We've all heard the stories of greedy sports agents who tempt college athletes with cash and gifts just to represent them in a future lucrative payday with one of the professional sports leagues. This behavior is highly unethical and can jeopardize not only the athlete's opportunity to get an education but also his or her school through lost revenue and scholarships.

The integrity of college athletics is being compromised by this "show-me-the-money" attitude, and it has to stop. That's why I have introduced legislation banning the practice of bribing college athletes into signing agency contracts with gifts and cash. This behavior already is prohibited by the NCAA and some states, but jurisdictional issues and lack of uniformity have stymied meaningful enforcement.

The Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act, or SPARTA, would allow state attorneys general to prosecute violators in federal district court, with civil fines that could be levied for each offense. It also gives colleges and universities an opportunity to recoup financial damages they may encounter through the actions of these unscrupulous sports agents.

The guilty sports agent generally doesn't even get as much as a slap on the hand. Oh sure, occasionally you will hear about a sports agent who got caught swindling clients or who paid a fine for funneling money to university athletes, but by and large these agents get away scot-free. But universities earnestly trying to follow the rules lose revenue and scholarships through the shenanigans of an unethical agent.

When you have a kid being promised the moon, it's not hard to understand why we have the problem we do in college sports. Too often a 19- or 20-year-old doesn't think about the consequences of his or her decision to sign away that NCAA eligibility. These kids unfortunately are only focused on stardom and wealth. Not making it in the pros seldom crosses their minds.

My legislation is supported by the NCAA and a number of college athletics directors and coaches, as well as Rep. Tom Osborne. Tom, as anyone who follows college football knows, led the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, football team to three national championships

before becoming a Nebraska lawmaker. He shares my concerns, as does Middle Tennessee State University athletics director and former head football coach James "Boots" Donnelly.

Both Osborne and Donnelly testified before a Congressional subcommittee that sports agents have used all sorts of unethical tactics to get players to sign contracts, including threats of physical harm. And both told subcommittee members that federal legislation would help put teeth in rules designed to stop the misconduct.

SPARTA provides a federal backstop for the 17 states that have no laws banning this unscrupulous practice. It by no means supersedes state laws; it only gives state attorneys general an opportunity to punish those who disregard NCAA regulations.

The legislation assures uniformity in the law and overcomes the jurisdictional issue. It makes it unlawful for a sports agent to entice a student-athlete to enter into an agency contract by:

Giving false or misleading information or making false or misleading promises or representations,

Providing anything of value to the student-athlete or anyone associated with the athlete,

Failing to disclose in writing to the student that he or she may lose NCAA eligibility after signing an agency contract, or

Predating or postdating contracts.