Should Minnesota change it's athletic model to a professional model?

[FinnGopher]

In professional sports you have a president to oversea the big picture, but then a team has a general manager to find available talent and negotiate contracts. The coach is responsible for winning games and bringing together the players whom the GM has signed. In this model the coach does what s/he is best at doing and the GM is best at scouting for and securing talent.
Should the University move to this model and stop requiring coaches to play the role of GM as well?

 

[SplitDecision]

Yes, that or hire an agent to negotiate with the player's agents.

 

[Strongazzoffer]

Absolutely! And I think IU initially wanted to do this with Thad Matta and Mike Woodson before Thad left to coach Butler

 

[FinnGopher]

Absolutely! And I think IU initially wanted to do this with Thad Matta and Mike Woodson before Thad left to coach Butler

I think Matta was at Ohio State before Butler. I don't recall OSU or IU having a discussion about structure.

 

[Strongazzoffer]

I think Matta was at Ohio State before Butler. I don't recall OSU or IU having a discussion about structure.

He was an Associate AD at IU during Woodson's first season. Think the original plan was to have Fife be the top assistant and Matta would be a glorified GM to make Mike Woodson work

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I'm not sure if we have the willingness to support this function.

I think you either need to just go get the best coach you can find (ball coach model) and do your best with NIL activities or you go all in on the professional model (CEO model).

IMO - the "ball coach" model is trying to just stay decent for as long as possible and hope to catch lightening in a bottle one season. The CEO model is higher upside. However, an ill-funded CEO model that does not have the stomach to actually treat this like professional sports is the worst of both worlds.