Let’s see… some random guy who approached A.J. Green via Facebook and pushed Green to sell him a signed jersey met the NCAA’s definition of an agent, but Kenny Rogers, whom Cecil Newton admitted acted as his representative to solicit money from Mississippi State – the two swapped more than 275 phone calls during Rogers’ courtship of MSU – well, not so much. In fact, not at all.
Auburn had to fight to keep Newton on the roster before last season’s game against Georgia, and again before the SEC Championship Game as the university and the NCAA argued over the definition of what constitutes a sports agent, according to documents released by the school on Friday, as well as interviews conducted earlier…
… The NCAA wrestled with whether to label Rogers an agent, and ultimately sided with Auburn and said he was not.
If this whole thing with defining an agent seems like it has a certain Alice In Wonderland-ish quality to it, that’s only because it does.
‘Would you tell me please,’ said Alice, ‘what that means?’
‘Now you talk like a reasonable child,’ said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. ‘I meant by “impenetrability” that we’ve had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you’d mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don’t mean to stop here all the rest of your life.’
‘That’s a great deal to make one word mean,’ Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
‘When I make a word do a lot of work like that,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘I always pay it extra.’
Humpty knows how the game is played.