Alabama Gave $2.5 Million Contract To Its GM. Why College Football Teams Are Operating More Like Pros?

Alabama has provided one of Kalen DeBoer’s principal off-the-field executives, general manager Courtney Morgan, with a three-year contract worth $2.5 million—a lot of money to spend for the program that belongs to one of the most successful football colleges in the United States at a time when more and more college teams are buying themselves like professional sports clubs.

The board of trustees compensation committee green-lighted the deal Tuesday for Morgan, who was the first DeBoer recruit to come to Tuscaloosa as he began his first season as head coach. The value is $825,000 on average for the overall of $2.475 million.

The deal could establish a standard for how much colleges will pay to those who head personnel departments, a position coaches say will become increasingly significant as players are compensated more directly by their schools. Several programs have directly employed GMs for the purpose of overseeing name, image and likeness compensation for their athletes or prospective athletes they may be seeking to acquire.

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Growth in GMs

The issues are that athletic departments have focused heavily on improving their personnel departments and most schools over the last five or six years, especially in the power conferences, have hired someone whose sole responsibility is to coordinate acquisitions due to the rise in transfers and the funds available to purchase their services.

Now there are a multitude of general managers in college football. Some were once referred to as directors of player personnel.

The difference is that what used to be a position that was almost exclusively responsible for identifying high school recruits has now become involved in scouting transfers in the portal. This talent roster churn has expanded into far more extreme swings from season to season, and mastery of the challenges associated with it is more desirable than ever.

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Free agency

The reduction of restrictions that bound the movement of college athletes created free agency, which is more or less a concept for relieving restrictions.

At the moment, players are free to switch affiliations as many times as they desire. Although recruiting juniors remains vital, programs have yet another file they need to keep in order to be prepared to act when a player, especially his own, puts his name on the transfer portal.

Personnel departments are continuing to expand and in some locations, the personnel are being divided into high school scouts and college scouts, as are NFL teams that monitor both colleges for current talent and high schools for prospective talent in the future.

“I would say this: Any assets are your players, right? That is always where the focus has to be on anything that deals with or lends a hand in getting players,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “I can envisage those areas expanding.”The reduction of restrictions that bound the movement of college athletes created free agency, which is more or less a concept for relieving restrictions.

At the moment, players are free to switch affiliations as many times as they desire. Although recruiting juniors remains vital, programs have yet another file they need to keep in order to be prepared to act when a player, especially his own, puts his name on the transfer portal.

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Personnel departments are continuing to expand and in some locations, the personnel are being divided into high school scouts and college scouts, as are NFL teams that monitor both colleges for current talent and high schools for prospective talent in the future.

“I would say this: Any assets are your players, right? That is always where the focus has to be on anything that deals with or lends a hand in getting players,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “I can envisage those areas expanding.”

Cap Management

College players are now allowed to make money off their name, image, and likeness, but schools are already grappling with the issue of roster expenses, although players remain prohibited from receiving actual salaries under NCAA rules.

Since jobs pay little or nothing, salaries have been replaced by booster-funded organizations known as collectives. The next iteration of player compensation is on the horizon. Some of the potential changes, like revenue sharing, will be capped at roughly $21 million per school from the 2025 academic year if the antitrust cases that were brought against the NCAA and conferences are settled.

“You’re definitely going to have to have people in your organization who understand how caps work and understand where money should be and 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. “Yes, I really do believe that the game is slowly shifting in that sort of off-field direction.”

Salary Watch

Morgan is responsible for personnel management and for supervising the operations of the personnel and recruiting offices in relation to the Crimson Tide. He has contributed to creating the No. 2-ranked recruiting class for the 2025 cycle on the 247Sports composite.

DeBoer’s coordinators are each making more than $1 million every year but Morgan is thought to have signed the biggest pay check for a personnel staffer in major college football. The ex-Michigan offensive lineman was in his second year as DeBoer’s director of player personnel at Washington and was with him at Fresno State.

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When Morgan joined the team, DeBoer had this to say: “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.”

Morgan coordinates the communication with recruits and DeBoer’s film evaluations, as well as the players who are in the transfer portal. DeBoer’s ousting of Morgan was a major topic of their conversation, which Morgan was willing to discuss in detail during the interview in April with The Associated Press.

“It is good to be shoulder to shoulder with him,” Morgan said. “I think that he respects people and that he is wise in his dealings with others. He contributed to my becoming who I am. ”

“I think 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. ”

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