ABOUT STRATA
Built to help athletes get paid and get positioned.
College athletics now asks athletes and families to make high-value business decisions while the rules and market continue to change. Strata exists to give athletes informed representation, serious negotiation, and a clear view of what each decision means for the athlete’s career.
WHY STRATA EXISTS
The opportunity changed. Representation had to change with it.
College athletes must now navigate NIL deals, school compensation, transfer opportunities, eligibility questions, and other business decisions that can materially affect their careers. The systems are still developing, the agreements can be complicated, and the people paying the athlete do not necessarily have the athlete’s best interests at heart.
Strata Sports Group was created to close that gap: help athletes understand their value, create and evaluate opportunities, negotiate with purpose, and make decisions that strengthen what comes next.
THE FOUNDER
Meet Brian Manning.
Brian founded Strata Sports Group to help college athletes get paid and get positioned—on the field, in the marketplace, and for life after their playing days.
Before working with athletes, Brian spent years in high-stakes roles that demanded judgment, relationship-building, and resolve. As an American diplomat, he learned how to bring the right people to the table, understand competing interests, and move difficult conversations forward. As a federal immigration official, he made consequential decisions requiring careful judgment, close analysis, and sound discretion. As a lawyer and business owner, he built and now leads a national immigration law firm with the systems, professionals, and accountability required to serve clients across the country.
That experience shapes how Strata operates: prepare carefully, understand the full landscape, communicate directly, negotiate hard where it matters, and protect the athlete’s leverage, earning power, and future at every turn.
WHAT MAKES STRATA DIFFERENT
More than access. Better judgment when the decision matters.
An athlete does not need another person promising that they “know people.” The athlete needs someone who can understand the opportunity, recognize the risk, negotiate the terms, and follow through.
Representation informed by legal training
Brian is both an NIL agent and a lawyer. That combination helps Strata see beyond the headline number to the obligations, restrictions, timing, remedies, and consequences that can determine whether an opportunity is actually valuable.
Diplomacy and resolve
Strong representation requires both relationships and leverage. Diplomatic experience informs how Strata brings the right people into the conversation, identifies common ground, and moves a negotiation forward. Legal and government experience inform the judgment to hold a position when the athlete’s interests require it.
An organized operation
Strata is being built as a serious professional organization, not a side project or informal network. Athletes and families should expect clear communication, documented decisions, dependable follow-through, and a process designed for important matters.
Long-term positioning
Strata does not evaluate decisions in isolation. Every deal, commitment, and negotiation is considered for both its immediate value and its effect on the athlete’s future leverage, earning potential, flexibility, and next opportunity. The goal is not simply to win the transaction in front of us, but to strengthen the athlete’s position for what comes after it.
WHAT STRATA DOES
Representation, legal capability, and immigration insight—organized around the athlete.
Strata Sports Group represents athletes in NIL, school-compensation, transfer, and related opportunity discussions. Affiliated law practices provide optional sports-law and immigration legal services under separate engagements. The structure allows the athlete to begin in one place while the appropriate entity handles the service actually requested.
HOW STRATA WORKS
Strata means business.
01
Athlete first.
The athlete’s interests, goals, and informed choices drive the representation.
02
Direct advice.
Athletes and families should hear what the facts support—not what is easiest to sell.
03
Serious preparation.
Important negotiations and legal matters deserve preparation, documentation, and a clear strategy.
04
No empty promises.
No offer, transfer destination, legal result, immigration outcome, or level of compensation is guaranteed.
05
Build beyond one season.
Today’s opportunity should strengthen—not narrow—the athlete’s options tomorrow.
DALLAS, TEXAS
Based in Dallas, Texas. Helping athletes all over the country get paid and get positioned.