We’ve been lamenting the current NIL landscape ad nauseum, but we all know it isn’t going to change. So why not go the way of St. Bonaventure and hire a dedicated GM for the men’s basketball program? Maybe I’m being naive, but hear me out:

- Jeff Boals makes nearly $700K/year, well above the median salary for the MAC. If his salary was reduced to, say, $500K, that’s $200K extra each season we could allocate amongst the program.

- Woj at St. Bonaventure is making a paltry $75K. Now, I know that he could make far more in the open market and this a special case of him helping out his alma mater, but I have to believe that $200K would be reasonable. Hell, make one of the current assistants the GM and bump their salary a bit!

- Alternately, pay the GM 100K and allocate the other 100K to the NIL pool (or some other breakdown, like 150/50 or 125/75). From the numbers quoted in a different thread, that catches us up to our mid-major peers and would likely go a long way towards landing that coveted big man we’ve all been clamoring for.

Now, obviously asking Jeff to take a $200K pay cut is a bit dicey, but if he looks at it as $500K for personal use + $200K for building up the program at his “dream job”, would he go for it? I really don’t know. But IMO at this point the results don’t really justify investing 700K per year in him as a coach.

Another angle to look at would be hiring a GM in all sports (primarily working in the revenue sports of football + men’s basketball), and paying him/her a bit more, say $250K. Might attract better talent, and you could compensate by lopping off dollars from the coaches in a way proportional to the NIL their programs expend.

Recruiting is 100% the lifeblood of college athletics, so why not put more financial resources into it? Thoughts? Am I crazy?

I think the answer is yes, and that asking Jeff Boals to suddenly have a skill set that's very different than the one we hired him for doesn't make sense.

We hired one for football, right?

Not happening. The pay cut is a non-starter. A GM to manage NIL is putting the Brinks truck before the horse.

Logan is the GM for football. I presume basketball will be getting one soon. Though 12 guys is far easier to manage than 100. I'm sure Jake Ness assumes most of those responsibilities.

Jason Preston? I saw that Davidson just named Steph Curry its Assistant GM. Might as well market one of our own who seems to be dedicated to the university.

yes. someone needs to have that roll (though not likely for just men’s basketball). Glad to hear the football program is responding to the real world. hopefully our graduate sports ad program is preparing graduates for the role, though knowing them they are still focusing on turning out SIDs

fyi. steph at Davidson is for soliciting and public profile not management. also helps that the co-gm is a billionaire finance guy.

My GM vote goes to FJC31. He would be fantastic.

Yes, we should, but we don't have the necessary resources.

First of all good luck finding any information on Boals recent renewal contract information last spring, but he is making closer to 850 K, not 700 K. Also, like someone mentioned good luck getting the head coach to take a huge cut in pay to grab a GM. However in the last six seasons Ohio has 64 regular season conference wins trailing Akron by 19, Toledo by 16 and Kent by 7. Nice move by the administration making him the highest paid coach in the league.

Hiring a GM assumes that we have a pool of money to pay players in the NIL world. Better get out your checkbooks.

One trick pony.

Should we? In an ideal world - yes.

Will we? No.

Not sure we have enough $$ to a) hire one or b) have enough $$ to spread around that it needs a position to manage it.

Dude is so angry at "the administration," he doesn't even know who's in it.