Meanwhile, when initially passed, the new bylaw only applied to the NCAA’s “power five” conferences - the Atlantic Coast (ACC), Big 10, Big 12, Pacific 12, and the Southeastern Conferences (SEC) - having been enacted under their so-called “autonomy” power. In addition, the player must officially terminate his relationship with the agent prior to enrolling in college. In order to take advantage of the new bylaw, then, a player must be drafted straight out of high school - players drafted after their junior year of college are still not allowed to officially retain an agent without jeopardizing their remaining NCAA eligibility.Īt the same time, those high-school draftees must not receive any benefits (such as free meals, equipment, etc.) from an agent outside of the representation he or she provides, and must reimburse the agent at his or her normal hourly rate for any services rendered. If the individual decides to not sign a contract with the professional team, the agreement for representation with the agent or attorney must be terminated prior to full-time collegiate enrollment. The individual may not receive benefits (other than representation) from the agent or attorney and must pay the going rate for the representation. In baseball, prior to full-time collegiate enrollment, an individual who is drafted by a professional baseball team may be represented by an agent or attorney during contract negotiations. Specifically, the NCAA’s new bylaw creates an exception to the association’s traditional “no-agent” rule in the following circumstances: So this week’s MLB Draft will mark the first time that some draftees have the option of officially hiring an agent without losing their remaining NCAA eligibility. Recognizing the absurdity of this situation, the NCAA enacted a new rule this past January - bylaw 12.3.1.1 - that allows some recent MLB draftees to formally hire an agent while still retaining their collegiate eligibility. And because a majority of draftees ultimately went on to sign professional contracts, most players weren’t particularly concerned about maintaining their collegiate eligibility anyway. Unless the association was specifically notified that a player had been directly represented by an agent, it rarely investigated these cases on its own. In most cases, the NCAA would turn a blind eye to this sort of circumvention of its rules. So despite their official title, advisors often served as players’ agents, directly representing their clients during their interactions with MLB teams, in violation of NCAA rules. Teams routinely expected (and preferred) to communicate directly with a player’s agent, rather than the player himself, while recent draftees usually preferred to have their agent/advisor negotiate directly with an MLB team on their behalf. Of course, in practice this distinction between an “agent” and an “advisor” often turned out to merely be a matter of semantics.
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