Amateur Athletes' Right to Representation and Counsel: A Model State Statute

  Drafted by : Richard T. Karcher, J.D., Eastern Michigan University   Preamble : Amateur athletes who are weighing their professional playing career options need an agent’s services in order to make a fully informed decision whether to sign a professional contract. However,  the NCAA unduly interferes with the agent-client relationship in a variety of ways that indirectly conflict with state principal-agent laws as well as state bar rules of professional conduct for agents who are licensed to practice law in the state. The NCAA restricts an amateur athlete’s ability to retain an agent and to have the agent on their behalf speak to, and negotiate with, professional teams or clubs located in the United States and abroad. The NCAA’s general “no agent” rule pursuant to Bylaw 12.3.1 provides, in pertinent part, “[a]n individual shall be ineligible for participation in an intercollegiate sport if the individual ever has agreed (orally or in writing) to be represented by an age...