In addition to NCAA efforts to educate student-athletes about the risks involved with agent activity, a federal law is being proposed that would help put those efforts into overdrive.

The Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act (SpARTA) is recent legislation introduced by Reps. Bart Gordon, D-Tennessee, and Tom Osborne, R-Nebraska, the former football coach at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

The bill would make it unlawful for an agent to:

Provide false or misleading information;

Make false or misleading promises or representations;

Provide anything of value to the student-athlete or anyone associated with the athlete;

Fail to disclose to the student in writing that they may lose their eligibility to compete in collegiate sports before signing a contract; or

Predate or postdate contracts.

Abe Frank, director of NCAA federal relations, said through the model state law (see related story) and the federal bill, the NCAA can achieve better monitoring and enforcement of the activities of dishonest agents and better protect the interests of student-athletes.

Frank said the act would be enforced under the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act and punishable by $11,000 per incident per day as an unfair or deceptive act or practice. First-time violations would be punishable, and the act would go into effect immediately after being passed and signed into law. State attorney generals could act on behalf of the FTC and could take civil action in federal courts. Fines would go to the U.S. Treasury, while damages and other restitution would go to the state.

"This bill will allow universities to seek civil action against the agent and former students for damages or expenses incurred because of violation of the act," Frank said. "These damages include losses and expenses if the institution is penalized, disqualified or suspended from participation in sporting events, or losses from any self-imposed actions taken to avoid discipline."

Similar to the Uniform Athlete Agent Act, the bill would require both the agent and the athlete to contact the athletics department at the student's school after signing with an agent. Notification must occur within 72 hours of signing, or the next sporting event, whichever is first.

The bill also requires language on contracts warning student-athletes that they are subject to loss of eligibility in their sport if they sign.

Frank said the NCAA's agents, gambling and amateurism activities and government relations staffs are hoping that all 50 states pass the Uniform Athlete Agent Act so that the federal act could be used as the second line of defense.

"The federal bill suffices until all the states have passed the UAAA," he said. "It allows civil penalties until criminal penalties are in place in all the states."

-- Crissy Kaesebier