Posted by Press Release
on May 16, 2003

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon’s legislation to stop unscrupulous sports agents from bribing or misleading young athletes into signing away their NCAA eligibility received praise from a high-profile sports agent Thursday (May 15).

Scott Boras, who negotiated the largest athlete contract in the history of professional team sports when he signed Alex Rodriguez with the Texas Rangers for $250 million, told a House subcommittee the bill was needed to protect student-athletes from bad advice.

"The unfortunate part of sports agency is that because agents’ fees are gained only when a student-athlete signs a professional contract, many agents encourage the athlete to skip college and pursue a pro career," Boras testified before the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.

"Because we promote college, we concur that the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act is needed to regulate agents who are following their own interests as opposed to the student-athletes’ (interests)."

Gordon has teamed up with former University of Nebraska head football coach-turned-lawmaker U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne to stop the unethical behavior. Their bill will head to the House Judiciary Committee next week and is expected to come before the House floor soon afterwards.

"The pressures on student-athletes are tremendous," Gordon said. "We have a responsibility to educate our kids and protect them from the type of sports agent who disregards the rules. Agents know it’s against NCAA rules for athletes to sign with them and still compete in college sports.

"But many of them disregard the rules and aggressively pursue these athletes anyway, without regard for the kid or the school’s athletic program."


Osborne agreed.

"Over 36 years of coaching, I saw too many student-athletes taken advantage of by sports agents looking out for their own bottom lines," Osborne said. " I firmly believe we need to treat sports agents who lie, cheat and deceive as we would treat any other businessperson who promises the world but delivers only heartache."

The two House lawmakers have also recruited help from Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who is expected to introduce a companion bill in the Senate soon. Wyden introduced a companion bill to SPARTA last year, but the legislation was derailed when Congress went out of session without acting on a number of issues, including key spending bills.

The unethical behavior is already outlawed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and some states, but jurisdictional issues and lack of uniformity have stymied meaningful enforcement. Seventeen states have no laws regulating sports agents. SPARTA has gained broad national support.

Gordon, a senior member of Congress and dean of the Tennessee congressional delegation, wrote the bill not to supercede state law, but only to provide a uniform standard punishing those who ignore NCAA rules and state law.

The legislation makes it unlawful for a sports agent to entice a student-athlete into entering an agency contract by giving false or misleading information or making false or misleading promises or representations; provide anything of value to the student-athlete or anyone associated with the athlete; fail to disclose in writing to the student that he or she may lose NCAA eligibility after signing an agency contract; or predate or postdate contracts.

Under provisions of the bill, both the sports agent and the athlete would be required to notify the school’s athletic director within 72 hours of the athlete’s next sporting event or of signing an agency contract.

Schools could seek civil remedies for any damages or expenses incurred through violations of the act, which brings sports agents under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission’s unfair and deceptive acts and practices.

Civil fines of up to $11,000 a day could be imposed for each offense. Any fines collected would go to the federal treasury, while damages and other restitution would go to the state.


"This bill does nothing to stop a player from going to the pros early," Gordon added. "It only makes sure the player understands the implication of losing his or her NCAA eligibility."