On Wednesday, USA Today released a lengthy feature on the "mad scramble" within college football to assemble, staff and pay NFL-style front offices.
With the advent of the transfer portal, NIL payments and, soon, House settlement payments that will see major athletics programs share more than $20 million directly with their athletes, college football programs are now staffing up to handle the draft (recruiting), free agency (the portal), and the salary cap (House payments, NIL).
“It would be an absolute nightmare for the current structure of the athletic department to try to manage the division of capital up to the cap of the revenue sharing among all athletes,” prominent sports attorney Darren Heitner said. “The role is a very, very important one, perhaps it’s going to become one of the most important positions in an athletic department under the athletic director.”
And, as USA Today details, it's become quite lucrative for those who have ridden the wave from the "good old days" when personnel was simply about recruiting to what it is today.
As detailed by the paper, salaries earned by prominent personnel staffers include:
-- Alabama general manager Courtney Morgan: $775,000
-- Oregon chief of staff Marshall Malchow: $550,000
-- LSU senior associate AD for football administration Austin Thomas: $425,000
-- Ole Miss general manager Billy Glasscock: $425,000
-- Ohio State general manager Mark Pantoni: $351,488
-- Michigan general manager Sean Magee: $350,000
-- Texas general manager Brandon Harris: $264,500
-- Texas A&M recruiting general manager Derek Miller: $175,000
Personnel management will not become any less important moving forward, so salaries for those who manage personnel are set to move in one direction: up.