Let's take a look at some more college GM contracts

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

Kyle Rowland (from NIL Wire) and I will be in D.C. next week for the NCAA convention. We’ll be in town from Jan. 13-15, and we’re hosting a happy hour on Jan. 14 with College Sports Solutions. If you’re in town and would like to catch up with either of us, drop me a note!

Way back in March, as the role of college sports general manager was dominating the offseason conversation, I hopped in the FOIAmobile to look at a few contracts. One way to learn what the heck a job is supposed to actually do, of course, is to look at what the contracts list as job duties, expectations, etc.

But that was nearly a year ago. Since then, the role has evolved even more. Some schools have hired GMs to oversee multiple sports. Other schools have begun to hire GMs just for women’s basketball. How the role is organized, what it does day-to-day and the kinds of people schools are looking to hire isn’t exactly the same as it was 10 months ago.

I’ve been able to obtain several other contracts over the last few months and hope to obtain more over the coming weeks as we prepare to send out a gazillion requests to get our Extra Points Library data as up-to-date as possible for 2026.

Here are a few things I’ve noticed:

The great Noah Henderson over at the College Front Office has done the yeoman’s work of building a directory of college basketball GMs, for both men’s and women’s basketball. Last March, FOIAing for these contracts was a little challenging, since most schools didn’t actually have anybody on staff with that specific job title.

But now? At least on the college basketball side, we can see that most schools in multi-bid leagues have GMs. But you also see them in the Big Sky, Big West, CAA, MAAC and beyond.

I’m fairly confident that somebody on staff in leagues where GM roles aren’t as common, like the MAC, MEAC or Sun Belt, is still going a lot of the day-to-day jobs that college GMs are typically doing … from scouting to contract negotiations to fundraising. But those people are just called assistant coaches or directors of basketball operations or some other title.

Take Makonnen Afework, the GM for men’s and women’s basketball at VCU.

According to the contract we obtained via an open records request, Afework is listed as a deputy athletic director, rather than an assistant, coach or staffer assigned directly to a basketball program:

I’ve seen a few other examples of this sort of classification, especially if the GM is responsible for multiple sports. But it isn’t the only one … take Michael Fly at Florida State, for example.