New rules and regulations tend to get named after the most nefarious player involved. For example, Brett Favre may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back in the NFL – forcing the shift in overtime rules in the playoffs.
In most cirlces, Cam Newton is being attached to the latest regulation changing involving college athletics.
The AP is reporting legislators, from New Jersey to Oregon, are trying to crack down on agents that contact players improperly.
CBS-2 in New York wrote:
Lawmakers in New Jersey and Virginia — two of the eight states that lack sports agents laws — now want to add such legal protections. Six other states are considering proposals to strengthen the Uniform Athletes Agent Act, a model law that suffers from neglect in many states.
Those pushing for changes on the state level aren’t waiting for either the NFL or the NCAA to act. Four months ago, the league and the sports governing body joined the NFL Players Association, the American Football Coaches Association and several prominent agents in forming a 22-member panel tasked with cleaning up the situation.
The AP found more than half of the 42 states with sports agent laws didn’t revoke or suspend a single license, or invoke penalties of any sort. Neither had the Federal Trade Commission, which in 2004 was given oversight authority by Congress.
The proposed Oklahoma measure broadens the definition of agent to cover financial planners — player reps who don’t negotiate contracts but still have a financial stake in a college athlete’s future earnings — while increasing the minimum fine for violations from $1,000 to $10,000 and the maximum from $10,000 to $250,000.
Jeff Hawkins, the Director of Football Operations at the University of Oregon who coached at Dartmouth, Tulane and worked in the front office of the New England Patriots before traveling to Oregon, is supporting the state’s push to broaden the legal definition of sports agents. State lawmakers want to include contract advisers and people seeking to represent high school athletes – not just financial planners
“Enforcement really is the key to everything,” he said.
That expanded definition could potentially be applied to athletes’ immediate family members. Cecil Newton, the father of Heisman Trophy winner and Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, would be included in the new legal definition of an “agent”
Under the current laws, the NCAA could not punish Cam Newton’s father.
“Up to this point, we’ve had laws on the books, but there hasn’t been much interest or effort from the enforcement side,” – Oklahoma state Rep. Todd Thomsen
In a case the NCAA could control, six North Carolina Tar Heels lost eligibility for the season after it was discovered they received improper benefits from agents – one that may have been linked to an assistant coach that resigned in September.
Hawkins said the Oregon legislation was a direct response to that situation and told CBS-2 that tougher rules are needed to keep unscrupulous agents from persuading marginal pro prospects that they should leave school before graduation in search of fame and riches.
“It’s not the 30 or 40 kids (who declare early for the NFL draft),” he said. “It’s the thousands of them who think they should come out early.”
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