New requirements for sports agents in Louisiana aim to protect student-athletes
By Ella Wales
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NEW ORLEANS (WDSU) — Sports agents in Louisiana will now have to register with the state Department of Justice’s public protection division. An online registration portal launched on Wednesday.
The portal comes after a state law went into effect in June. The process to get registered includes training, paying a fee and passing a background check.
It’s all meant to keep young student-athletes from falling in with unlicensed agents, as name, image and likeness continues to change the landscape of college and high school sports.
Attorney General Liz Murrill announced the launch of the new portal at a press conference Wednesday morning.
“I commend the attorney general for doing this because it has literally turned into the wild, wild West,” Alvianne Brule said.
Brule is a certified NFL sports agent and student-athlete advocate. She said she has seen student-athletes be taken advantage of, or sign a contract they don’t fully understand.
“This student athlete signed an agreement that went beyond his collegiate eligibility, which basically put his NCAA eligibility at risk, so there was a lot he had to go through and was almost ruled ineligible because of that contract he agreed to,” she said.
The new process to become a registered agent in Louisiana will be similar to what NFL agents have to go through.
Former Saints player turned agent Lance Moore said it’s a great step.
“Why would there not be a similar process or at least a registration process for the state to be able to do such things like background checks, and make sure that the people who are registering are who they say they are, and looking out for the best interest of the athletes,” he said.
According to the state, 427 Louisiana athletes conducted NIL deals that totaled $17 million during the 2024-25 school year.
That number is only expected to grow, as even high schoolers are signing NIL deals.
Attorneys at Davillier Law Group look over NIL contracts for athletes.
“I definitely think that from our role, more regulations kind of controlling the industry is a positive for students and their parents,” Dominique Davillier said.
Davillier said parents and students can often miss red flags in contracts that are hidden by legal jargon.
“There’s a lot of terms I think that parents should be especially paying attention to. Exclusivity is a really big one; also matching the term date with the end of the season that the student athlete is playing in, I think those are some big traps that student athletes, we’ve seen fall into,” she said.
Any athlete agent already operating in Louisiana must be registered under the new system no later than Aug. 1, 2026.
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