NCAA Questionaire Signals A New Crackdown

The NCAA walks a fine line with baseball players selected in the draft. Players are free to seek guidance, but the NCAA distinguishes between agents and "advisers," and makes it clear that athletes who fail to recognize the difference put their eligibility at risk.

The line is hazy, and teams and agents routinely wink at practices that fall beyond the letter of the law. But as the money increases and the draft becomes a prime financial battleground, the signs are pointing toward an attempted NCAA crackdown.

The NCAA Eligibility Center recently distributed a questionnaire to college baseball players that suggests tighter oversight of advisers in the draft. Many agents questioned where the initiative will lead, only seven months after an Ohio judge upheld former Oklahoma State lefthander Andy Oliver's right to representation in the draft.

The NCAA has sporadically punished players who sought assistance in the draft. Oliver was declared ineligible for the 2008 Stillwater Regional amid the revelation that advisers Bob and Tim Baratta had sat in on negotiations with the Twins in 2006. After Oliver switched to Boras in March 2008, the Baratta brothers reportedly turned in Oliver to the NCAA.

Oliver filed a lawsuit against the NCAA and the Barattas and was reinstated at OSU when Tygh Tone, an Eric County (Ohio) common pleas judge, ruled that NCAA regulations limiting the role of attorneys in counseling student-athletes are impossible to enforce and allow for the exploitation of players.

Oliver re-entered the draft in June, with Boras as his adviser, and signed with the Tigers for a $1.495 million bonus as a second-round pick. He is seeking damages in a second phase of the lawsuit, with a jury trial scheduled to begin in October.

Major League Baseball, of course, has a huge stake in the economic ramifications of the draft. Rising bonus payouts have prompted commissioner Bud Selig to call for a hard slotting system with no exceptions. This year MLB recommended that teams reduce draft bonuses by 10 percent, but Baseball America reported that the total payout for the first five rounds stayed even between 2008 and 2009.

Righthander Stephen Strasburg, selected first overall by the Nationals out of San Diego State, set draft records with a $7.5 million bonus and a $15.1 million guaranteed payout while using Boras as his adviser.

The bottom line here is the NCAA's attempts to limit or crack down on advisers could: put draft picks at a distinct disadvantage in negotiations or punish players who seek assistance. So, what is a player to do? If your Stephen Strasburg it is a no brainer, but what of the inner city kid who can not afford the services of Boras? Who speaks for him? and What is he potentially giving up if he makes a mistake with either the NCAA or MLB?