Alabama football handed general manager Courtney Morgan a multi-year contract last week worth $825,000 annually in a milestone moment for college athletics. With the transfer portal here to stay and a salary cap likely on its way after the buzzy House settlement agreement, general managers can help navigate those choppy waters for programs.
It’s happening in college basketball, too. Fully-staffed front offices are coming to programs and for some, it’s already started.
Duke may have been the first to put a name on it when it hired long-time Nike executive Rachel Baker as its general manager just over two years ago.
Fast-forward to now, and numerous teams have followed suit and acquired general managers. Butler hired Tony Bollier from the Milwaukee Bucks in early July to be its new general manager/director of player development. Bollier was the general manager for the Bucks’ G League team, the Wisconsin Herd, for two seasons. Now, he’s stepping into a brand new position for Thad Matta.
New Charleston coach Chris Mack hired former Louisville captain and starting point guard Christen Cunningham as an assistant coach and general manager.
New Wyoming coach Sundance Wicks tabbed Patrick Stacy last week to be the Cowboys’ GM. Stacy founded Jam Basketball Intelligence, a company that curated scouting reports for numerous teams, including Wisconsin-Green Bay where Wicks coached this past season. Wicks revived arguably the worst program in college basketball, and Stacy’s scouting reports helped with that. They’ll team up again, this time in the Mountain West.
Syracuse snagged New York Knicks scout Alex Kline in late June to be the program’s general manager. Kline, long respected as a talent evaluator, is expected to help Syracuse allocate its resources with its NIL budget to build a contender. But he’s also in the process of building out Syracuse’s front office with sharp data whizzes like student…
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