Oklahoma State pitcher sues NCAA

SANDUSKY, Ohio (AP) -- One of college baseball's top pitchers is suing the NCAA over its rules governing the use of advisers, after he was deemed ineligible hours before he was scheduled to play a tournament game.

Baseball players -- unlike those in football and basketball -- can be drafted before they've entered college, forcing many to retain advisers who can help them with negotiations. NCAA rules prevents those advisers from having direct contact with big league clubs.

The NCAA suspended Oklahoma State pitcher Andrew Oliver last spring because it argues that advisers he had hired listened in on contract negotiations after he was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in June 2006.

Oliver's attorneys are arguing that the NCAA shouldn't restrict a player's right to have legal help when negotiating a big league contract.

"It's a unique situation," said Richard Karcher, a former sports agent who now heads the Center for Law and Sports at Florida Coastal University.

The NCAA rules, Karcher testified Tuesday, put high school and college baseball players at a big disadvantage because they force them to negotiate contracts without having an attorney with them or risk losing their college eligibility.

Still, Karcher said it's commonly known that most top prospects have an agent or adviser who helps them negotiate deals when they are drafted.

"Everyone in baseball knows it happens," Karcher said in Erie County Common Pleas Court.

Attorneys filed the lawsuit in Ohio because the alleged violation occurred just after Oliver had graduated from Vermilion High School, which is midway between Cleveland and Toledo.

The 21-year-old left-hander is projected to be a first-round pick in this year's amateur draft. He played on the 2008 USA national team, and he went 7-2 with a 2.20 ERA for Oklahoma State last season.

His suspension came last spring, just before the top-seeded Cowboys were to play in an NCAA tournament regional game, and may have cost his team a shot at the College World Series.

None of this might have happened if Oliver had not fired his advisers last March.

Oliver's former advisers, Tim and Robert Baratta, first sent a bill to Oliver for their representation and then a letter to the NCAA saying that the pitcher had violated its rules by accepting gloves and other free items.

An investigation found that the Barattas had been at a meeting between Oliver and Twins officials when they discussed a potential contract, prompting the suspension.

Oliver's attorneys say his advisers had every right to be at that meeting because they were supposed to be looking out for his best interests.

The NCAA has told Oliver he must sit out 70 percent of Oklahoma State's games this season, but the pitcher is hoping to be fully reinstated and receive an apology from the NCAA along with monetary damages.

The NCAA has suspended only a handful of baseball players over the last decade for allowing their advisers to contact baseball clubs during negotiations.

Jeremy Sowers, who now pitches in the Cleveland Indians organization, had to sit out six games at Vanderbilt in 2002 after his representatives talked with Cincinnati Reds officials who had drafted him out of high school.

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