Yesterday, I published my first article at Forbes (I recently signed an agreement to become a Contributor for the magazine’s SportsMoney column). The article is titled, University Of Miami Unveils Football Agent Policy Aimed At ‘Limiting Distractions’, and it looks at the recently implemented policy that attempts to restrict communication between football agents and football players at the school.
At the time of publishing, Chris Freet (Associate Director of Athletics for Communications for the University of Miami) did not have much to comment. Since then, he has answered a couple of my questions, which follow:
Darren Heitner: I look at the NCAA planning on scrapping many of its social media policies that restrict recruiting communications between coaches and recruits. They find enforcement of the current rules to be nearly impossible. How do you plan to discover social media communication? Will you require athletes to hand over passwords?
Chris Freet: Our policy will continue to evolve over time and we will adjust to legislation from the NCAA. We do not currently have any plans to ask for passwords.
Heitner: Why choose this policy instead of doing an Agent Day and forming a Professional Sports Counseling Panel – inviting “Covered Individuals” on campus to speak to athletes?
Freet: We have and will continue to do educational seminars with teams and staff. For example, a rep from the NFLPA spoke to all of our players, a good number of the 2012 signees and many family members before our spring game this year.
