One of the things we do at Inside the League is track agencies, big and small, measuring their success as they transition from year to year, adding and subtracting agents and expanding and contracting their client lists as the game changes. It's important to know that all agents are not the same, and most are members of a rather distinct tier or subgroup. Let's discuss this.
The mega-agencies:
If you look at our list of the top agencies, based on how many players they've had drafted since we started tracking things in '07, there's a definite division between the top 12 agencies - one is now defunct as it was absorbed into CAA -- and everyone else. If your son is being recruited by one of these 12 firms, he's on a different plane than most other prospects in his class, and probably looking at getting drafted in the top 100 picks next year.
Just look at the 2018 draft. Though it was a little different as the top pick was represented by a very small firm, the first round was nonetheless dominated by just a handful of firms. These 12 agencies represent the elite tier.
The dwindling middle class: if you look at the agencies that are
14-36 on our board, you'll notice that several of them had no one drafted this year. Several haven't had draftees for the last 3-4 years. That's because the business has changed drastically in the last five years, taking a sharp turn toward upward with respect to the costs of signing and representing top players. Contacts and client lists, though still important, are now less important than high-end training, monthly per diems, stipends and signing bonuses.
The newbies: Then you have the newer agencies, many of them manned by first- or second-year agents. Many of these firms come into the business figuring that the barrier to entry is money, and they throw a lot of cash around. Often, they invest splashy training and other resources on lesser players, driving up the market for those players rated higher. This drives the steady-but-cost-conscious firms crazy and often drives them from the business entirely.
The seven top agents on this list were household names as recently as five years ago. While some are still doing quite well, about half have basically been driven out of business in a hurry.
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