(Oklahoma City, Okla. -January 13, 2025) –The Bedford Agency announced today the creation of the “College Recruiting and NIL Summit”. The “College Recruiting and NIL Summit” will be a fully digital experience held on Jan. 26-27, 2026 featuring THREE exciting webinars FREE to the public on highly dynamic topics around the world of college sports recruiting and high school NIL. The “College Recruiting and NIL Summit” features some of the leading experts in the world of college sports recruiting, Name Image and Likeness, agents, player personnel, personal branding, player development and much more. Each of the sessions will be targeted at different groups of stakeholders (Parents, Athletes and High School Coaches/AD’s).

Featured guests during the “College Recruiting and NIL Summit” include Bryan Bedford, CEO of the Bedford Agency and Recruit Route (former Director of Recruiting at TCU), Kenyatta Wright, Player Advisor at The Familie and former GM of Oklahoma State University Football, Anthony Alabi, current Actor & Analyst and former NFL Offensive Lineman as well as Jake Daugherty, Director of College Partnerships at Opendorse.

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“I’m thrilled to bring such a talented group of guest speakers to the “College Recruiting and NIL Summit”. Each of these men bring so much expertise on a very dynamic set of topics and its critical as an industry that we help parents, athletes, high school coaches and high school AD’s navigate this complex landscape. Already we are seeing massive sign ups for these and we can’t wait to get started!”-Bryan Bedford, CEO of Bedford Agency & Recruit Route.

There will be three sessions during the “College Recruiting and NIL Summit” that have specific sign ups (multi-session sign ups encouraged) for each session we have linked the details below. Please click the link that applies to you and join us for an informative session:

COLLEGE RECRUITING AND NIL SUMMIT SCHEDULE

January 26th:

•5:30pm CST: Parents guide to College Sports Recruiting featuring Kenyatta Wright SIGN UP: LINK

January 27th:

•12:00pm CST: The Basics of High School NIL for Coaches and AD’s featuring Jake Daugherty SIGN UP: LINK

•5:30pm CST: HS Athletes & Parents Guide to Name Image and Likeness featuring Anthony Alabi SIGN UP: LINK

For more information please contatct: thebedfordagency@gmail.com

About Bedford Agency

Bedford Agency provides actionable insight and expertise for companies, coaches, student-athletes and families navigating the world of Sports Business, College Sports Recruiting and Name, Image and Likeness process! A family-owned Christ-centered business that is uniquely positioned to offer expertise, strategic consulting, educational content and technology to transform the college recruiting process like never before. In 2021 the Bedford Agency launched its first set of brands including Recruit Route, Transfer Route, Teams Route and now Teams Route Elite.

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(Oklahoma City, Okla. and Lincoln, Neb. – August 20, 2025) – Bedford Agency announced today that it has entered a partnership agreement with industry leader Opendorse, to enhance its efforts surrounding Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), providing Bedford Agency the tools and resources needed to build joint solutions to support the high school NIL market as an official partner. Together the two companies will be working with high schools to offer branded marketplaces, consulting, training and support as a joint offering.

Opendorse is the leading NIL platform and marketplace in college athletics, helping student-athletes connect with brands, fans, and donors to monetize their name, image, and likeness. Through this partnership, The Bedford Agency will gain access to a suite of tools on the Opendorse platform, including education, compliance resources, and marketing opportunities, to support NIL growth in the high school market as a trusted partner serving student-athletes, coaches, and administrators.

“The Bedford Agency has done impactful work with high school athletic departments and the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) on the topic of NIL education at the high school level,” said Jake Daugherty, Opendorse Manager, Collegiate Partnerships. “Through this partnership, we’re showing athletic directors, coaches, and student-athletes what’s possible in the world of NIL, while providing valuable resources, through a trusted third-party, to help them build their brand and presence within their local community. This collaboration will equip athletic directors and student-athletes with the tools and education needed to deliver elite-level resources at the high school level.”

Bedford Agency will now include the Opendorse Branded Marketplace solution into its turnkey offerings under its Teams Route Elite brand, which today we are also announcing to the market. Teams Route Elite will feature an in-depth engagement between the Bedford Agency staff and the High School Athletic Department Staff and Coaches providing NIL training, education, rules interpretation plus operating and supporting the Opendorse Marketplace as a trusted third party to the High School. 

“Together with Opendorse, we can transform how high school athletics, state associations, athletic directors, and coaches engage with trusted partners to navigate the ever-changing world of NIL,” said Bryan Bedford, CEO of The Bedford Agency & Recruit Route. “This includes providing a platform and marketplace for student-athletes and brands, along with key resources like disclosures, data, education, and consulting. We’re excited to help shape the future of NIL at the high school level by delivering offerings that now include Opendorse’s best-in-class technology.”

About Bedford Agency

Bedford Agency provides actionable insight and expertise for companies, coaches, student-athletes and families navigating the world of Sports Business, College Sports Recruiting and Name, Image and Likeness process! A family-owned Christ-centered business that is uniquely positioned to offer expertise, strategic consulting, educational content and technology to transform the college recruiting process like never before. In 2021 the Bedford Agency launched its first set of brands including Recruit Route, Transfer Route, Teams Route and now Teams Route Elite.

About Opendorse

Opendorse is the technology, data, and service platform powering the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) industry for colleges, collectives, consumers, and commercial partners. More than 150,000 athlete influencers use Opendorse to build, promote, and monetize their personal brands through the largest athlete media network.

For media inquiries, contact Opendorse SVP, Collegiate Services & Marketing Julian Valentin at julian.valentin@opendorse.com.

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We have complied a list of helpful links, tools and free resources that you can use to navigate the craziness of Name, Image and Likeness and/or College Sports Recruiting. As always if you have questions reach out to us directly!

NIL Tips & Educational Resources

Free Newsletter

Overview of House vs. NCAA

Student-Athlete NIL Starter Kit

Overview of NIL Marketplaces

Understanding NIL Tax Implications

HS Athletic Director/Coaches Checklist for NIL

Solutions for High Schools: Teams Route and Teams Route Elite

College Sports Recruiting Tips and Educational Resources

HS Recruiting Probability Data -2025

Questions HS Recruits can ask College Coaches

10 NIL Tips for Recruited Student-Athletes

Questions every HS Recruit should ask on a visit!

Solutions for High School and Transfer Students navigating College Recruiting

Free or Recommended Resources:

The Athletes Playbook by Kristi Dosh

HS NIL Resource Hub by Eccker Sports

There has been a lot of news about the NCAA vs. House Settlement and we wanted to clear up any misconceptions, offer a Point of View and discuss broader impacts. The settlement – negotiated by plaintiffs seeks back-NIL pay and as such the NCAA and major college (P4) leagues (SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12)- has 3 main parts in the settlement: 1) $2.8B in back-pay to ex-athletes  2) $20B+ in rev-share to future athletes  3) New roster rules & enforcement arm. Let’s break down each.

BACK PAY:

$2.8B in back-pay:  Yes, that sounds like a lot and it is but it will be spread over 10 years. From NCAA and school distribution (inclusive of the NCAA Basketball Tournament)  the distribution will be determined using a formula based on a player’s value  – $2.3B goes to P4 FB/MBB players (avg of $120K a player over 10 years). These payment should start soon but no specific date has been provided.

REVENUE SHARE:

This is the part that is really making the headlines. It includes a roughly $20B+ rev-share model over the next 10 years. During this time, schools must stay under an annual cap determined thru avg of Power 4 revenue data. Currently the initial year cap in 2025-2026 is $20.5M per school with escalators to as high as $33M by 2035  – schools are not *required* to share revenue  – rev-share to start July 1. While a cap is in place the allocation of the cap per school will vary with most colleges following a model of 75% (+5-10%), 15%-Men’s Basketball and the rest to other sports. This will vary greatly.

NEW ROSTER RULES AND ENFORCEMENT:

The NCAA vs. House Settlement had a critical element to it that is impacting roster development, High School Recruiting and the Transfer Portal. Specifically roster structure! Now schools are permitted to scholarship full rosters under new limits. In the past some sports where “equivalency” sports (aka Partial Scholarships sports). Now roster limits have changed dramatically some addition and some reduction to the norms depending on the sport. For Football the roster is 105 (from 85); Men’s Basketball is 15 (from 13); Baseball is 34 (11.7) while Women’s Soccer is now 28 while in many situations rosters were well over 35-40 including walk-ons. While roster limits are real it will have an impact on certain sports from school to school. Not every school will fill the roster limit, some will scholarship at various level and of course the transfer portal still will impact roughly 25% of the open roster spots across the board in our opinion.

On the enforcement side of this is a newly implemented Cap management system managed by a newly formed entity entitled College Sports Commission. This newly formed entity will be the one’s serving as the police cap requiring regular school submissions into a new platform called “NIL Go”: a Deloitte-run entity to approve non-school (booster) NIL deals with athletes as well as brand and “true NIL” deals. On the legal side, arbitration, aka a neutral arbitrator to hear appeals will also be handled by College Sports Commission.

SUMMARY:

As you can see this is the “first step”. This isn’t the last time we will hear about College Athletics trying to reshape itself. There is still need to define employment or non-employment status which candidly would require congress to step in (already started). So we shall see but no doubt this will be transformational and far reaching at several levels. At the High School level we are still seeing steady growth in “true NIL” by brands, local, regional and national businesses and the sophistication of the deals is growing. Much like college we expect to see more rigor around agent involvement, more resources to ensure proper disclosures are happening to protect both sides of the deal and continued enforcement of amateur rules so that NIL at the High School level does not become “pay to play”.

For more information or to assist you, your brand, team, school or association on all things NIL and College Recruiting, please reach out to thebedfordagency@gmail.com or call us at 405.503.9284 to inquire about our workshops, training, community education nights, marketplaces, disclosures, training videos consulting and much more.

One of the biggest trends we are hearing from talking to High School Athletic Directors is the need to educate their community. From rules, to trends and everything in between, NIL Education continues to be a significant area of opportunity to ensure we help and we help protect student-athletes, parents, coaches and communities. This is where our NIL Community Education Nights come into play.

These NIL Community Education Nights are organized with your High School Administration or Athletic Director and are customized to share insights impacting student-athletes and parents.

Topics Covered:

State Association Rules,

Contract Negotiation and Disclosures,

Brand and Social Media Tips,

Marketplaces,

College Recruiting + NIL,

Local Engagements,

Finance and Tax Implications.

Attendees could be parents, coaches, administrators, local businesses, booster clubs and student-athletes.

To inquire or to schedule one of these NIL Community Education nights, please reach out to thebedfordagency@gmail.com and call 405.503.9284. The Bedford Agency is the Official NIL Education Partner of the OSSAA.