For more information, please contact info@accessathletes.com.
Mission Statement
TRUSTED ATHLETE EDUCATOR - Assisting athletes as a neutral third party by providing them with credible information, guidance, and access to services that will maximize their athletic careers and beyond.
The Concept
Access Athletes® is the premier educational resource for athletes and the sports community. The site is open to athletes (high school, college, and professional), sports professionals and representatives, the media, businesses, and sports fans. As a niche sports network, Access Athletes offers its members valuable networking opportunities, promotional tools, and educational resources.
Most notably, Access Athletes features The Real Athlete Blog ("Real Content for Real Athletes"). As an exclusive informational source dedicated to athletes, The Real Athlete Blog provides articles from qualified sports industry professionals about an athlete's performance, everyday life, and post-athletic career.
Some of our featured columns on The Real Athlete Blog include:
- Athlete Chat: Exclusive interviews with high school, college, and professional athletes that serve as an educational resource for athletes.
- Sports Business Review: As a trusted athlete educator, we review businesses in the sports industry as a neutral third party to inform athletes about their choices with respect to various products and services. If you are interested in having your service or product reviewed, contact Matthew Allinson at matt@accessathletes.com.
- Athlete Weekly Rundown: A list of important stories from around the web with our perspective as the trusted athlete educator.
The Access Athletes Advantage
Access Athletes is different from your standard online social network. Our uniquely designed community upholds the highest standards by providing an NCAA compliant environment, detailed privacy settings, and a verification system for featured members.
(1) NCAA Compliant Environment
This is our biggest priority. We require all members to comply with NCAA regulations and bylaws.
Opt-in Recruitment System- In order to ensure compliance and protect the eligibility of our athletes, we have implemented an opt-in recruitment system. This means that the default is set so that agents and other sports representatives cannot contact college athletes unless the athletes have elected to be contacted (after their collegiate eligibility has expired or they have declared for the draft).
On each athlete's profile, there is an "Agent Ready" button underneath the profile picture area that must be activated by the athlete, and then a request must be approved by the site administrator before our system allows agent/sports representative contact (e.g. messaging and entourage requests). Sports representatives will still be able to view an amateur athlete's profile if it is kept public under the privacy settings.
High School Athlete Contact Restrictions- Because of NCAA rules, agents and other sports representatives are restricted from having any contact with high school athletes whatsoever. Thus, they are prohibited from sending high school athletes messages or entourage requests. As long as a high school athlete profile is kept public, sports representatives will still be able to view it.
"Report a Foul to Referree"- Additionally, Access Athletes has a self-regulating system that encourages members to report other members to the site administrator when they are not in compliance with the AccessAthletes Terms of Use.
(2) Detailed Privacy Settings
You can control your own privacy settings and dictate who is given access to your profile and information. For example, you can elect to keep your profile private so that only members of your entourage can contact you.
(3) Verification System
On Access Athletes, athletes (except high school athletes), sports professionals, sports representatives, media entities, and businesses will go through a verification process to confirm their identity and validate their credentials. If it is found that a registrant is truly a member of one of these five categories, that person will get an official badge on his/her profile and gain verified MVP Status.
Member-Driven Approach
Access Athletes is a free and user-friendly community that endorses a personalized, member-driven approach that encourages its members to dictate the development of the website.
Member Types
Athletes
Who can join?
- Current high school athletes (unverified status)
- Former and current college, amateur, and professional athletes (verified MVP status)
- Note: If you are a college athlete, please register with a valid school email address.
Sports Professionals (verified MVP status)
Who can join?
- Certified athletic trainers
- Nutritionists
- Sports academics (e.g. professors)
- Sports medicine professionals
- Sports psychologists
- Team, league, and player association staff
Sports Representatives (verified MVP status)
Who can join?
- Attorneys
- Certified agents or any employee from a sports agency who assists a certified agent in recruiting
- Investment Advisors & Financial Planners
- Insurance specialists
- Sports marketers
The Media (verified MVP status)
Who can join?
- Any credentialed media member may gain MVP status. This includes mainstream sports journalists, sportscasters, and production staff.
- Additionally, this category is also open to sports bloggers.
Sports Biz (verified MVP status)
Who can join?
- Owners/Staff of sports products
- Owners/Staff of sports services (e.g. public relations specialists)
- Athlete sponsors
- Sports artists and photographers
Sports Fans (unverified status)
Who can join?
- Access Athletes is open to sports enthusiasts from the general public.
Access Athletes Badge
The Access Athletes badge can be posted on personal websites, social networking pages, or anywhere else you want to promote the website.
Internships
If you are interested in applying for an Access Athletes internship, please send your cover letter and resume to Matthew Allinson, matt@accessathletes.com. |
