Although general managers, who assess draft selections, arrange trades, and oversee rosters, have long been employed by professional sports teams, college athletic departments are now participating as well.
It seems to be working. Indeed, a general manager or someone holding a position like “director for basketball operations” is mentioned on the coaching staff of three of the four institutions that advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four. Those positions are occupied at Houston, Florida, and Duke. Auburn doesn’t.
In an attempt to keep up with the rapidly evolving landscape of college sports, which now includes players being paid through name, image, and likeness, or NIL, deals, and new transfer rules that see college athletes switching schools far more frequently than in the past, college athletic departments nationwide are hiring general managers (GMs) to assist in running their biggest sports teams, primarily in basketball and football.
Although the precise number of GMs in college basketball is unknown, more than 30 schools (roughly 10% of all Division I schools) have hired GMs for their basketball programs in the last three years. This position was nonexistent prior to 2022, when Rachel Baker of Duke University was the first college basketball program in the nation to be publicly named GM.
Although it’s difficult to determine exact pay for these roles, publicly accessible data from North Carolina State University provide one example: Andrew Slater, the general manager, receives $400,000 year in salary plus a travel allowance. The salary of a top college basketball coach might approach $10 million annually.
In one wrinkle, some NBA players are returning to their former institutions to serve as general managers. Atlanta Hawks point player Trae Young is an assistant general manager at the University of Oklahoma, and Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry is an assistant general manager at his alma mater, Davidson College.
In general, college general managers assist in recruiting athletes, whether they are transfer students from other institutions or emerging high school stars, and they report to the head coach. Over the years, college athletics have become into significant revenue generators; last year, the NCAA made $1.38 billion, primarily from the March Madness basketball championship. Additionally, they have secured long-term TV broadcast deals worth tens of billions of dollars, including the $7.8 billion ESPN-College Football Playoff pact and the $8.8 billion NCAA TV deal for the men’s March Madness tournament.
Nowadays, managing a basketball program necessitates full-time attention to numerous off-court tasks that some coaches lack the bandwidth for, thanks to NIL deals, the transfer portal, and year-round recruiting. The GM comes in.
What do college GMs actually do, then?
“Everyone is unique. As the general manager of Syracuse University’s men’s basketball program since 2024, Alex Kline told MarketWatch, “I think the most important thing is helping build a roster.” He used his experience as an NBA scout when he stated that choosing a player is all about “understanding who you like, what you value them at and managing your salary cap.”
Among other things, revenue sharing and NIL donations support the informal wage cap that college general managers oversee. Top players naturally earn more than lower-level players, and they use this money to help build out a team and allocate funds where needed.
Kline, who graduated from Syracuse, has played for the New York Knicks and the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA. In the offseason, he mostly concentrates on roster building and player recruitment, which involves visiting teams, speaking with agents, coaching players, and occasionally assisting players in landing NIL deals.
According to Kline, “I wear a lot of different hats,” “Each person in this GM role needs to know what they do best.”
Duke general manager Baker, who has more of a marketing experience and was formerly employed by the NBA and Nike (NKE), uses her skills to help players land deals so they can concentrate on playing basketball.
“Rachel [Baker] helps with that a lot,” Cooper Flagg, a freshman at Duke, stated earlier this season when he praised his team’s general manager on the Brotherhood Podcast. According to Flagg, she assists him in maintaining his concentration on the basketball floor and “keeping the main thing the main thing.”
How are collegiate and professional GM positions different?
GMs assist in selecting the team’s players, just like in professional sports. However, there are numerous other responsibilities as well, unlike in professional sports.
Adrian Wojnarowski, the general manager of basketball at St. Bonaventure University, is the only one who is aware of that.
“There’s so many elements to it, and it’s harder and harder to imagine that you could just do it with a traditional coaching staff,” Wojnarowski, who is currently employed by his alma institution after becoming well-known as a scoops-gathering basketball blogger, told MarketWatch. “Coaches are coaching, but families are attending games. When our players are on college, I can spend time with their families. I can go talk to them about how things are going over coffee.
In 2024, Wojnarowski transferred from ESPN (DIS) to St. Bonaventure. As a sports journalist, he was known for his excellent sourcing.
According to Wojnarowski, “in the NBA you’re picking players,” “You can sign a player as a free agent, trade for them, or draft them if you desire them. The players choose us here.
Additionally, if players select your program, you must keep them on board, and he stated that it helps to have built relationships and trust with players. These ties can take many different forms, one of which being assisting players in obtaining counsel.
“We’re on Zoom conversations with five or six agents, we’re recruiting, we’re in the transfer portal, and I’m assisting one of our seniors in hiring an agent. According to Wojnarowski, the position is changing.
“You are selecting players in the NBA.” You can sign a player as a free agent, trade for them, or draft them if you desire them. The players choose us here. Wojnarowski, Adrian, St. Bonaventure
But Wojnarowski’s responsibilities don’t end there. The general manager of a midmajor program, which is a school outside of the Power 5 conferences and typically makes the most money from its athletic programs (the Bonnies play in the Atlantic 10), places a strong focus on obtaining donations, which can then be utilized to help student-athletes get NIL deals.
“Once we go through all these deals, then I have to pay for all this, and you’re back to raising NIL,” Wojnarowski stated. “I spend every day all year raising money.”
Naturally, there is no fundraising component to becoming a general manager in professional athletics, but college program fundraising is becoming increasingly inventive. Wojnarowski even started selling some of the phones he used for his renowned pursuit of breaking news.
Wojnarowski will have to put in more effort to find players at competitive prices because St. Bonaventure is unlikely to ever have a NIL budget like Duke or Atlantic Coast Conference rival Syracuse. This is comparable to how an investor would search for a company whose stock price is below what its business fundamentals indicate should be its stock price.
“I have got to find high-major players at midmajor money, and to do that you have to really call on your relationships, finding guys who would value our environment,” he stated. “There is no one-size-fits-all solution. All of us are attempting to understand the job.
The efforts of Kline and Wojnarowski are beginning to bear fruit. This offseason, St. Bonaventure signed big man Frank Mitchell and kept guard Dasonte Bowen, while Syracuse reached an agreement with top transfer-portal guard Naithan George.
College GMs are expected to be in high demand.
collegiate basketball general managers, who were born out of the craziness of contemporary collegiate athletics, are essentially a combination of recruiter, scout, fundraiser, negotiator, and host.
Both Kline and Wojnarowski believe that every school will have a general manager for its major sports teams in a few years, and the prospect that more colleges may seek to hire GMs in the future is encouraging for anyone hoping to finance work in the sports industry.
“Teams are either in the process of hiring one or they are trying to figure out how to hire,” Wojnarowski stated. “You’re going to see it more and more; the landscape demands it.”
“College coaches are overburdened with work and lack the time to do it all.” Syracuse University’s Alex Kline
Kline concurred, “This is going to be a requirement,” “College coaches are overworked and don’t have enough time to do everything.”
The amount of money has grown to the point that some colleges spend millions of dollars every year. According to Sportico, the average men’s basketball budget for the Final Four schools this year was $14 million. Five schools spent more than $17 million on football last year, making those figures much higher.
Schools are discovering they need front offices to survive as NIL cash flood college athletics, with payments typically going to student-athletes from businesses or donors, frequently through “collectives” connected to the universities.
Additionally, GMs are being hired by more than just men’s basketball schools. Of course, football departments, with their sizable player rosters, are also hiring. They are present on at least two women’s basketball teams, including the University of North Carolina and the University of Southern California.
