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No Qualms With NCAA Baseball Questionnaire?

I have to admit that I am a little surprised at the lack of responses to my publishing of the Prospective Baseball Student-Athlete Questionnaire.  There is no way that you all have no issues with future student-athletes receiving such a document immediately after they choose to not sign with the professional teams that drafted them.  All of the questions seem Kosher?  That is highly doubtful.

The first thing that I think of when reading it is: Who is the NCAA trying to protect? It is obviously aiming to create a situation where the student-athlete reveals that he had assistance from an advisor who may have been overstepping his bounds in adhering to the NCAA’s no-agent rule.  The distribution of the questionnaire only further complicates matters for advisors.  They must contemplate whether it is in their best interests to go along with the NCAA regulation and abandon their advisees at a critical time or risk jeopardizing advisees’ student-athlete eligibility, but at least promise to competently represent the advisee (even if it also means ignoring the no-agent rule).

In Banks v. NCAA, 977 F. 2d 1081 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 908 (1992), the no-agent rule was challenged under the Sherman Antitrust Act.  The claim was that the no-agent law had an anticompetitive effect.  The claim failed, and it was deemed at the no-agent rule was in furtherance of the idea of amateurism.  There was a fear that the focus of college football (the sport discussed in the case) would shift from educating the student-athlete to creating a ‘minor league’ farm system out of college football that would operate solely to improve players’ skills for professional football in the NFL.  Judges should start watching college football, and all college sports for that matter, more often.  Their fear has been true for quite a while now, and the no-agent rule had no role in delaying that reality.

This remains to be my favorite line from the Oliver v. NCAA case:

For a student-athlete to be permitted to have an attorney and then to tell that student athlete that his attorney cannot be present during the discussion of an offer from a professional organization, is akin to a patient hiring a doctor but the doctor is told by the hospital board and the insurance company that he (the doctor) cannot be present when the patient meets with a surgeon because the conference may improve his patients decision-making power.

By Darren Heitner

Darren Adam Heitner, Esq., is a preeminent sports attorney and the founder of Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., a Fort Lauderdale-based law firm specializing in sports law, contract negotiations, intellectual property, and arbitration. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2010 and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, magna cum laude, from the University of Florida in 2007, where he was named Valedictorian of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Admitted to practice in the state bars of Florida, New York, and the District of Columbia, as well as multiple federal courts, Darren also serves as a certified arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association.

As an adjunct professor, Darren imparts his expertise through teaching Sports Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) at the University of Miami School of Law in the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law LL.M. program. His scholarly contributions include authoring several books published by the American Bar Association, such as How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, and numerous articles in prominent publications like Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and Above the Law. His thought leadership in NIL has earned him recognition as one of the foremost experts by The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, and On3, and he has been lauded as a “power player in NIL deals” by Action Network and a “top sports trademark attorney” by Sportico.

Darren’s passion for sports law led him to establish Sports Agent Blog on December 31, 2005, initially titled “I Want To Be A Sports Agent.” The platform, created as a New Year’s resolution, has grown into a cornerstone of the sports agency community, offering in-depth analysis of industry trends, legal disputes, and agent-player dynamics. His commitment to the field is further evidenced by his representation of numerous athletes and sports agents, as well as his prior role as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington, where he developed and taught a course on Sport Agency Management from 2011 to 2014.

Darren’s contributions have been recognized with prestigious honors, including the University of Florida’s 40 Under 40 Award, the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, and designation as the best lawyer in Fort Lauderdale by Fort Lauderdale Magazine. He remains an active voice in the sports law community, sharing insights through his weekly NIL newsletter and his X posts, engaging a broad audience on legal developments in sports.

4 replies on “No Qualms With NCAA Baseball Questionnaire?”

The holder of attorney-client privilege is the client. It may not even apply if it is deemed that the attorney is not acting primarily as an attorney, but as an advisor who is not giving legal advice. Anyhow, it is not the attorney that is disclosing anything in this instance. So the basic answer to your question is no.

As a former student-athlete and current wealth manager to athletes my experiences will the NCAA have left me scratching my head about who they really care about. Over my 3 years at a major d1 program where 10 guys are drafted every year never did the NCAA take the time to educate and equip us to make decisions that would affect us for the rest of our lives. I hope this will change. I met a former Tennessee football player who now works for the NCAA Amateurism department and he assured me we finally have an advocate on the inside. I hope he has a loud voice.

Interesting ending to your comment. I will admit that I know quite a few people in the NCAA that are very intelligent and understand that changes are necessary. But it is a big institution with a lot of red tape.

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