Questions.

A principal-led counterintelligence and security advisory firm for college athletic programs, founded in Arizona in 2026 by a former intelligence officer and security officer. It assesses how a program actually operates, trains coaching staffs and athletes, plans travel security, inspects rooms for surveillance devices, and helps departments respond to threats.

The principal. Partners are named in advance where a state license or a piece of equipment requires one, and the department is told which. There is no account team and no handoff after the sale.

No. Smilodon is structured and priced for Group of Five and FCS departments first. The work is the same work a national firm performs for larger programs; the pricing and the principal's personal involvement are different.

Yes. The practice is built around football because that is where the information, the travel and the exposure concentrate, but the assessment, the briefings and the response retainer apply to any program. Basketball departments inquire most often, and the hotel and travel exposure of a basketball program is in several respects greater.

Arizona. Assessments, briefings and staff training are conducted on campus anywhere in the country. Travel advances take place at the hotel and the venue before the team arrives. Threat response begins by telephone within the hour and continues wherever it must. Travel is billed at cost.

Smilodon is the saber-toothed cat, an apex predator that hunted by ambush and is the most frequently recovered large carnivore in the fossil record. The mark is its skull in profile; the seal is the same animal, alive. Programs under the firm's care are not easily surprised.

Most departments begin with the program security assessment: five days on campus and a written report presented in person. Its report states which of the other engagements are warranted and which are not. Departments with a specific need, a bowl trip or a staff session before camp, sometimes begin with that single engagement instead.

Published pricing begins at $18,500 for a single-sport program and rises with the number of facilities and teams covered. The proposal states the figure before anything is signed.

Staff tradecraft from $5,000 per day. Athlete safety briefings from $3,000 per session. Travel security advance from $4,000 per trip. Technical surveillance countermeasures from $3,000 per event. Leak and insider review from $8,000. The season retainer, which combines them, from $5,000 per month.

Smilodon is a new firm with an established skill set. The first programs to engage it receive a reduced rate and more of the principal's time, in exchange for a written reference once it has been earned. The reduction is stated in the proposal.

A consultation within the week, a written proposal within three business days, and an engagement letter to the department's counsel the same week. On-site dates follow the program's calendar. A travel advance for a specific trip can normally be completed within two weeks.

No. Nothing is invoiced until the engagement letter is signed. The consultation, the four-page proposal and the letter are borne by the firm. On occasion the advice at the end of the consultation is to wait, and that advice is free as well.

Fixed engagements are invoiced half on signing and half on delivery. Retainers are invoiced monthly in advance. Travel at cost. Terms are net fifteen days. Pricing for any follow-on work goes in a separate proposal, never in a report.

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. Athletes are told exactly what the department can and cannot see about them.

No. The optional exposure service examines what is publicly available about a player, the same material a stranger could find, and removes what can be removed. Nothing an athlete says in a briefing goes in a report.

Do not pay and do not reply. Screenshot everything with the username and date visible, and do not delete. Tell one adult who will not panic. Report it in the application and to the FBI at ic3.gov. Lock the accounts: new password, two-step sign-in on, private for a week. The firm publishes this as a wallet card that any program may use.

A parents' edition of the athlete briefing is available on request, because the family is frequently the first to be contacted by a fraudulent agent or a sextortion group, and the first to pay.

Consumer-grade trackers, cameras and transmitters, which is what is actually planted in athletic programs. Most often nothing is found, and the report says so plainly. The lasting value is usually in the observations: the door that does not latch, the closet on a master key, the room that should not host the Friday installation meeting.

No firm honestly can on the strength of a walk-through, and the firm does not certify a room it did not instrument. Every sweep report lists the equipment used and what each instrument cannot detect. A sealed-room certification with laboratory-grade equipment is performed with a named partner, disclosed in advance and quoted separately.

The assessment answers this for each room. Most programs require fewer inspections than they fear: the war room and the head coach's office on a schedule, and bowl and away-game meeting rooms before the first meeting. A repeat inspection is recommended once after any re-key or renovation.

No, to anyone. The firm does not sell or use jamming, interception, or covert surveillance of any person.

No. Leak reviews examine access and process, through interviews. An investigation of an individual is a separate engagement conducted under a state investigator's license, and the firm will say when it considers that the wrong course.

Who the client contact is and that reports go only to that person; the scope of the engagement; what Smilodon does and does not do; what the department provides; that reports describe patterns and remedies and do not name staff or athletes; that a report is a snapshot of what was examined on the dates stated; and which state licenses apply. The department's counsel receives it before any work begins.

As a counterpart, not a substitute. Campus police own the stadium, the response to a crime, and the law. The firm provides documentation they can use, remains within its remit, and does not represent itself as law enforcement.

Whoever is worried. In practice it is the director of football operations or the athletic director, and occasionally general counsel after an incident. The consultation is twenty minutes with the principal, with no presentation.

Advisory, training and assessment work does not require a private investigator's license in most states. Work that does, such as an investigation of an individual, is conducted under the applicable state license or by a licensed partner named in the engagement letter, and the department is told which. The firm would rather decline a task than perform it without the proper license.

Event security and crowd management, executive protection, network security, background investigations on recruits and hires, and gambling integrity monitoring. For each, the firm makes the introduction to the right office or firm.