

I was the lone advocate for student-athletes on the president’s Committee to Save College Sports. My subcommittee heard from several bright, articulate, intuitive, and impressive student-athletes who shared deeply disturbing experiences that demand regulation of agents/advisers. The student-athletes made clear that the list of abuses by agents/advisers was interminable. For instance, fees can range from 5 percent to as high as 50 percent.........

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