National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2000
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Ohio State University
Student-athletes enter the agent selection process with little established knowledge of factors to consider when gathering and analyzing agent information, interacting with potential agents and selecting an agent.
To better educate and serve our student-athletes during the agent selection process, the Ohio State University department of athletics developed the Professional Sports Education Program.
One of the main aspects of the program is the Agent Day that the department organizes and oversees each year. Agent Day provides student-athletes with an opportunity to obtain educational materials about agents and the agent selection process and to interview prospective agents. Sponsoring an Agent Day also permits the department to control the setting in which the student-athletes and agents interact, thus diminishing the potential for clandestine meetings between student-athletes and agents that may jeopardize the student-athlete's athletics eligibility.
Agent Day logistics
One part of the Ohio State's Agent Day is the Agent Registration Program, which invites agents to register with the athletics department. Indeed, in order to participate in Agent Day or to represent any Ohio State student-athletes during their future professional careers, an agent must apply for registration through the department's Professional Sports Counseling Panel and abide by the program's policies. By using a registration process, the department obtains formal consent from the agent to abide by all state, NCAA, Big Ten Conference and university rules applicable to agent activities, agent conduct, and contact between agents and student-athletes. Documenting the agent's agreement to these regulations further aids the department in its efforts to protect the eligibility of its student-athletes.
For Agent Day, the department invites all agents that are registered in the program and are in good standing with their respective professional players associations (for example, NFLPA, MLBPA). Opportunities to participate in Agent Day are filled on a first-come, first-served basis with the first 50 agents or firms to respond and pay the Agent Day fee being permitted to participate in Agent Day.
The department staged its first Agent Day in September 1998. Since then, Ohio State has offered both a fall Agent Day, usually held the beginning of September, and a spring Agent Day, often held toward the end of April. To maximize attendance and allow the parents and relatives of student-athletes to attend more easily, Agent Day is scheduled for the Monday after a home football game in the fall or on the Monday after the football team's spring game.
Agent Day is held on campus, where student-athletes are encouraged to meet with the agents during individual interviews scheduled for 30-minute intervals. Every Ohio State student-athlete is invited to attend Agent Day. Though football student-athletes predominantly attend, student-athletes in women's volleyball, women's basketball and men's and women's golf have participated in past Agent Days.
We're continuing to work on increasing attendance at Agent Day. We realize that continuing to build a trust between the student-athletes and the athletics department is a key to heightening student-athletes' interest in the process and improving Agent Day attendance. Athletics departments must send a clear message to student-athletes that the department does not view student-athletes who decide to pursue a career in professional sports as the enemy. Rather, any institution that sponsors an Agent Day must stress to student-athletes that the athletics department is interested in providing them with information about agents and that Agent Day truly is meant to benefit the student-athletes.
Agent Day education
At the beginning of each Agent Day, administrators present an agent education session for student-athletes and their parents. The education session involves a review of applicable NCAA rules, particularly about agreements between the student-athlete and agent that will render the student-athlete athletically ineligible, and the consequences stemming from the acceptance of impermissible benefits offered by agents to the student-athlete and his or her relatives or close friends. Student-athletes also receive handouts that augment the educational presentation by providing information about permissible and impermissible contact with agents and facts realistically detailing a student-athlete's prospects for a career in professional sports.
In addition to educating student-athletes and their relatives on rules and eligibility ramifications, the Agent Day education session prepares the student-athlete for the actual agent interviews. Student-athletes receive a handout that discusses interviewing techniques and strategies and a list of possible questions to ask prospective agents. Student-athletes are encouraged to bring this question list into the agent interviews and write down the agents' answers so that the student-athlete has information to review. Even after the agent education session concludes, members of the Pro Sports Counseling Panel are available throughout the day to answer student-athletes' and parents' questions and offer advice about the agent interviewing process.
Benefits of Agent Day
Agent and amateurism issues are topics of significant debate in intercollegiate athletics. Some may opine that organizing an Agent Day facilitates and encourages student-athletes to meet with agents, thereby increasing the potential for NCAA rules violations that would jeopardize the student-athlete's intercollegiate athletics eligibility. On the contrary, the Ohio State athletics department believes Agent Day permits student-athletes to meet with agents in a controlled setting, allowing the department to know with whom the student-athletes are meeting.
Events over the past few years prove that it is naive to think that student-athletes would not meet with agents if there were no Agents Day. Moreover, it is during those unsupervised meetings that a student-athlete is more likely to accept impermissible benefits or enter into an agreement that would jeopardize his or her athletics eligibility.
Another benefit of Agent Day is that it permits student-athletes to control the interview process. Student-athletes select the agents with whom they want to interview, and they are not required to meet with any agents. Those who do meet with agents not only gain information from the agent, but may also place parameters on further contact with the agent. For example, a student-athlete has the opportunity to tell an agent that he or she does not want to be contacted and bothered by the agent until after the season concludes.
Agent and amateurism issues likely will remain at the forefront of debate in intercollegiate athletics. By taking an active approach, we can better educate student-athletes and their parents on agent issues and provide them with an opportunity to gain valuable information to use during the agent selection process.
Andy Geiger is the director of athletics at Ohio State University. Steven Waterfield is an assistant compliance director at Ohio State.