College sports' hottest new job
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The hottest recruiting battle in college sports is for a position that won't ever play: General manager.
Why it matters: Now that colleges have more recruiting options and the ability to help players get paid, athletic departments are restructuring to look more like NFL or NBA front offices.
Driving the news: Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN's longtime NBA reporter, left the network last week to become the GM for the basketball program at his alma mater St. Bonaventure.
- He's the highest profile GM in college sports, but not the first.
- Butler, Syracuse, George Washington, Boston College, St. Johns and Duke have all hired general managers for their basketball programs.
- Over in football, the role has become so coveted that it's led to bidding wars. Alabama gave general manager Courtney Morgan a multi-year contract worth $825,000 annually, winning his services over USC, which tried to woo him with a $1 million annual salary.
The big picture: The NIL era — in which players can get paid for the use of their name, image or likeness — has revolutionized college sports.
- Coaches can no longer win over players simply by promising them playing time or future earnings as a top NBA or NFL draft pick.
- Colleges are not yet able to pay players directly — athletes are allowed to sign brand and sponsorship deals, and many top schools have alumni-funded "collectives" that pay players for their NIL rights.
- Then there's the transfer portal, which has made it much easier for college players to switch schools without losing scholarships or eligibility — another complex set of recruiting negotiations on top of the already strenuous process of wooing top high school talent.
Between the lines: In pro sports, the GM's role is well defined — building the roster, including contract negotiations and scouting prospective talent.
- As the process of putting together a college team keeps getting more complex, more schools are realizing they need a GM so that their coaches can focus more on ... coaching.
But in college, the title "general manager" could include almost any combination of a variety of roles, including scouting, community outreach, aiding in recruitment and NIL fundraising.
- "Many of our on-campus people have the title GM, albeit with the moniker NIL GM. But you could go from school to school, even within the same conference ... Their GM might be doing very, very different things," Andrew Donovan, an executive at NIL consulting firm Altius Sports Partners, tells Axios.
On pro teams, the GM is usually the one hiring the coach, and they both answer to the team owner.
- In college sports, the head coach is usually the one with ultimate authority to handle player acquisition (or what was once known as "recruiting.")
