Monthly Archives: March 2026

A Needed Disclaimer on NIL Agency Significance

27 Friday Mar 2026

Posted by in Agents, College personnel, NIL, Transfer portal

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Earlier this month, on the ITL website, we posted a list of 30 agencies that seem to be doing the most business in the NIL space. Predictably, it’s created quite a stir with some of the agencies listed there (as well as some of the ones that weren’t). I think this calls for a disclaimer and maybe a clarification about the post.

Granted, we should have known it had the potential to explode, no matter what. That’s what social media is for, right? Making a big splash? Still, we tried to couch things by saying we were/are “seeking opinions from people in the industry” and that it was “based on initial feedback” only. We also closed the post by asking “where are we wrong?” and “where are we right?” Bottom line, the idea was to start a dialogue, not create a proclamation.

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback and rightfully so. Some firms have claimed that though they don’t do the raw numbers, their clientele has more star power. Or, they get more money for their clients. These claims have merit. Is the best metric raw numbers, or biggest clients, or dollars earned in deals? It’s probably a combination of all three, but given how undefined this industry is right now, it’s hard to find any objective truth. Then there’s the total number of agencies we listed. Is 30 a good number? Should it really be 25? Should it be 50? I don’t know. Again, 30 seemed like a good starting point.

Maybe we let this “out of the lab” too quickly. The thing is, you have to start somewhere, right? If we’re really going to find answers, we have to risk bruising some egos, even if that’s not intended. Fresh off our symposium, and maybe a little flush with its success, we wanted to keep pushing the conversation. We ran our list past several GMs and several top NIL agents, but it was in no way exhaustive or scientific. Honestly, I don’t know how much vetting would be enough, but I’m pretty sure it hadn’t been vetted sufficiently when we posted it. Again, it was a starting point, not a finished product.

With all that said, you still might see some NIL agencies touting their presence on the list. I guess I can’t stop them. But I think our post needed more perspective, so here it is. We stand behind our posts, but we also think you deserve the full picture.

We have a whole lot more to say about agencies, their roles, and the positives and negatives they bring to the NIL space in today’s Friday Wrap, which comes out at 7:30 p.m. EST. It’s free. If you’re not already registered for it, do that here.

Clearing Up a Few Misconceptions About Scouting

20 Friday Mar 2026

Posted by in NFL draft, Scouts

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We’re a little more than a month out from the draft, so that means there’s going to be a lot of talk of scouting, what scouts are doing, how scouts get their jobs (and lose their jobs), etc. There have been some dumb posts on social media already, and there are more to come. Here are a few things to remember as the topic of player evaluation comes up in the coming weeks/months.

  • Scouts tend to get released after the draft: Contracts typically are for two years and run through the end of April (sometimes May). That’s why a lot of people tend to watch our Twitter a little more closely in May. I can tell you there have already been some scouts released that haven’t been made public yet, but generally speaking, the turnover is going to start in May and will (mostly) be over by the end of June.
  • A fired scout does not equal a bad scout: Every year, we publish that a scout was let go by a team and fans get on social media and rejoice. It’s celebration day! Their favorite team has finally cut out the cancer! No, not really. More often than not, that scout got priced off the team. He’s not GM timber, he’s making well into six figures, and the team needs that money to pay its new analytics hire, or to give someone else a bump. The scout that gets let go didn’t do anything wrong. He’s just too expensive. For this reason, I’ve gotten used to seeing 3-4 good scouts terminated every year. I used to scratch my head when this happened. I don’t anymore. It’s simple economics.
  • Dismissals are independent of that year’s draft: I used to have this on a pinned tweet, but no owner (or GM) comes in the first day of May, declares that the team’s draft sucked, designates a certain evaluator as having done a poor job, and casts him onto the unemployment line. Decisions have already been made on which scouts will be dismissed this summer. We (and they) just have to wait to find out who they are.
  • Executive-level scouts are often called to cover pro days because no one else is available: This is important when you hear that a team’s Director of College Scouting attended a school’s pro day. It doesn’t necessarily mean that team is super-interested in one of that school’s players. There’s a LOT of ground to cover in March. It takes everyone.
  • A Top-30 visit doesn’t mean a team is drafting a player (or even considering it): This is pretty obvious, but still bears saying. The thing to understand is, most teams won’t sign a player unless he’s had a physical. So if a kid didn’t go to the Combine, a team might be bringing him in simply to get some answers, medically.

If you read our blog regularly, you probably already know these things, but maybe you didn’t. Well, now you do. Enjoy the draft.

Five Things for New NFL Agents to Know About Pro Days

13 Friday Mar 2026

Posted by in Agents, Getting started, ITL, NFL draft, Scouts

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Tonight, I gathered with several members of the 2025 NFLPA agent class to discuss pro days and the things they need to know this time of year. In the process, I developed 10 truths regarding pro days. I pulled five of them from my notes tonight, and they’re below.

Here’s my take on what new agents need to know about March.

  • No matter what scouts say, 40 times and pro day performances are important. This is something that was really brought home to we when I was writing my last book. It’s probably more true today than ever. A fringe prospect who tests poorly can take himself off most — maybe all — draft boards.
  • Pro days are not a right; scout coverage is not a right. I think that as the draft has grown in popularity, there’s a perception that every player gets his chance to shine in a workout. That’s not true. Even if every single NFL scout was dispatched to pro days across the country, they’d be tasked with gathering numbers on 1,500-2,000 players across about five weeks, and that’s just at the FBS level. Never mind that most are just not NFL-caliber players. Scouts are people, too.
  • One scout is way better than no scouts. I’ve had agents lament that there was only one, maybe two, scouts at a pro day. Most teams share numbers through what’s called the APT Coalition. If a player worked out at a remote school with minimal NFL talent, let’s face it — there’s probably better places for a scout to be.
  • If you get a player into a pro day, there’s a good chance he will only get to run a 40. Some schools are very liberal with how many players from other schools they allow to work out, but here’s the catch — they only let them run the 40. If their time doesn’t measure up, they don’t get to finish the rest of the drills. Once again, pro days are not a right, and scouts and school officials have to be economical with their time and efforts.
  • Pro liaisons often know less than you’d think. It’s not their fault. Their job is to help their respective teams win on Saturday, not get their players into the NFL. The point is, defer to them on some things, but make sure you verify everything they tell you.

Obviously, there’s plenty more to know about pro days as well as how to get a player his best pro day; the vagaries of alternative leagues like the CFL and UFL; NFL local pro days; and the all-important Day 3 of the NFL Draft. These are all things I covered tonight with Inside the League clients.

We didn’t record things, but I’ve got pretty detailed notes. Happy to share them if you join the ITL family.

A Few Thoughts on How We Can Improve Our Combine Events

06 Friday Mar 2026

Posted by in Agents, College personnel, ITL, Media, NIL, Transfer portal

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Forgive me if this is a little self-indulgent for a couple of events that have already taken place. However, I’ve spent the last week thinking about how we could make our two Indianapolis events last week, the 2026 Ellison Kibler at Merrill Lynch ITL Combine Seminar and the 2026 Dropback ITL Symposium, even bigger in 2027. Here’s what I’ve come up so far.

More space: We were smart enough to increase our space for Friday’s symposium — and thank the Lord that we did, because we had a packed house — and increased our space for Wednesday. However, we probably need to expand our space even further for both events. Hopefully we can return to the first floor while meeting our needs, size-wise.

More imaging: We improved our social media game since last year, but let’s face it: we had nowhere to go but up. I’ve had a lot of the participants from Wednesday and Friday seeking photos of themselves from the events. I get it. When you work in the shadows, you have to find a way to let others learn who you are (or, at least, what you look like). We’ve done a good job with photos for the seminar, but not always got the pictures out. Friday, our photography was minimal. We’ll do better on both counts next year, and we’ll get shots out to people from Wednesday sooner this year.

Registration: I think we have to cut off signups earlier. We also have to level up our registration process. We’ll be giving this more thought before next year. Several people got into the symposium late despite registering days, even weeks before the event. That’s not fair to them.

Roundtables: Panelists (agents and GMs) had a really difficult job. We posed some difficult questions (they’re in this email in case you were wondering), and it’s not easy to respond when there are 400 people in the room. Some of the feedback I got was that they might be more comfortable sitting at tables with only a few people from the community. I’ve seen this done at previous symposiums, and it came together really well. However, they didn’t have as many people as we had, and it requires signups well in advance so you can kinda plot things out. We had a significant amount of walkup registration and that will probably continue next year with schedules in Indianapolis so volatile. I’m not sure if we can pull this off. But maybe we’ll try.

Promotion: I devoted three newsletters and 3-4 podcasts to promoting our symposium; I also put a ribbon on our website with all the details. Still, we had members of some of the top agencies who expressed disappointment that they didn’t know we were having it. I’ll admit I focused my personal texts, emails and DMs on college GMs and directors, hoping that agencies would participate if we had enough members of the college personnel community. Next year, I’ll be more aggressive about reaching out, personally, to people who have attended in the past.

If you were there, and you have ideas, I’d love to hear what you’ve got. I’m sure there are things I’m missing. I want to make both our events the place the football community comes to share best practices and meet key people. I won’t stop trying to improve both. DM me on Twitter at @insidetheleague.

More Thoughts on Friday’s Symposium and Where We Are

01 Sunday Mar 2026

Posted by in College personnel, NIL, Transfer portal

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I’ve been thinking about our event Friday, the 2026 Dropback ITL Symposium, which took place Friday morning in the Indiana Convention Center before about 400 members of the college personnel community. We had 48 FBS schools represented, including 37 P4 schools and 20 GMs. Anyway, our two panels (three GMs, three NIL agents each) weighed in on 20 questions posed by Dropback founder Luke Bogus and myself over almost two hours on the second floor of the convention center.

I already posted a few takeaways in our Friday Wrap, but I had a few more today. First let’s get the cliches out of the way.

  • No one wants to take NIL payments away from players, no one is saying players shouldn’t be compensated for their images, etc.
  • Everyone is willing to let things be decided on the field, and no one is asking for mercy.
  • Everyone accepts that life isn’t fair.

With that said, there were a few recurring themes:

  • The January portal was a win, simply because it was one window instead of one in December and one in the spring. The timing is still tricky, but I don’t think there was a lot of pushback. If there was any, it was that there’s no certainty that this is the policy going forward. No one in a position of authority has declared the January window “the way” going forward.
  • The feeling on the panel was that money should go to veteran players. I mentioned this in the Friday Wrap, but Iowa GM Tyler Barnes raised the point that there should be some kind of cap on pay for high school players. Unknown players don’t have a lot of name recognition anyway, to say nothing of the limited snaps they usually play. We’ve seen the NFL basically do the same thing in the 2011 CBA. Unfortunately, this is probably wish casting as it would take federal legislation.
  • There’s clearly a lot of mystery about who represents which players; it’s so bad that one GM said he relies on journalists to tell him who represents whom. The problem here is that there’s nothing comparable to a Standard Representation Agreement (SRA), the document that the NFLPA requires players to sign when they agree to representation. Again, short of some kind of federal intervention or an opt-in to some governing body, that’s impossible.
  • With no rules, college officials and agents are left to rely on their own senses of honor; the value of relationships was mentioned so many times I lost count. However, as we know, morality is subjective, and honest people sometimes disagree. I raised the idea of some kind of code of conduct that could be accepted across the industry, but no one seemed to think that would make a difference. Unfortunately, the panelists are probably right.
  • You can argue about the makeup and effectiveness of the College Sports Commission (CSC), which is supposed to call balls and strikes on NIL deals, but you can’t argue that they’ve communicated effectively with schools. No one on either panel said he’d heard a word from the CSC. No one seemed to know much about what the CSC was doing, and given the role the CSC is supposed to play, that’s a concern. I hope someone at the CSC reads this. People in NCAA personnel offices would love to hear from them.
  • Unfortunately, for the second straight year, there was little to no optimism that tampering could be curbed, much less stopped. It’s admirable that the NCAA is trying to do something about it, but the panelists just shrugged their shoulders, figuratively, at these efforts. Even in the agent world, which is governed by the NFLPA, there’s almost no way to stop this. The player who benefits from such activity is never going to turn in his benefactor.
  • I was happy with the candor and honesty shown, but let’s be honest — when you’re giving opinions on touchy issues before a room of 400 people, it’s natural to edit yourself. The feedback is that people would be more open to talk in a roundtable situation, maybe 12 people talking about the issues. I’d like to think there’s someone out there that could provide such a forum, but who knows? Maybe I’m the one who should.

Just more stuff to think about. I think the problems facing the game may not be as overwhelming as some claim, but it’s not perfect. I hope ITL can be part of any solutions.