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Colleges Recruiting Sports Law

UCF Clarifies Its Policy Concerning Recruitment Of Baseball Players

ucf athleticsBack on December 2, I had a lot of good things to say about the University of Central Florida’s Compliance Office.  But commentator, Jason Wolf, mentioned an interesting inconsistency.  He correctly stated,

The baseball calendar requires agents to be registered with the MLBPA. However, unless there have been very recent changes, the MLBPA does not require agents to be registered until their client is on the 40-man roster.

The MLBPA has not made any changes; an agent still must have a client on a team’s 40-man roster in order to become MLBPA certified.  So Jason sent a message to Lisa Danner, Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance at UCF, asking for clarification.  Here response is very valuable for any agent that is interested in recruiting UCF baseball players.

Since the MLBPA will not allow agents to register before they represent an athlete that is a member on a 40 man roster, you will not be required to be a member of the MLBPA and submit the applicable documentation, if you do not currently represent any athletes that meet that criteria. Please indicate such in a letter attached to your UCF Registration so that we may place it on file with your registration information.

This levels the playing field.  If UCF and other universities required all agents to be certified before recruiting any of their baseball players, it would prohibit agents from recruiting baseball players at the collegiate level, leaving high schoolers as the only pool of players for non-certified agents to advise leading up to the draft.

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.

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