Tracy Dildy

Beyond being one of the most well respected assistant coaches in college basketball, Dildy is also valued for his recruiting abilities. In his first full-time assistant coaching job at UIC (1991-94), Dildy helped recruit three of UIC’s all-time greatest players: Kenny Williams, Sherrell Ford, and Mark Miller. While at Depaul, Dildy was the driving force behind the nation’s #1 recruiting class in 2001 and the 2^nd ranked recruiting class in 1999. In addition, during his short stay at the University of Mississippi, Tracy put together a top 3 recruiting class. Dildy has recruited and coached several players that went on to play in the NBA, namely Sherrell Ford, Bonzi Wells, Eddy Curry, Quentin Richardson, Bobby Simmons, and Tony Douglas. In 2005 Dildy made Rival.com’s list of the top 25 recruiters in college basketball.

Tracy has been paying his dues for almost two decades. During his 18 years he’s been an assistant coach at six different schools along the way, making a profound impact at every stop. His skills are renowned; he is truly a hot commodity among the coaching ranks. His coaching abilities are proven, but he has also proven his ability to recruit elite players to his programs. Dildy’s recruiting strengths won’t be overlooked. Great programs start with great players, and great coaches make great players succeed. Dildy certainly has the makings of a very successful head coach at the Division I level. With this said, it won’t be long before Dildy inevitably grabs the reigns at a respected program. Look for him to be at the helm of a very fortunate program in the near future.

There’s something special unfolding in a small southern town that hasn’t been relevant since the days of the cotton trade. Once the joke of the college basketball world, the Savannah State University Tigers have started the season 4-0. With resounding victories over Brewton-Parker, North Florida, Coastal Carolina and New Orleans, what seemed impossible only a few years ago has suddenly become very real.

To put things in perspective, in 2004-05, the season before current head coach Horace Broadnax took over the program, the Tigers won a grand total of 0 of their 28 games! An even more startling statistic: The total athletic budget for the university in 2007 was $2,398,400, which ranks 339 out of 339 Division I schools. By comparison, Ohio State University, which holds the #1 spot, spends approximately $106,799,512 more a year on athletics than Savannah State. To say that a coach has ever done more with less than Broadnax has at Savannah State would be a travesty.

Since joining the Division I ranks in 2002, the Tigers have played as an independent, with no conference affiliation and no legitimate chance of ever making the NCAA tournament. The team spends half the season on the road and in college basketball purgatory, playing up to a dozen so called ‘pay-out’ games, acting as a sacrificial lamb to big time programs in big time conferences. Each player knows full well that that at season’s end, there will be no conference tournament and no championship to play for. An independent has never made it to the NCAA tournament in the modern era, and only one, Oral Roberts, has made the NIT.

In 2005, Broadnax took over a program that almost no one else wanted, and that was just fine with him. Broadnax was never one to take the easy road, ending up at Savannah by taking the most unusual of routes. After helping lead Georgetown University to the 1984 NCAA Men’s National Championship Title and as National Championship runner-ups in 1985, Horace continued on in his studies, obtaining his law degree from Florida State University in 1991. Today he remains the only head coach in NCAA basketball to have such a prestigious post-graduate degree as a Juris Doctorate.

Unlike other college coaches who preach about playing for championships and getting to the next level, Broadnax has recruited players to Savannah State with the only promise he can make, that they will leave as better men than that in which they came. Broadnax has been on the wrong side of some of the worst losses in college basketball history during his first few years at Savannah, and yet his philosophies have not changed. At the end of the day, with no championships to play for, no tournament titles, no future professional career in any league, Broadnax knows that all he can do is ready each of his players for the true game… the game of life.

“Life is getting ready to hit them upside the head. If you think losing to Florida is bad try to get married, raise a family and pay the bills. Being in college is about trying to develop a philosophy and trying to develop goals about how you want to attack life.”

~Horace Broadnax

The majority of Savannah State’s players held no other offers from Division I programs. They could have played at some D-II or D-III school, but Broadnax made them believe that they had the talent to play at the highest level. Discipline, perseverance, teamwork, and patience are the four cornerstones of the Savannah State program. Every player knows that they are blessed with the opportunity to play at this level, and they never take a moment of it for granted. They have bought into Broadnax’s philosophy and have shown each other that through hard work and dedication anything is possible.

If your looking to find a place where basketball is played in its purest form, void of the prying eyes of NBA scouts, big time boosters, and the pressure of big time athletics, you’ll find it on the banks of the Savannah river. No matter what happens the rest of the season, Horace Broadnax and the Savannah State Tigers have proved the basketball world wrong. In a world measured only by wins and dollars, Savannah State has shown that there is still at least one place in college basketball where the only thing the student-athletes play for is their love of the game and each other.

Horace Broadnax is a client at Dynasty Athlete Representation.  You can learn more about Broadnax and the Savannah State Tigers at www.horacebroadnax.com

First of all, an agency must have multiple representation or business divisions to be considered for the Power Rankings.  In order to determine why one agency deserved to be ranked above another, I created several criteria for judging purposes. Listed below, in order of relative weight of importance, are the criteria.

1. Quality of athletes in each division
2. Track record and respectability of division’s agents
3. Recent success in NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL drafts
4. Quality of overall agency leadership
5. Recent growth, acquisitions and startups
6. Future growth potential
7. Quality of services provided by each division
8. Number of athletes in each division
9. Number of divisions
10. Quantity of athletes lost to other agencies

Notice that much more weight is given to qualitative factors rather than quantitative. It can be agreed that representing two 1st round draft picks is worth more then representing six 7th round picks. Almost as important as the actual clientele are the agents and management that run the firm. Agencies who are well known for their negotiating talent, respectability amongst industry peers, and visions for the future fair much better then ones who have gotten their clients terrible contracts and are loathed by clients and competitors alike.

Sport Agency Power Rankings

#1 Wasserman Media Group

To say that Wasserman Media Group (WMG) has had incredible success over the last year is a true understatement. With already strong baseball and soccer divisions, WMG was able to expand and then position itself to dominate its own niche in action sports representation. More importantly, and due largely in part to the hiring of agent BJ Armstrong, Wasserman’s basketball division has absolutely exploded, and has become THE premiere basketball representation division in the country. WMG’s leadership is second to none as Casey Wasserman, arguably the most successful young executive in all of sports, heads the company.

Notable Clients: Sammy Sosa, Ben Wallace, Antawn Jamison, Derrick Rose, Landon Donovan.

#2 Creative Artist Agency

In terms of sheer quantity and quality of athletes, one would be hard pressed to find a better and more prestigious agency than Creative Artist Agency (CAA). With strong divisions in all major sports and entertainment and an instantly recognizable client base, it is difficult not to give CAA the top spot in the rankings. What has dropped it to the #2 spot, though, is the bad reputation of some of its agents, a ‘relative’ lack of success in the recent NBA draft (notably losing Derrick Rose to WMG), and its sheer size, which for most athletes and personalities is just too big. Leon Rose, Tom Condon, and Ben Dogra amongst other agents of the firm are far from admired by most of their colleagues and industry peers.

Notable Clients: Derek Jeter, Lebron James, Payton Manning, Sydney Crosby, David Beckham, Tony Hawk.

#3 Blue Entertainment Sports Television

During the course of the last year, the sports and entertainment subsidiary of venture capital firm Blue Equity, Blue Entertainment Sports Television (BEST), has positioned itself as one of the top players in the sports representation industry. With acquisitions of Black Wave Media (Basketball), Joel Segal (Football), Game Seven (Coaches) and SFX (Tennis), BEST has surpassed (or just brought up) many firms who have been around for decades more, and is poised to give both WMG and CAA a run for its money. BEST did not see great success in this past year’s NFL and NBA drafts, but strong leadership by COO Michael Principe most definitely insures that BEST will be on the track to future growth and success.

Notable Clients: Reggie Bush, Michael Vick, Rasheed Wallace, Tom Crean, Andy Roddick, Justin Henin.

#4 International Management Group

International Management Group is the grandfather of all agencies and is considered amongst the old guard of athlete management and representation firms. For sheer monetary value, IMG and its respective properties cannot be matched by any other agency. Recent estimates have put the company’s worth at over 2 billion dollars. IMG has divisions in sports and modeling representation, collegiate and professional sports franchise marketing, and corporate and media sports consulting. IMG has moved away from team sports representation in recent years, its football division most notably ending up at CAA. Regardless, IMG represents the most financially successful athletes and personalities in the world and is by far the largest mover and shaker in the world of sports marketing and representation.

Notable Clients: Tiger Woods, Freddy Adu, Jeff Gordon, Tom Coughlin.

#5 Octagon

Also considered amongst the older guard of agencies, Octagon has set itself apart from IMG by continuing to be a strong player in not only sports marketing and consulting, but athlete representation as well. With solid football, basketball, Olympic sports and golf divisions, Octagon remains one of the elite management firms. Octagon will soon expand to both the MLB and NHL and has strong leadership under CEO Rick Dudley and Phil de Picciotto, President of Athletes and Personalities. There is little doubt that Octagon will continue to be a major player in the representation industry and one of the premiere leaders in the sponsorship marketing and consulting sector.

Notable Clients: Chris Paul, Rudy Gay, Aaron Rodgers, Bill Cowher, Mike Hulbert.

#6 CSMG

CSMG marks a drop off from the larger agencies with unlimited budgets and millions of dollars invested in intellectual properties and events. CSMG’s areas of strength include its basketball and baseball divisions. The firm also has a ‘masters’ division, which includes many of the top baseball coaches in the country as well as many notable play-by-play announcers. CSMG has not had recent success in the NBA draft, but its MLB division continues to grow and is one of the largest amongst all agencies.

Notable Clients: Dwyane Wade, Anthony Parker, Felix Hernandez, Ken Macha, Neil Everett.

#7 Career Sports & Entertainment

Career Sports & Entertainment has one of the more prominent basketball coach representation divisions in the nation, which includes many of the most celebrated NBA and college coaches. Along with their coaches, Career Sports has a respectable baseball and golf division and one of the leading sports broadcasting divisions around. Interestingly enough, as their broadcasting division continues to gain strength, their coaching division has taken a substantial hit as of late with the losses of Billy Donovan, Tom Crean (now at BEST) and the scandal laden Kelvin Sampson.

Notable Clients: Doc Rivers, Eddie Jordan, Clark Kellogg, Erin Andrews, Bobby Cox

# 8 Premier Sports Management

Premier Sports Management was a mid-size but relatively low-key football representation firm until this spring. It joined forces with the law firm of Stinson Morrison Hecker to create Premier Stinson, a firm that represents over 75 elite level coaches. With hands down the largest multi-sport coaches division in the country, combined with a respectable football division and several broadcasting clients, Premier has launched itself into the Top 10 of the Agency Power Rankings.

Notable Clients: Drew Bennett, Willie McGinest, Laila Ali, Pete Caroll, Roy Williams

#9 Athletes First

Headed by David Dunn (of Steinberg, Moorad, and Dunn infamy), Athletes First’s concentration is football with a small but respectable baseball division, and a handful of football coaches on both the NFL and NCAA level. Athletes First has not had incredible success in either the NFL or MLB draft as of late, but represents several recent late first day and second day draft picks.

Notable Clients: Joey Harrington, Matthew Hasselback, Ray Lewis, Dennis Erickson, Bill Musgrave.

#10 The Agency

The Agency Sports Management & Marketing has continued to build a legitimate sports management practice by creating partnerships with larger firms and independent agents. The Agency only exclusively represents a few of its clients, notably its coaches and some of its broadcasters. At any rate, they have become proven leaders in sports and client marketing, which in turn has allowed them to build a deep network of agencies willing to outsource work to them.

Notable Clients: Troy Aikman, Carmelo Anthony, Ben Howland, Mike Brey, Stephon Marbury.

This article is a guest contribution by Jason Belzer.  His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of any SportsAgentBlog.com contributors.<–>