I thoroughly believe that the program Collegiate Sports Advisors has installed at Memphis is something that can and should be duplicated at universities across the nation.

Video Review: University of Memphis’ Agent Day from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

A variety of new college football all-star games have sprouted up since the announcement that there will be no Texas vs. The Nation All-Star Game.  A few days ago, the NFLPA declared that it would have its own game called the AstroTurf NFLPA Collegiate Bowl.  The NFLPA has partnered with IMG Worldwide on the event.  The game will be played at the Home Depot Center on the campus of California State University Dominguez Hills in Carson, CA on January 21, 2012 and is expected draw a lot of players from the Southern California region.

The press release for the event states that the game “will showcase the top draft eligible collegiate football players from across the country.”  Some agents have contacted me expressing concern with that language.  They believe that opening up the game to all draft eligible players, including Juniors who declare for the NFL Draft, will prevent NFL teams from sending their scouts to the game.  One NFL team Personnel Director has said that teams received a letter earlier in the year informing them that they are not permitted to attend games that include underclassmen.

On the surface, it appears that as long as the game does not allow draft eligible Juniors who have not yet declared for the NFL Draft to perform, then NFL teams should be willing to send their scouts.  An issue is if the game allows all eligible players whether they have declared or not.  James Guidry of the NFLPA has informed me that those who have declared are eligible to play in the game.  However, does it matter?  Are Juniors who declare for the NFL Draft no longer considered underclassmen?  My argument is that they are still underclassmen until they sign with an agent and/or the deadline to pull their name out of the NFL Draft has passed.  Thus, if the NFLPA is accepting non-represented Juniors into its game, whether they declared for the NFL Draft or not, that decision could effectively prevent NFL teams from sending their scouts to the game.  And what NFL Draft prospects want to perform in an extra game if no decision makers will be there?

Inaugural NFLPA Collegiate Bowl May Have An Eligibility Issue from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Prior to last night, if baseball agent Dan Lozano was a stock, his rating would be “Buy, Buy, Buy.”  It is not a far-fetched claim to state that no agent, in any sport, has experienced the meteoric rise in popularity in the past few years that Danny Lozano has accomplished.  Lozano departed from Beverly Hills Sports Council (BHSC) in 2010, and took his major clients with him.  Those clients included Albert Pujols, Jimmy Rollins, and Michael Young.  These big names became clients of Lozano’s new Icon Sports Group.

In 2011, Lozano hit the recruiting circuit hard.  He signed Nick Swisher (formerly represented by Joe Bick), Yonder Alonso (formerly represented by Greg Genske), Carlos Beltran (formerly represented by Scott Boras), and Alex Rodriguez, amongst others.  It seemed like Lozano was on freaking fire.  Gary Wichard type of crazy, quick success.  But when one increases in popularity, the skeletons come out of the closets.  Those with gripes come forward to spill the beans.  If you read the post that was published yesterday on Deadspin, you will find that someone had a very large can of beans to fry.  Writes Barry Petchsky of Deadspin,

A plain manila envelope with no return address recently appeared on the desks of a number of media outlets, including ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports, and Deadspin. Inside were names, documents, and photographs, all telling a story of Lozano’s rise to power by any means necessary.

Here is the money shot, which a former co-worker of Lozano’s said to Deadspin:

“You kind of accept that you’re getting into the sleaze. It’s a sleazy world. But Danny was King of Sleaze Mountain.”

One must read the entire story to understand the depth of the accusations and view the pictures that are attached to the post.  While reading Petchsky’s piece, Lozano does not come off as a “super agent,” but instead, someone who will go to any and all lengths (including hiring escorts) to gain and please clientele.

Albert Pujols, Jimmy Rollins, and Lozano’s other clients will undoubtedly read the article published on Deadspin.  The most interesting thing will be to follow their reactions and whether any of them publicly comment on what was written.

Baseball Agent Dan Lozano Gets Scorched By Deadspin from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

When the United Football League (UFL) was just beginning at the tail end of 2007, Michael Huyghue was asked to become the new league’s Commissioner.  Huyghue’s résumé spoke for itself.  He was Senior Vice President of Football Operations for the Jacksonville Jaguars prior to becoming the President and CEO of a successful Jacksonville, Florida based sports agency titled, Axcess Sports & Entertainment.   Upon receiving the offer from the UFL, Huyghue voluntarily relinquished his NFL Contract Advisor certification and focused all of his efforts on building the UFL product.

At one point in time, Huyghue represented NFL stars that included Jon Beason, Vince Wilfork, Kyle Brady and Adam “Pacman” Jones.  It was well known that Huyghue and Axcess Sports & Entertainment recruited players from the University of Miami with the end goal of representing them in the NFL Draft and beyond.  What was not overtly alleged until earlier today, is that Michael Huyghue and Nevin Shapiro, on behalf of Axcess Sports & Entertainment, paid University of Miami student-athletes during the recruiting process.

Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports performed a masterful investigation regarding the benefits given to University of Miami student-athletes by former University of Miami booster Nevin Shapiro.  Michael Huyghue’s name appears a total of 14 times throughout Robinson’s article concerning that investigation.  The following is quoted from Robinson’s article.  It contains all 14 instances of Huyghue’s name.

Also among the revelations were damning details of [Nevin] Shapiro’s co-ownership of a sports agency – Axcess Sports & Entertainment – for nearly his entire tenure as a Hurricanes booster.   The same agency that signed two first-round picks from Miami, Vince Wilfork and Jon Beason, and recruited dozens of others while Shapiro was allegedly providing cash and benefits to players. In interviews with federal prosecutors, Shapiro said many of those same players were also being funneled cash and benefits by his partner at Axcess, then-NFL agent and current UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue.

Shapiro bought plane tickets for two of [Willis] McGahee’s female acquaintances to attend the 2002 Heisman Trophy ceremony and flew D.J. Williams’ mother from California to Miami to spend time with her son and meet with Shapiro’s partner at Axcess Sports, Michael Huyghue.

According to Shapiro, the system for recruiting players to sign with Axcess Sports was actually compartmentalized between himself and Huyghue. The booster would use his close relationship with players to make an introduction to Huyghue, and then he would retreat from agency talk from that point forward and leave it to Huyghue to grow his own relationship and sign the player.

In that vein, Shapiro said it was also up to Huyghue to develop his own financial link to kids, providing his own set of extra benefits to athletes as he saw fit, including cash payments, travel and other inducements. And Shapiro told federal prosecutors that’s precisely what Huyghue did, giving multiple illicit benefits, including cash, to several players at Miami. Claims that Huyghue called “fantasy.”

“He’s a convicted felon,” Huyghue said. “I just don’t want to get into such fantasy. I just wouldn’t want to even go down that path. I don’t even care what he said. Whatever he could say, there’s just no substance to it.”

But while Huyghue denied ever funneling to players, one former Hurricane told Yahoo! Sports he received multiple extra benefits from both Shapiro and Huyghue during his career.

[Former UM running back Tyrone] Moss added that players in the Miami program were well aware how Shapiro and Huyghue worked in unison for a sports agency.

In hindsight, Shapiro says if anything came close to revealing his impropriety, it was his partial ownership in Axcess Sports. After meeting Huyghue in 2002, the booster paid $1.5 million for a 30-percent stake in the company with the implicit goal of transforming his relationships with Hurricanes athletes into something positive for both him and the players. Shapiro was looking to build a successful sports representation business, and he believed the players would benefit from having Huyghue as their agent.

Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal has already reached out to Michael Huyghue for comment, and she Tweeted that Huyghue denies Shapiro’s allegation regarding Huyghue providing any benefits to University of Miami players while he was a part of Axcess Sports & Entertainment.  Huyghue has quite a bit on his plate between the allegations made by Shapiro and the financial trouble that the UFL currently finds itself in.

Miami Booster Claims UFL Commissioner Provided Benefits To Student-Athletes from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

The other “cases” that Linton writes about are examples that have been shared with him by his colleagues.  They are certainly worth reading, but I place extra value on that first case, because it was an experience lived by Linton himself.  While I wish that Linton divulged the name of the coach and player, I understand how that act could jeopardize his name in the industry, which is something he needs to protect.

Linton finishes his article with four things he is not too thrilled about: 1) University committees that advise players with the agent selection process, 2) Outside consultants who assist in the agent selection process, 3) Limitations on when agents can contact student-athletes, and 4) State agent laws.  The one area where I think there can be a lot of value is the inclusion of outside consultants, however, those consultants must be vetted and appear to be as non-biased as possible.  No matter what, they will undergo some scrutiny based on the agents the players select, but I truly do believe that these outside consultants could be a very strong benefit to the athletes and their universities.  The outside consultants should be intelligent, respected within the community, knowledgeable about NCAA/players associations/state/federal rules, regulations, and laws, and have an ability to connect with the student-athletes.

I want to end this post by giving props to Linton for writing the article.  He knew that he would be scrutinized for it and that it could hurt him in many ways.  My hope is that he shows it to his future recruits and that they respect him for it – I think a majority of them will.

Football Agent Greg Linton Describes The Dirty Side Of Recruiting from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Last week, Georgia Tech lost its 2009 ACC Conference Championship, was told that it has to pay a $100,000 fine, and is on 4-years of probation all because the NCAA found out that a friend of an employee of an Atlanta, Georgia sports agency provided impermissible benefits to a football player on that 2009 football team.  Actually, it is more than that.  The NCAA was upset that Georgia Tech failed to cooperate and interfered with the NCAA’s investigation of the impermissible benefits.

Georgia Tech Athletics Director Dan Radakovich confirmed that the employee of the Atlanta, Georgia sports agency is former Georgia Tech quarterback Calvin Booker.  The NCAA infractions report points Booker to being with Demaryius Thomas and Morgan Burnett when the impermissible benefits were passed out.  The impermissible benefits were $312 worth of clothing.

Georgia Tech believes that the NCAA has information that proves Booker was affiliated with is RFL Sports.  Booker was once an RFL Sports client when he had dreams of playing professional ball.  I have not heard much about RFL Sports in the past other than it being a small start-up football agency operated by Richard Kopelman and Terry Bolar, which hired NFLPA certified contract advisor Sean Stellato in the past.  Kopelman left RFL Sports and started KLASS Sports.  My notes indicate that Stellato went with Kopelman.

Demaryius Thomas has stated that he was offered a lot of things while in college, but did not take anything.  He also made sure to say that his current agent (Todd France) never offered him anything, which is one of the reasons why he chose to sign with France.

Kopelman told a reporter that he has no knowledge of Calvin Booker “providing anything to anybody,” and that he was not involved in anything nor does he even know that anything even occurred.  He also has stated that Booker never worked for him or RFL Sports in any capacity.

I see no reason not to believe Kopelman.  Yet, Josina Anderson (who has done an absolutely tremendous job getting in touch with the parties surrounding this event), Tweeted the following five days ago:

When questioned by the NCAA, Thomas says it seemed investigators tried to confirm, "if Calvin Booker was a runner for Richard Kopelman."

July 14, 2011 2:24 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@JosinaAnderson

Josina Anderson

I assume that eventually Calvin Booker will have to speak up about who he was working for.  Until then, the agent industry remains shady and clouded as usual.

The Actors Behind Georgia Tech’s Punishment from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Last week, Jayson Stark of ESPN.com wrote the following:

Scott Boras’ latest attempt to free-agent-nap another marquee player — in this case, as first reported by Fox’s Ken Rosenthal, Mets dynamo Jose Reyes — was nothing new, other agents say.

Now, technically, there is nothing illegal about it, as long as Boras reports all contact with other agents’ clients to the players’ association, as required by the new agent rules. But it serves as more evidence that it isn’t just happenstance when high-profile free agents (such as Rafael Soriano and Jayson Werth this past winter) abruptly switch to Boras on the verge of their free agency. True, it’s only business — but that doesn’t mean it’s a particularly pretty part of the business.

Interesting choice of words with “free-agent-nap.”  Further, it is interesting that Stark included Jayson Werth’s name amongst those who have been “free-agent-napped” by Boras, since Werth has stated, after Stark’s story was published, that he was never solicited by Boras.  In fact, Werth first reached out to Boras after his friends and former teammates told him good things about the agent.

Prior to signing with Boras, Werth was represented by Jeff Borris (try not to get confused by the similar pronunciation of last names) at Beverly Hills Sports Council.  Werth was “shopping” for a new agent and certainly did not use any coupons in his selection of Boras.  I expect that Boras took a fair commission on the fantastic 7-year, $126 million contract he negotiated for his client.

Jayson Werth Was Not Free-Agent-Napped By Scott Boras from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Kessel is accepting entries for the Agent Regulation Symposium through June 1, 2011, which means you do not have much time to put something together and send it over his way.  He will publish submissions, which should focus on ways to fix the current “broken system” of agent regulation.  Please send all submissions to rkessel@SportsLoop.com.

Kessel’s fix is to change agent regulation to be strictly done on a national level, cutting states out of the equation.  This is something that I have backed for quite some time, and wrote about in my Dartmouth Law Journal article titled, Duties of Sports Agents to Athletes and Statutory Regulation Thereof.  I wrote,

There are also problems with registration.  All states that have adopted the UAAA [Uniform Athlete Agent Act] have registration requirements for sports agents who wish to recruit student-athletes within their states.  However, many sports agents fail to register in states in which they recruit, and  there has been little enforcement of registration requirements by Secretaries of State.  Additionally, in the majority of states, there is no requirement that sports agents register if they plan on contacting or representing a non-student athlete (a professional).  In other professions, one must be qualified and certified before he is able to practice in those professions.  Thus, some have called for a federal registration system required for all sports agents in all states.  This registration system would be mandatory for sports agents recruiting student-athletes and/or representing professional athletes.  A prerequisite to a sports agent signing an agency contract with an athlete, student or professional, would be listing on the national registry.  If unregistered, a sports agent would forfeit all commissions earned from the representation of any athletes.  This system would be practical and effective since it truly brings national uniformity to the registration process.  It holds all agents accountable no matter the state in which they reside or recruit, making it affordable for smaller agents to register and helping protect all athletes.

I look forward to seeing what Kessel is able to put together with his Symposium.

Agent Regulation Symposium from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

My main question about the new sports agent legislation sweeping across the country is this: Why spend the time and effort to push these bills through state chambers instead of focusing on just enforcing the laws that are already on the books?  All these state legislators who are sponsoring new sports agent bills are promoting their causes in the media, but the media is widely ignoring the fact that these states have had the tools to prosecute agents for their illegal acts for quite some time; they just have been sitting on their hands.

The focus really should not be about implementing harsher penalties.  In fact, I find it hard to believe that a 10 year prison sentence to an agent who gives money to a student-athlete adequately matches the sentence to the crime committed.  Further, I have recently wrestled with the idea that agents should not be penalized at all for providing any monetary benefit to student-athletes, but that is outside of the scope of this particular conversation.  If there are going to be penalties attached to such activities, make those penalties reasonable, and actually enforce the law.

Examine the statement by Texas Rep. Harold Dutton: ”Far too many times, agents have caused havoc for athletes and universities and walked away unscathed.”  Again, enforce the laws that you and your predecessors fought to create in the past instead of wasting time peddling new legislation where the punishment does not fit the crime.

Why Does Texas Want To Put Agents In Prison For 10 Years? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Most 2011 NBA Mock Drafts predict that Mack will be selected somewhere near the middle of the pack in the 2nd round.  This past season, Mack averaged 16 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game, but only shot a 40.8 field goal percentage.

Doug Neustadt is going up against two much larger NBA agencies in the recruitment of Mack.  Interestingly, Neustadt got his start in the sports agent industry working at Octagon, where he was an agent in the company’s Basketball Division for roughly nine years.  He is now competing against his former company and ASM Sports, which was recently written about in the New York Times as possibly having a connection to a runner who is a former convict.

Shelvin Mack Narrows Agent Search Down To Three from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules