Another SMWW Student Now Working For Professional Team

Sports Revenue Management graduate Ryan Polito was recently hired to work in Major League Soccer. Polito had enrolled in the Sports Revenue Management Course in hopes of fulfilling his dream of working for a professional sports team.

Polito did an outstanding final project in the course and was subsequently hired by the Dallas Burn of the MLS. SMWW has strong relationships in the MLS and feels that this trend can continue in the future.

Polito recently expressed his gratitude to Professor Tom Leip and SMWW President Dr. Lashbrook.

"I am proud to let both of you know that I have accepted the job offer from the Dallas Burn of Major League Soccer. I want to thank both of you for everything you have done for me" said Polito. "Through the SRM class and all of our personal interaction, I have learned a great deal.  All of your help and guidance has allowed me to pursue a career for which I have a great passion.  I cannot thank the two of you enough for everything over the past three months." 

To Learn More About The SMWW Sports Revenue Management Course Please Click Here

Other Courses Offered by SMWW:

Baseball GM & Scouting

Sports Broadcasting

High School Athletic Director

Athlete Management

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877-SMWW-NOW

 From The Desk Of Dr. Lashbrook

BCS BUSTERS: The Perfect Storm Surrounding The Controversy

It is no secret there's a storm of controversy surrounding the BCS and its ineptness to deal with a playoff system. If there are successful playoffs all over the world in sports at all levels, why then should college football be exempt from this success?

The BCS is utterly indefensible. Week after week, Fresno State, Boise State, Utah, and Louisville are providing the hurricanes to this system by competing with the so-called BCS teams and winning the battle on the field. Adding to the storm are more concerns from ABC about the dilution of the concept with an added fifth game to accommodate the BCS busters which will further reduce the already Embattled BCS championship on paper.

University presidents have levied charges stating that too much class time would be missed if there were a playoff system.  All of this could be solved by online education. Since every Division I football player has access to a laptop computer student athletes would be able to participate in online courses even while traveling.  As SMWW has proven time and again, online education works without the traditional classroom.

In my 30 plus years of serving in higher education on many campuses, I have witnessed the empowerment of students when they believe in a cause. It's my opinion that students overwhelmingly want a playoff system, and would be willing to create a grass roots campaign on their campus to initiate with their student government a resolution demanding the presidents pursue and support a true college football playoff system.

Many universities require some student fees to support the athletic departments. SMWW believes a grass roots effort in support of a playoff system would make the student the stake holders in the campaign. Students would gain leverage simply by voting to halt their funding to athletic departments.

I am convinced that any movement towards a college playoff system will have to be spurred by courageous students who will speak up and voice their frustration with the status quo. College tuition and fees are rising, and students are beginning to ask where and how the money is being spent.

A perfect storm is a perfect time to come together for the cause. The time is now.

Watch for our new website:

www.BCSbusters.com

Top Five Reasons You Should Take A Course With Sports Management Worldwide:

1) Working in sports is the next best thing to being on the field
2) Watching the 2005 NFL Draft on April 23th will be much more interesting when you represent an athlete
3) You would love to have a job in sports, but don't know where to start
4) It takes only 2-4 hours a week...and you spend more than that watching ESPN
5) Getting 3 college credits for a course this fun seems to be too good to be true

 To Learn More About Sports Management Worldwide's Course, Click Here

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877-SMWW-NOW

Sports Management Worldwide Announces The Hiring Of Sports Agent Sally Sullivan

Sullivan comes to Sports Management Worldwide with an extensive background in sports as a competitor (tennis and running); a coach (tennis) and as a sports agent/attorney. Sullivan will be assisting Dr. Lashbrook with the SMWW weekly audio chats and helping agent advisors in recruiting clients. Her list of clients is extensive having represented:

Tennis Players: Venus and Serena Williams
Football Player:  Lincoln Kennedy
ABL/WNBA players:  Jennifer Azzi, Katy Steding, Lynette Woodard, etc.
Baseball Players:  Minor league with Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles.Olympic Athletes:  Three day trial and skiing. 

In addition Sally has been an online professor having taught business law and law in the field of medicine for Kaplan.She is presently returning home to Portland, where she attended law school having lived in Florida and Texas for the past eight years.

If you are interested in becoming a sports agent, click here

New Law Tightens Rules For Agents; SMWW Is Already Doing It

On September 23 President Bush signed a law creating tougher penalties for unethical sports agents, stiffening the consequences for those agents who lure student-athletes into contracts that compromise their amateur standings and damage the reputations of their schools.

Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), the chief author of the bill, told the Associated Press that while the NCAA has rules and some states have standards for agents, they haven't kept unethical agents from "aggressively pursuing these kids anyway, possibly ruining a chance to compete on the college level and get a degree."

Rep. Tom Osborne (R-NE), a former head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, co-authored the legislation and says he's seen sports agents illegally use cash and gifts to recruit student athletes.

Here are specifics of the new law:

--- Agents are barred from recruiting student-athletes by giving false or misleading information or providing anything of value to the athlete or his family before entering into a contract.

--- Agents must put pen to paper and disclose in writing that the athlete may lose NCAA eligibility after signing an agency contract.

--- The athlete and agent are required to notify the school's athletic director that the athlete has signed a contract so the school does not allow a now-ineligible athlete to play.

--- Violators would face civil actions by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general. Fines of up to $11,000 a day could be levied for each offense.

While this is just business as usual for SMWW, because we not only teach our students to work directly with the compliance officer, but we require all of our agent advisors to operate in total compliance of institutional, state, NCAA, and federal regulations, we do believe this law will help give university compliance officers a stronger backing in their efforts to monitor agent activities in the recruiting process while student athletes are participating.

NHL Strike Sends Ripples All The Way To The Minors

The following is a commentary offered by SMWW Hockey Director Jeff Ward.

Here's a trick question: have the owners locked out the players causing the current labor dispute? The common answer is yes. But what you may not know is that not all of the players are locked out. In fact, not even half of them are.

Approximately 65 percent of the NHL players were permitted to play in the minor leagues, leaving 35 percent locked out with no place to go. So what we're really talking about is the NHL lockout of 35 percent of the NHL Players.

While 65 percent of the players are happily employed in the minors, it all comes at the expense of the struggling minor league players trying to make a name. More importantly, the 65 percent are now members of the minor league hockey union, the Professional Hockey Players Association (PHPA), and not the NHLPA. So guess who no longer has voting rights in the NHLPA? That's right, the players in the minors.

The NHLPA is left with the upper tier of players, who have a very different read on this dispute than the lower tier, which no longer has official representation.

This is important because many of these issues revolve around
compensation and related cost certainty for owners. Generally speaking, the 35 percent are better established older players who aren't living check to check. But the 65 percent need to keep playing so as to develop their skills and make a living.

Unfortunately, all of this means we're probably looking at a long
lockout, but I'm not sure just how long it will be. I've heard through the grapevine that as of last June, the real goal of getting a deal was January. But with all this movement in the minors, some say the deadline may now be the following January.

SMWW stands to gain more job applicants as the minor leagues begin scooping up these NHLers, squeezing out the guy trying to prove himself. Anytime there's a job reduction and a talent pool surge, we will have fewer at bats to place a player in professional hockey.
Things have gotten messy and will continue to do so. Oddly enough, there hasn't been much media attention. The big joke is that the World Series of Poker drew four times as many TV viewers as the World Cup of Hockey.

For the love of the game, I hope this gets settled quickly. I'm too
familiar with the momentum that hockey had 10 years ago (thanks Wayne!), which now seems to have evaporated. I'm confident that once the dispute is resolved, hockey will be back. Right now, we just need to get past this historic time.
 

The Wave of the Future: More Agents Representing Fewer Clients

Watch Us Make It Happen!

The mission of SMWW has always been to make sure that no athlete gets left behind. We believe agents are obliged to pay 100 percent attention to all aspects of their clients' careers. Athletes should expect nothing less from their representation.

The September 27 edition of Business Week Online has an article featuring Detroit-based sports agent brothers Kevin and Carl Poston, partners of Professional Sports Planning Inc. (PSP). Reporter Mark Hyman writes about the confrontational style the brothers bring to their profession and how it sometimes works against them, leaving some of their clients unsigned and out of training camp.

The Postons would like nothing more than to destroy the NFL's feudal salary system. PSP represents linemen, linebackers and players who traditionally make smaller salaries than quarterbacks and other skill position players. Earlier this year the Postons were annoyed when Indianapolis Colts star quarterback Peyton Manning inked a seven-year $98 million contract with a $34.5 million signing bonus. They say they want "fair market value" for players with less visibility.

While they managed to get Cleveland Brown's rookie tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. a six-year $40 million deal with a $16.5 million signing bonus -- a much better deal than the three players selected before Winslow, the sixth pick in the draft -- the Postons' take no prisoners style has sometimes backfired on them. The NFL Player's Association says St. Louis Rams offensive tackle Orlando Pace has dropped the Postons, who are said to have demanded $71 million from the Rams, leading to a standoff. PSP also failed to negotiate record contracts for Oakland Raiders defensive back Charles Woodson and San Francisco 49ers linebacker Julian Peterson., holding both players back from preseason training camps. NFL sources say the firm was asking for "Manning money."

This is unfortunately another example of the establishment continuing to do things the old way, losing sight that they are dealing with human beings, not price tags. If players are missing training camp because their representation thinks holding out will bring more dollars, then isn't it time to ask whose best interest these agents have in mind? Are they thinking of the athletes, who lose money every day they go unsigned, or themselves, who stand to grab 3% of whatever deal they negotiate?

Our goal at SMWW is to produce thousands of agent-advisors worldwide who are dedicated to the entirety of a client's career. There are currently too few agents representing too many athletes, and the best interests of players often get lost amid the squabbling between agents and front offices over numbers. Negotiating for a player the best possible salary is just one aspect. Agents also have an obligation to make sure each and every athlete is signed on time and ready to report to camp.

Agent Neil Cornrich investigated by NFLPA

The NFL Players Association's disciplinary committee is investigating whether agent Neil Cornrich violated agent regulations by working as an expert witness against the estate of late Kansas City Chiefs player Derrick Thomas.

Thomas' mother, Edith Morgan, sued General Motors, contending the Chevy Suburban he was driving when he was fatally injured in January 2000 was defective, but a Jackson County (Mo.) Circuit Court jury found in August that the automaker was not at fault.

Cornrich did not testify at the trial, but he was paid $1,000 an hour by General Motors to testify in a deposition and provide reports and expert analysis of what Thomas' earning capacity would have been had he lived. Cornrich's information was used by General Motors attorneys who cross-examined Thomas' agent, Leigh Steinberg, who testified at the trial on behalf of the Thomas estate.

"It is an issue that the disciplinary committee will look at," said Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFLPA. "Simply from the perspective of an agent testifying against a player, a deceased player, there are some issues there. It is upsetting that he got paid $1,000 an hour to do it."

Sources said the union is particularly perturbed because it has some evidence that Cornrich used his NFLPA-certified agent password to get access to the union's Web site and some of its proprietary research about older NFL players. Thomas died at age 33.

Cornrich would not comment on whether he gave GM information from the NFLPA Web site, but he said he did nothing wrong.

"I am completely at a loss as to the inquiry by the association into this matter," Cornrich said. "The player ... was not even covered by the collective-bargaining agreement at the time of the litigation."

He added that his role in the case was not a big factor because his deposition was not read into testimony at trial.

He said other agents routinely comment on the earnings potential of current players and no agent regulation deals with the issue of an agent testifying against the estate of a dead player.

NFLPA officials were not immediately available for response.
Agent regulations do prohibit agents from "engaging in any other activity which creates an actual or potential conflict of interest with the effective representation of NFL players."

The NFLPA, earlier this year, fined an NFLPA-certified agent for giving his union website password to a reporter.

Tellem-SFX Sports Talks Go Down To The Wire

Agent Arn Tellem's five-year deal to oversee the basketball and baseball divisions of SFX Sports expires on Thursday, and Tellem and the company had not come to an agreement on an extension by press time for this story, despite months of negotiations.

Tellem represents - or oversees agents who represent - an astounding 16.6 percent of Major League Baseball players and 18.2 percent of NBA players. He supervises 12 baseball agents, representing 125 MLB players, and seven basketball agents, representing 79 NBA players. Athletes he personally represents include Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui, Barry Zito, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O'Neal and Reggie Miller.

SFX sources said they expected Tellem to make a deal for a long-term extension shortly before his contact expires. "We have every reason to believe that Tellem will be with the company for years to come," said one SFX source, who asked not to be named.

But some industry sources said there is a chance that Tellem could strike out on his own or agree to an extension of just one or two years. Tellem and an SFX spokeswoman declined comment.

Tellem sold his company to SFX in 1999, during a wave of agent acquisitions by major firms trying to create multisport athlete representation powerhouses. At the time he sold, SFX Sports was run by Tellem's rival basketball agent, David Falk.

But Falk stepped down as CEO of SFX in 2001, and Tellem was named CEO of the basketball division. In November 2003, baseball agents Alan and Randy Hendricks did not renew their contract with SFX and Tellem became CEO of the baseball division, replacing Randy Hendricks.

Some major sports agents who sold their companies to larger firms in the late 1990s had trouble adjusting to a corporate environment, but Tellem appears to have thrived under that structure. SFX and the younger agents Tellem supervises have dominated the NBA draft in recent years.