If you're headed to the NFL Combine later this month, there are a lot of good reasons to make sure you arrive Wednesday night, not Thursday. There's a lot going on the day before the NFLPA Seminar and the kickoff of on-field workouts for Groups 1 (kickers, specialists and offensive linemen), 2 (offensive linemen) and 3 (running backs). It's our 10 ^th year of presenting the ITL Combine Seminar, and it's going to be a special year, with more planned than ever. Here's a quick rundown of what's ahead.

 

Thursday morning, we'll have our first-ever seminar strictly for agents who have, or want to build, a practice representing coaches. The 2019 Franklin Capital Strategies ITL Coaches Agent Seminar will kick off Thursday morning at 8 a.m. The agents who

	Will Phillip Lindsay help deliver Denver a Best Draft Class 2018 Award? Balloting continues.

attend will get access to three experts - an authority on coach search firms, an ex-NFL GM and one more speaker still to be determined - who will answer all their questions about what schools are looking for, how to find and sign those coaches, and how to tip off their clients about what landmines to avoid and how to achieve success. This event will have limited attendance, though there are still a few slots available. For more details on pricing and guest speakers, email us.

 

Thursday during the day, we're working on providing a platform for XFL Senior Vice President of Football Operations Doug Whaley to meet with agents in an informal setting, allowing him to answer questions, make introductions, and get contract advisors more familiar with the unique product the XFL will bring when it returns to the field in 2020. There will be a light lunch and beverages served, and registration is not necessary.

 

Then it's on to Thursday evening, of course, which will be big. We'll kick things off by presenting the Best NFL Draft Class 2018 Award to a team chosen by vote of active NFL scouts. Finalists, listed alphabetically, include Bears, Broncos, Browns, Colts and Giants. Last year, Saints Assistant GM Jeff Ireland accepted the award on behalf of New Orleans, which was the runaway winner.

 

The evening will also include a lifetime achievement award presented to a contract advisor whose service changed the game in a positive way, as well as remarks by Whaley. Of course, Denver-based Peter Schaffer of Authentic Athletix will update members of the agent community on the main order of business: efforts to make the business saner and fairer for all concerned. All NFLPA-licensed contract advisors are invited, and there will be light appetizers and an open bar starting at 5 p.m. The event will be sponsored by TEST Football Academy and the XFL.

 

We'll have room numbers, times and other details soon. In the meantime, we'll continue putting together the last few particulars before presenting them in this space as well as on the ITL home page in the next several days. Just make sure you're in Indianapolis Wednesday night. We promise it will be worth it. Got questions about attendance, sponsorship, or anything else? Make sure to email us.

 

In the meantime, here's a look at what else we saw, heard, read and said this week in the business of college and pro football.

2019 Scouting Changes Grid: Things are slowly heating up on the hiring and firing front. This week, we uncovered (or broke) news on arrivals and departures in Oakland, Green Bay and Kansas City, and it's barely February. There's a lot more to come, so make sure you're staying tuned to our Twitter account. For a roundup of everything so far, hit our grid.

 

The ITL Rising Contract Advisors Newsletter: It's back! After taking the month of January off, we'll return next week with our daily best-practices dispatch. Among the topics we'll be tackling will behow to get a player into a (larger) pro day,what scouts want to know and how to tell them,how to deal with a needy player (and his parents) and dozens of other topics related to the business. All you have to do is subscribe to ITL (or continue to) and you're on the distribution list. Not a subscriber? Sign up today.

 

Get those ballots in: If you're an NFL scout, you've been sent an email. It includes a link that will allow you to vote on the best draft class of 2018. We value your opinion and hope you'll help us determine which of five teams ( Bears, Broncos, Browns, Colts and Giants) gets the honor of top job last spring. Can't find the email? Let us know and we'll resend the link.

 

Rep Rumblings: This week, we rolled out reports on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday (Tuesday was for posting the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl National and American rosters with agents). On Monday, we had breaking news on scouting changes, plus marketing notes, pro day updates and the latest on a big prospect on the move. Wednesday was a big day as we had updates on NFLPA rosters (players and their agents), a talented young agent who recently changed firms (and what it means), more new pro days and a notes on the AAF and XFL. Finally, on Thursday, we had two new college head coaches and their agents, a surprising trend among cap gurus, and more. For a look at all our reports, click here.

 

Agents by Total Clients (January): This week, we posted our monthly look at who's got what as far as individual agents (per NFLPA rolls), and we did things a little differently. Along with the names of the individual agents, we also listed their agencies, just to give a little more perspective on which firms have the most horsepower. We hope it's a needed and helpful change. Check out the full report here.

 

The ITL Scouting Department: The first week of February is a funny time in recruiting. On one hand, it's getting late in the signing process for 2019, but it's not over, yet. Make sure you're making the right choices by enlisting one of our scouts to write a report on your prospective clients. On the other hand, it's about time to start looking at 2020. But can you trust the all-conference lists, early mock drafts and referrals from friends? Maybe, but it might be a better idea to have a former NFL evaluator to give you the thumb up or down. Whatever the case may be, we've got what you need. Drop us a line and we'll get to work on finding you a sleeper.

 

A week that will live in infamy?: It was a year ago this week that the NFLPA announced its implementation of a bi-annual continuing education exam that would begin last spring.Though it turned out to be much ado about nothing,with only 16 contract advisors failing it, the controversial test remains part of the schedule.If you were certified in 2016, you had a year off, but now you're on deck.Want to make sure you're good to go for the exam? Start with our practice exam (Exam 1), which is the most proven prep material you can find.Want to make sure you're truly prepared? Give our second exam a go, as well.If you're an ITL client, you can get both exams for $175, while if you're not part of the ITL family, it's only $250 (plus tax, of course).Why take chances? For less than a tenth of your annual dues, you can take away all the worries you'll suffer a setback this spring or, even worse, have to retake the exam this summer. Want more information? Click here.

 

Next week: The college season is long over and there's just one game left in the NFL season, even if maybe the right two teams aren't playing in it. Next up: the NFL Combine. With dozens of combine acceptances criss-crossing social media over the last three days, we're not far from the complete list being published by National Football Scouting; last year's list was published Feb. 6. And once the official list is published, we'll break out the 300-odd names from our Signings Grid and focus on finding their training locations as well as the representation for those we still lack (and even their pro day date). Once we're done, it will look a lot like last year's list. And by the way, if you're an agent whose client got a second-wave invite to Indy and you were holding off on interview prep, we've got you covered. Give us a chance and we'll get your client right while saving you thousands of dollars. For everyone else heading to the combine, we'll also continue to nail down all the details on a busy Thursday of combine week, which will include our seminar for reps of coaches, the 2019 Franklin Capital Strategies ITL Coaches Agent Seminar; a chance to meet and network with top football officials in the mid-day session, and finally, the 2019 TEST Football Academy ITL Combine Seminar, which will be held in conjunction with the Certified Contract Advisors Meeting that evening. By the way, we're still about 400 names away from the total we usually like to list in our Signings Grid, so we'll be hammering away at that board, as well. Also, we'll get serious about our Pro Day Grid, which we introduced today. Here's what it will look like in a couple months, including the dates for the last four years at each respective school. Also next week, we'll start working on catching up on our Agent Changes since November. We're two reports behind (December and January) but we're eager to get caught up before falling too far back. Also next week, we'll rev up the machine and start producing the ITL Rising Contract Advisors Newsletter. it's high-octane stufffor new agents, and we encourage you to take advantage of it.Behind the scenes, we're getting our 2020 Profile Reports ready (check out last year's here).Our profile reports are some of the least-used and most effective resources on our site, and we encourage you to check them out when they make their 2020 debut in April. Of course, these are all seasonal ITL features. There are still all the features everyone has come to expect from ITL, from our daily Rep Rumblings reports to our weekly blog, Succeed in Football, as well as the ITL Scouting Department's work breaking down players for '19 (and '20). Don't let all this content go to waste! Join us.