ECCKER SPORTS PARTNERS WITH SCOUTSMART TO PROVIDE NIL EDUCATION PLATFORM TO ASSIST HIGH SCHOOL AND JUCO STUDENT-ATHLETES DURING THE RECRUITING PROCESS

AUSTIN, TX (September 13, 2022) – Eccker Sports has entered a multi-year partnership with scoutSMART, a national recruiting data analysis platform for college athletics, to provide educational services for Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) to member high schools, junior colleges, student-athletes and coaches as they go through the recruiting process.

NIL has ushered in the most extensive disruption to amateur athletics in a generation and the industry is trying to keep up. With a lack of unified regulations, NIL has become a centerpiece to collegiate recruiting and has quickly thrown high school athletics into unfamiliar territory. Lack of education and resources has been cited by many, including the NFL Players Association, as a primary reason high school student-athletes and their families are vulnerable in the current environment. Eccker Sports and scoutSMART are looking to change that.

“NIL is now such an important part of the recruiting process, but there are a lot of unknowns for everyone involved,” scoutSMART CEO Diane Bloodworth said. “We believe it is important that we help provide everyone using the scoutSMART platform with a good understanding of NIL. Incorporating Eccker Sports’ educational services and resources into our comprehensive database matches up very nicely with what the recruiting communities need and also with our product roadmap of adding NIL data points. We’re excited to launch this partnership.”

Initially, the Eccker Sports NIL Playbook and Resource Hub will be available to all registered scoutSMART student-athletes from high school in the state of Georgia, with plans to roll access out to the more than 84,000 student-athletes with profiles in the database. scoutSMART also serves more than 17,000 high schools across the country.

“We consistently hear from coaches around the country that NIL has become overwhelming and that their kids need the proper guidance,” Eccker Sports COO and co-Founder Tim Prukop said. “Having the opportunity to partner with scoutSMART and deliver our NIL education platform and support services directly to their 84,000 student-athletes and families aligns perfectly with our mission. We aim to guide, inform and protect coaches, administrators, student-athletes and their families to help them thrive on their NIL journey.”

Each scoutSMART user will have links to access a license to the Eccker Sports NIL Playbook. The comprehensive service starts with a video curriculum of six module courses online that will educate users on the history of NIL, key terms and concepts, and best practices. Additionally, the Eccker Sports resource hub has the most detailed library of NIL information for the high school market, including articles, state laws, abstracts, summaries, bylaws, interpretations, as well as college and universities policies and procedures. Coach Assist offers high school junior college coaches NIL presentation templates, one pagers and other tools to help them educate their communities. Finally, the company is building a network of legal, financial and tax experts to help families build and execute an effective NIL plan.

About Eccker Sports

Eccker Sports is an information platform serving student-athletes, coaches, parents, and administrators navigating the disruption of NIL contracts coming to high school sports. They bring 60-plus years of experience mainstreaming new innovations in sports to help high schools guide, inform and protect their student-athletes on their NIL journeys. Their goal is to help schools create successful programs for their students rather than to represent any individual student in the NIL marketplace.

About scoutSMART

scoutSMART is an analytics platform that helps college football coaches identify recruits that best fit their program. Currently there are more than 80,000 high school and junior college player profiles in the scoutSMART database. The company works closely with high school coaches and recruits to ensure that the profile data is both accurate and current. scoutSMART is designed to help coaches efficiently find the best recruits for the program by bringing together recruiting insights into their one streamlined platform. scoutSMART’s ultimate goal is to help college football programs win games.

We know that college football coaches need players that meet admission standards and maintain eligibility. But do coaches want players that have outstanding academic accomplishments? Most of the college coaches that we speak with at scoutSMART are looking for smart players and GPA is a factor in deciding on who to offer. Coaches want players that make good decisions. The NFL uses the Wonderlic test to assess the ability to learn and solve problems. Scores in the classroom can translate into scores on the field.

scoutSMART has more than 17K recruits with GPAs in their profile. Of these recruits, there are about 3K players with a GPA of 3.6 or higher. To recognize the players that are strong on the field and in the classroom, scoutSMART is proud to partner with High School Football America (HSFA).

Full List:

https://highschoolfootballamerica.com/2021-academic-all-america-team-powered-by-scoutsmart/

For more information contact Diane Bloodworth at diane@scoutsmartrecruiting.com or DM us on Twitter @scoutSMART_

How do we improve adoption of sports analytics by college coaches? The answer is simple, the execution of the answer more complex. The answer to improved adoption is to incorporate the benefits of the analytics into the daily activities of the coach. Most coaches do not want to understand the intricacies of how analytics are calculated, they want to know that the analytics will help them win and keep their job. They want data that they can trust to make better decisions.

Making analytics ubiquitous requires an iterative process based on coach feedback and leveraging the technology and analytics tools that are available.

At scoutSMART, we are working on the next wave of recruiting analytics that leverage what is important to the coach – finding recruits that will fit and stay in their program. Utilizing machine learning, we are improving our predictions of fit based on several factors including coach preferences and recruiting history.

Contact me at diane@scoutsmartrecruiting.com if you are interested in learning more.