"An idea that might help clean up college football: agent loans"

[94duke]

From si.com:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/football/ncaa/03/20/luchs.excerpt/index.html

I thought this might spark an interesting discussion. The article is primarily about football, but it would/could apply to all sports.
I'm not sure how I would feel about legalizing loans from agents to players. Does it even 'feel' like a loan?
I'm still clinging to what is left of amateurism in collegiate sports, but maybe that thinking is dated.

What do you think?

[Jderf]

From si.com:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/football/ncaa/03/20/luchs.excerpt/index.html

I thought this might spark an interesting discussion. The article is primarily about football, but it would/could apply to all sports.
I'm not sure how I would feel about legalizing loans from agents to players. Does it even 'feel' like a loan?
I'm still clinging to what is left of amateurism in collegiate sports, but maybe that thinking is dated.

What do you think?

I think it's an interesting concept, definitely worthy of exploration. One potential worry of mine is with this quote:


The model does not provide one school an advantage in recruiting over another

Can we be sure about that? It seems to me that, once a player signs a deal with a particular agent, that agent will have an immeasurable influence on where that player decides to go to school. It doesn't seem like anything would prevent an agent from steering the majority of his players to a single school, although I suppose one might be able to prevent athletes from interacting with agents until they are already enrolled at a school.

I think the system could work, especially since it doesn't require any more expense from the schools themselves, but it would have to be instituted very carefully to make sure it doesn't further upset an already problematic system.

[UrinalCake]

Agree with Jderf that agents steering players to a particular school is a definite danger of this proposed system. Right now there is a clear separation between the professional world and the non-professional world. Anything in the professional world is out of the NCAA's control. The NCAA cannot monitor agents. They can't control how much contact they would have with a recruit, or any promises an agent might make for a player for what he'll do after the player leaves school. I also worry that by adding an extra layer between the schools and the player, the system will be even harder to monitor. Agents could provide benefits to family members, for example, and it would be really hard for the NCAA to police. I understand that these things can and do happen already, but I think getting agents involved complicates things further.

Another concern is that players and agents will overestimate how much they'll be making after they finish with school. How many players have assumed they'd be lottery picks, only to fall short of expectations? Having money handed to them early would only make it more likely that they'll not make it to the next level. So now this 19 or 20 year old kid owes a huge amount of money and doesn't have a way to repay it. Of course, if guys like Allen Iverson are any example, letting a kid fall over his head in debt is probably a good way to prepare him for NBA life.