Be your own agent.

By Christopher Horne, founder of Leave. I am not a lawyer; this page reports what the statutes, bylaws and union regulations say, with the text linked, and what has been reported about athletes who did this. It informs. It does not tell anyone to keep or drop an agent, and it is not legal, tax or financial advice.

What an agent does

An agent's work is a list of tasks, and each one can be named. The players' associations describe it in their own regulations and a Harvard Law School study of NFL contract advisors laid it out in full: negotiating the playing contract, securing endorsements, handling relations with the club, career and post-career counseling, legal services, financial advice, and personal errands. The NBPA's regulations cover advice on negotiating and enforcing contracts, compensation negotiations, and the negotiation of marketing or sponsorship agreements.

Two details from the people who do the job. The Harvard study found that about 62% of NFL agents are attorneys. An agent told the Baltimore Sun in 2023 that negotiating is "only about 20%" of the work and that players often have "an inflated sense of their personal market." Both are worth knowing before taking the job on.

What an agent charges

On a playing contract, the union sets the most an agent may take. On everything else, nothing does.

Endorsement, marketing and NIL deals sit outside every cap. No union is party to them, and no college or high school athlete has a union. Agents quoted by ESPN in February 2026 put the going rate at 10 to 20% of each deal, with some seeking 15 to 30% under lifetime marketing agreements; an ESPN-commissioned poll of 1,000 college athletes found that of those who had help with high school deals, about two thirds paid a percentage, and the median cut was about 20%. The federal Protect College Sports Act, passed by the Senate 77 to 22 on September 28, 2026, would cap an agent's fee on a college athlete's endorsement contract at 5%; as of October 13, 2026 it is held at the House desk and dies if not passed by January 3, 2027. The blog explains why the two kinds of fee differ.

What the law says

Three bodies of law touch athletes and agents in the United States, and none of them requires an athlete to have one. All three regulate the agent.

Federal: SPARTA

The Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act of 2004 (15 U.S.C. §§ 7801 to 7807) covers agency contracts in which a student athlete authorizes someone to negotiate or solicit a professional sports contract or an endorsement contract. So it reaches NIL agents, not only pro-contract agents, and its definition of "student athlete" includes anyone who "may be eligible in the future" for a college sport, which reaches high school athletes. It bans three things: recruiting an athlete with false or misleading promises, giving anything of value to the athlete or their family before the contract is signed, and signing without a written disclosure that carries a bold warning about eligibility. Both the agent and the athlete must notify the athletic director within 72 hours of signing or before the next game. The Federal Trade Commission enforces it as an unfair or deceptive practice, with civil penalties the FTC put at up to $53,088 per violation in January 2026, and state attorneys general may sue. The statute's definition of "athlete agent" excludes a spouse, parent, sibling, grandparent or guardian, and excludes legal counsel except when the lawyer acts as the athlete's representative.

In January 2026 the FTC sent information requests to 20 Division I universities about agents' compliance with the Act, with responses due March 23, 2026. No complaint or order had been published by October 13, 2026.

State: the athlete-agent acts

Most states have a version of the Uniform Athlete Agents Act. The 2000 Act was enacted in 42 states; the Revised Act of 2015, amended in 2019, has 19 enactments as of the Uniform Law Commission's October 2026 count, with South Carolina's bill pending. California never adopted either and has its own Miller-Ayala Athlete Agents Act; Connecticut repealed its version in 2018; Florida licenses agents through its Department of Business and Professional Regulation. What the acts share:

• Registration. A person may not act as an athlete agent in the state without registering. A contract signed by an unregistered agent is void, and the agent must return what they were paid.
• The contract. It must be in writing and state the fee and how it is calculated, any other person who will be paid because of the signing, the reimbursable expenses, the services, and the duration. It must carry a warning in capitals: that the athlete may lose eligibility, that both athlete and agent must notify the athletic director within 72 hours or before the next game, and that the athlete may cancel within 14 days (Texas gives 16). The right to cancel cannot be waived. A contract missing these is voidable by the athlete.
• Prohibited conduct. False inducements, gifts that cost eligibility, contact while unregistered, predating or postdating a contract.
• Who can sue. The school, and under the Revised Act the athlete too. A liable agent forfeits the fee. Civil penalties run up to $50,000 in the uniform text, and violations are crimes in most versions.
• Minors. A parent or guardian signs the contract for an athlete under 18.

Who counts as an "athlete agent" is the part that matters for a family. The 2000 Act and Florida's law exclude a spouse, parent, sibling, grandparent or guardian by name. The Revised Act has no family exemption in so many words; instead it treats advice "in a family, coaching, or social situation" as outside the Act unless the person is paid by an agent, and its official comment says a parent advising their child on an agent is not an athlete agent. A family member who is paid a percentage to manage the athlete's business affairs can fall inside the definition. Texas defines an agent by compensation, so unpaid help by anyone is outside it. California exempts a person acting as agent solely for their spouse, child, ward or grandchild from most of its sections.

On lawyers: the Revised Act and California exclude an attorney giving the services attorneys customarily give, and lose the exclusion if the attorney recruits the athlete into an agency contract, negotiates pro employment for a fee, or charges athletes differently from other clients. The 2000 Act and Florida have no attorney exemption at all. In practice, contract review by a lawyer is not agent activity in any state the research covered; negotiating for the athlete can be, depending on the state and whether the deal is a pro contract or an endorsement.

State NIL laws

Several state NIL statutes reach agents directly. California's Education Code §67456 says representation obtained by a student athlete "shall be from persons licensed by the state", agents under the Miller-Ayala Act and lawyers under the State Bar Act, and that agents must comply with SPARTA. Texas's §51.9246 protects representation "including representation by an attorney", requires the athlete to disclose a proposed NIL contract to the school before signing it, bars school staff from steering an athlete's choice of representative, and bars NIL arrangements with prospects under 17 who are not enrolled in college. Florida requires a state athlete-agent license to represent a college athlete on NIL contracts. Louisiana brought NIL agents under its athlete-agent law in June 2026, with a registration deadline of August 1, 2026 and a right for athletes to sue for damages and the agent's fee.

Minors

A contract signed by someone under 18 is generally voidable by the minor, which is why businesses ask a parent or guardian to sign. California's Family Code §6750, amended effective January 1, 2025, lets a court approve a minor's contract for services as a player in a sport or for a licence of their likeness; an approved contract cannot be disaffirmed, and the employer deposits 15% of gross earnings into a trust the minor receives at 18. SPARTA and the Revised Act both have the parent or guardian sign for an athlete under 18. High school rules are on the state-by-state pages.

High school

No state high school association rule found requires an agent, and the athlete-agent acts apply to high school athletes: the Revised Act's definition of "student athlete" includes interscholastic athletes, and SPARTA's reaches anyone who may become eligible for college sports. What the high school rules do set is who must be told and when. Pennsylvania's PIAA gives 72 hours to tell the principal or athletic director; Ohio's OHSAA 14 days to the association; Georgia's GHSA 7 days to the school; Florida's FHSAA an affidavit to the school within 5 business days; North Carolina's public schools want the proposed deal 10 business days before signing. Nearly every state bars school, team and association names and logos from the ad. Each state's rule, read from the association's own text, is on the high school pages; Texas limits deals to athletes 17 and older signing with a college.

For an athlete under 18 the parent or guardian is part of every deal: they sign, they are named in SPARTA as the person who receives the agent's disclosure, and in most states they are outside the agent definition when they help their own child for free. In Leave, athletes 13 to 17 use the app through an account a parent or guardian creates.

College

The NCAA's rules, read from the 2026-27 Division I Manual on October 13, 2026, draw a line between two kinds of agent and leave self-representation open.

• NIL agents are allowed. Bylaw 22.3.1, adopted January 10, 2024: an athlete "may use professional services, including agent representation, for the purpose of name, image and likeness activities." May, not must. An agent may pass a brand's payment through only if the brand, not the agent, is the source of the money.
• Pro-marketing agents are not, while enrolled. Bylaw 12.3.2: an enrolled athlete "shall not agree (orally or in writing) to be represented by a professional sports agent" for marketing their athletic ability as a professional. An agreement that only starts after eligibility ends still counts. The exception is men's basketball: after a player requests an evaluation from the NBA's Undergraduate Advisory Committee, they may sign with an NCAA-certified agent, in writing, disclosed to the school, and ended before the next term if they return.
• Before college, since 2026. Bylaw 12.3.1, adopted April 15, 2026 for athletes enrolling from August 1, 2026: a prospect may be represented by an agent to secure a professional opportunity without losing college eligibility.
• The athlete may negotiate. Bylaw 12.2.3.3: "the individual (or family members) or the institution's professional sports counseling panel may enter into negotiations with a professional sports organization." Asking a league about draft eligibility or market value does not affect eligibility (12.2.3.1).
• A lawyer may advise, not negotiate. Bylaw 12.3.2.4: advice from a lawyer on a proposed pro contract is fine "unless the lawyer also represents the individual in negotiations." A lawyer present at the discussions, or in direct contact with the team, "is considered representation by an agent."
• Reporting. Bylaw 22.2: every third-party NIL deal worth $600 or more, deals from the same payor added together, is reported to NIL Go within five business days of signing or agreeing terms. The athlete may name one representative to enter deals; the athlete makes the final submission. Deals with boosters and collectives are reviewed for a valid business purpose and a pay range in line with similar work. Missing the window leads to ineligibility; after a school finds an unreported deal there are two business days to cure. High school prospects report deals from the first day of junior year, with a 14-day window after enrolling. Through December 31, 2025, the College Sports Commission had cleared 17,321 deals worth $127.21 million.
• Drafts. The declaration and withdrawal dates are in the bylaws and change by sport. For the 2026 NBA draft the NCAA withdrawal deadline was May 27; for football, a declaration of intent to return goes to the athletic director within 72 hours of the NFL declaration date. The NCAA's own memo on the 2026 combine notes that "use of a professional services provider (e.g., agent) is permissible for NIL activities" throughout.

On numbers: Opendorse's co-founder told Fortune in September 2026 that 67% of the school-paid compensation the company tracks goes to athletes without an agent, and that what agents mostly supply is pay information athletes lack, because there is no central database of college deals. Opendorse's own 2024 report found that represented athletes earned 5.3 times more a year than unrepresented ones, which is a correlation: the athletes who earn the most are the ones agents sign.

Pro leagues: the rule for a player with no agent

Every major league's collective bargaining agreement accepts a contract the player negotiated on their own behalf, and every players' association that certifies agents writes the self-represented player into the certification rule. The one thing none of them allow is an uncertified person negotiating for the player.

What certification means, since it is the line between a player's helper and a negotiator of record. The NFLPA requires an undergraduate and a postgraduate degree (or seven years of negotiating experience in place of them), a seminar and a written exam, liability insurance, and dues of $1,500 or $2,000 a year; it lists more than 850 certified agents. The NBPA requires a four-year degree, a background check and an exam held each January in New York, a $750 application and $2,500 a year in dues from September 2026. The MLBPA has no degree requirement for general certification, a $2,500 application, an open-book exam, and a rule that an applicant is not certified until a major league player designates them. The NHLPA lists about 200 certified agents. None of these unions exempts a family member: in the NFL and NBA a parent or spouse who negotiates with a team must be certified like anyone else. Lamar Jackson's mother, Felicia Jones, was described throughout his 2023 negotiation as his manager, not an NFLPA-certified agent.

Who has done it, and how it went

The record is public and it cuts both ways. The NFLPA counted 17 players acting as their own agent in 2022, in a league of more than 2,000; no newer count was found. These are the documented cases, with what each athlete used and what the analysts said afterwards.

Two patterns run through the list. First, the deals that drew criticism (Okung's, Sherman's) were about guarantees and structure, not the headline number, which is the part of a contract that takes the most reading. Second, nearly everyone who did it had a lawyer, an accountant, a family member or the union in the room. The AP reported in 2022 that since the 2011 rookie wage scale, which left little to negotiate on a first contract, more players skip the commission and hire a lawyer to vet the terms once a deal is reached.

What self-represented athletes use

The five ways of handling a deal, an agent, a marketplace, a lawyer at a flat fee, the school and software, are laid side by side on the comparison page, with what each costs and what each cannot do. The tools below are the ones the athletes above used.

• A lawyer at a flat fee. For review of a contract before it is signed. This is what Okung announced in 2015 and what Ray Allen did in 1999. In most states review alone does not make the lawyer an athlete agent; negotiating can. Some law school clinics review NIL contracts for their state's athletes at no cost.
• A CPA. Endorsement and NIL income is self-employment income with its own tax and quarterly payments; the taxes page covers it.
• The players' association. The NFLPA says it does not recommend teams or deals but provides comparative data, analysis and CBA guidance, and its public free agency dashboard lists each free agent, their agent and their new club. The NBPA will negotiate for a player who asks. Both certify financial advisors.
• Public contract data. Spotrac for every league; Over The Cap for NFL contracts and the full CBA text; Cot's Contracts for MLB; CapWages and PuckPedia for the NHL; Her Hoop Stats for the WNBA. For college deals there is no central database; NIL Go's clearance data is not public by athlete.
• NIL marketplaces. Opendorse, INFLCR (Teamworks) and school-run local exchanges list brand offers an athlete can take without a representative. What similar work pays is on its own page.
• The school's compliance office. At Division I it is where disclosures go and, at most schools, where a deal is reviewed before signing.
• Software that explains the contract. Leave is one: it labels each part of an uploaded contract in plain words and shows the deadlines. It does not negotiate or advise.

The work, deal by deal

An endorsement or NIL deal, handled without an agent, runs through the same steps every time. This is what each one involves.

1. The offer arrives. By message, through a marketplace, or from a local business. SPARTA and the state acts make it illegal for an agent to recruit with false promises or gifts; a brand is not an agent and these rules do not bind it, so the terms are in the contract alone.
2. The rate. Public rate data gives a range by format and reach; the rates page has 2026 figures. NIL Go judges deals with boosters or collectives against pay for similar work.
3. The rules check. The school's or state association's category limits, the marks rule, and whether the deal conflicts with a team sponsor. The disclosure window starts at signing.
4. The contract. Six parts: deliverables, term, usage rights, payment, exclusivity, termination. The eight clauses that cause most disputes are on the contracts page. This is the step where the self-represented athletes in the table above brought in a lawyer.
5. The reply. The athlete's own words: yes, a counter, or no. In every documented case the athlete, not a helper, spoke for themselves; that is what the union rules and the NCAA's lawyer rule require.
6. The disclosure. Within the window the school, state or NIL Go sets: 72 hours in Pennsylvania high schools, five business days to NIL Go at Division I, before signing in Texas colleges.
7. The money. An invoice, the payment, a tax set-aside. A 1099 follows at $2,000 of payments in 2026, and smaller amounts are still taxable.
8. The record. Every signed deal, its exclusivity and its end date, so the next offer can be checked against the last one.

When athletes still hire one

The record above is honest about the limits, and this page is too. A law professor quoted by the AP in 2022 said athletes have managed rookie deals because "it's slotted money and there's very few terms left to be negotiated", and that he could think of "very rare situations" where an athlete is equipped to handle a second, third or fourth contract alone. The agent quoted by the Baltimore Sun put negotiating at a fifth of the job. The things agents are paid for beyond the contract are time, relationships with front offices, and knowing which deadline is which. Some athletes split the difference: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander represents himself on his playing contract and keeps a firm for marketing; DeAndre Hopkins negotiated his own extension and later hired a lawyer who is also certified. The NBA lets a player hand the negotiation to the union itself. The choice is the athlete's, and the law leaves it there.

How Leave fits

Leave is built for the athlete who does this job. Say "Hey Leave" inside ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, or open the app, and it holds what the job needs in one place: public NIL and endorsement opportunities as threads, what similar work pays at your reach, the rules and deadlines for your state, level and age as a summary, every contract explained part by part, a disclosure packet for your school or NIL Go with a countdown, and a record of every deal and its exclusivity. It takes 0% from the athlete. It does not negotiate, represent, solicit or sign for anyone, and it is not legal, tax or financial advice. You decide, you send.

The library: one page per question

Each question below has its own page, with the answer first, the texts linked and a dated check. They are the spokes of this guide.

Questions athletes ask

Be your own agent. Leave.