This week, Alabama’s Courtney Morgan made news with his most recent contract as General Manager of one of college football’s blue blood programs. It prompted some chatter on social media and within college football circles. A big part of that chatter had to do not with Morgan’s new money, but with the title and role itself. Do college football programs really need GMs?

It’s one of the questions I asked longtime NFL executive Eric Stokes, who joined us on the Scouting the League Podcast this week. He, like me, struggles to see how such an over-arching, all-encompassing title is necessary in the college game, given the differences with the pro game.

“I think it’s a completely different animal,” Eric said when comparing the jobs at the college and pro level. “The role of the General Manager at the NFL level is far more complex than the role of the GM at the collegiate level. It doesn’t even compare in terms of the day-to-day operations and the nuances you have to deal with as an NFL GM, because you’re in charge of the entire football operation. You’re dealing with everybody: the trainers, doctors, obviously you have to work with the coaching staff, the college scouting staff, your pro staff. In this day and age you’re working with analytics, you’re working with sports psychologists, obviously you are working very closely with your media department every day.

“There’s just so many different aspects of being a GM at the NFL level. It’s far more complex than at the college (level). Now, I do guess working off that platform at the college level in terms of recruiting and how it works in terms of NIL, the transfer portal, I could see why some of those structures are in place and how they may be implemented, but again, you’re just not dealing with the complexity, also with the salary cap. NIL, you don’t have bonuses, you don’t have accelerators, you don’t have a lot of the things that you’re working with at the pro level. I think they’re two different animals.”

I’d agree with Eric, though in fairness, there’s no general job description for the college GM. Because the college game is so much more coach-driven, with far fewer official “scouts” on staff at the lower level, there’s probably less of a need for someone running the whole football operation. You could argue that even in the SEC, that’s a common sentiment. Only half the schools in arguably the best football conference — Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt — actually have general managers, and their job descriptions don’t line up. 

For now, at least, it doesn’t appear that these teams are seeking someone to build the NFL model given that none of those teams’ GMs have extensive pro football experience. The only college GM that comes to mind with that level of NFL acumen is West Virginia’s Drew Fabianich. In fact, we haven’t seen the mass influx of NFL scouts and executives into the college ranks that many (including myself) expected. Not yet, at least. 

For example, Jake Rosenberg of The Athlete Group assisted in Oklahoma’s selection of Curtis Lofton as the school’s first-ever GM, and is currently working with another conference school as it searches for its first GM. He readily admits that the GM position is a bit of a work in progress and an anticipation of where college football is going.

“The profile or job description of college GM is in the early stages of transition,” he texted. “While it seems like it’ll be a while before the profile exactly matches that of NFL decision maker, the schools looking to function more optimally in this world are moving in that direction.

“That job can be more of a leadership and strategic position and less narrowly as an evaluator or recruiter. There is so much currently on the Head Coach’s plate that bringing in a strong and diverse skill set can appreciably have a broad benefit across the entire operation. And don’t forget the importance of mentorship and skill development to which a GM can/ should be at the heart of.“

Fair enough. I guess so much is in flux that it’s hard to pin down exactly where the GM position is going, as with so many other aspects of college football. How long until we see a million-dollars-per-year GM? Hard to say. I guess we won’t know for a while the true value of a college GM, and it will depend on how the job evolves. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how many more are hired and how high the dollars go.