At this point, we’ve covered the ramifications of the recently confirmed SRA that the NFLPA has published for the 2017 draft class. As you know, the default agent fee will be 1.5 percent v. the previous rate of 3 percent, which was already lower than all major sports.

We still don’t know how this will impact the agent business, though we know it won’t be good. With a week until the NFLPA’s deadline for paying 2016-17 dues, there’s a great chance several good contract advisors will opt to get out of the business.

However, problems for some could be opportunities for others. In the last week, I’ve had a handful of financial advisors ask me how I saw the new agent fee affecting their part of the business. Would it be a negative or a positive? Maybe, just maybe, this could be an opportunity for financial advisors. Here’s why.

• Good agents will leave the business due to this move. There’s no two ways about it. What’s more, eventually, the news of this move will trickle down to the young, motivated people who annually register to take the agent exam. This means it’s possible draft prospects could find a lack of good advisors that know the ropes.
• Financial advisors, many of whom (though new to the game) have an intense desire to help young players make smart decisions about their money, could fill the gap.
• The lion’s share of the financial advisors who can capitalize on this are younger and more patient though probably less accomplished. Elite financial advisors rarely want do the day-to-day hand-holding that the business requires; after all, they’re superstars in their own right.

As I mentioned, financial advisors are already starting to think along these lines. This year, we’ve matched up four former NFL scouts with agencies to work with them in the run-up to the draft. I had a financial advisor ask me last week if I thought this might work in his business. I told him I’d get back to him, and I haven’t yet, but I think maybe this is an idea with traction.

The rule of thumb in this business is that about every three years there is a major new development that hits the football business like a tidal wave, requiring agents, financial advisors, trainers and the like to adapt. Obviously, the less agile can’t, don’t or won’t adapt, but those who can identify these trends early can often turn them into opportunities. One previous such wave was the rise of combine training. Another big one was the shift from low-interest loans and letters of credit to marketing advances or outright signing bonuses to entice draft prospects.

We’re about to see how many people across the football world can benefit from this, and how many will get pulled under. Just maybe there are those in the money world who can make this an advantage.

Yes, the agent business is very hard. Yes, we are pretty brutal in our honesty about the way this business runs, and the long odds faced by those who pursue NFLPA certification. I often wonder if I’m a little too direct, and it’s always tough balancing the bad news with the good.

Well, today is a day to balance out the bad. Typically, the players association doesn’t release the results of the exam until mid to late September. However, this year, the news came out Sept. 1. The celebratory tweets started rolling out Thursday afternoon, and soon after, the texts and emails started coming in from the 70-odd people who used our practice exam and/or study guide to prepare.

Obviously, it’s incredibly exciting to help someone achieve a lifetime goal. For me, it’s similar to the high a new agent gets when his first client signs a contract with an NFL team or gets the call that he was drafted. Here’s a sampling.

• “Thanks a bunch!  Your stuff definitely helped!  Now will probably need to get the list you offer. If you need to use someone or two for promotion, let us know.”

• “I appreciate all of your help. Wouldn’t have passed without the exam and study guide. I’ll be sure to recommend them to anyone in future. Don’t know what I would have done without you.”

• “Hey Neil, I passed. Thank you for your help! The practice test paid off a lot!”

• “Thanks for the help. That test helped big time. Helped understand how the structure of the test was going to be. Can’t thank you enough!

• “Thanks man. Totally excited beyond words. Now it just comes down to grinding, making connections, and moving with God’s will.”

• “I just want to let you know that….I passed the exam! Appreciate all your assistance along the way.”

• “Passed the test… I have a few weeks to make decision on certification which is nice. Test wasn’t difficult at all, felt very confident afterwards and thought I only got 1 question wrong. Seems like the NFLPA did a much better job with the seminar this year than last. A lot of the really difficult test questions were mentioned in the seminar word for word, so if somebody didn’t get them right they just weren’t paying attention. Thanks for the help and the practice test which was very helpful. Appreciate you being a valuable resource for upcoming and current agents who have been getting very little to no support, especially in this SRA dilemma.”

Naturally, the news wasn’t all good. Though it’s early, it looks like results will be a bit better than last year, though not significantly. Based on the first 21 people I’ve spoken to, our success rate is just over 70 percent, right about where we are every year.

For those who came up short, the pain is unbearable, and I share their disappointment. But for today, let’s focus on those who’ll be sinking their teeth into the football business this year.

There’s been a good bit of hand-wringing in this space over the NFLPA’s new policy setting 1.5 percent as the default agent fee (though savvy contract advisors may still seek a maximum of 3 percent from their clients). Here and here and here are some examples of agents’ concerns, and here and here and here are thoughts from combine trainers, who’ll probably have to make a few concessions, as well.

However, after a few conversations with members of big firms, there may be good news for small and mid-sized firms that may see the new SRA as a doomsday scenario.

In the past, big firms spent the spring and summer recruiting players (juniors and seniors) projected as Top-100 picks in the coming draft. As the season unfolded, they’d either lose interest in some of their recruits, or be rejected, or some other scenario that might lead them to look for other prospects. At this point, they’d reach out to scouting contacts, who would in turn update them on the players who’d improved their status. The big firms would then barge in and soak up these players, usually pushing out the smallish firms who’d spent spring and summer forging relationships with them. It was really, really bad news for the upstart agencies. The bullies on the block always won.

This year, however, I’ve been told by two agents I highly respect (and who come from Top 10 agencies) that their agencies will cut back this year by reducing the number of players they sign. In the old days, they could pay for training on their long shots with the premiums paid by big players, but now that fewer will pay 3 percent (though both told me their agencies will still fight for 3 percent), there’s less margin.

This still means the guys out there hustling to make names for themselves will have to spend the summer and fall building relationships. However, just maybe, those relationships won’t go for naught as often in the age of the de facto 1.5 percent agent fee. At least, I hope so. There are a lot of good agents out there working hard and who deserve to be rewarded for their efforts.

I wanted to wrap a week of discussions on the NFLPA’s move to make 1.5 percent agent fees the default option with a couple thoughts based on discussions I’ve had with agents and trainers, this week and in the past.

• One of the biggest ways new and/or young agents can do to improve their chances of success is by partnering with bigger agents (I call it having a ‘big brother’). The way it usually works is that the smaller agent develops an excellent relationship with a top prospect, but knowing he can’t ‘close’ the player, pairs up with a major agent/agency late in the process (we regularly help pair up these parties, by the way). In the past, this was easy. Once the training fees and costs of recruiting were covered, the big and small agents split the 3 percent. Now they’re splitting 1.5 percent unless they can talk the player ‘up’ to 3 percent. There’s so little money to be made now that this partnership probably doesn’t work anymore.
• As trainers have come into the game and become a bigger part of the draft process, they’re often derided as making hundreds of thousands of dollars with no risk. Though ultimately they get paid whether the player is drafted or not, I can assure you they carry plenty of risk. Trainers almost always provide training up front, then often get paid once it’s complete. The temptation now, for less scrupulous agents, could be to stiff trainers completely.
• As a person who’s pretty comfortable with the ideas of capitalism, I think that, generally, the best producers are compensated the best, and to get the best people, you must be willing to provide a good wage. When you cut a fee that was already lowest among the three major sports in half, you’re going to hurt the service to your constituents. That goes not only for the lesser players, but ultimately for the players that really matter in the league. I feel the NFLPA is discouraging talented, smart young people from succeeding in the business as well as considering entering it. The number of people wiling to get certified by the NFLPA has always been almost insatiable, but that could end if steps like this continue to be taken.

For what it’s worth, this move has not been made officially. Not yet, anyway. But it definitely seems to be coming. We’ll see if the outrage generated by contract advisors so far is heeded by the NFLPA. Let’s hope the players association is listening.