New Univ. of Southern California football GM Chad Bowden’s job will be, “among others, to construct, manage and negotiate with USC’s roster, with the resources he’s afforded by both the university and third-party NIL collective House of Victory,” according to Luca Evans of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. In the time since Bowden’s hire on Jan. 24, he and USC have “completely redesigned a new-era personnel staff,” building an “NFL-style” front office. The Trojans have hired Zaire Turner, who worked with Bowden as Notre Dame’s dir of player personnel, in a recruiting operations role. They have hired former Illinois Dir of Player Personnel Dre Brown as an “executive director of scouting and personnel.” Bowden also “pried away” Wisconsin GM Max Steinecker to work with him in a front-office role at USC (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 2/4).
WHATEVER IT TAKES: 247SPORTS.com’s Evan Rogers noted Univ. of North Carolina men’s basketball coach Hubert Davis “acknowledged” that “additions need to be made to North Carolina basketball’s staff, most notably in the form of a general manager.” It is a “massive shift” for Davis and UNC as the program “looks to adapt to the evolving landscape of college basketball.” Davis said, “I never would have thought that, (now) four years since I took the job, 100 percent what is needed is a general manager. There’s just so much stuff out there.” He said the team will “hire a GM” and needs a “director of marketing and fundraising for NIL, for program needs.” Davis: “The old model for Carolina basketball just doesn’t work, it’s not sustainable. It has to build out because there’s so many things in play with NIL, the transfer portal, agents, international players” (247SPORTS.com, 2/3). CBSSPORTS.com’s David Cobb wrote GMs in college athletics “rarely wield the authority and autonomy of their professional sports counterparts,” typically reporting to the head coach. However, hiring GMs to “assist in roster management has become commonplace in college basketball during the NIL era” (CBSSPORTS.com, 2/4).
NEW IN TOWN: In Syracuse, Chris Carlson wrote Syracuse Univ. has “created a new position in its athletic department to help it prepare” for the revenue sharing era. The Orange named former Capitals and National Lacrosse League exec Kevin Morgan to the newly created role of GM/chief revenue officer Monday. Morgan was most recently the president of Morgan CS, a “consulting firm that worked with a number of major names throughout the sports industry.” Finding the $20.5M to be paid out to student-athletes on an annual basis will be a “major challenge for all,” but athletic departments doing so will “likely be necessary if schools want to field winning programs.” Syracuse leaders have “declined to say exactly how much the school will give to athletes” but have “said it will be ‘competitive’” (Syracuse POST-STANDARD, 2/3). In Albuquerque, Sean Reider wrote Univ. of New Mexico is “reportedly hiring its first general manager in program history” as Univ. of Memphis GM Beau Davidson is expected to be named to the role. Davidson would join the Lobos after stints as the dir of player personnel at three separate programs (ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL, 2/3).
