BATON ROUGE — Louisiana has a new law that adds oversight for agents who represent high school and college athletes in name, image and likeness deals.

Senate Bill 389 requires agents to register with the Louisiana Department of Justice, complete training and pass background checks. Agents who skip registration face fines of up to $10,000 and up to 5 years in prison.

Attorney General Liz Murrill said the law gives the state a way to track who is actually working as an agent.

"You cannot represent somebody in this state as their agent and profit from that contract unless you register with our office," Murrill said.

Agents must register through the state's athlete agent portal. Those who were already representing athletes before the law took effect have until Aug. 1 to sign up.

The law also gives athletes and their parents a way to file a complaint if they believe they are being taken advantage of. The attorney general's office says the law closes a gap that left young athletes open to harm from people they trust.

Assistant attorney general Olivia Nuss pointed to the kinds of unqualified people who have been stepping into the agent role.

"They could be a classmate of that person who has just graduated from the team and thinks since they played football they can negotiate a contract," Nuss said. "We have people coming in from other industries who say, I've negotiated a transactional commercial real estate contract, and I think that I can negotiate a revenue share deal for a student-athlete. And ultimately, the person who suffers is the athlete.”

Attorney Michael Victorian, who works with athletes through NIL and consulting, said he welcomes the changes.

"There's so much money at play," Victorian said. "There are so many ways that this could not go the right direction. It's so complicated that you really do need some professional services to be able to provide this kind of advice and counsel to young athletes,” he said.

Coach James Singleton attended Murrill's presentation on the new law and said it helped clarify what coaches can and cannot do regarding NIL deals.

"You might be looking to have a restaurant that wants to feed your kids. That's not a violation, and it's just something that we've just learned and understood," Singleton said.