Hoover, Ala.- With news breaking earlier this week of NCAA investigations into agent/player benefits at three SEC schools, the relationships between student-athletes and agents was a hot topic on the opening day of SEC Media Days.The NCAA is investigating whether former Florida center Maurkice Pouncey received $100,000 from an agent between the Gators’ SEC Championship loss to Alabama and their Sugar Bowl victory over Cincinnati. The NCAA is also looking into how South Carolina tight end Weslye Saunders paid for a recent trip to Miami, Fla., where he allegedly attended a party thrown by an agent. Late Wednesday evening, Sports Illustrated reported that the NCAA will also be questioning Georgia wide Receiver AJ Green about the same trip. Alabama is conducting an internal investigation regarding defensive lineman Marcell Dareus and whether or not he received improper benefits from an agent.
Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen, Kentucky’s Joker Phillips and Florida’s Urban Meyer all weighed in on the topic, but the quote of the day came from Alabama’s Nick Saban, who likened agents to pimps.
Saban placed all of the blame on agents for jeopardizing athlete’s eligibility with improper benefits.
“I don’t think it’s anything but greed that is creating it right now on behalf of the agents. Agents that do this, I hate to say this, but how are they any better than a pimp?” Saban asked.
When meeting with local media, Mullen pointed out that he has a program in place to help his players deal with agents. The bulldogs second-year head coach said he stresses to his players that agents who break the rules to get you to sign with them will not be the best people to work with once they have you on board.
“There are plenty of reputable agents out there that are going to do things the right way and follow the protocol and procedure,” Mullen said. “They’re the ones that have been successful for their clients and they’re clients have been treated the right way. If people are going to cheat for you to do something for them, chances are they’ll cheat once they get you. We tell that to our players.”
For natural reasons, improper benefits from agents have not been as a big a problem for the MSU Athletic Department as it is for other departments in the conference. With significantly less highly-projected draft picks than schools such as Alabama and Florida, there is less reason for agents to be camping out in Starkville looking to sign new prospects.
Junior defensive back Charles Mitchell, who was one of three Bulldogs answering the endless lines of questions at media days on Wednesday, said that he hopes he and his teammates can get attention from agents, but do it in the right way.
“I don’t feel like we have those problems or any illegal things like that,” Mitchell said.
“We feel like we’re the underdogs and we’re trying to get that attention the right way.”
SEC commissioner Mike Slive acknowledged that agents are causing a serious problem in the SEC, and the NCAA as a whole. With the NCAA passing rules that limit players contact with their coaches, it is inadvertently making it easier for agents to get to players before they can talk things over with a coach.
“[NCAA rules] In my view may be as much a part of the problem as they are part of the solution, because the rules make it difficult for student-athletes to seek and obtain the kind of advice in the context in which they need it to properly evaluate potential opportunities for a career in professional sport,” Slive said.
Another problem raised by both coaches and players while meeting with the media was the fact that very rarely is an agent punished for giving out illegal benefits. Saban recommended that all agents who are caught receive a one-year suspension of their license. Doing this would require cooperation with the NFL Players Association, which licenses player agents.
Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy is among those who believe the agents need to be held accountable when they jeopardize the eligibility of a student-athelte.
“Those guys, they don’t have anything to lose,” McElroy said. “They just go out there and, you know, bring on negative consequences to a lot of college players. I think it’s an unfortunate situation and it’s something that needs to be taken care of immediately.”
While it is unclear how long the NCAA investigations will continue, and how many schools will come in to question, it is clear that this story will not be going away anytime soon. If Wednesday’s media session was any indication, the questions from this issue will keep coming long into the football season