North Carolina Football: UNC Decides to Give Runners a Leg Up on Good Agents

Almost two months ago to the day, we took the time to properly castigate the University of Miami for its remarkably restrictive agent policy here at Your Best 11. Well, today, the issue hits even closer to home, as North Carolina's agent policy has been released through the folks at the Sports Agent Blog.

Here are the highlights:

• Student-athletes are allowed to have in-person meetings with agents only during one specified week in the summer (July 16-20), and the meeting is limited to one hour on campus.
• Student-athletes may not make phone calls to agents in August. Starting in September, athletes may only call agents from 7-10 p.m. on Sundays.
• No electronic communication (email, social media, text) is permitted in August. Starting in September, student-athletes may only communicate in the aforementioned manner from Sundays-Wednesdays.

For a photo of the original, check out Darren Heitner's Scribd post. It's not nearly as restrictive as Miami's policy, but it is a very clear response to the NCAA violations that got the university in hot water back in 2010.

Should this be applauded, as many folks have done for Miami? Absolutely not.

There are two issues here, and, in talking to agents, I maintain they are points that are lost upon most people; policies like these only inhibit good agents, and there remains a total disregard for the future of the student-athlete.

People who do not listen to rules and have a blatant disregard for authoritative organizations and entities are not nearly as affected by the imposition of new rules as the people who were following the rules in the first place. Yet this is what North Carolina and Miami are doing with their policies.

The rules are limiting the abilities of good agents, the ones who operate on the up and up and want to be clear with the schools, NFLPA and, most importantly, potential clients. Meanwhile, the guys who play in the shadows have those same fringes in which to operate.

More critical than making it increasingly difficult for good agents to get in contact with your players is the fact that North Carolina has now done its players a disservice. A one-hour meeting. Three hours of contact on Sundays in the fall. Oh, and texting in the fall Sunday to Wednesday.

That's it. That's the contact that allows you to establish face-time, a relationship and trust with an agent.

Look, I get it. Most people don't know squat about how critical the agent selection process is to a player's future. It is critical. This is the man that you have to trust with your best interest when you decide to go pro. This is the man you have to trust to set up your January workouts, to get you into the All-Star game, to get you ready for the combine, to shop your services to teams and so on.

Yet when you put limitations on the amount of contact, you're drastically reducing the ability of these players to make an informed decision. I'm not sure why people fail to recognize this. Ultimately, it boils down to the NCAA's sick agent stigma working. Agents are bad. Agents are the enemy. Agents are the devil. 

Wise up, folks. That's patently false. Your agent is your advocate, the guy in your corner and if you pick a good one, you end up with someone that you can trust for the rest of your career, or life, in some instances. That's pretty difficult to do when you only have an hour to sit down one-on-one with the people vying for your business.