As the 2011 tennis season kicked off with the first major, Australian Open, no one can deny the lack of American players in tennis.  Over the last decade, the number of American professional tennis players (men and women) has declined.

Serena and Venus Williams are ranked four and five in the world. They have dominated women’s tennis for the last decade. The ladies usually compete in doubles and singles. Venus is 30 and Serena is 29 years old. Unfortunately, both sisters are out of the Australian Open due to injuries.

Although finding an American female in most grand slams is rare; there are some American women who garnered media attention in recent years. They are Melanie Oudin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.  Melanie Oudin is ranked 63 and was recently defeated in the first round of the Australian Open. Bethanie Mattek-Sands is ranked 48.

The game of tennis has changed tremendously for women. It’s no longer a game of just hitting drop shots, lobs over an opponents’ head, and out smarting an opponent by coming to the net.  A professional tennis player must have superior hand and eye coordination, good reflexes, strong mental attitude, competitive strategies, volleying skills, good cardio and conditioning, strong and controlled back hands/forehands; power serves (aces, 1^st and 2^nd), strength, speed, balance, flexibility, and agility, and the ability to adapt to the different surfaces (clay, grass, hard courts, etc).

Although, there are plenty of tennis academies in different parts of the US, specifically in states like California and Florida, many of the juniors or teen players are not adjusting or prepared to play on the professional circuit. The development seems to be taking a longer period of time.

I don’t understand this because many of the most successful female tennis players were young adults when they turned pro; Tracy Austin at 14, Steffi Graf at 13, Martina Hingis at 14, Lindsay Davenport playing at 17, Monica Seles at 16, Jennifer Capriati at 14, and the Williams sisters at 14. Chris Evert won the 16 and under championships to secure an invitation to play in US Open at the age of 16.

This brings me to another point – most successful tennis players’ parents played a huge role in their successes.  Either a parent or both parents were coaches.  Players like Jennifer Capriati, Chris Evert, Martina Hingis, Steffi Graf, and the Williams sisters are included.

Yes, tennis is an expensive sport and development takes a great deal of time and money (coaches, facilities, equipment, school, etc). Interestingly, tennis is ranked number seven on the list of Worlds Most Popular Sports ahead of American football.

Do Americans value this sport or feel it’s worth the investment? Does parents’ influences make a difference in this sport specifically? Will we see any “rising stars” from the US?

It will be interesting to see how the 2011 tennis season develops.  I hope there will be new American players that will nudge us into a new age of excitement and rivalry.

2011 Australian Open: Where are the Americans in Tennis? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Football

• And he had to pay the new $25,000 fee himself [Lorenzo Booker isn’t happy the UFL cost him money].
• Are the extra two games that high on the list for the NFL? [NFL 'focused' on having full 2011 slate]
• Lots of pro-competitive advantages [BCS may be unpopular, but it's unlikely to be deemed illegal].

Baseball

• Agreed with Red Sox at #1, but would probably put Werth at #2 [Red Sox lead pack of winners from winter meetings].

Sports Agents

• Boy did he get a deal on the largest house in St. Charles County [Area sports agent will buy Atkinson's Lake Saint Louis mansion].
• Will Kenny Rogers be the first person prosecuted under Mississippi’s Uniform Agent Act in years? [Law enforcement probes NCAA issues under Agent Act].

Coaches

• Big buyout + long waiting period [Could Chip Kelly take the Florida job tomorrow? Not according to his contract].
• June Jones is making $2.14 million at Southern Methodist [Football Bowl Subdivision coaches salaries for 2010].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (12/10/2010) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

The NCAA has released an update to its original statement titled, Joint effort to tackle football agent issues continues.

Update: Contrary to media reports attributed to unnamed sources, NFL player suspensions are not currently under consideration.  While each of the involved groups may have different constituencies, we are committed to working to identify solutions that all can support.

That does not mean that player suspensions were not discussed.  Instead, it means that even if they were talked about, suspensions are off the table as far as the NCAA is concerned.  In all likelihood, the NFL, NFLPA, and agents lobbied against seriously considering that idea.  Those are the three parties with the most to lose from the possibility of NFL player suspensions.

NFL Player Suspensions For Taking Money/Benefits As Student-Athletes Not Under Consideration from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Football

• He thinks it’s the smaller agents, more than the big agencies, paying players to compete [R. Jay Soward Says Players Taking Money From Agents is Super-Prevalent].
• Peter Schaffer proposes that schools create a class for all athletes going pro [Henderson: Right or wrong, agent Luchs raises questions]
• The idea can’t hurt, but I doubt it will do much [Colleges can address agent problem by not giving them sideline passes to games].
• This could be more effective, but much less likely to ever be adopted [League could fine players involved in NCAA violations].
• Spiller says that he does not care that his agent’s name is continually being brought up [C.J. Spiller defends agent Gary Wichard].
• Brian Bosworth and Stephen Alexander claim the ex-coach was the conduit for their relationship with Wichard [OU players: Blake introduced agent].
• A few more names to add to the list: Todd Stewart, Corey Coleman, and K.J. Hughes [Sources: Probe explores 'runners'].
• Just because it has been happening for a long time means it should be accepted practice? [College football, agents go way back]

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (10/22/2010) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

College sports has a handful of core problems: “One and done,” academics, commercialism, gambling and agents. When someone does something wrong or a scandal breaks, we put the klieg lights on the people and the problems. The NCAA has made agents the issue de jour. Rachel Newman Baker, NCAA’s head of agent, gambling and amateurism activities, told ESPN.com: “People are just kind of tired of it. They’re fed up, and our membership feels very strongly about agents and wants us to aggressively pursue agent issues.” Alabama football coach Nick Saban also fanned the flames when he equated unscrupulous agents to pimps.

Some believe agents and their runners are the bane of college athletics. The case many coaches and athletic administrators make against agents is impressive:

• They pay players, their families, and anyone else who might influence players to sign with them.
• They have no regard for NCAA rules.
• They don’t care about players’ welfare, especially their education.
• They influence high-school players in their recruitment.
• They operate outside the law.
• They all cheat, even the so-called super agents.
• They give bad advice when it comes to leaving school.
• They have no integrity.

(Of course, many of the same things could be said about some college coaches.)

Not surprisingly, NCAA and its members have stepped up its efforts to combat the “agent problem.” On the flipside, we should not lose sight of the fact that agents play a vital function in protecting the interests of their clients. Of course, the focus is on the bad apples, which spoil the whole batch – and give credence to those who want to demonize agents.

The mounting frustration is understandable, but the finger pointing ends up clouding the real issues. Like a lot of things in college athletics, the real world is far different than the lofty ideals and the news releases.

Athletic departments are adopting protocol about agents contacting their athletes that is far more restrictive than NCAA rules.

Here is a snippet from an athletic department regarding its agent policy:

“Athletes … will be instructed not to give out phone numbers or addresses. All mail should be directed to the athlete in care of the interview coordinator. Athlete agents shall make no phone calls to athlete until completion of final game of senior year.”

Another school goes a step further:

“All correspondence from athlete agents should be sent in duplicate. The original will be given to the student-athlete, and the other will be kept in the Compliance Office in the athlete agent’s file. (School) will not provide the addresses or telephone numbers of student-athletes. Furthermore, we request all agents and advisors to refrain from telephone contacts and face-to-face encounters with student-athletes, or their parents and relatives until the student-athlete has exhausted his or her NCAA eligibility.”

The fact is, schools cannot effectively police unethical agents. Such restrictions can have the unintended effect of driving unsavory agent activities further underground.

So, what is the solution? Solving the agent problem is similar to the pursuit of peace in the Middle East (without the actual bloodshed, of course). Factions are so entrenched that reasonable compromise becomes impossible.

There is a current proposal to ease up agent restrictions. No one is suggesting agents should be allowed to pay college athletes, but they should be allowed to provide them competent counsel.

Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe agrees: “Let agents have contracts with players and the schools. Those clauses would have a liquidated damages clause, where it would cost the agent $1 million or $2 million if they did anything that made the player ineligible … The ethical guys will come out of it in better shape by putting sunshine on this. You’ll promote the agents who want to do it the right way.” There’s definite merit to Beebe’s proposal.

On the other hand, two college basketball coaches I greatly respect point out the potential downside of embracing agents. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim calls it “about as bad an idea that I can think of off the top of my head. It’s putting the wolves in the sheep’s den.” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski believes that if the NCAA goes down this path, agents will get involved “even earlier. If you open that door even a little …”

Others think the NCAA and athletic departments need to batten down the hatches. Until the NCAA membership institutes new rules, the NCAA will continue its aggressive approach, monitoring the activities of high-profile players like never before. We definitely don’t need additional NCAA agent rules, especially with the problems the NCAA has enforcing existing rules.

My suggestions:

1. Allow athletes to get the counsel they need. Elite college athletes should absolutely be allowed to consult with informed experts about their prospects. These experts are called agents. Good agents are well-positioned to properly advise amateur athletes about the market realities.
2. Improve the message to athletes. I totally support NCAA rules prohibiting athletes from accepting benefits from agents. When I speak with college athletes, I say, hypothetically, if tomorrow the NCAA said agents could pay players, I would absolutely argue that agents are the last people on earth athletes should be taking money from. Even if the NCAA never finds out that an athlete violated a rule, accepting “gifts” makes them beholden to an unethical and quite possibly incompetent agent. These arrangements always come with strings attached, which can be far more costly in the long run.
3. Improve education. College athletics needs to do a better job preparing athletes for the business of pro sports. Agent education should involve more than scaring them about the dangers of associating with unscrupulous characters. It should be about helping athletes (and their families, too) understand the roles agents and others play in helping athletes. Until we all do a better job helping athletes understand the connection between whatever rules exist and why it is in their best interest to follow the rules, we’re never going to get in front of the problem. I devoted an entire book to the topic of preparing athletes to succeed in the business. Along with my business partner, Ryan Nece, who played seven seasons in the NFL, we work with athletic departments to prepare student-athletes and their families for success in sports, business and life.

Sports Agents = The Issue de Jour from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

We got lost in the craziness.  Every day, there was news of another school under the magnifying glass, but we forgot to ask a few questions in each circumstance:

1. Why are the rules there in the first place?
2. Why are these particular players and schools unreasonably being singled out when this type of activity is commonplace across collegiate athletics?
3. Why are we only focusing on the sport of football?

Let’s focus on #3 in this post.  Many of my colleagues would agree that football has its problems.  The barrier to entry is high, especially if you want to play against the people who have financial backing and are willing to spend.  But many of those same people would also say that recruiting in basketball is just as dirty, if not worse.  Here are Pat Forde’s words:

It’s not just a football epidemic. It’s even worse — a pandemic, really — in men’s basketball.

Part of the problem is that in basketball, there are less players who truly stand out from the pack and are NBA ready (even though every person who has picked up a basketball thinks he can go toe-to-toe with Carmello Anthony).  The other factor is that there are less spots on an NBA team and more wealth accumulated by those who actually make it on the roster.  Usually, when the reward increases, people will take more risks.  Sometimes that means ignoring NCAA, state, and federal rules and regulations.

Instead of waiting for the media to start truly inspecting the sport of basketball the way it recently did with football, my hope is that the NCAA and other regulatory bodies will be proactive and begin to start looking into college basketball programs without any unnecessary prodding.  The writing is already on the wall.  Dana O’Neil of ESPN.com recently asked aloud – What’s wrong with college basketball? When she asked 20 high-profile head coaches, What is the biggest problem facing college basketball?, with 100% consensus the answer was: agents and runners.  And I don’t think it’s because coaches naturally hate agents.  In fact, most of them hire a non-agent attorney, at a minimum, to negotiate and structure their contracts.

When there is no paper trail, the agents who are violating rules are hard to catch.  And just because some might be violating the rules/laws, doesn’t make them stupid.  Here’s the kicker:

All but three coaches thought the NCAA was at least trying to get a handle on the problems of college basketball. The catch? No one thought it could succeed.

The coaches pointed to a variety of reasons, including too few NCAA investigators, conflicts of interest, and the need to hire more competent men investigators.  Not many people have faith that the current NCAA’s Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities staff has what it takes to enforce the rules that the body has created and modified over the years.  And I put almost no trust that there is any chance that the NCAA allows student-athletes to sign agency contracts with athlete agents.  Dan Beebe would like those contracts to have mandatory liquidated damages clauses where it would cost the agent $1 million or $2 million if they did anything that made the player ineligible.  Slight problem – the NCAA would have to first have all states and the federal government alter their laws to allow any type of student-athlete agency contract, because while the NCAA rules may permit those contracts in the future, most states and the federal government still have laws that deem such activity illegal and punishable.  And how exactly will the liquidated damages clauses become mandatory?  The NCAA doesn’t have subpoena power.  Now all of a sudden it has the power to tell two contracting parties that they must include a $1 million+ liquidated damages clause?

The answer is not getting rid of the NCAA’s rules.  The answer is to continue educating athletes, ramp up enforcement of existing rules and laws, and modify the current state/federal/nothing hybrid into a comprehensive federal program.  Believe me, most agents will be happy with stronger penalties that are actually slapped on the agents who ignore the law if it means that they will only have to submit one licensing filing fee instead of having to navigate the disgustingly unstructured system of state licensing that currently exists.

Athlete Agent Enforcement Thus Far, And Where To Go From Here from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Because so much of my day currently consists of studying for the Bar Exam and doing Dynasty-related work, I often find myself having just enough time to read the headline of an interesting story, clicking “Read Later”, and eventually getting to actually reading the full story later that week.  By the way, a great tool for organizing stories to read later while minimizing the number of tabs you have open is a website called Instapaper.

Anyway, last week, I saw an interesting title scroll by.  Assistant coach gets $1.25M in lawsuit against Tubby Smith. Usually, when ESPN (or Yahoo! for that matter) picks up on a Sports Law story, it is worth a read.

Basically, Tubby told someone that he had authority to hire an assistant coach and offered that person the job. That person then relied on that statement and quit his job, which was giving him $200,000 per year.  The University of Minnesota thereafter found that the person had committed NCAA recruiting violations in the past and said it would not hire him.

Minnesota is considering appealing.  Should it?  Let’s take this step-by-step.

If Tubby offered the job, then he made an oral expression of his and the university’s commitment to that person.  Did he signal that the person’s acceptance would conclude the deal?  This is a necessary component of any offer.  If so, Tubby and Minnesota are free to revoke the outstanding offer, terminating the person’s power of acceptance, but the revocation must occur prior to acceptance and be effectively communicated.  Was quitting his job enough to prove acceptance by the hopeful future assistant coach?

This is not clear-cut, and more facts would be needed to make a better assessment.  If this person had the opportunity to expressly accept and didn’t, why didn’t he?  Why did he quit his job before accepting?  If he accepted, then the contract is formed, and the damages make sense.

If the court awarded him with damages based on promissory estoppel, I have a small problem with it.  My problem has nothing to do with the amount that he received, as the court could decide between expectancy and reliance damages.  The issue is that he didn’t rely on any type of gratuitous promise.  Tubby wasn’t offering him money as a gift, it was being offer in return for his services to be rendered at the University of Minnesota.  Sure, there was a promise made by Tubby, this guy actually relied on the promise when he quit his job, which was also reasonably foreseeable, and there would be injustice if this guy would just be left on the street now that Minnesota doesn’t want him.  But does promissory estoppel really fit in this case?  Perhaps it does.

One thing is certain – Minnesota won’t get out of its obligation by saying that Tubby made a unilateral mistake of making the offer in the first place.  Even though he might have been under a faulty assumption that he had the authority to hire assistant coaches, he and Minnesota will not be excused from contractual performance, unless this other guy knew that Tubby didn’t have authority, which is highly unlikely.

Should Tubby Smith And Minnesota Be On The Line For Tubby’s Offer? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

My company, Synrgy Sports Consulting, exists to fight for you. You don’t know me or my colleague, JD Nelson, so you may not pay attention to what I’m saying here, but if you care about your future, you’d be wise to read this article.

Got your attention? Good.

Over the past year, we’ve been asking your universities the questions you should be asking, talking to the people you should be talking to, and researching the issues you’re going to face to make sure you don’t fall victim to any of them.

We know you probably don’t realize it yet, but the world you’ll be facing once your college days are over is going to be crazy and complicated. As you transition from college to the pros, the stakes are higher than ever, and despite the rapidly evolving complexities of that process, most of you still aren’t being provided with the tools, resources or guidance necessary to make that transition successfully.

Need proof? Well, 78% of NFL athletes are financially distressed or bankrupt within 2 years of leaving the league. With the average career lasting 3 1/2 years, most of these players go from rags to riches and back again before they turn 30, and that, is a tragedy.

We’ve got good news for you though. In order to get the tools you need to succeed in choosing an awesome team of professionals who will represent your business interests wisely, all you have to do is ask your university for them. Yep, your university.

Why them? Well, NCAA bylaw 12.3.4 states that companies like ours can’t work for you unless you pay for our services on your own, but you have to pay fair market value and all payments must be made on a real-time basis. So, unless each of you pays thousands of dollars for our services yourself, your university is the only entity capable of providing you with them without jeopardizing your eligibility. Obviously, the vast majority of players can’t afford to pay fair market value for a team like ours to lead them through this process, so they end up using their family and friends to make their business decisions.

But Magic Johnson, who is reportedly worth $800 million and knows a little bit about big business said it best, “players lean on family and friends, not because of expertise but because they’re family and friends, and when they make business decisions like that, they’ll fail.”

The simple fact is, while family members often care as much as anybody ever could about your success, most of them don’t have the experience or knowledge to handle the high-stakes business side of the NFL.

What are universities doing for their young men right now?

I’m going to let you in on a secret: a few universities are relatively proactive when it comes to helping their kids through this daunting process, including, Oregon, Alabama, Northwestern, Georgia, USC, and Florida, but most of the others express little or no interest in helping their young men successfully make the transition.

The truth is, they don’t think they’ll profit off of services aimed at helping their young men succeed in the business of professional athletics, so, despite the steady stream of stories about athletes being taken advantage of and having their dreams crushed, they refuse to pay for them.

Don’t take my word for it though. Ask your coaches and administrators if they provide career specific transition services for their NFL-bound student-athletes. Ah, and make sure you ask what they consist of, too. If they tell you they have someone come in and talk to you once or twice a year, tactfully call them out. You don’t learn how to read complex defenses in an hour and you won’t learn how to choose your professional representation in an hour either. In the vast majority of cases, though, you’re going to get a lot of silence and a blank stare.

Some coaches may tell you that you don’t need to worry about agents, attorneys, accountants or marketing representatives until your eligibility is exhausted. Wait a minute – can you imagine your coach telling his stars to wait until the week before the bowl game to start studying the playbook? He would never say that to you when his job and life is on the line. Point blank, if they tell you to ignore your future until the final hour, they are giving you terrible business advice and you are doing yourself a disservice by taking it.

The truth of the matter is, hyper-successful businessmen don’t make multi-million dollar business decisions without the benefit of competent professional counsel, research and preparation. You shouldn’t either. Choosing an agent involves a complex process and it’s an incredibly important decision; Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

Is it really that complex and do we really need that much help?

Absolutely.

There’s an abundance of anecdotal evidence that players often make poor decisions when choosing their professional representation, but let us share some statistics with you to illustrate just how flawed those decisions have been. In the past 4 years alone:

• 18 players from a major ACC football program fired their agent
• 14 players from an SEC powerhouse fired their agent
• 14 players from another major ACC program fired their agent

Here’s the kicker: Despite the fact that those three schools are aware of their players’ struggles, none of them have taken legitimate steps to fix the problem. As a student-athlete, why would you attend a university like that when you could attend a university that has comprehensive services in place to support their student-athletes to the fullest?

You’re right. You wouldn’t.

What would you need to make this transition successfully? Well, for starters, you would need a competent team to conduct contract analysis on prospective agents, research agent firings and the reasons behind them from both the agent’s and the player’s perspective, and you’d want to thoroughly research agent disciplinary history. We have a comprehensive service that goes much further, but these are the bare essentials.

Ready to do that all yourself for the 20-40 agents who will be blowing up your phone, writing you constantly on Facebook, and showing up at your classes and apartment? Oh yeah, I’m sure you have plenty of time between treatment, practices, study hall, classes, and trying to graduate. And we haven’t even mentioned your personal life. If you care about your bread and engage in this process the right way, you better get used to your girl complaining (a lot more) that you don’t spend enough quality time with her.

Excessive agent firings may not mean much to an outsider, but you will understand this: When someone holds you and your family’s future in their hands – handling your finances, business dealings and brand – would you want to be so upset with the level of service they provide you that you had to fire them? No? Me neither.

Honestly, it’s alarming that so many of the players you depend on for information on agents are firing theirs in such a short time frame. It indicates that they aren’t choosing suitable representation the first time around, aka, they didn’t know what they were doing.

How dangerous is making the wrong decision? Ask Fred Taylor. He’ll tell you that choosing the wrong agent can lose you millions of dollars. For Fred, it was $3.6 million and much, much more.

Most of these poor decisions are due to a lack of education, preparation, research, and resources, but most importantly, they’re due to the lack of impartial and competent counsel. But if your university provides you with professionals who stand in your corner during the selection process, you’re a lot less likely to fall victim to the same pitfalls so many before you have fallen victim to. With as much money as they make off of your efforts while you’re on their team, it only seems fair that they fully support you when you finally get a chance to make some of your own.

Alright, to make it clear that we are more interested in your success than in being the ones to work for you, let me share this with you: There are a few other services out there who do similar work to the work that we do and they can be helpful to you. But be careful, not all of these guys have your best interests at heart. For instance, if they offer to work for you for free, they don’t really care that much about you because they’re jeopardizing your eligibility. No one’s going to suffer from that if the NCAA catches wind of it except you and your squad.

Until we meet, I wish you the best and hope that this article gave you some helpful information. In the mean time, always remember:

“In anything you do, quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise decision among many alternatives.”

Make sure you do what needs to be done to make wise decisions.

An Open Letter to Future NFL Athletes from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

This year, CollegeInsider.com has made its competition a little more spicy, by bringing in Dynasty’s Danielle Wolfe into the fold as the one tasked with picking the winners on the catwalk.  CollegeInsider.com set Danielle up with her own page on the site, a Twitter account specially made for the competition, and has used her image throughout the site.

This is always a fantastic competition. sponsored by CollegeInsider.com, and we are happy to have Danielle be a part of it in 2010.

Danielle Wolfe A Major Part Of This Year’s Fashionable 4 from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Last week, when rumors were quickly spreading about various coaches who might seek out the vacant Kansas football head-coaching position, some writers started to take critical looks at their hometown coaches.  They were upset just thinking that their head coach might leave town to try to fill the large void left by Mark Mangino.  No need to chuckle for too long about that “large void” line…let’s move on.

Over the weekend, the Turner Gill, formerly the head coach of the Buffalo Bulls, accepted Kansas’ offer to become the football team’s next head coach.  The Stanford community no longer has to worry about Jim Harbaugh possibly moving East and the State of Mississippi can relax knowing that Houston Nutt is not going to be leaving any time soon.  When it looked like Nutt was considering the Kansas opening, some reporters got all out nasty when discussing the coach.  One, in particular, waged all-out war-of-words on his agent, Jimmy Sexton.

This is what Brian Cook wrote in The Sporting Blog:

Look no further than the googly-eyed one’s agent, Jimmy Sexton. Sexton looks exactly like you’d expect a slightly reptile sports agent to look and acts like he’s been scripted by Jerry Bruckheimer. Sexton represents about half of the coaches south of the Mason-Dixon line and is almost certainly the “source close to Houston Nutt” cited above.

Sexton is almost singlehandedly responsible for creating the maelstrom of coaching insanity in the South. Any opportunity to pretend his clients are thinking about jumping ship is taken, whether it’s to wheedle out a contract extension or just buy a guy who turned a top five preseason ranking into obscurity a little more goodwill at his current home. Here’s an archetypal example:

In November 2006, he brought Butch Davis back to the college ranks at North Carolina. A year later, despite a 4-8 start, Davis received a contract extension and a raise from UNC, a response to rumors that he might leave Chapel Hill and take the vacant job at Arkansas, his alma mater. Even though Davis vehemently denied the chatter, he still received an extra year and $291,000 more per season.Sexton is the coaching equivalent of sleazy, soul-patched pickup artists displaying “PUMA SKILLS“; there’s nothing to see here except posturing and possibly a Nutt contract extension.

The picture referenced in the first link (which is at the top of this post) is a little disturbing, but does Sexton really deserve the “sleazy, soul-patched pickup artist” comparison?

Just The Thought Of Jimmy Sexton With A Soul-Patch from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules