Colleges can address agent problem by not giving them sideline passes to games

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on October 17, 2010, 11:35 AM EDT

During his Saturday sideline interview with Alex Flanagan of NBC Sports, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell indicated a clear desire and intention to help the NCAA and the NFLPA solve the problem of agents paying players.

Here’s one thing that every NCAA institution immediately should do:  Quit giving agents sideline passes to games.

We’ve caught wind of multiple names of agents who were spotted via television coverage of Saturday games on the sidelines at college football contests.  Though we won’t go Hop Sing on the agents involved because we didn’t witness it with our own eyes, one source said that an agent was seen giving a high five to a player who was leaving the field.

The presence of agents on sidelines speaks to a deeper problem that rarely gets mentioned.  Plenty of college football coaches have cozy relationships with agents who represent players, and folks in the know know the names of the agents who are tied in tightly with certain coaches. 

So even if it’s only a matter of improving the perception, why not ban all agents from sidelines of college games, and why not prevent college coaches from being represented by agents or firms that represent players?

If the NFL is willing to roll up its sleeves and help fix a problem over which the NFL technically has no jurisdiction, the folks who are directly responsible for cleaning up the situation — the NCAA and the NFLPA — need to lend a hand, too.

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7 responses to “Colleges can address agent problem by not giving them sideline passes to games”

  2. So Florio will make absurd inferences but won’t name names of people witnessed on the sidline? Sounds like he’s in on it and probably takes some $$$ from agents himself. How’s that inference?

  4. That’s not going to work. Did you even read the Josh Luchs article? He didn’t find the players by hanging out on the sideline. He went to their houses or apartments and then set up lunch meetings. Making sure agents aren’t on the field won’t do anything to fix the problem. That’s a ridiculous assumption.

  5. # matt Russell says: October 17, 2010 12:00 PM
    That’s not going to work. Did you even read the Josh Luchs article? He didn’t find the players by hanging out on the sideline. He went to their houses or apartments and then set up lunch meetings. Making sure agents aren’t on the field won’t do anything to fix the problem. That’s a ridiculous assumption.
    ——————————————————
    Agreed. It sounds like the rule change that allowed players to take money and NOT pay it back was when the floodgates really opened.
    Closing that loophole would probably do more to stop agents from paying players (or players asking agents for money; chicken/egg) than any pontificating by the NCAA.
    Of course, this is all tangential to the fact that all these college athletes are essentially free labor for the colleges/NCAA. I won’t count a sham “education” as compensation.

  6. Anyone give a shyt? hands up.
    When did this site gets so boring? Is LoFlo spending too much time preening hisself on the tube?

  7. any solution that tries to avoid actually paying players is wrong…they should give agents MORE access, because screw the rules, regardless of who makes them…no more exploiting kids who are putting their bodies on the line for a bunch of mega-rich corporations and get nothing in return

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