For athletic departments.
Smilodon is structured for Group of Five and FCS departments: a principal-led firm, priced for an athletics budget outside the Power Four, performing the same work a national firm performs for larger programs. The difference is who answers the telephone.
What a season retainer includes.
| Included | In practice |
|---|---|
| The assessment | Five days on campus before the season, refreshed each quarter. |
| Staff tradecraft | One session for the coaching staff before camp. A short refresher before the postseason. |
| Athlete briefings | The whole roster once, and new arrivals as they come. |
| Travel security advance | A set number of trips per season, designated by the department. Bowl and championship games first. |
| Technical inspection | A set number of room sets per season, scheduled around the calendar. |
| The response line | A number answered within the hour during the season, for threats, missing devices, and anything that warrants a second opinion. |
| Athlete exposure monitoring | Optional. Quarterly open-source exposure checks on the roster, removal of exposed personal information, and impersonation takedowns, reported to the department by category and severity only. |
Retainers from $5,000 per month. Founding programs in the first year receive a reduced rate in exchange for a written reference.
Categories and severity. Never the contents.
When the firm identifies something concerning an athlete, the department learns what kind of matter it is, how serious, and when. It does not see the message, the link, the sender, or the athlete's address and telephone. A compliance officer should know that a player is being threatened. A compliance officer should not be reading the player's direct messages.
Where an athlete may need support, the department is told that and nothing more, so that the appropriate person can act. Athletes are told exactly what the department can and cannot see about them.
Alongside campus police, compliance and counsel.
- Campus police own the stadium, the response to a crime, and the law. The firm provides documentation they can use and does not do their work.
- Compliance owns NIL rules and reporting. The firm's athlete work keeps compliance informed without handing it anything it would rather not hold.
- Information technology owns the network and the accounts. The firm owns the space between the network and the people: the hotel, the booster, the telephone on the bus.
- General counsel receives the engagement letter first. It states in advance what is reported and to whom.
A season on retainer.
The retainer follows the football calendar. The substantial work falls before camp and before the postseason. In season, the firm is principally a telephone that is answered.
| Period | Work |
|---|---|
| June – July | The assessment week. Staff tradecraft before camp opens. Engagement letter renewed; response line tested. |
| August | Whole-roster athlete briefing in camp. Exposure check on a roster sample. First-hour cards issued. |
| September – November | Response line live. Travel advances on the road games the department designates. Scheduled inspection of staff rooms, timed to the bye week. |
| December – January | Bowl or championship advance: hotel, meeting rooms, keys, the coaches' floor. Inspection of the site before the first meeting. Transfer arrivals briefed. |
| February – May | Quarterly refresh of the assessment. Spring game and pro-day walk. New staff briefed. Annual report to the athletic director. |
Basketball, and the other programs.
The firm's practice is built around football because that is where the information, the travel and the exposure concentrate. The work applies to any program, and the differences are worth stating.
- Basketball spends more nights in hotels than any other program, with a smaller travel party and a shorter advance window. Conference tournaments and the postseason put a team in an unfamiliar building for a week at a time. The travel advance and the response line matter more; the technical inspection of a home facility matters about as much.
- Olympic and women's programs carry the same athlete exposure, frequently with less staff between the player and the stranger. The briefing, the exposure checks and the first-hour card apply unchanged. In the NCAA's own study, women's basketball players received roughly three times the threats directed at men's.
- Department-wide engagements are priced by the number of facilities and teams covered. An assessment that covers the football building and the arena is one engagement, not two.
What a board asks after an incident.
The same five questions, in the firm's experience, in the same order. An assessment produces the written answer to each before the incident rather than after it.
- Did we know?
Whether the exposure was identified before it was used. The report is dated.
- Who was responsible?
The remediation schedule names an owner by role for every finding.
- What did it cost to fix, and did we decline to pay it?
Each finding carries a cost. Most are nothing. The board can see which were accepted and which were deferred, and by whom.
- What did we do in the first hour?
The response process, the named contact and the after-action note.
- What have we changed?
The next quarter's refresh records it.
Budgeting for it.
Published prices, a proposal with two or three options, and nothing invoiced until the letter is signed.
Departments typically fund a first engagement in one of three ways: from the football operations budget as a travel or training line, from the athletic director's discretionary funds as a one-time assessment, or through a booster or foundation gift designated for athlete welfare, for which the athlete briefings and exposure checks are a natural fit. The proposal is written so that it can be forwarded to whichever office holds the money, and the firm will restate it in that office's terms on request.
The season retainer is invoiced monthly in advance, which spreads the cost across a fiscal year. Fixed engagements are invoiced half on signing and half on delivery. Travel is at cost. The founding-program reduction is stated in the proposal, in dollars.
Three matters to understand.
- The firm does not investigate a department's own staff.
Leak reviews examine access and process. An investigation of an individual is a separate engagement under a state investigator's license, and is frequently the wrong course.
- A sweep is only as good as its equipment, and the report says which equipment was used.
Every sweep report lists what was instrumented and what was not. No room is called clean on the strength of a walk-through.
- The first year is a founding year.
Smilodon is a new firm with an established skill set. The first programs receive a reduced rate and more of the principal's time, in exchange for a reference once it has been earned.