The NCAA announced Wednesday that
the Oklahoma Sooners eight wins from the 2005 season would be invalidated
because two players employed by a booster received pay for jobs they didn’t
actually work. The athletics department will face other athletic sanctions as
well. States and colleges, trying to avoid situations like that, are
increasingly turning to the courts to help protect the integrity of big-time
college athletics.
Reggie Bush, the former University
of Southern California running back
and now a star for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, recently reached a settlement
with CaliforniaDiverse: “The Heisman Trophy
Trust is aware of the situation, but does not feel it’s appropriate to make a
decision or pass judgment until the NCAA and the Pac-10 have released their
findings.” Bush, for his part, has mostly refused to participate in the
investigation. real estate agent
and sports agent Michael Michaels, who reportedly let Bush’s family live
rent-free in a $750,000 house during Bush’s college tenure. Michaels had hoped
that he would represent Bush in the NFL, but when Bush signed with Mike
Ornstein and Joel Segal instead, Michaels went public with the housing
arrangement, drawing scrutiny to the player and the Trojans’ national
championship team. The NCAA continues to investigate, and Bush’s Heisman trophy
may be more than just a little tarnished; it may have to be flat out returned.
Tim Henning, the Heisman coordinator, told
While not as high profile as the Bush case, other
instances of improper contact between agents and players have occurred at USC.
In 1995, Robert Troy Caron, head of the sports agency Pro Manage, agreed to pay
the university $50,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed he provided three
players, Shawn Walters, Israel Ifeanyi and Errick Herrin, with plane tickets,
rent and other items in hopes of representing the players at the next level.
After the violations surfaced, the three players, all starters, were dismissed
from the team.
Agent
infractions have hit universities big and small. In 2003, for example, the NCAA
levied a four-year probation on Fresno
State University
for violations that included illicit connections between an agent and a member
of the men’s basketball team during the summer of 2001.
Amy P. Perko,
the executive director of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics,
says that while the number of booster-related violations is on the decline,
agent-related infringement is increasing.
And since the
agents are “not connected with the institution,” it’s harder to control their
actions, says Bill Clever, the assistant athletic director for compliance at
the University of Oregon.
“Agents are a true nightmare.”
Universities
such as Oregon now hold “agent
days” to educate players about appropriate conduct. States are also beginning
to pass laws making it illegal for agents to interact with college athletes in
inappropriate ways. The statutes target the agents and the students. Clever
says Oregon’s state law allows
the school to file a civil suit against a student-athlete should his or her
illegal contact with an agent result in a loss of revenue for the institution.
Overall, these measures have been “pretty successful” tools, Clever says, but
both he and Perko agree more needs to be done.
