Yesterday, I received word that Joel Segal of Blue Equity Sports Television (BEST) has signed Brandon Graham and Brandon Minor.

Both players just finished their senior seasons with the University of Michigan football team.  A 5-7 win/loss record is no flashy way to exit college football, but at least it was a better record than they boasted in 2008 (3-9).  The Rich Rod era is not off to the best of starts.

Anyway, with Michigan not headed to a bowl game, Graham and Minor are permitted to officially select their agents, and apparently they decided to stay blue, signing with Blue Equity and Joel Segal.

Graham (who has already committed to playing in the Senior Bowl) has recorded 29.5 career sacks and 56 career tackles for a loss as a Wolverine, and impressively had 10.5 sacks in 12 games played in 2009.  Minor (currently committed to play in the Shrine Game) led Michigan in rushing in 2008 and 2009.  This year he racked up 502 yards on 96 attempts.  Minor scores 8 touchdowns out of those 96 touches.  NFLDraftScout.com ranks Graham as the best outside linebacker in the country, and a future first round pick.  The site claims that Minor is the 7th best running back available and that he will be taken off the board in the 4th or 5th round.  Any agency would be ecstatic about having the chance to represent either of the former Wolverines.

So how did Joel Segal land both of the future draft picks?  That is actually a very interesting story.  Segal had to survive a vetting process handed by a couple of Jewish Michigan undergrad students: Jordan Klein and a kid with the last name Sillman.  Graham and Minor spend the Jewish Holidays with the two Jewish students.  Maybe they would enjoy reading my Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up column.

Neil Stratton of InsideTheLeague.com received a much lengthier explanation than I did on how it all went down.  Here are is my synopsis:

• The players asked Klein and Sillman to find them the agents who would be the best fit.  Criteria = track record, previous contracts, their reputations around the league, and their chemistry with the player.
• Klein and Sillman did not get paid to help out the players.
• Agencies contacted included Athletes First, Priority Sports, BEST and the Tollners.  Agencies researched = Rosenhaus Sports and CAA.
• The players themselves only met with 3 agencies – Joel Segal of BEST, Jeremiah Donati of Steinberg Sports, and Lamont Smith of All-Pro Sports (which was essentially done as a favor to Graham’s father).
• Why BEST and Joel Segal won out – It was small enough where the players would not get overlooked, but had the same resources as the biggest firms.
• Klein and Sillman are now interviewing financial planners for the players.

Sam Duvall, a 26-year old agent who has never felt so many vibrations from his Blackberry in his life, is the Vice President of Tennis for BEST (Blue Equity Sports Television).  The large corporation, chaired by Jonathan Blue, has a very strong tennis division run by one of the most successful agents in the history of our profession, Donald Dell.  Dell recently wrote an excellent book titled, Never Make The First Offer.  Anyway, Duvall started as an intern for Dell before Dell was a part of BEST (he was with SFX at the time).  The fact that Duvall was a 2-year captain of his Bates College tennis team had to have helped him gain access to Mr. Dell.

Anyway, Duvall now reps roughly 12 ATP and WTA players, including the now popular John Isner and Melanie Oudin.  It has been quite a U.S. Open for Duvall and BEST.

As Duvall recently stated,

“I think Melanie [Oudin] will have no problem endorsing a lot of different products – she’s like the girl next door. People relate to both Melanie and John [Isner]. They are just such real and genuine people.”

Duvall signed Oudin in December of last year, when she was ranked #178 on the WTA Tour.  At the age of 17, she had time to improve that ranking.  It obviously has not taken her long.  At the U.S. Open, she defeated Dementieva, Sharapova, and Petrova, and is the talk of the country (at least in tennis circles).  Let’s not forget that John Isner upset Andy Roddick in a real stunner, as well.

Isner is tall at 6′9.  Oudin is short at 5′6.  Isner is 24-years-old and Oudin is 17-years-old.  Their agent is 26-years-old.  This tournament will change his life forever.  As Lil Wayne would say, “Young moolah, baby!”

• Aaron Curry, LB, Seattle Seahawks (4th overall pick) – Octagon
• Andre Smith, T, Cincinnati Bengals (6th overall pick) – GMG Sports (Alvin Keels)
• Eugene Monroe, T, Jacksonville Jaguars (8th overall pick) – 320 Sports
• B.J. Raji, DL, Green Bay Packers (9th overall pick) – Athletes First
• Michael Crabtree, WR, San Francisco 49ers (10th overall pick) – Maximum Sports (Eugene Parker)
• Aaron Maybin, DE, Buffalo Bills (11th overall pick) – BEST (Blue Equity)

Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the company with the most amount of first-round selections (9), has all of its clients in camp with Malcolm Jenkins putting pen to paper on a 5-year, $19 million deal.  While the rest of the agencies listed are hoping to get exorbitant contracts for their clients, to use the figures in their recruitment packages for the 2010 class of draft-eligible players, CAA can boast that not only did the company have the highest number of first-round picks, but got them all signed before other big companies like Athletes First and Octagon, small companies with 1 first-round pick like 320 Sports, and signed their boys for good money.  You better believe that Todd France of FAAM will be using the same strategy on the recruitment trail over the next year.

Which method will win out?  The agents who have their clients holdout/threaten to sit out a year well into training camp, or those who get their boys signed for good money and get their boys into camp before the middle of August?

Lon Rosen

One of the best (pun intended) at gobbling up superstar employees/agencies in order to expand its own operations is BEST (Blue Entertainment Sports Television).  And BEST, an entity of Blue Equity, has hired Rosen and given him the position of Executive Vice President.

Rosen will bring along with him many extremely popular retired athletes, current announcers, and other celebrities from sports and entertainment that he managed at WMA.  BEST is obviously not content with being in CAA’s, WMG’s, or Octagon’s shadows.  The company continues to grow.

Have anything to add or information about a change? Email me.

Octagon (unsure of primary agent) – Sam Young, Wes Matthews, Brandon Costner, Jack McClinton

Have anything to add or information about a change? Email me.

• CAA clients Matthew Stafford, Jason Smith, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Knowshon Moreno, Brian Orakpo, Malcolm Jenkins, Brian Cushing, Josh Freeman, and Jeremy Maclin were selected in the first round.  CAA’s nine first round selections beat their 2008 record of six clients picked up in the first-round.  Most impressive about the nine CAA draft picks this year is that they were all taken between picks 1-19.  Talk about some big commissions!  It must have been interesting to be a member of the CAA crew when it had four of its clients picked in a row (12-15, starting with Moreno and ending with Cushing).
• It looks like Andre Smith might have received a nice boost by switching agents.  For the past few months, Andre was the talk of the town, for all the wrong reasons.  Days before the draft, he switched from GMG Sports to Priority Sports and made his way back into being a top ten pick (going to the Bengals at #6).  Maybe the Bengals had their eyes on him all along.  We will never know, but this will definitely help Priority land clients in the future and will undoubtedly be used against Alvin Keels and GMG Sports.
• Before the draft, I mentioned that CAA had a remote possibility of having 11 of its clients selected in the first round; 9 is nothing to complain about.  I also said that Octagon, BEST, Athletes First, and FAAM had the best chance at being runner-up.  It looks like that honor will go to Athletes First.  The company had 5 clients taken in the first-round: Mark Sanchez, B.J. Raji, Clay Matthews, Donald Brown, and Eric Wood.  Interestingly, Matthews, Brown, and Wood were all taken in a row as well (26-28).
• Third place in first-round selections is a tie between Octagon and FAAM (both had 3 selections).  FAAM was helped by the early selection of Kenny Britt by the Titans at #30.  Six WRs were taken in the first round this year after none were taken in the 1st last year.  Octagon’s Cutty, Pettigrew, and Hood make up the company’s 3 clients selected in the 1st.
• BEST, Maxximum Sports, and BC Sports followed up the pack by having two clients each taken in the 1st.  BEST was happy that Percy did not slip to the 2nd after the failed drug test, BC Sports had both of its clients go back to back (and they both went to the same school – Ole Miss), and Maxximum Sports had both of its guys go top 10 (Tyson Jackson and Michael Crabtree).
• Last, Al Davis loves speed.  Go find next year’s track star and call Oakland’s front office on Monday

Also do you think BEST with their never ending capital who were buying agents/agencies out are disapointed by this year’s draft? I kind of remember that this article was published on here saying BEST were the top agency in terms of money,power,clients etc. I may be wrong here. Not sure?

My answer, at the time, was that BEST should not be disappointed in their own performance leading up to this draft.  The cards have not yet been dealt, and Joel Segal et al. should have success.  Unfortunately, things turned a little sour for Segal and BEST yesterday.

Yesterday’s announcement that Percy Harvin and Brandon Tate tested positive for marijuana during the NFL Combine does nothing to improve either WR’s draft stock.  Being able to track Percy from day 1 on UF’s campus, a common thread from teammates and coaches regarding Harvin is that he does things his way, and there’s no compromising.  I have also heard that his work ethic leaves a lot to be desired.  It’s too bad, considering that Percy probably has the best tools for a wide-out in this entire draft.

Interestingly, both Percy and Tate are clients of Joel Segal at BEST.  Brandon Thorn currently has Percy going mid-late first round and Tate being selected in the beginning of Day 2.  Will this news change their draft positions?

Matthew Stafford, Jason Smith, and Brian Orakpo are guarantees to go in the first round.  Other CAA clients who have a strong/solid chance of being selected in the first round include Malcolm Jenkins, Brian Cushing, Jeremy Maclin, Knowshon Moreno, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Eben Britton, Josh Freeman, and James Laurinaitis.

Obviously it would be entirely ridiculous if 11 CAA clients were drafted in the first round, but look at the names listed above.  Could it not happen?  Even if CAA matches the number it put up last year (6) or does slightly better, the company will have a lot to be happy about.  It is rare to see any agency consistently capture a large amount of the top prospects in consecutive years.  And then there’s CAA.

CAA’s main competition last year was Eugene Parker of Maximum Sports, with 5 clients taken in the first round.  Eugene will have a sure first rounder again this year with Michael Crabtree.  Tyson Jackson is almost a certainty to be picked in the first round as well, but after those two, it looks like Maximum Sports won’t have anyone selected for a while.

Who will take Maximum Sports’s position from last year?  There really is no agency that has a chance to come even close to the number that CAA puts up.  Those in the distance, vying for 2nd place in number of first round selections, will include Octagon, BEST, Athletes First, and FAAM.

Draft Express has done a great job of compiling information thus far, and will continue to provide valuable nuggets of knowledge leading up to the 2009 NBA Draft.  I have extracted the confirmed underclassmen and senior agent signings from the web site:

• Andy Miller (ASM Sports) – B.J. Mullens, Daniel Hackett
• Brad Ames (Priority) – Ben Woodside (good write-up on Woodside here)
• Brian Elfus (Elfus & Siegel Management) – Connor Atchley
• Chris Emens (Octagon) – Lee Cummard
• Dan Fegan (BEST) – Earl Clark
• Dan Tobin (WMG) – K.C. Rivers, Aaron Jackson, James Johnson
• David Bauman (DB Hoops Management) – Josh Heytvelt
• Keith Glass – Luke Nevill, A.J. Abrams
• Lance Young (Octagon) – Lester Hudson
• Leon Rose (CAA) – Nando De Colo
• Mark Bartelstein (Priority) – Jeremy Pargo, Micah Downs
• Michael Siegel (Elfus & Siegel Management) – Ahmad Nivins

Right off the bat, it looks like WMG is racking it up again.  Interesting to note that it is Dan Tobin making big moves with the underclassmen instead of Arn Tellem or B.J. Armstrong.  Priority has some nice names, as does Octagon.