World of Sports Management and Agents Essay

Sports Agent

Sports is big business and is growing in its influence every day. Careers are now found in many different aspects surrounding the sporting world. The purpose of this essay is to describe my outline for becoming a sports agent as a future career. In this essay I will present information contained in two separate interviews I conducted with individuals who are active in their sports career. I will highlight some of these comments and put them into context with my plans and progress towards becoming a sports agent.

Although it is fairly simple to become familiar with professional sports, there are many inside facts and tips about the sports industry that must be understood if I am to be successful in achieving my objective of becoming a sports agent. While books and articles can help shape and form my scholastic approach to this career field, it is essential that I contacted and communicated with people who are in the sports field currently and can offer some advice to me and how I should approach this pathway to becoming an agent.

As a result of this idea, I performed two different interviews with two different people, both in the sports industry working in different factions of the area. Alisha Tucker, is a Sports Compliance Officer from Norfolk St. University whom I talked to first. I also contacted Josh Brown who is a professional basketball player working in Russia. Using both of these interviews, I was able to patch together a solid idea of the different skills and resources I will need to continue to pursue in order that I reach my goal.

First Interview

The first interview I conducted was with Ms. Alisha Tucker, a compliance officer from Norfolk State University.Compliance officers have unique relationships with sports agents and know much about how their processes work and operate. A compliance officer is responsible for all NCAA compliance. This means that they must interpret and enforce rules and regulation as they relate to the athletics program of that school.

Some of Ms. Tucker's responsibilities include researching student records to determine eligibility status, communicate with the NCAA regarding compliance and violations, educate student athletes, coaches and faculty on regulations and oversee academic support for student athletes. I assumed that during my communication with Ms. Tucker I would uncover important information about some of the rules that would pertain to sports agents and their relationships with student athletes.

I asked Ms. Tucker about the regulations regarding her institution and how they relate to agent representation and registration. She informed me that The State of Virginia has no rules requiring agent registration but many do. Her relationships with agents regarding this matter are always open and freely communicated. Ms. Tucker related to me that almost all the agents that she has dealt with have been compliant and willing to discuss anything. She noted that "For the most part since I've been here we have not had any major "issues" with sports agents. The ones we have dealt with were interested in those athletes who had exhausted eligibility or had declared that they were formally forgoing any remaining eligibility."

While I certainly appreciated Ms. Tucker's time and honesty in her answers, compliance with NCAA rules….....