Theres so many out there.
Jacare
Maia
Gracie
mendes bros
bravo
best BJJ gi/ no-gi/ mma?
Lloyd Irvin
Aptos
Alliance
Checkmat
Really depends on where you are at. One lineage you can follow and get top notch jiu jitsu would be machado brothers.
Also cant really argue with Renzo and what John donaher is doing.
Mat Battle
If you’re looking for all 3 of those, it’s hard to think of anybody better than NU… and I have zero affiliation with them FYI
EKPOGI -Lloyd Irvin
Hahaha!
Me, cause I'm awesome and dont make you buy a shitty club gi and charge you $180 for the privilege
Renzo
ATT, GF Team, Carlson Gracie, 10th Planet JJ
Renzo or Camarillo for combat/submission grappling/MMA
Atos, Marcelo, or Checkmat for points/IBJJF
My 2 pesos
checkmat and alliance. soul fighters, carlson gracie, gfteam, paragon. all depends on your location. different affiliations are strong in different areas.
What are you looking for? That’s the first question. People looking for associations usually fall in the following needs:
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Help running the business
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Help with grading and promotions
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Needing to comply to the IBjjf
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Moral/Belonging to something bigger than their school.
The main issue is that most associations won’t even give you a working syllabus - one of the most important things in a school.
If you run a small school and it’s a headache, something like Gracie Barra is the closest thing to a real franchise. Everyone complains about having to sell their gi’s etc but the reality is that most of the associations are going to charge you similar prices and give you nothing other than their name.
The idea that an association is going to bring you new students is antiquated, 95% of my new students don’t even know who Marcelo Garcia, the Mendes brothers, the Gracies, are. I don’t mean that disrespectfully, I love all those people, but people unless you are something like Barra that has a presence in your country, you are throwing money to the wind.
Now if your motivation is to be part of a team and have your team feel part of something bigger, that’s something else. Most of your seniors probably won’t care but it can be good (or bad) for moral depending on who you choose.
Then there is the IBJJF striping issue, which means you have to be under someone in the mob, so until that changes in the future, you are limited to being under an IBJJF recognised 3rd dan or above (which weirdly is 4th dan in other martial arts as black belt is 1st Dan).
To associate or not is a difficult question, then the next one is who to associate with. I guess the simple answer is find someone you are proud to be associated with and then weigh up what they offer vs the costs.
Honestly it depends on what you want and also where you are. Are you wanting a branding or do you want to be actually part of something organic? If you went say Alliance or GB, as a franchise you will be under crap policies like gi sales and so on and so forth. You can be part of upcoming teams like Soul Fighters or TLI and not deal w any of that. Or you could affiliate under a well known name that is part of the bigger groups and still get cred but not deal w some of the political stuff. Then you add in what you want in terms of business development, curriculum help, online presence, etc. etc. So honestly most affiliations depend on what your wants are and if they serve the need of your customers.
RFT ...If you are interested in no-gi. A luta livre school started by Marcio Cromado. Trained with them in Rio. They have a bunch of affiliates around the globe.