Last year, around February, the Washington Huskies hired Cameron Foster to help manage athlete contracts and cap matters in the new revenue-sharing era, while also letting him keep running Reign Sports Management. That is why the hire drew scrutiny: Foster also represents active college players outside Washington, including two at USC. So, the whole Big Ten is looking at Washington sideways.

The conflict is not hard to see. Foster helps Washington handle player-compensation decisions, but as an agent, his job is still to push for the best possible deal for his own clients. Those two responsibilities do not naturally pull in the same direction.

Critics see the real danger in what Foster could know from both sides. If one person understands how Washington values players while also representing players elsewhere, the negotiation stops looking clean and starts looking tilted.

He could theoretically use that secret knowledge to help his private clients get better deals elsewhere or know exactly how to out-negotiate other schools that don’t have a guy on the “inside.” Despite the backlash and heat from all possible angles, the University of Washington and Athletic Director Pat Chun just doubled down on and labelled this hire as a visionary move outright.

They argue that Foster’s decades of experience as an NFLPA-certified agent are exactly what they need to navigate this confusing new era of revenue sharing. UW officials emphasize that while Foster manages the “cap” and writes the contracts, the actual dollar amounts are still determined by the coaching staff, which they claim creates a “buffer” against bias.

They even pointed out that the NFLPA cleared him, basically saying, “Hey, there’s no rule specifically saying he can’t do both,” which is a pretty bold “legal but maybe not ethical” defense.

Where’s this one going?

The big problem here is that there are almost zero rules for these new “General Manager” roles in college sports. This has sparked a huge debate about whether the NCAA or the Big Ten needs to step in and create a “cooling-off” period.

Usually, in big business or government, you can’t just jump back and forth between being the regulator and the person being regulated without waiting a year or two.

Without those guardrails, people worry that agent-executives could use their power to steer recruits toward their own agencies or give their own clients a “friends and family” discount on university resources. For Foster, Washington is a side gig, and Reign Sport comes first. According to Sportico, the University of Washington is paying him $185K for 2026 and paid him $150K for 2025 as salary.

It’s not only him – the Huskies also have other active NFL agents like Sean Howard overseeing similar business development roles.

What happens next matters because other schools are watching how far these new jobs can stretch. If Washington can keep an active agent in a compensation-facing role without a serious rule challenge, this case may stop looking like an exception and start looking like a blueprint.