The NCAA News - News and Features

May 26, 1997

Federal agent law is possibility as work proceeds at state level

BY SALLY HUGGINS
STAFF WRITER

Few people dispute the need for legislation to create consistency in the handling of sports agents. It is less clear whether the legislation should be created at the state level or the federal level.

A national committee is working to write a uniform state law that can be adopted by all states, and a federal law is in the works and likely to be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in the next few weeks.

The NCAA has thrown its support behind the state law effort, feeling that the federal government should not be involved in intercollegiate athletics. The NCAA Special Committee on Agents and Amateurism recommended last year that a model state law be developed, and in August, the NCAA Council endorsed the recommendation.

As a result of the Council's action, Richard C. Perko, NCAA legislative assistant, has been assigned as an observer to a drafting committee created by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. The conference is a 105-year-old organization with representatives from every state, including judges, law professors and practicing attorneys.

The drafting committee will prepare a model law on agent activities.

Perko attended the committee's first meeting May 2-3 in Dallas, during which time the 10-member committee began looking at the various elements to incorporate in a state law.

Twenty-six states have some type of law regulating agents, but there is little consistency among the laws. The laws have different registration requirements, different registration fees, different bonding requirements and different penalties -- all of which makes it difficult for an agent to comply, Perko said.

"We don't want to make registration so burdensome that agents don't register," he said. "We want a system that is so easy that once an agent is registered in one state, he is registered in all states. This would encourage greater registration. We want to know where the agents are, not drive them underground."

Prefers federal law

Gary R. Roberts, faculty athletics representative at Tulane University and a member of the special committee, said he would prefer to see a federal law adopted because it would eliminate concerns about inconsistencies that the state laws create.

Roberts, a law professor and president of the Sports Lawyers Association, said the Sports Lawyers Association has pushed for a federal sports agent law for about 15 years but there has been little interest in Congress. For now, the association is working with the uniform law commission's committee to create the model state law.

"Laws that have been submitted at the federal level have not been good," he said. "A federal alternative has not been available."

While no law is before Congress now, Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tennessee, is preparing one that he plans to introduce in the next few weeks.

Gordon's law is being written from input he gathered from university presidents, coaches, coaches' associations, athletics directors and conferences. Gordon sent a letter to those groups asking for their support and, according to a member of Gordon's staff, received enough positive responses that he plans to introduce legislation.

Gordon's legislation would make improper contacts by sports agents a crime. However, it would not deal with registration or guidelines for agents, the staff member said. Input from universities and athletics associations did not indicate interest in that type of federal legislation.

Daniel A. Nestel, NCAA federal relations assistant, said that while Gordon's letter indicates that the NCAA supports Gordon's proposal, the Association has not endorsed a federal approach.

Uniformity among states

The uniform law commission agreed to form a drafting committee at the urging of Talbot D'Alemberte, president of Florida State University and a former president of the American Bar Association.

The commission has a committee that screens requests for uniform laws. It determines whether there is broad support for a uniform law in a particular area, said Richard C. Hite, chair of the sports agent drafting committee.

"Our objective is to draft a law on a subject where uniformity among the states is desirable," he said. "We try to select subjects that a majority of states would be interested in."

The uniform state law process is slow. The drafting committee will not meet again until November, and a draft is not likely to be presented to the uniform law commission membership until next summer. Hite said he anticipates completion of a final report in 1999, for submission to state legislatures in 2000.

"It will take a couple of years to get a model uniform law before the state legislatures, but it's not that long when you consider how long this has been an issue," Perko said.

Once a uniform law is prepared and ready for state consideration, the uniform law commission urges its members -- many of whom are state legislators -- to introduce the law in the state legislatures and to push for adoption unamended, Hite said.

If a law is amended inappropriately by a state, the commission does not encourage its adoption, he said.

Generally the commission strives for adoption of a model law in all states, but depending on the subject, universal adoption may not be necessary, he said.

"Some laws appeal to only some states," he said. "If a state hasn't had a problem in that area, they won't adopt the law. All legislators are interested in our products because we are doing a lot of research that would be expensive to duplicate."

Funding for effort

The commission is funded primarily by the states, but it accepts other funds. The NCAA Council approved $50,000 for the commission's efforts to prepare a model agent law.

The drafting committee has 10 members, including the dean of a law school, a federal judge and practicing attorneys. The committee encourages interested parties to participate as observers, Hite said.

"We invite as participants those constituents who would be affected by what we are doing," he said. "We want a very representative group who have had actual experience with the issue and are interested in it."

So far, the agent drafting committee's observers include representatives of the NCAA, the Sports Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association, Hite said. The committee also wants to involve the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and the National Junior College Athletic Association.

Observers can participate in discussion as the law is drafted and in any straw votes taken during discussion. But Hite said only the commission members can vote on actually forwarding the drafted law to the commission membership.