Representing the Professional Athlete kicked off with an amazing week 1 examining the student-athlete and the do’s and don’ts of representation, publicity, and receiving extra benefits. Discussions among students consisted of whether or not college athletes should form a union and should student-athletes be paid. There was also a live discussion led by professor Carfagna held this past Sunday about amateur athletics. Students are definitely getting a special treat being enrolled in this course, which now has students that represent 132 countries (67% of the world). Everyone gained a global perspective on the current issues in the NCAA in week 1 and we all got to see the comparisons to the college models in other parts of the world like Europe and Canada.
Week 2 delves into the introduction to agents and the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) of the 3 major leagues’: Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL), and National Basketball Association (NBA). Students will gain an overall understanding of how the CBAs in the MLB, NFL and NBA function and affect a player’s ability to become eligible for the draft, the signing of their first contract and ability to reach Free Agency. Students will also be taken through the fiduciary duties an agent owes his or her clients and how to avoid the pitfalls that predecessors have fallen into.
Guest speakers for this week are Jay K. Reisinger (Partner at Farrell & Reisinger, LLC), Andy Simms (Co-Founder of PlayerRep Sports Management), and our very own Darren Heitner, Esq. (Founder of Heitner Legal). The live discussion for week 2 will focus on the CBAs and the fiduciary duties of agents. Students will discuss topics that range from what is the most favorable CBA for the athletes to what characteristics you would look for in an athlete, as an agent.
Follow the course on twitter: @SportsAgentMOOC.