This week ESPN reported what a lot of college coaches have started saying out loud. There are more street agents working families right now. People with no legal authority to represent an athlete, reaching out with NIL promises, sending over contracts, and in some cases asking the family to pay them a fee before any deal exists.
I've written before about checking whether the person in your living room is registered. This one is simpler than that. Before you look anyone up, look at which way the money is moving.
What actually changed
The Protect College Sports Act cleared the Senate Commerce Committee 19-9 on June 18. Senators Cantwell, Cruz, Coons and Schmitt are behind it, and Majority Leader Thune has pointed toward a floor vote before the August 8 recess. It would require an agent to register before representing a college athlete, cap agent fees at 5%, ban fraudulent inducements, and give your kid the right to sue an agent who lies about a deal.
That's real progress. None of it is law yet. A committee vote doesn't protect the contract that lands in your inbox tonight.
Meanwhile the College Sports Commission has turned away roughly $15 million in NIL deals, about one in every ten it has reviewed since the disclosure requirement started in July 2025. So there are two problems stacked on each other. Some of the people bringing deals to families aren't who they say they are. And some of the deals themselves don't clear once they're submitted.
What it means at the kitchen table
Here's how I think about it. In a normal NIL deal, money moves toward your kid. A brand pays for a post, an appearance, the use of a name. If the agent gets paid, it comes out of that money after the deal exists, at a percentage you agreed to in writing.
A street agent often flips that. The first money that moves is yours. A signing fee. A marketing package. A charge to get your kid in front of brands. The deal they're describing is somewhere down the road, and the only payment that's real today is the one leaving your account.
When the money runs backward like that, you've learned most of what you need to know before you've read a single page.
The second thing I watch for is the paper itself. A contract that arrives from someone with no license can look completely normal. It can have a brand name at the top and a signature line at the bottom. The question is whether that brand ever saw it, and whether the person who sent it has any right to sign for anyone. Most of the deals I see come with a real company on the other side. When one doesn't, it rarely announces itself.
What to do this week
First, if anyone has asked your family for money before a deal is signed, stop there. Ask them in writing what the payment is for and what happens to it if no deal ever closes. A legitimate agent gets paid out of your kid's deal. They don't bill you for the chance at one.
Second, call the brand. Not the number on the contract. Look the company up yourself, find their marketing or partnerships contact, and ask if they know this deal and this person. If they don't, you just saved your kid from signing something that was never real.
Third, get the agent's agreement on paper before you talk about any deal. How they're paid, what percentage, and how you end the relationship. The committee bill would make written agent contracts a requirement. You don't need to wait on Congress to ask for one.
The honest ones won't mind any of this. The ones who get irritated are telling you something.
Talk soon.
— Keeno