The task at hand remains immense, but the NCAA has made major progress in its effort to enact a single set of state regulations that will govern athlete-agent conduct.

The assignment could hardly be more daunting. The Association, working with the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, is attempting to persuade the state legislatures of all 50 states over the next two or three years to adopt essentially the same law for regulating agent conduct.

Since efforts to enact uniform state laws can stretch over years and even decades, it is impressive indeed that after only three months, three states -- Idaho, New Mexico and Utah -- have enacted the Uniform Athlete Agent Act (UAAA). While the adoption of the law in those states is encouraging, it may be even more promising that the legislation has been introduced in 20 additional states.

The UAAA represents an effort to bring a meaningful, long-term solution to the athlete-agent problem.

"States are repealing their laws and using this legislation instead," said Daniel Nestel, NCAA senior assistant director of federal relations. "We're asking them to adopt this in place of existing laws or other legislation that might be under consideration. That is a pretty major task because a number of these states have amended their laws in the past couple of years, and we're asking them to scrap those efforts and adopt this act."

But Nestel and others working on the project say the reception has been good because the case behind the legislation is so compelling.

Benefits

First, there is the obvious protection that such a law would provide for student-athletes and educational institutions that can be harmed in many ways by illicit agent behavior. It also would provide important consumer information for student-athletes and their parents by providing background information about athlete agents.

Less obvious, however, is the fact that the legislation would work to the advantage of legitimate agents in two important ways:

If enacted throughout the nation, the UAAA would create a single set of regulations controlling agent conduct. That contrasts with the current situation in which 28 states have different laws regulating agents. "If agents want to register in those 28 states, they have to be familiar with 28 different laws," said Lisa Dehon, a former NCAA enforcement representative who is consulting with the Association on this matter.

The UAAA also would provide for reciprocal registration for agents and for more reasonable registration fees. Given the administrative and financial relief that such a policy would produce for agents, the probable result is that they would be more likely to register than they are under the current arrangement.

State-by-state approach

The legislative process no doubt would have been simpler had the NCAA sought to enact the law at the federal level, thus requiring only approval from Congress and the signature of the president. However, William S. Saum, NCAA director of agents, gambling and amateurism activities, said the Association sought to develop the legislation state-by-state in the belief that the law will be better enforced that way.

In that spirit, Saum said that NCAA member institutions should not wait for the Association to take action in their state if it is one of those where the legislation has not been introduced.

"If personnel at our member schools are interested in this legislation, we will be happy to send them whatever information is needed," Saum said. "But they don't need to feel like they need to wait for us to take action. They can start without us by working with their government relations office to find a sponsor and by coordinating their activities with other schools. They can certainly contact us if they need assistance."

Communication with legislators is critical in moving the legislation forward. Nestel said he attended an especially productive seminar conducted by the Southeastern Conference, in which SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer brought together legislators from all of the districts where the SEC had a member school. "It was a wonderful way to talk about the merits of the bill," Nestel said. "Other conferences may want to consider this approach."

But perhaps the best communication tool is the simple letter. For those who would like to correspond with legislators about the law, a sample letter is available on NCAA Online (www.ncaa.
org). Click on "enforcement and reinstatement" and then "agents and amateurism" and then the "Uniform Athlete Agent Act."

Besides the letter, the UAAA page also includes the complete bill, along with a list of states where the bill has been introduced and enacted.

Benefits of the Uniform Athlete Agent Act

Staff contacts: Daniel Nestel (202/293-3050; dnestel@ncaa.org) and Bill Saum (317/917-6222; bsaum@
ncaa.org).