Recently we joined our friends at Last Nights Game to produce two fun stories that touch on the “5 Things to Know about College Recruiting” including a podcast and a short blog.

We appreciate the opportunity partner on this and hope you enjoy both pieces of content!

Thanks so much!

Bryan Bedford

CEO

@BedfordAgency

The world of sports consulting, sports tech and recruiting continues to evolve and for me it’s always been interesting to see innovation, development and partnerships all pulling together to help advance the industry forward. As we continue to expand our business partnerships here at the Bedford Agency you’ve seen us forge a handful of partnerships to provide access of information on recruiting, provide a roadmap around training and instruction leading to recruiting and various other partnerships in the Sports Business world. Earlier this year, we launched our Affiliate Partnership Program, where we are forging partnerships that are mutually beneficial and expand our collective brands and now have expanded that to include a series of best in class sales partnerships to ride side-by-side. Our latest, and one that’s fun is our partnership with Atlanta-based company Competitive Sports Analysis which has created a new predictive analytics platform for college coaches called, scoutSmart. scoutSmart in short is a talent evaluation platform specifically designed to help coaches efficiently identify the best recruits for their program. The idea is to bring some technology to the process of making an informed decision about recruits and comparing them to other peers in the recruiting class.

I personally have been observing and tested the scoutSmart platform throughout this year, and in doing so I have seen the team at scoutSmart provide updates and taken the feedback in stride. They really want to help college coaches and furthermore prospective student-athletes through the recruiting process. To build upon that, the scoutSmart platform allows for analysis of recruit data, allows coaches to make informed decisions based on data and uses predictive analytics to make better choices leading up to offers and scholarships. So, as you can see, a product that highly aligns to the Sports Consulting and Recruiting Education business we are aligned to at the Bedford Agency and simply put our role will be to advise them on product development while also serving as a sales resource, working with industry contacts and college coaches interested in this next-gen type of recruiting intelligence platform.

Now, while it’s fun to talk about scoutSmart, the partnership will also work to assist the Bedford Agency. Firstly, all the Bedford Agency families that we support with our Recruiting Education platform have been or will be entered into the scoutSmart platform to assist each of them with potential recruitment targets. Secondly, the Bedford Agency and scoutSmart will look to collaborate on speaking events, recruiting seminars and recruiting education programs to assist families across the nation in the journey and lifecycle that is college recruiting. The goal is to have both companies helping the process of recruiting all along the journey from prospect, parent, high school and college coach.

“ I believe that there is significant synergy in our partnership with the Bedford Agency”, said Diane Bloodworth, Competitive Sports Analysis founder and CEO. “This partnership supports our goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the college football recruiting process and that benefits all participants – recruits, parents, high school coaches, and college coaches. Working with the Bedford Agency allows scoutSMART to improve access to recruits and college coaches. We can connect with recruits to ensure that we have complete and accurate data. In addition, we will highlight some of the Bedford Agency recruits on the scoutSMART platform used by college coaches”.

For more questions on the partnership, general inquiries about how the Bedford Agency and scoutSmart are working together please contact Bryan Bedford, CEO & Founder of the Bedford Agency at bryanpaulbedford@gmail.com or Diane Bloodworth, CEO -Competitive Sports Analysis at dbloodworth@competitivesportsanalysis.com.

Exciting times continue at the Bedford Agency and we are thrill to share the news with you all.

-B

Bryan Bedford

CEO & Founder

Bedford Agency

Bedford Agency, a premier sports business & recruiting education company is pleased to announce a partnership with Speaklife a leading ministry based in Oklahoma City, OK focused on leveraging sports to help kids learn about how to dominate life through Effort, Attitude and Sportsmanship! The collaboration between the two companies aligns passions for youth sports, ministry, leadership, families and recruiting all into a turnkey offering. Speaklife was founded by former NFL and University of Oklahoma player, Rickey Brady. The Bedford Agency was founded in 2016 by former TCU Director of Football Recruiting, Bryan Bedford.

The partnership between Speaklife and Bedford Agency originated back to the beginning of Speaklife when the two firms collaborated to create Kamp Brady in 2016, a youth football camp in the OKC Metro, where the Bedford Agency served in support of development & operations of the camp. Now the two firms are expanding that relationship much further! 

“Having known Rickey for many years and understanding his passion to help young kids through the vehicle of sports in the Oklahoma City metro area, while having a passion to help families and coaches, is what really attracted me to partner with Speaklife,” said Bryan Bedford, CEO and Founder of Bedford Agency.   “The ability to marry leadership, coaching, recruiting and sports together is something that is really needed in the Oklahoma City metro area,” -Bedford continued.

“The Bedford Agency is the premier company to provide insight and education to families about the recruiting process and educating families, player and coaches is part of our mission too….

While our summer events and camps are designed for younger aged kids, we believe that introducing this type of content to these families is impactful to help them be as prepared as possible when the recruiting process does kick off, and there is no better partner than the Bedford Agency” said Rickey Brady, Founder of Speaklife.

The partnership between the two firms will include the Bedford Agency founder Bryan Bedford presenting his Recruiting 101 seminars & leadership information to the parents of Speaklife Camp parents during four Summer Football Camps as an affiliate partner.

The Bedford Agency Affiliate Model is one that was launched in the fall of 2018.  The model is to partner with clubs, leagues, teams, organizations and performance facilities to offer them a way to expand their core services by aligning them toward the Bedford Agency to offer Recruiting Education, Seminars, and Recruiting Content and Tools.  The goal is to provide the industry a way to scale recruiting education at the grass roots level and provide additional development and tools to support the transition to college.

For more information on how the Bedford Agency & Speaklife are partnering please contact us directly at bryanpaulbedford@gmail.com.

Recently, I had the great pleasure of honoring my college track coach & former boss, Paul McGrady with the Distinguished Alumni Award at our alma mater, Southern Nazarene University.  In doing so, I had to prepare remarks or a bit of a “roast” to honor McGrady.  What stood out to me as I interviewed former student-athletes and his current co-workers was the legacy he provided to many and the advice McGrady gave during his four-decade career as a coach and athletic administrator and how the advice he gave me, impacts the companies we work with today and potential prospects we advise each day at the Bedford Agency.

Let me show you:

Vision:  Paul has and had a vision for his teams.  All his teams were very successful and guided in faith, belief and conviction.    Is what you are doing today, guided by a “vision” is a question I ask myself and the companies I consult with each day!

Competitiveness: While we joked at the event over a “near brawl” during one of his teams games in the early ’90s, it became clear that his teams knew how to compete!  They knew how to deal with losses and how to overcome situations to Win.  Too many times we see businesses or even youth sports being directed to “everyone gets a medal” mentality.  That’s not how life works and McGrady showed us that.  Whether its competing for a scholarship offer, expanding your business for sales growth, competition is around each of us and we must embrace it.

Influence: The lasting item and without question is the most important one, is that McGrady left a legacy of his heart, faith, compassion, and fierce-competitiveness with each one of us.  Is your company leaving a legacy behind in the area you are focused in on?  Is your company leaving a legacy in who they are, what they represent?  Are you a high school prospect trying to go to college and leaving a legacy at your school?  Just a handful of examples of how legacy can impact each one of you potentially!  I know McGrady gave us a great legacy and for that I will always cherish that.

As I think now about that legacy and how it applies to our business at the Bedford Agency, I am struck by the desire to please our customers, provide quality consulting services.  Furthermore we will be honest at all times, give quality guidance and direction to leave a legacy for years to come for each of our Sports Clients.   Or as our tag line says “insights beyond the game” and that truly is our mission. 

For more information on our Sports Business Consulting or Recruiting Advisement, please contact us today at bryanpaulbedford@gmail.com

Bryan Bedford

Managing Director

@BedfordAgency

A year ago this week my staff at the Bedford Agency was feverishly talking to partners, coaches, players and families about basketball!  Basketball in the summer, in OKC? ….you better believe it.  You see the Bedford Agency was embarking on producing and hosting a great event for Oklahoma City, the Jay Bilas Basketball Skills Camp.  Jay a long time ESPN hoops analyst, hoops junkie, attorney and voice of college basketball had hosted this popular camp with co-founder John Searby in previous years in his hometown of Charlotte. But with success and popularity grew opportunities and Jay & John were looking to expand the camp towards the Midwest and West Coasts, while at the same time I was launching the Bedford Agency.

And so, a marriage was made and the two parties were off to the races! Camp Director, John Searby’s initial quote helped kick start the excitement as we brought this elite camp to the campus of Southern Nazarene University in the OKC Metro in 2017 “We are excited to expand the Jay Bilas Basketball Skills Camp to the OKC Metro area and excited to partner with Bryan and The Bedford Agency,” said John Searby, co-founder and camp director, Jay Bilas Basketball Skills Camp.” The experience of The Bedford Agency and Bryan’s understanding of sports in the OKC market made them the top choice to be our partner.”

Reflecting back to last summer’s Jay Bilas Basketball Skills Camp, I am struck with a few things that stood out was we embarked on becoming the Sports Insights firm we strive to be today:

1. Partnerships need trust! Meaningful partnerships like the Bedford Agency & Jay Bilas Basketball Skills Camp are forged with trust! Both Jay, John & I worked tirelessly to make sure that the goals, objectives and outcome desired were clearly established and that all parties were in for all the right reasons.
2. Commitment to the cause! You see in both cases both parties understood their strengths and weaknesses, how to help each other and a commitment to success. Both parties put the players and staff first and it showed! With over 100 players and coaches attending the event, we knew we had to deliver a first class experience…and we did!
3. Don’t be scared of something new! I appreciate John and Jay for their willingness to try something new. New partnerships with the Bedford Agency, new market to host the camp, new campus and facilities to conduct the event and new business model moving an entire operation thousands of miles away from home base takes some guts and they did it!

In all, I look back so proud of the 2017 Jay Bilas Basketball Camp and while we agreed to just host the 2018 Jay Bilas Basketball Camp in Charlotte this year, we all walked away knowing we were better people for the great experience we had together in OKC last summer. For more information on how the Bedford Agency works with brands, teams and properties through strategic consulting or events, please contact me directly at bryanpaulbedford@gmail.com

-Bryan