Alabama Gave a Big Contract to Its GM. Why College Football Teams Are Operating More Like Pros

Sports

By Associated Press

Published 4 weeks ago on

August 21, 2024

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer tracks his team during NCAA college football practice, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, at the Thomas-Drew Practice Fields in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP/Vasha Hunt)

College football teams are expanding personnel departments to manage increased player transfers and NIL deals.
Schools are preparing for potential revenue sharing and salary caps, mirroring professional sports management.
Morgan's role includes overseeing recruiting, roster management, and evaluating talent in both high school and transfer portal.

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TUSCALOOSA — Alabama has given one of Kalen DeBoer’s key behind-the-scenes staffers, general manager Courtney Morgan, a three-year contract worth nearly $2.5 million — a notable investment by one of the top football programs in the country at a time when colleges teams are increasingly operating like professional franchises.

The compensation committee of the university system’s board of trustees approved the deal on Tuesday for Morgan, who was DeBoer’s first hire in Tuscaloosa going into his first season as head coach. It’s worth an average of $825,000 annually for a total of $2.475 million.

The deal could set the market for what colleges pay to those who lead personnel departments, a job that coaches expect to grow in importance when players are being more directly compensated by schools. A number of programs have already hired GMs to specifically manage name, image and likeness compensation for their athletes or prospective athletes they want to land.

Growth in GMs

Athletic departments have been placing more emphasis in their personnel departments and most schools in the last five or six years, especially in the power conferences, have added someone whose job is to oversee talent acquisition given the growth in transfers and money available to land them.

Now there are lots of general managers in college football. Some were once called director of player personnel.

The difference is what started as a position almost solely focused on high school recruiting has now expanded to scouting and tracking transfers in the portal. Roster turnover is now far more dramatic season to season and expertise in managing that churn is increasingly valuable.

Free Agency in College Football

The loosening of rules that limited the ability of college athletes to transfer schools spawned what is essentially free agency.

Currently, players can transfer as often as they want. While high school recruiting is still important, programs now must also track current players so they can act quickly if a player enters the transfer portal — especially if that player is one of their own.

Personnel departments are growing and at some places staffs are being divided into high school scouting and college scouting similar to the way NFL teams scout both colleges and players currently in the league.

“I would say this: Your most important asset for any program is your players. Right? So that’s where the focus always needs to be on anything that affects players or helps acquire players,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “I can see those areas continue to grow.”

Cap Management on the Horizon

With college players now permitted to earn NIL money, schools are already dealing with the reality of managing roster budgets — even though NCAA rules still ban actual salaries for players.

NIL has become a stand-in for salaries, with most of the money coming from booster-funded organizations called collectives. The next iteration of player compensation is on the horizon: Revenue sharing, with a cap of about $21 million per school, starting as soon as the 2025 season — if the settlement of antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and conferences is approved.

“You’re definitely going to have to have people in your organization who understand how caps work and understand where money should be, what (the) percentage of money should be. Balancing this player versus these two players, who can add more value to your program?” Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said. “I definitely think that the game is going in that off-field direction, for sure.”

Salary Watch for Personnel Staff

Morgan’s duties include managing the Crimson Tide’s roster and overseeing the personnel and recruiting departments. He has helped build the No. 2-rated recruiting class so far for 2025, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.

DeBoer’s coordinators each earn more than $1 million per year, but Morgan’s deal is believed to be one of the largest for a personnel staffer in major college football. The former Michigan offensive lineman served as DeBoer’s director of player personnel the past two seasons at Washington and was also with him at Fresno State.

“He has great relationships across the country and is an essential part of helping us recruit and evaluate talent both at the high school level and in the transfer portal,” DeBoer said after Morgan’s hire.

Morgan helps organize communication with recruits and DeBoer’s film evaluations, along with the available players in the transfer portal. Morgan talked about his loyalty to DeBoer in an April interview with The Associated Press.

“I enjoy being in the foxhole with him,” Morgan said. “He treats people well and he’s fair. He’s helped me develop into who I am today.”

“I feel like in order to build in this business, you have to have some type of sustainability,” he added. “It’s an unstable business as it is, but I think if you want to really leave your mark, you have to do things well for a long time.”