More recently, Anquan Boldin dropped Drew Rosenhaus for Tom Condon and Creative Artists Agency (CAA).  And yesterday, Cardinals GM Rod Graves expressed his excitement to work with Boldin’s new agents. 

Asked if there would be enough money under the salary cap to sign Boldin this year, Graves said, “It will have some challenges. There’s certainly cause for some give and take and creativity on both sides, but Tom’s been noted for that. Again, I just look forward to sitting with him and we’ll find out where we are at that point.”

I never saw a quote like that from Graves when Rosenhaus was on the other side of the negotiation table.

It seems as though GMs and other team personnel definitely play favorites when it comes to sports agents.  While Graves and others might place Condon over Rosenhaus, does it necessarily mean anything?  As long as the agent gets his client the best deal possible, quotes in an article don’t mean a thing to me.

Baseball

• Glad that Sheff is still a pro.  Love that batting stance [With Mets, Sheffield finds work quickly].
• Some words of wisdom from Jay Bruce [Stuck On The Cusp?].

Football

• Having a tough time visioning Garcia in black and silver [Raiders, Garcia agree to deal].
• Tom Condon is busy pulling up comparisons between the two TEs [Winslow deal portends riches for Gates].

Basketball

• Interesting strategy tips from Rovell [How Would Izzo Play A Raise?].
• The NCAA, like baseball before it, needs to rethink how it enforces its rules [Recruiting Violations and the Integrity of March Madness].

Sports Business

• If all else fails, represent ultimate frisbee athletes? Haha [Ultimate Frisbee On The Rise].

At Thursday’s Rookie To Retirement sports law symposium, the school’s Dean, Phillip Closius, made the announcement as many great agents, faculty and students were present. The law school will team up with local sports organizations to offer more exclusive internships and externships to students who want to focus on sports law after graduation.  More sports law classes will be offered by the school.  The school is even discussing the chance of a joint law degree, JD/MBA certificate program, in sports law.  No official date was mentioned, but the institute sounds like it will become a reality very soon.

The UB Sports Institute program will be constructed with the guidance of some great agents in the industry.  Tom Condon, a ‘81 UB law graduate, along with other Creative Artists Agency representatives will serve on the institute’s advisory board. The institute will work closely with the Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore Ravens organizations, giving students a hands-on education and internship opportunities.

The Institute sounds like a great idea that other big name law schools need to mimic.   If you do not attend Yale or Harvard, the connections you build while in law school are what is most important, especially in sports law.  The sports industry is a very volatile industry that is hard to break into if you do not already have your foot in the door.  The education and connections from a sports law institute such as this could be a HUGE advantage to anyone looking to get in the industry.

Steve’s website still lists Nnamdi Asomugha as a client; however, that is no longer the case.  The former last pick of the first round for the Oakland Raiders in the 2003 NFL Draft has fired Baker Sports for Tom Condon and CAA.    Asomugha got onto the 2007 Pro Bowl roster at the last second due to another player being injured, but did not make the trip out to Honolulu.  This year is the second in a row that he has been invited to the game (although this time he was invited right after the ballots were counted).  The team captain had a Franchise Tag thrown on him before the 2008 season, which he was obviously very upset about.  Asomugha believed he was worth more than the $9.765 million he is receiving for suiting up in silver and black this year.  Angered with his current situation and not interested in a repeat, Asomugha fired Baker and hired Condon.

What will this mean for Asomugha’s cousin, Adimchinobi Echemandu, who is also represented by Baker?  Will he also jump ship and go CAA?  Will CAA accept him as a client?  Does he have any intention of following his cousin’s lead or will he act on his own?  No matter is Asomugha is represented by Baker, Condon, or Jerry Maguire, he will have only two options if the Raiders refuse to offer a long term deal and instead tag him again this offseason: Accept the Franchise Tag value for another year or hold out.

16. Theodore Forstmann Chairman, CEO, IMG (2007 – #26)

37. Scott Boras President, Boras Corp. (2007 – #12)

43. George Pyne President, IMG Sports and Entertainment (2007 – #59)

46. Casey Wasserman Chairman, CEO, Wasserman Media Group (2007 – #79)

70. Tom Condon NFL Agent, CAA (2007 – #90)

98. Arn Tellem President, WMG Management (2007 – #83)

Not ranked. Gene Upshaw Chairman, NFLPA (2007 – #33)

Not ranked. Mark Steinberg SVP and global managing director of golf, IMG (2007 – #72)

Observations

• Similar to last year, I must say that IMG is getting mucho love from the voters.  Forstmann and Pyne received a boost; however, what the hell happened to Steinberg?  He gets his client, Tiger Woods, #1 for two consecutive years and has his name drop off the list?  Where is the justice in that?
• Gene Upshaw, may he rest in piece, must have been left off the list due to his recent death.  Had he still been living, I would bet my money that he makes the list in 2008.
• Wasserman jumps more than thirty slots but Tellem goes down fifteen?  Tellem absolutely tore it up this year with BJ Armstrong is his more than able wingman.  At least no basketball agent was positioned ahead of Tellem on the list.
• Boras has had his fair share of bad moments in the media this year.  While he is still making a lot of money for his clients, I understand why voters have positioned him lower on the rankings.

Last, here is an interesting opinion from Darren Rovell of CNBC regarding agents in this listing:

The most glaring omission from a sector standpoint is the agents. Most notably, Drew Rosenhaus, who I had as No. 20 on my list, is even not in BW’s top 100. Agents Scott Boras (37), Tom Condon (70) and Arn Tellem (98) appear on the list, but I might have had Aaron and Eric Goodwin on the list this year, particularly because of the shoe deals they structured for Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard and Candace Parker.

I agree.  Rosenhaus above the Goodwins, but all of them deserve to be mentioned.  Next question…

Sports Agents

While a law student in 1993 at St. Louis University, Ben Dogra, now 43, interned for free with Jim Steiner of SFX Football (then SMG). Dogra would later call Steiner his mentor, but in time, some began to wonder who was teaching what to whom. By 2006, Dogra and Steiner sold SFX Football (which was generating an estimated $7 million in revenue at the time) for roughly $30 million to Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where they joined Tom Condon and his partner Ken Kremer (of then-IMG Football) while bringing 57 NFL clients as well as their eight employees (CAA Football now has a staff of 15, including those who handle player endorsements). The deal raised eyebrows throughout the industry by bringing together the largest and most star-studded football client rosters, creating what SportsBusiness Journal called “the most dominant player representation practice in the business.” By this time, Steiner was in the backseat, so to speak, as an associate of Dogra’s, and it was Dogra and Condon who were set to become the division’s principals. The results have been staggering. Dogra and Condon represent about 130 players, including 4 of the first 8 picks from last April’s draft, and 6 of the top 21. They have also represented four of the past five first-overall choices and 48 first-round picks since 2001, eclipsing any competitor. Recently, they were named #1 (Condon) and #6 (Dogra), respectively, in SBJ’s list of the Top 20 most influential agents in sports.

There was a time, however, when some wondered whether their merger would be a problem, especially with the various fiascos that took place at SFX when “mega-agents” in the same sport were paired together under the same roof. However, Dogra and Condon’s yin and yang like balance has thus far yielded solid chemistry, and much admiration from the industry as a whole. Said Denny Thum, the Kansas City Chiefs’ executive vice president: “Tom (an NFL guard for 12 seasons and a former president of the NFLPA) is the football guy and can carry on the conversation from the football standpoint. Ben is the numbers guy and…without question has a memory like a steel trap.” And Howard Nuchow, co-head of CAA Sports, reiterated the same premise: “They are definitely different and combined they can take care of anything. Tom seems to be way instinctive and his instincts are off the charts. And Ben is really cerebral and thinks about things a lot before deciding what to do.”

Born in New Delhi, but raised predominately in northern Virginia from age six on, Dogra yearned for “an NFL career.” But due to his size and lack of skill, he quickly settled on another route into the league. After graduating from George Mason, he started law school in St. Louis, due primarily to its proximity to two sports agencies. One of said agencies was Steiner’s and SMG, which rejected Dogra at first but later took him on after much pleading. Dogra worked his way from the bottom up, quickly earning a reputation as an above average recruiter who connected well with his players and especially with their families. Will he ever eclipse Condon as #1? With Condon’s name being tossed around on the shortlist of those who might replace the late Gene Upshaw as NFLPA executive director, it is not inconceivable. But Dogra has prided himself on flying under the radar, so to speak, leaving the limelight and chest pounding to flashier personalities. If he is indeed “the best football agent attracting the least attention” and wants to keep it that way, then he is indeed in quite a dilemma. A dilemma he probably dreamt about as an intern.

Those are some of the most common questions that I receive by email, even though all of those queries have been answered on this blog and its accompanying Forum.  Yesterday, Sports Law Blog further backed my common answer, which is that there really is none at all.

The most successful agents have attended a variety of law schools.  Some are in the top tier, others you may have never heard of before.  A few have decent Sports Law programs while others do not even have a single Sports Law class (like my lovely UF Law).  See this list that I compiled with the help of our extensive database of interviews along with some additional research:

• Ben Dogra (CAA Football) – St. Louis University Law School
• Scott Boras (Boras Corp) – McGeorge School of Law
• Arn Tellem (WMG) – University of Michigan Law School
• Drew Rosenhaus (Rosenhaus Sports) – Duke University School of Law
• Paul Sheehy (Pro Star) - Whittier College School of Law
• Rick Walden (Dishon & Walden) - University of Texas at Austin School of Law
• Steve Kauffman (Kauffman Sports Management) - University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Mark Steinberg (IMG Golf) - University of Illinois College Of Law
• Steve Herz (IF Management) – Vanderbilt University School of Law
• David Canter (DEC Management) - University Of Miami School Of Law
• Kevin Gold (Longsnap.com) - Widener University School of Law
• Scott Casanover (MAC Sports & Entertainment) - Washington University School of Law
• Peter Webb (Gaylord Sports Management) - New York Law School
• Jim Kuzmich (GAAMES) - University of Oklahoma-College of Law
• Max Eppel (MESA) - Court School of Law (England)
• Leigh Steinberg – UC Berkeley Boalt School of Law
• David Falk – George Washington University Law School
• Rob Pelinka - University of Michigan Law School
• Tom Condon (CAA Football) - University of Baltimore Law School
• Eugene Parker (Maximum Sports) – Valparaiso University School of Law

Football

• Clark Judge of CBSSports.com thinks that Tom Condon has a chance at being the next NFLPA Executive Director [Next union leader would be wise to learn from Upshaw's legacy].
• Matt Ryan leads the list in terms of guaranteed money [2008 NFL Draft - First-Round Selections - Contract Terms].
• The 33-day holdout is over [Harvey's deal with Jaguars could be worth $30 million].

Basketball

• New Carnival of the NBA with lots of pics of the Joker [Carnival of the NBA #59 : We're all Jokers].
• Another player jumps overseas…for his shoe deal [Jason Kidd Leaves Nike - Signs with Peak].
• Something just seems awfully wrong with looking at Marbury’s name sitting at #2 [NBA - Top Player Salaries For 2008-09 Season].

Olympics

• I would have put Lezak higher than #25 [Beijing Wrap-Up: The 25 Most Marketable Olympians].
• Michael Phelps will be making a cameo appearance on Entourage [My Michael Phelps All-Access Day].

Baseball

• True Religion is TOTALLY cooler than Seiko [Giants' Zito has new role: male fashion model].

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.<–>