How do you best decide who the top scouts and evaluators are in the NFL? It’s something we’ve been trying to do since 2022 with our BART List awards, which we’ve presented for three years running. While we’re happy with the acceptance of the awards across the league, we’re always striving to do things better.

We’ll start voting this weekend, and this year, there are two things I really want to improve:

  • More participation — We want every scout to vote. We’ve gotten a significant portion of the scouting community but we can do better. There are still a few teams whose firewalls seem to block us, but most teams are getting our emails. We’ve just gotta figure out how to motivate people to vote.
  • More objective results — We’ve seen a greater concentration of voting from some teams, which has led to more scouts from these teams being honored. This is not to say the scouts who’ve won previously weren’t worthy, but we want to make sure. To combat less-than-objective voting, this year, we’re asking scouts not to vote for anyone on their own teams. We don’t have a way to police this, so we’re hoping the honor system will be enough. 

We also don’t want to water down the awards, which is a constant concern with the scouts I’ve spoken to about this (it’s probably not surprising that professional evaluators are concerned about quality).

Now let’s look at the numbers and the divisions within the scouting community. If you take all the scouts on all 32 teams that aren’t GMs, you come up with 557 scouts, from VPs of Player Personnel down to the youngest coordinators and player personnel assistants (scouting assistants aren’t candidates for awards yet). I broke them into four strata:

  • All pro scouting professionals (from DPPs on the pro side down to the pro scouts themselves) — 110
  • All college scouting types at the executive level (from college directors on up to just below GM) — 182
  • All college “road” scouts (college/area scouts and national scouts with at least seven seasons visiting schools) — 197
  • All other scouting personnel with six or fewer seasons in the league, which I call the Next Wave (area scouts, coordinators, scouting assistants, etc.) — 68

Again, scouting assistants aren’t eligible for awards and don’t get to vote just yet. Now let’s look at the categories and the numbers of winners.

  • Best pro department (3 teams): In the past we’ve honored individual scouts in this category, but after talking to people across the league, it’s just too hard to know the best scouts in the industry when you work only with your own staff. So, instead, we’ll vote on entire staffs this year and and declare three winners.
  • College/Executive (3 per conference): This is pretty self-explanatory and will mirror what we’ve done since introducing it in 2023. 
  • College/Road (7 per conference): Once again, this is pretty self-explanatory. This year will be our fourth honoring seven “road” scouts in each conference.
  • Next Wave (3 total, regardless of conference): I’ve gotten some pushback from seasoned evaluators that the new folks don’t need an award yet, but I want to try it this year. 

I think dividing all scouts into four strata helps keep people voting on the people they know the best, or at least I hope so. Obviously, only pro scouts will vote on the best three pro scouting departments. However, when it comes to college scouting, the question is, are scouts from one strata familiar with the ones from other strata? Are “Next Wave” scouts knowledgeable of the best executive-level scouts? Are “road” scouts knowledgeable of the young ones? If we limit voting only within strata, will that give us more purity, but not numbers? I’m really chewing on this. 

I guess my questions are this: 

  • Is dividing into four strata the best way to separate the difference classifications of scouts?
  • If we limit voting to within the strata only, will there be enough votes cast to really have representative voting? Or is it better to have just one ballot and to let all four strata vote on the same one?
  • Should we even have awards for the “Next Wave” division? One scout suggested that it would be better for them to wait. I think that has merit, but I also like the idea of rewarding the best young people in the business.

So here’s what I decided. There will be four ballots, one for each strata. Pro scouts will only vote on the best three pro departments. College executives, college road scouts and young scouting personnel (next wave) will vote on the best within their own respective divisions. All three college divisions will also vote for superlatives (best running a pro day, best gathering contact/background info, best on a school visit) and for best strength coach, best pro liaison, and most improved visit. 

We’ll hope for the best. If it doesn’t work out, I guess we’ll try something different next year. We just hope we get the results that best represent the community.