On the TunneySide of Sports December 28, 2020 #828 Up next… It’s a Whole New Ball Game!
After further review… ”Tis the season to be jolly” shout many college athletes when they heard that the NCAA has approved contact by agents who are swarming-in to sign-up those athletes. Agents can now represent college athletes for commercials, etc. Athletes who are marketable can work with an agent who can get them paid for commercials and their N.I.L. (name, image, likeness). It sure muddies the water between professional and amateur athletes.
Is an 18-19-year-old mature enough to distinguish between ethical agents and unethical ones? Kinda like drawing a line in the sand at waters-edge only to have the next wave wash it away. Those in professional sports have a constant challenge in keeping unethical agents away from the professional athletes’ doorsteps. All too frequently we hear of disbarring an agent who crosses the line by going around established guidelines.
We also know of several “friends” of the coach or athletic director who searches for a “deal” in recruiting a stellar athlete to attend said college. We’ve also seen where an outstanding athlete is recruited by a college only to have that athlete’s high school coach follow and be assigned a coaching position at said college. That situation, while legal in many cases, certainly questions the ethics of the arrangement. But that’s another topic.
Granted, not all, maybe only a handful of college athletes will draw the attention of an agent. If Lebron had gone to college, what attraction would he be to an agent? Top-flight or rated #1? And while it might not matter if, indeed, it were LeBron, but what does that say to the rest of that T*E*A*M where teamwork is so vital? If LeBron does produce, not much.
Then too, if more than one athlete is so selected by one or more agents, what animosities or hard feelings can develop if one athlete is paid more than his/her teammate? Further, who at the college will be in charge of monitoring this? Surely, what brought this about is that the colleges are making money (you can enter an amount) off of the name of said athlete. Shouldn’t that athlete reap some of those dollars?
Many feel that the “free-ride” via a scholarship, room and board and some minimal stipend for all 4-years is ample compared to what other students and their families must sacrifice.
Will you honor the student-athlete approach vs the student-agent opportunity?
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