As you know, the members of the 2019 NFLPA agent certification class will take the exam in two weeks. With professionals across the country preparing for the big test, and as we count down the last 14 days before the moment of truth, permit us to do a little bragging as we celebrate our eighth year of offering  a study guide and  a practice exam to would-be player representatives (we added  a second practice exam last year).

 

Last year,  270 men and women sat for the exam. Only around a hundred passed, which is an even lower percentage than the usual rate ( about 45 percent annually since the NFLPA made the test appreciably harder in 2015). Of course, people who use our materials (study guide plus at least one practice exam) pass at about a 70 percent rate, about 25 percent better than the at-large rate. It's exciting to see how much success our clients have enjoyed in such a short time. Consider:

 

Agents from the biggest firms in the business have used ITL's materials to get ready for the exam. We've worked with contract advisors from CAA, Athletes First, Lagardere Sports, Independent Sports & Entertainment (ISE), Rep 1 Sports, Sportstars, SportsTrust Advisors, Octagon Football, Rosenhaus Sports and Priority Sports,  the top 10 active agencies in total value points since 2007, as they prepared for the certification process. No other service can say that.

 

The hottest young agents in the business used our materials to get certified. Among the names on  our latest list of the agents with the most clients in the business, Tory Dandy (40); Evan Brennan (25); Kyle Strongin (25); Jim Denton (24); Casey Muir (23); Malki Kawa (22); Ron Butler (17); Murphy McGuire (17); Collin Roberts (16); Christian Kranz (14); Shane Costa (13); Dan Saffron (13); AJ Vaynerchuk (11); Kyle Dolan (10) and Cody Recchion (10) all used our practice exam and/or our study guide to get ready for the test. 

 

What's more, many remain fans of our materials. Several of those contract advisors, such as  Muir,  Costa,  Kranz, McGuire and  Brennan, have been kind enough to tweet testimonials, along with  Daniel Frid of Team Sports Agency,  Ryan Earls of Cover3 Representation,  Jake Smith of Revolution Sports,  Jared Leigh of Leigh Sports,  Adam Seifer of Enter-Sports,  Justin VanFulpen of Sloan Sports,  Will Sarubbi of Sarubbi Sports,  Greg Linton of HOF Player Representatives, and  Hygens Succes of 4^thQuarter Sports Group. 

 

Our former students are having real success.Though we've only offered our materials for eight years,  seven 2019 first-rounders (Tampa Bay IB  Devin White, Giants QB  Daniel Jones, Kentucky DE  Josh Allen, Vikings OC  Garrett Bradbury, Texans OT  Tytus Howard, Ravens WO  Marquise Brownand Falcons OT  Kaleb McGary) are co-repped by our test-takers. That total includes three of the top seven picks. 

 

The unsolicited praise for our study guide continued to roll in ("I would've had to take probably 30+ extra pages of handwritten, unreadable notes if I didn't have that, and it would've been 30+ pages that I wouldn't had organized, pre-studied like I did your notes. Hand written notes would've been un-usable compared to your study guide), and the feedback on our second practice exam, just introduced last year, has been very positive, as well. 

 

If you're one of those aspiring sports professionals who's headed to Washington, D.C., in 12 days, but you've been waiting and trying to decide whether or not to try our test prep tools, we urge you to stop waiting. We want to help, and we know we can make a difference. Please give us a try. You won't be sorry. In the meantime, here's a look at what else we heard, saw, read and said in the world of college and pro football this week.

 

Special offer: We've gotten questions from several clients who are retaking the exam this summer, asking if we have any updated questions or a third practice exam. We don't. However, though subscriptions to our practice exams end on July 1, we'll reactivate exam accounts for everyone who is an ITL client, or  who subscribes. We're dedicated to getting you past the exam, and we hope this special offer does the trick. Got questions? Let us know.

 

Succeed in Football: Incidentally, if you're looking for more information on the 2019 NFLPA agent class, take a look at our blog posts this week. On Tuesday, we expanded on last week's Friday Wrap by providing  the responses for several members of the '19 contract advisor class to our question, what concerns you most about Year 1?We found that they are concerned about how to talk to potential clients, how to make friends with scouts, and how to pay for it all.  We followed it up on Wednesdayby rolling out the lessons our first-year agent clients learned after 12 months in the game and a full draft class. The two posts make up interesting bookends, and show that (a) prospective agents have a pretty good idea of what they're up against, yet (b) there are still plenty of unexpected circumstances associated with an industry with so many highs and lows. We'll dive in again next week as we rev up for the coming exam. In the meantime, check out everything we've published on the agent industry, scouting community, combine prep, marketing, coaching, and everything else by clicking  here.

 

Agent Changes (March to April): We're slowly crawling back up to pace on our Agent Changes reports. This week,  we had our report reflecting the last changes before the '19 NFL Draft. It's always a busy time period.  Last year, 26 players- including Ravens OH  Mark Ingram, Titans OT  Jack Conklinand Jaguars WO  Terrelle Pryorwere among players that made April changes in 2018. This year, though the names weren't as big, the totals were. We counted 30 players who made representation switches in April, including Raiders IB  Vontaze Burfict, Panthers DT  Vernon Butlerand Jaguars OT  Cam Robinson. It was a particularly volatile month for defensive tackles, as four others joined Butler in turning over a new leaf. We're expecting a much smaller number for the April-to-May total; last year, only about half as many players released their agents during that period as did the month before. Remember, you can check out all our agent change reports going back more than a decade in our archives. Click  hereto check them out.

 

LSU 2020+: On Tuesday, we published  our Profile Report on Louisiana State, a team that is always chock-full of talent whether the head coach is known for  waking his players by beating a bass drum,  chewing grass,  raging at his coaches on the sideline, or anything else. We followed that report up with  our second expanded team report on the top 10 Tigers, regardless of class, as written by former Hurricanes Director of Player Personnel  Matt Doherty. Matt

	Where does new Maryland QB Josh Jackson, a transfer from Virginia Tech, fit into the '20 Draft? We'll find out this week what the ITL Scouting Department thinks.

sees four potential first-rounders on the roster in Baton Rouge, with four members of the '20 class (IB  Michael Divinity, DT  Rashard Lawrence, DC  Kristian Fultonand OG  Damian Lewis) as draftable next spring. That's in addition to FS  Grant Delpit, a lock first-rounder presuming he enters the draft early, and five other Tigers that could be part of the '20 class. He also listed six more LSU players to monitor that could wind up hearing their respective names called in future springs. Next up in our series is Maryland; the  ITL Scouting Departmentwill tackle the Terps on Wednesday. We'll look at Miami (Fla.) the following week (July 15), and Michigan State (July 17) and Michigan (July 18) later the same week. Stay tuned!

 

Rep Rumblings: This week, the football profession was mostly on vacation, but we were able to sniff out enough news to publish two reports.  On Monday, we had the representation choice for the best player in the 2019 NFL Supplemental Draft class, Washington State FS  Jalen Thompson. We also had scouting notes and jurisprudence toward a Pac-12 school by a former NFL evaluator.  On Wednesday, we had updates on our  ITL 250and we had the latest member of NFL Draft media to land a job in scouting, former Pro Football Weekly guru  Nolan Nawrocki(who incidentally is also a former Illinois special-teamer). 

 

Next week: We're still a few weeks from the start of camps and the Hall of Fame Game, so we're doing our best to get caught up on things and give our clients a good look at which players they should be focusing on this fall. While we knocked out one of our  Agent Change reports this week, we still have a two-report backlog. Hopefully, after this week, it will only be one report. We're also still rolling on our  Profile Reports. We had five this week ( Liberty,  LSU,  Louisiana Tech,  La.-Lafayetteand  La.-Monroe this week), and we'll have five more next week ( Louisville, Marshall, Maryland, Massachusettsand  Memphis). We'll also take a deep dive into Maryland football with our 2020+ report, penned by the  ITL Scouting Department.  This week, we featured LSU. We'll also use our weekly blog,  Succeed in Football, to take a look at the agent industry as the 2019 exam draws closer. For agent hopefuls, passing a difficult exam is Job 1, but what do these aspiring football professionals need to know about the business beyond the difference between a credited season and an accrued season. We'll provide our thoughts. We'll also continue with the  ITL Rising Contract Advisors Newsletter, this week focusing on the finer points of getting along in Our Nation's Capital during exam week as well as telling the stories of several of the top agents in the business who were rookie agents not long ago. We'll also be kicking off Round 2 of the  ITL Newsletter on the NFL Draft Processvery soon so we can continue educating parents on their role in helping their sons through the draft process. We'll have more of our  Rep Rumblings, of course, looking at the agent industry, the business of scouting, all-star game developments, CBA matters, and which agencies are expanding or contracting these days. Naturally, we're also on 24-hour call for all everyone preparing for the big exam in two weeks, and we're at the ready for anyone who needs our popular  study guide,  Exam 1or  Exam 2. Hopefully, the July 4 ^thholiday was a good one for you, but there's still time to take a break if you're looking for a breather. Of course, you'll need some summer reading. May we suggest  Inside the League?