Sorry for the delay between emails - whole family was sick last week! Back at it:

That is to say, even Lebron’s agent or Michael Jordan’s agent couldn’t help but be “good” because of how talented their clients were.

Expert agents are incredibly useful if you fall into the top percentile of college athletes trying to renegotiate your NIL deal or you’re trying to transfer up to a bigger FBS Power 4 division school.

They’re useless if you are an unproven or underperforming, non-generational-talent player.

In fact, telling a college coach you have an “agent” when you’re far from an Archie Manning is one of the quickest ways to get a coach’s eyes to roll.

Most “agents” or “agencies” will try to have you sign some kind of long term agreement on “representing you”, even if you’re getting no revenue share, scholarship or NIL for the next fews years. They’re banking on that when you do finally start to get some money, they will get a cut of it. But, since it’s next to impossible to predict how a professional player will pan out, let alone a still developing high school player, the net is cast wide and far.

Any kid who is getting DI offers or attention probably has 4-5 amateur agents in their DM’s or poking their circle of family and friends to get “repped”.

In many cases, the agents you really want to work with are going to the be the more discerning ones who need you far less than you’re going to need them.

The professional agents with great reputations are more than glad to have a brief conversation with you and your family about how they work, and their selectivity and probably a few ideas for what you should do on your own.

They won’t be sending you representation agreement through an X/Twitter DM.

The amateur agents are the ones who are going to be asking you for your contacts, your coaches’ numbers and trying to borrow from your success.

To pivot to our nook of the world, high academic, Ivy or Ivy-like recruiting, repeat after me: I do not need an agent.

You need, first and foremost, to be really in love with football and really good at football. Yes, these are high academic institutions with storied pasts, but to the coaches, they are a football school.

After that, you need to crush your grades, your core courses i.e. Math, Science, English, History, get 1300+ SAT (to be in the conversation), and take rigorous, challenging courses i.e. Honors or AP levels (if your school has APs, although some schools are pivoting back to just honors).

In our Ivy+ world, your game tape, your transcript, your course load and your test scores will do infinitely more for you than any agent lurking in your DM requests could ever hope to.

This is not to say that all agents are evil or bad. Most genuinely want to help athletes and families.

But, the time for that agent conversation (for most) is only after you’ve proven yourself as an impact, program changing player.

Of course, there is the generational QB or Edge out of HS who is going to command a premium of NIL or money who will need professional representation.

But, odds are, if you’re reading this, that’s not going to be you, nor is it going to be 98% of other recruits.

That’s all for now,

Brendan

P.S. When you’re ready, schedule a short discovery call to see if we might be a fit to work together on you and your family’s recruiting. I have two open spots for new families this upcoming February.