UCLA’s Mick Cronin says agent greed drives player movement

UCLA will experience something quite rare Saturday at Pauley Pavilion when it takes on Oregon, a former Pac-12 rival with two familiar stars. Jackson Shelstad and Nate Bittle have been with the Ducks for several years, providing the kind of stability that is largely lacking in college basketball.

It’s the kind of thing that Bruins coach Mick Cronin says will become increasingly rare unless there are structural changes.

A big part of the reason?

The greed of the agents.

There is simply too much money to be made for player reps pushing clients into the transfer portal.

“I mean, you take 10%, 20%, 15% of a guy’s NIL money, that’s Bernie Madoff level,” Cronin said Friday, referring to the crooked financier who was convicted in a massive Ponzi scheme. “So this shouldn’t happen anymore, and I’m talking about this because this needs to be enlightened because parents need to say no to this. I mean, it’s ridiculous.”

Cronin said the only way to bring stability to the game would be for the federal government to mandate employee contracts for athletes, leading to collective bargaining and player protections as well as multi-year agreements.

Otherwise, Cronin said, players will be subject to high fees from agents selling questionable programs.

Cronin said agents describe their part as “marketing because it’s NIL,” but we all know that’s not the case. It’s pay for play. You know, if there’s an agent there and you offer them a marketing deal, I’ll give you 20% because I don’t have one. I mean, come on, take 20% of these guys’ stuff? Even 10% is ridiculous.

“So if you could get to collective bargaining and then the National Labor Relations Board, if they ever allowed them to be employees, then you could regulate and cap agent fees to protect the players. But until then, it’s the players and their families who have to protect themselves on this. Because why wouldn’t you tell all the guys to go into the portal if you’re getting 10%, 15% cut? That’s where we are, so that’s the definition of instability.”

Cronin said the NCAA was powerless to intervene through no fault of its own.

“I don’t know what the NCAA is doing other than putting the [basketball] tournament,” Cronin said. “I don’t know what they’re doing, period. And in their defense, if they try to enforce a rule, they get sued and lose even more money. They can’t – if they get sued, again, there will be no NCAA.

“So they’re like the kid who was told to sit in the corner or else he gets kicked off the team, so he just sits there. [College Football Playoff] manages everything, they get all the money. You know, the Power Five [conferences] have self-governing rules, and they sit in the corner and they don’t get kicked out and that’s kind of where they’re at. You know, so it’s really not their fault. They try to raise their hands and say, “Hey, we should have a rule,” and they immediately get sued.

Etc.

Second-year goaltender Trent Perry practiced Friday after missing the Bruins’ win over Washington with an ankle injury, which could put him on track to play against the Ducks. … Cronin, on his team’s need to stay in perpetual must-win mode: “We were in we’re going to win anyway mode because we’re really good, we’re UCLA, and I tried not to let them get there, but they got there and we came out of it and we have to stay out of it because the minute you come back, you’re going to lose.”