Essay on Money Players by Marc Isenberg

“Money Players” by Marc Isenberg can have a different meaning to many different people who read it, depending on what stage of their life they are in and what their current occupation is. If you are a sports agent who tends to take advantage of your clients, you might have a different opinion than a college student who is not interested in becoming a corrupted sports agent. This book challenged me to take a deeper look into situations that I have heard about that discuss football players for various schools around the country and what they had to deal with regarding the NCAA. These stories include news from ESPN and conversations in our own UCF Athletic Department. Schools, leagues, and teams all have ways to get around rules set by the NCAA and about how to deal with agents that try to get athletes in trouble. This book for me, as well as hearing Marc Isenberg’s speech, put a lot of things in perspective, and showed me why and how teams take the loopholes they do. It really showed me that in sports if rules are not followed and you don’t manage yourself, family, and money properly you can end up in a tough situation and will have trouble getting out of it. This brings up the theme of “Money Players” which I believe is to helping athletes and their families handle the fundamentals of sports business. It uses firsthand experiences to give new athletes advice in the fast paced world of professional sports.

My favorite section of the book was chapter two, College Rules! I learned the most from this section as I have never researched the NCAA. I think that knowing the college rules designated by the NCAA are very important to the college athletics. This chapter shows athletes what they can and cannot do regarding agents while they are in a college athletics program. The rules and regulations set guidelines for all parties involved in college athletics, attempting to create a common goal for the universities and colleges. The University of Southern California has a special program for their student athletes and their families to prepare them for entrance into a life after college in the world of professional sports called the Professional Sports and Counseling Panel (PSCP). The panel helps players in a variety of aspects including workshops, agent education, and consulting services (Trojan Athletics). This program is implemented and granted through the NCAA, and also provides students the opportunity to know all the rules of the NCAA (Tatko). The program is not just about rules; the PSCP helps athletes with insurance, legal activities, sponsorships, and career alternatives. Although there are other schools with PSCP programs such as the University of Georgia, University of Florida, and the University of Minnesota. I was surprised that there were not more universities around the country that had programs like this at their schools. I think that with the help of PSCP programs athletes will be better informed when entering into a