The Hotline is delighted to provide West Coast fans with a regular dive into the recruiting process through the eyes and ears of Brandon Huffman, the Seattle-based national recruiting editor for 247Sports. He submitted the following report on Aug. 15 …
One week ago, Nashville, Tennessee, was again the epicenter of college football.
At the 2025 Personnel and Recruiting Symposium, the city played host to nearly 800 college football personnel directors, recruiting coordinators, general managers, scouts, analysts, interns and media. They all flocked to the Music City for the largest symposium of its kind.
The topics covered a wide range of hot-button issues in college football.
With the sport experiencing unprecedented chaos, the event’s breakout sessions covered the gamut of issues. But the lobby and bar of the Renaissance hotel was where much of the action unfolded.
NIL agents and NFL Players Association certified agents, and everyone between, worked the room and rubbed elbows with personnel directors and general managers, attempting to grease the skids for their clients and potential clients. Their goal: To cash in on revenue sharing and NIL.
“Some of these issues are never going to be resolved,” said one personnel assistant at a Big 12 school. “Some will be smoothed over by the rev-share, but other issues won’t get any better no matter how much smoke is blown.”
Specifically, the separation of the haves and the have-nots won’t change.
“It was fascinating to me to look and see the guys at the programs who are spending the most,” said another FBS personnel assistant. “The arrogance in which they carried themselves, the way they acted like they themselves have accomplished anything, when all they’re doing is getting on the phone with the booster who has the real money.”
There was a flip-side to it, too.
“You could see some of the schools that don’t have the resources kind of keeping to themselves, not really walking around with their chests out, but more subdued, almost embarrassed because they know they’re being negatively recruited against,” said the assistant.
The date of the symposium offered a clue to the chaos: It was held in August because the month is effectively dead for recruiting.
It’s a numbers game, but not the number on the jersey or the number of players on the roster. It’s the number of dollars for each player.
“I had one, I won’t even call him an agent, but someone who ‘represents,’ a couple of players, and while I’m there to network and get away from the office after a busy spring, he wants to talk business,” said a Big Ten recruiting assistant.
“And you know what? I have to talk to him. I have to play the game. I have to let him get me a drink. Because he might end up representing a player we want, or worse, we need, in a couple of months.”
Granted, the salaries of front office personnel have grown exponentially. But these same personnel directors know they’re months away from giving a high school senior exponentially more in compensation than they themselves receive.
“Its part of the business, we know what we’re getting into, and I know it’s where the game has gone,” said the Big Ten assistant. “I don’t not like it, it makes the game more interesting, it levels the playing field a little bit. But I can see that other schools despise it. Several of us in the same sport are playing a different sport.”
Not every topic touched on the business side; several focused on football itself: How to use analytics in their evaluations; the work-life balance between the NFL personnel and the college football personnel; the hiring processes; personal well-being; and prospect evaluations.
But there was plenty of talk about contract negotiations, valuation and how rankings impact the market.
“It’s where we’re at in college football,” said an ACC recruiting director. “I got into football a long time ago for the football side of it. If I want to stay in it, though, I have to evolve like the game has. And understand, the sport is big business. We’ve changed our entire approach to recruiting because of that.”
Still, he was grateful that his school has adapted to the modern era of college football.
“There was a time where I wondered what our administration would do, which side of the coin we’d fall on,” said the ACC recruiting director. “Fortunately, they understand the importance college football (plays in) the bottom line of the athletic department and the bottom line of the university, so they’ve taken care of us.”
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