Oliver Decision One for Common Sense

Andy Oliver has been trapped in the NCAA'srules regarding player agents. Andy Oliver started the 2009 baseball season for Oklahoma State University the same way he ended the 2008 season – pitching the Cowboys to a victory. But it was a win in the courtroom that enabled the lefthander to resume his college career on the diamond. Oliver was suspended indefinitely by the NCAA last May, and in December, the NCAA decreed that the pitcher should sit out 70% of OSU’s 2009 schedule. Oliver’s transgression was a violation of the “no agent” rule in NCAA Bylaw 12.3. The bylaw states that an individual is ineligible for participation in an intercollegiate sport if he or she ever agrees to be represented by an agent, a rule that is virtually impossible to enforce and is therefore more honored in the breach than in the observance. But Bylaw 12.3.2 creates an exception to the no agent rule by allowing a student-athlete to “consult” with an attorney, with the additional proviso in Bylaw 12.3...