“granting high school basketball recruits permission to sign with agents on July 1 entering their senior years” meaning

Question

The a Yahoo Sports article by Ben Rohrbach, August 8, 2018:

Among the rule changes announced by the NCAA were: 1) allowing players who participate in the NBA’s draft combine to return to college if they go undrafted, so long as the NBA makes the “expected rule change” of disallowing players who enter the draft from becoming eligible until the end of their next college season; and 2) granting high school basketball recruits permission to sign with agents on July 1 entering their senior years, so long as they are “identified as an elite prospect by USA Basketball.”

I don't quite get the part in bold above.

1. I am not sure of the correct way to parse it. Here is my attempt: granting + recruits + entering their senior years; "permission to sign with agents on July 1" modifies the noun recruits. But I think it should add a with, like granting high school basketball recruits with permission to sign with agents on July 1 entering their senior years. So, is a noun phrase like "permission to sign with agents on July 1" eligible for being a modifier of a noun word?
2. What "agents" are referring to in "sign with agents"? Does it refer to the NBA players, like free agents?

Answer 1

Your parsing of granting high school basketball recruits permission to sign with agents on July 1 entering their senior years is correct, but inserting with would not be idiomatic here.

Some verbs of supply or transfer are monotransitive. In such cases, either the recipient or the thing being supplied or transferred would be the direct object, and the other would be indicated using a prepositional phrase:

They furnished masks to the protesters.

They furnished the protesters with masks.

She endowed a chair in the chemistry department.

She endowed the chemistry department with a chair.

The verb grant, however, as with most other verbs which indicate giving or doing something for a recipient or target, can be ditransitive. The recipient or target is the indirect object and the thing which is given or done is the direct object.

While such sentences can be rephrased to employ a to or for phrase for the recipient or target, with would be interpreted to indicate some kind of instrumentality on the part of the giver/doer, rather than the thing being granted:

She painted him a still life.

She painted a still life for him.

She painted him with a still life. (nonsensical)

She painted him a still life with her new brushes.

The committee allotted them a stipend.

The committee allotted a stipend to them.

The committee allotted them with a stipend. (nonsensical)

The committee allotted them a stipend with the surplus from the endowment.

In the context of the article, the changes grant permission to the recruits, rather than grant the recruits [something] [through the mechanism of permission from the NCAA].

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Agent has its common meaning here, not any specialized sports meaning:

a person whose job is to act for, or manage the affairs of, other people in business, politics, etc.

The recruits have permission to sign contracts with sports agents who will represent them professionally in negotiations.