This lousy bit of legislation has its 3rd reading in the Oregon Senate today.
NYT financial columnist Joe Nocera has the background here on why 18-year-old players ought to be able to contract with sports agents to help them make career decisions, and negotiate with the athletic directors and coaches who will earn millions off their unpaid labor.
The NCAA cartel disagrees of course, and has been lobbying states to adopt legislation that, under the guise of protecting the students, makes the most common sorts of agency contracts illegal. Oregon passed a version of this legislation a few years ago, and now they want to tighten the screws some more, with SB 5.
This legislation will further strengthen the ability of big-time college coaches and athletic directors to exploit their players and pad their own multi-million dollar salaries, under the guise of protecting the “student athletes” from being represented by sports agents. Notably exempt from the legislation are the people really doing the exploiting – brand marketers, and the athletic departments:
That’s right, it will be legal for Nike or the Ducks to hire an agent to negotiate with a kid – but in effect illegal for the kid to get his own agent, given the restrictions the law imposes on such contracts.
Naturally the Duck Athletic Department thinks this is a great idea, and they’ve talked sports fan and Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney into supporting it:
Here’s the real story about what the NCAA and the Hawk are up to, from Marc Edelman in Harvard’s Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law:
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