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Rogue agents who entice collegiate athletes with money and gifts are under attack, and now a state lawmaker wants to add another predator to the sports most-wanted list.
State Rep. Dan Dodd, D-Hebron, introduced legislation yesterday that would allow the Ohio attorney general to recover money or damages from unscrupulous boosters and others who cause an athlete to break NCAA rules.
"I believe this legislation is necessary to protect our institutions of higher education from bad actors that care only about themselves and nothing about the school or the havoc their actions cause," Dodd said. "It just expands the law to include nonagents. This closes what I believe is a loophole."
Last week, Attorney General Richard Cordray notified 91 registered sports agents in Ohio that he was going to begin enforcing a 9-year-old law that governs them. The law carries civil and criminal penalties.
But Dodd fears that current law also leaves too many outside the law's clutches, namely boosters or others who want to cash in on or cozy up to a college athlete because of their talent and potential earnings.
In recent years, boosters have wreaked havoc on Ohio State's football and basketball teams.
A $500 handout by one booster led to the benching of former quarterback Troy Smith days before the 2004 Alamo Bowl.
The housing and tutoring of several men's basketball players, including Boban Savovic, arranged by a pair of boosters, led to severe NCAA sanctions.
That case cost the university more than $1 million in legal fees and lost tournament revenues. The school also lost two scholarships for a year.
The university banned those boosters, the harshest penalty it could levy.
"They really don't have any teeth," Dodd said. "This is a systematic problem."
Rogue boosters caused major damage at Oklahoma, Michigan and, mostly famously, Southern Methodist University. SMU has yet to recover from the NCAA-ordered suspension of football in 1987.
"We're talking about people who intentionally break NCAA rules," Dodd said.
Ohio State officials said they applaud Dodd's effort to strengthen the state's existing law.
"We would absolutely support anything that helps make our lives easier with individuals who act outside the bounds of NCAA rules and are trying to provide extra benefits to student athletes," said Doug Archie, OSU's director of compliance.
Dodd said that he wrote the bill because too many people who have tampered with athletes have escaped punishment, including, most recently, a former sports agent who told Sports Illustrated this week that he tried to sign former Ohio State wide receiver Santonio Holmes while he was still in college in 2005.
That agent, who can't be punished because a four-year statute of limitations has expired, and numerous other agents and boosters, have skirted long enough, Dodd said.
"These people knew what they were doing was wrong," he said. "They exposed the university."
jriepenhoff@dispatch.com
mwagner@dispatch.com
