University of Florida running back Jeff Demps is putting aside his dreams to play professional football to focus on getting prepared to run track in the 2012 Olympics.  Don’t expect the same for the 6’3 302lb Florida defensive tackle Jaye Howard.  Howard, who was recently named Honorable Mention All-SEC by the Associated Press, has signed with Drew Rosenhaus of Rosenhaus Sports Representation.  Rosenhaus was reportedly in Gainesville, Florida last week and sealed the deal with Howard at that time.

NFLDraftScout.com currently ranks Howard as the 21st best defensive tackle available in the 2012 NFL Draft and the 213th best player overall.  He has already accepted his invitation to the Senior Bowl.  A big question will be whether Howard will put forth enough effort to excel at the next level.  His big knock in college was that he did not seem to always give it everything he had on the field.

Florida Gators DT Jaye Howard Signs With Drew Rosenhaus from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Anyway, Republicans in Florida planned on de-regulating multiple professions in order to spur job creation.  My alma mater, the University of Florida, was instrumental in taking the athlete agent profession out of that proposal.  In particular, University of Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley called Florida’s Senate Budget Chairman to encourage the removal of sports agents from the de-regulation package.  The Chairman says that he had already decided to oppose the inclusion of sports agents in the deal.

Want to do business as a sports agent in Florida?  Sorry, but you still must pay the fee and get licensed in the Sunshine State.

Florida Almost De-Regulates Sports Agent Profession from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

There has not been a player selected in the first 2 rounds of the NFL Supplemental Draft since 2003.  But there also has not been a player with the skill set of Janoris Jenkins available for an NFL franchise to select in the past 8 years.

Earlier today, Coach Will Muschamp of the Florida Gators announced that Jenkins would be moving ahead to the next stage of his career, which meant that Jenkins’ time as a member of the Gators football team had come to a close.  While the news could not have come easy to Jenkins, it allows the extremely talented player to showcase his skills immediately at the next level.  As long as there is a Supplemental Draft this year (which usually occurs in July), it will be wise for Jenkins to enter his name into the pool of available players.  If there is no Supplemental Draft, Jenkins will be smart to enroll at a Division I-AA school instead of transferring to a FBS school (where he would have to sit out a year).

Janoris Jenkins is a first-team All-SEC selection.  He was named to College Football News and Sporting News? Freshman All-American team.  Rivals.com ranked Jenkins as the 6th best cornerback of his class coming out of high school, and he only improved upon that ranking while at the University of Florida.  On November 10, 2010, Todd McShay predicted that Jenkins would be selected at #15 overall in the 2011 NFL Draft, ahead of Mark Ingram, Nick Fairley, and Julio Jones. This was prior to Jenkins expressing his intentions to return to Florida for one last season.  No one has said a word about Jenkins’ having performance issues.  Does being charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession 4 days ago really drop his stock to anything below a 2nd round Supplemental Draft pick?  Any team with a need at cornerback is crazy to pass up that kind of talent in the 2nd round.

Jenkins is supposedly already in the process of selecting an agent to help him with the Supplemental Draft.  He will need an advisor who is going to tell him what he needs to hear, and not necessarily what he wants to hear.  As long as he understands that the tough love is what will allow him to get to and excel at the next level, I have faith that Jenkins has a bright future ahead of him.  Further, I think the newest pride of Pahokee, Florida needs to select an agent who has strong ties to people who can help him show his compassionate side and do some good off the field of play.  This will lessen the focus on previous arrests.

A total of 40 players have been taken in the Supplemental Draft since its creation in 1977.  Big name players such as Bernie Kosar, Brian Bosworth, and Cris Carter found their spots in the NFL this way.  If given the opportunity, I believe Jenkins will do the same, and will have a very successful NFL career.

The Next Chapter For Janoris Jenkins from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

This year, many agents had their eyes on two players who were certain to be leaving Gainesville to hopefully go play in the NBA: Chandler Parsons and Vernon Macklin.  Macklin has not yet chosen his agent.  Yesterday, Parson’s chose his.  Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports is in charge of making sure that Parsons trains hard up until Draft Day and puts himself in the best position to be as high of a draft pick as possible.

Priority Sports has been interested in Parsons for a very long time, but so have a few other agencies.  Wasserman Media Group, Lagardere Unlimited, and ASM Sports were all pitching the former Gator.  For a long time, rumor had it that Parsons was choosing between Lagardere Unlimited and Priority Sports, but just yesterday, I heard that Justin Zanik of ASM Sports (the company that also represents Taurean Green and Marreese Speights) might have been the man in 2nd place.  Either way, the only thing that matters is that Parsons is now a Priority Sports client, and I have no doubt that he will be represented well by Mark Bartelstein and his team of agents.

Priority emerged from the pack based on the company’s close relationship with Coach Billy Donovan, representation of former Gator David Lee, and the amount of attention Parsons received from various people at Priority over the years.

Chandler Parsons Signs With Priority Sports For Representation from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

• Matt Bonner – Kenny Grant (Championship Sports)
• Corey Brewer – Happy Walters (Rogue Sports)
• Taurean Green – Andy Miller (ASM Sports). Currently plays for CB Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.
• Udonis Haslem – Henry Thomas (Creative Artists Agency)
• Al Horford – Arn Tellem (Wasserman Media Group). Aaron Goodwin was not pleased about losing Horford.
• David Lee – Mark Bartelstein (Priority Sports)
• Mike Miller – Arn Tellem (Wasserman Media Group)
• Joakim Noah – Bill Strickland (Lagardere Unlimited)
• Marreese Speights – Andy Miller (ASM Sports)
• Jason Williams – Dan Tobin (Wasserman Media Group)

Another school where Wasserman Media Group has a strong presence.  Arn Tellem and his crew have established themselves on quite a few campuses.  Other familiar names include Priority Sports, ASM Sports, and Lagardere Unlimited.  Brewer was not originally with Happy Walters when he left the University of Florida.

I think the draft stock of Florida players will have a lot to do with how the team fares in the NCAA Tournament.  Patric Young will not be leaving after his Freshman year, even though if he did, he would likely be a first round pick.  Chandler Parsons is an interesting player that a team may take a chance on.  At 6’9 he has strong ball handling skills, and seems to be “good” at just about everything, other than shooting free throws.  Twenty-four year old Vernon Macklin would really have to step it up in the Tournament to be a 2nd rounder.  He could still find himself on an NBA roster eventually, though.

Agent Selection Scenarios: Florida Basketball from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

• 46 WRs
• 35 DCs
• 34 OHs
• 33 OTs
• 30 DEs
• 27 DTs
• 20 OBs
• 18 QBs
• 16 TEs
• 14 OGs
• 14 IBs
• 10 SS
• 9 FS
• 8 OCs
• 5 FBs
• 5 PKs
• 4 PTs
• 1 LS

7 of the players invited are from my alma mater, the University of Florida.  National Champion Auburn has a total of 5 players invited to the NFL Combine, while National Championship runner-up Oregon has 3 players invited to Indianapolis.  12 players from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have been invited.  Just imagine how good UNC could have been in 2010 had it been able to focus on its games and not have any off-the-field issues and player suspensions.

Breakdown Of The 329 Players Invited To The 2011 NFL Combine from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

On December 31, 2005, I was a Junior undergrad at the University of Florida.  Today, I am a practicing attorney in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  On December 31, 2005, this website was viewed by a handful of people at a domain name that no longer exists.  According to SiteMeter.com, in the month of July 2010, Sports Agent Blog received over 135,000 page views.

I have always viewed this site as being something owned by the general public.  You wanted agency information, and we provided it broken down by state, sport, and alphabetically.  You wanted an internship database, and today we maintain a growing amount of agency internship information.  So what is next for Sports Agent Blog?  You tell me.

Last year, I looked back at how the site has grown over time.  Give it a read if you have a moment.  This year, let’s look back at the most popular posts of 2010.  If I had to label 2010, I would say that it was the year that the phrase “student-athlete” lost its meaning.  It was marred with scandals of agents providing benefits to college football players.  Was 2010 just the beginning?

#1 – The UNC Football Scandal

July was our biggest month partly because of this particular story.  My friend Joe Schad at ESPN originally broke the story that the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill was under investigation by the NCAA and that agent benefits were a concern.  While Schad found out that Marvin Austin was under investigation, I found that there were actually many others on the team who reportedly received benefits from agents.  At the time, no one had any idea that UNC’s former associate head coach, John Blake, had anything to do with it.  People also had not made the connection that agent Gary Wichard was involved.  Eventually Blake lost his job and Wichard was suspended by the NFLPA.

#2 - South Carolina Up Next?

This story also pushed Sports Agent Blog to the eyes of many new visitors in the month of July.  It was another investigatory piece, but involving North Carolina’s neighbor, South Carolina.  This time, the focus was on Tight End, Weslye Saunders.  Saunders ended up sitting out the 2010 season afterwards.

#3 - UFL Player And Agent Compensation

The United Football League (UFL) has become a destination for many football players who hope to one day make (or return to) an NFL roster.  More and more agents are considering sending their players to the UFL to showcase their talents to NFL scouts.  Recently, however, the UFL was criticized for its steep transfer fee.  This particular post was very popular because it simply laid out player and agent compensation in the UFL and how to become a certified agent.

#4 - Brock Lesnar Update

I have no idea why this post by Zachary Lipari from January 2010 is so popular, but we seem to get a good amount of visits from Google searches for it, so here you go.  Lesnar had diverticulosis, had surgery, and based on a medical miracle, was able to return to the octagon.

#5 - The 2010 NFL Draft Pick/Agent Selection Master List

There has been a lot of agent switching since the 2010 NFL Draft took place, but immediately after all the names were called in New York, I put together this list of players and their agents of record at the time of being selected.  There were a few blanks, but I was able to find agent information for the majority of players taken in the draft.  This remains as a very useful resource for people to find out who to contact to get ahold of a particular player.  Expect this feature to return in 2011.

#6 - NCAA Chomping At The Gators

Another potential scandal, but one that was eventually forgotten.  Someone sent a letter to the University of Florida, which stated that an agent provided $100,000 to Maurkice Pouncey prior to his performance in the Sugar Bowl.  No names ended up surfacing and no punishments were handed out.

#7 - John Blake’s World Could Come Crashing Down

The aforementioned John Blake was found to be one of Gary Wichard’s best friends and a former employee of Wichard’s company, Pro Tect Management.  Blake resigned from UNC and hired multiple lawyers to protect himself.

#8 - What Does Penn State D-I Hockey Mean for College Hockey?

Here is a post by contributor Mitchell Bragg.  He looked at how the college hockey landscape would change with the addition of a nationally recognized athletic program.

#9 - Casey Close To Leaving CAA

It would not be a stretch to say that in 2010, CAA separated itself from the pack of other agencies to become “the best” sports agency in the world.  A big part of the company’s dominance is its baseball division, which has Casey Close as one of its important members.  In March, I had heard that Close may eventually leave CAA and either start up his own practice, or join David Falk at FAME.

#10 - Bacardi deal with NBA will not be waste

Contributor Richard Kimsey analyzed the NBA’s 3-year, 7-figure deal with Bacardi.

2010 – The Year “Student-Athlete” Lost Its Meaning 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

Pat Forde of ESPN.com has revealed that the University of Florida is working with the NCAA to investigate the alleged receipt of $100,000 by former Gator standout, Maurkice Pouncey.  Supposedly, Pouncey received the money at some point between the SEC Championship Game and the Sugar Bowl, from someone associated with a sports agent.  Forde does not reveal the agent’s name, and at this point, I do not have any information as to who the agent may be.

It is well known that the agents who spend a lot of money on players prior to that their declarations for the NFL Draft, often times end up losing out.  Thus, no one should jump to conclusions that Joel Segal, Pouncey’s current agent, is the agent that is under investigation regarding the $100,000 payment.

UPDATE: Under Florida’s applicable statute governing athlete agents, an agent found guilty of giving Pouncey $100,000 would be guilty of a felony in the second degree in the State of Florida.  That agent could be imprisoned for up to 15 years along with getting fined up to $10,000.  Who would be the victim in this case?  The school?  The player?  A court could also force the agent to make restitution to any victim for damage or loss caused directly or indirectly by the agent’s offense.

NCAA Chomping At The Gators from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Up until high school, the plan was to become a doctor.  You know that put a smile on my Jewish mother’s face.  When I realized that I could not bare even looking at blood, I started to think about new lines of work.  From the day I was born, my father pushed sports on me.  I loved watching athletes perform, but enjoyed being a part of the action even more.  I picked up a tennis racket at the age of 3 and a baseball bat at the age of 4.  So with Sports Doctor out of the question, how else could I incorporate my passion for sports in my professional life?

Leading up to my freshman year of high school, I had heard many great things about High School Debate, and more specifically, my high school’s (Nova High) debate team.  Never one to back down from arguing my view and stubborn to the nth degree, debate seemed like it would be a good fit.  I ended up specializing in Student Congress, where I was responsible for crafting Bills and Resolutions, and arguing the Affirmative or Negative stance on a provided docket of legislation at various national tournaments.  By senior year, I was Captain of the Student Congress section of our debate team, which was known for having the strongest Student Congress competitors in the United States.  I was reading Supreme Court cases in high school and citing precedents practically every weekend.  When I applied to various universities, the plan was to Major in Political Science and then go to law school, with the goal of entering the world of politics.

I chose the University of Florida as my college destination.  Upon stepping foot on campus, I was ignorant as to how politics in the real world actually operate.  I still believed that those with the brains and those with the drive were the people who were awarded positions.  Boy was I wrong about that.  The University of Florida opened up my eyes to how politics really works.  After being denied positions that I was certainly qualified for, mostly due to the fact that I joined one of the newer, less politically powerful fraternities on campus (we are now amongst the strongest – and it is nice to know that I had a part in that), my desire for politics started to diminish.  At the University of Florida there is an honor society called Florida Blue Key.  It is a very selective group of the most involved and powerful people on campus.  I knew I wanted to be a part of it.  And I was told many times by very powerful people that I would never get in and one former President of the organization told me that he would make sure that I wouldn’t be invited.  So much for that, as I am now a member, but that is another story.

So after I realized that I wanted something other than a political future, but still very interested in going to law school and always passionate about sports, I decided to give the whole sports agency business a try.  Again, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  I figured that the qualified applicants get invited to participate in internships and that the business operates on merit as a whole.  I quickly found out that was not the case.  Luckily, I had a connection to the President of a major agency.  My girlfriend (at the time) was roommates with the niece of this President.  The company had less than 10 summer internships available, and over 800 applicants.  Only 1 person would be interning in the particular area that I wanted – Client Services.  The company does a lot of work outside of athlete representation, which is where the other interns worked.  My connection allowed me to skip the in-person interview and do a phone interview instead.  And I failed.  I did my research on the company, but living in Florida my entire life and being used to the way Floridians communicate with each other, I came off as not having enough of the “southern hospitality” this company was looking for.  But I got a 2nd chance in another phone interview, and I knocked it out of the park.  I interned with the company over that Summer between my sophomore and junior year of college.  That’s when I decided that I wanted to be in this industry.  The internship confirmed it and made me believe that I had the skills to separate myself from the competition and do great work for my future clients.

Why I Decided To Enter The World Of Athlete Representation from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules