University Of Louisville Requests Agents To Discontinue Communications With Student-Athletes

Late Friday afternoon, many football agents received an email from Emily Garr, a Compliance Assistant at the University of Louisville Athletics.  The unexpected email contained two attachments: (1) a letter from Garr and Jody Sykes, Associate Athletic Director at Louisville; and (2) a University of Louisville Agent Registration form.  The letter was copied and pasted in the body of the email for convenience and is embedded, below.

I wonder how exactly the university is going to enforce the policy contained in the letter.  This is typically my reaction when I review this type of correspondence.  For instance, the correspondence contains a section that reads, “We request that you discontinue all forms of communications, including but not limited to social media, telephone calls and text messages immediately.  If contact does not stop, you will not be given the opportunity to represent any of our student-athletes.”  First of all, why use the word “request” and not “demand”, if in fact the school will take action in the case that an agent fails to comply?  Further, how exactly does the University of Louisville plan to prevent individuals from having the opportunity to represent any of its student-athletes?  It cannot effectively prevent any of its players from signing with the agent of his choice.  While I am not bashing Louisville for trying to implement a policy it deems to be worthwhile, it is hard for me to believe that any agent will register with the institution for fear of being punished pursuant to the letter.

The University of Louisville agent registration form is below.