So what does a General Manager actually DO? I FOIA'd some contracts to find out

Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.

The hot new job title in the college athletics administrative arms race is the General Manager.

St. Bonaventure made a massive splash when they hired former NBA Scoopmaster Adrian “Woj” Wojnarowski to serve as their GM. North Carolina is paying their new GM, a former NFL front office-type, over a million dollars a year. Oklahoma is paying the former director of the Senior Bowl north of $700,000 to serve as their program GM.

And Davidson just announced that Steph Curry, yes, that Steph Curry, will serve as an assistant general manager for the men’s and women’s basketball programs.

In the professional sports world, the General Manager job title typically refers to somebody who oversees the personnel of the team, as well as potentially business operations. Generally, it’s also somebody who sits above the head coach on the ol’ organizational chart, reporting directly to the team owner.

But in college, both on the football and basketball side, the profile of a GM is all over the map. Some programs are clearly targeting their GM to serve in more of a fundraising/development/connections role, so hiring a former reporter or famous alum would make sense. Others appear to be trying to replicate the NFL model, targeting folks with deep experience in salary cap management and player evaluations. Even other schools are simply moving staff from existing player personnel or coaching roles into a GM position.

And these folks, almost without exception, report to the head football coach. Some large programs, like Georgia, are openly talking about not wanting to hire a GM, because the head football coach would always need to be deeply involved in roster management decisions.

How can so many types of people be equipped for the same job? What does this job title even really mean right now?

I’ve filed close to two dozen open records requests to look at General Manager contracts for football and men’s basketball programs, from the largest schools to some of the smallest. I’ll be adding more of these contracts to the Extra Points Library as they come in.

Here’s what I’m seeing so far:

Not every GM is even under contract

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