Attorney Darren A. Heitner, founder of the highly respected Sports Agent Blog, recently offered his opinions on the proposed changes to the Uniform Athletes Agent Act, which provides rules and regulations regarding the conduct of sports agents.
Among the proposals for the revised UAAA are a narrower definition of an agent, expanding coverage to include professional athletes and sharing more information between states, the NCAA and professional sports’ players associations.
In an interview, Heitner offered the following:
1. Do you believe changes need to be made to the UAAA? Why or why not? How will said changes affect the UAAA?
“The first major problem with the UAAA is that its title is no longer of relevance. The ‘U’ in ‘UAAA’ stands for ‘Uniform.’ However, in the past few years many states that had previously adopted the UAAA as their own state ‘Athlete Agent Act’ have modified their laws while others have remained static. This disparity adds to confusion for agents, universities, and athletes, which the UAAA was drafted to remedy. Thus, it is immediately apparent that if states are to retain their respective athlete agent laws, the UAAA should be modified to reflect the concerns of the present.
“The most important and valuable contemplated change would be to include college head and assistant coaches who encourage student-athletes to sign with the coaches’ respective agents to be considered as ‘agents.’ If the drafters (and potentially revisers) of the UAAA had even a modicum of interest in protecting student-athletes from undue influence of others in the agent selection process, then they will find the need to shield those players from their coaches who may have ulterior motives for driving said athletes to particular agents. In a college culture where universities continue to move closer toward completely restricting communication between student-athletes and potential agents (unless those athletes have their coaches’ approval to meet and communicate with those representatives), an expansion of the ‘agent’ definition to include those coaches who use such power for the wrong reasons is necessary.”
2. What will happen if changes are NOT made to the UAAA? What impact will collegiate athletics see?
“College coaches will continue to gain power through the implementation of restrictions on communications between student-athletes and agents, save having express permission from their coaches to engage in such communication. Further, those agents that the colleges wish to weed out will continue to have unfettered access to the student-athletes, because the potential ramifications do not concern them. Meanwhile, the student-athletes lose out on the ability to make an educated and meaningful decision on proper representation and may be unjustly influenced by their coaches — many of whom have representatives that also serve as advisors for professional athletes.”
