SI article: Confessions of an agent

[Beninator]

Interesting story from Sports Illustrated about how a former agent tried to sign college players.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/magazine/10/12/agent/index.html

[Da Coach]

I read this article yesterday. It seems most of his claims either check out (with receipts, cancelled checks, etc) or were acknowledged as true by the former players he claims to have paid money to while they were still amateurs. And this guy was a realy small-time "agent" by comparison to most agents. This kind of stuff must be rampant in all sports.

[Beninator]

I first heard about this article early this morning when I couldn't get back to sleep and listened to the author of the article being interviewed by Dan Patrick on the Score. The interview went into some depth of how an agent can influence an NFL team's perception about the ratings of certain players in the draft. They specifically mentioned how Mel Kiper had Jimmy Clausen rated higher than most draft specialist and suggested that the ranking could be a result of an agent hyping Clausen to Kiper. The truth is probably somewhere in between but it was interesting.

[houstontxbrave]

I first heard about this article early this morning when I couldn't get back to sleep and listened to the author of the article being interviewed by Dan Patrick on the Score. The interview went into some depth of how an agent can influence an NFL team's perception about the ratings of certain players in the draft. They specifically mentioned how Mel Kiper had Jimmy Clausen rated higher than most draft specialist and suggested that the ranking could be a result of an agent hyping Clausen to Kiper. The truth is probably somewhere in between but it was interesting.

Didnt Kiper have some guy regarded as the 11th best in his draft a few years ago and the player ended up being drafted in the 100's.

There is no doubt in my mind that Kiper allows, agents(money) to influence his evaluations.

The schools can not play the players, because if the tried the Title X would blow a gasket. I have no idea what the solution is but something has to be done about the way both college football and basketball have allowed outside influences, essentially influence the sports.