On June 7, 2025, Auburn men’s basketball announced the appointment of Matt Gatens as the program’s first-ever General Manager, joining head coach Bruce Pearl’s leadership team This marks the latest move in a growing trend across NCAA basketball, as athletic departments adopt pro-style front-office structures to address the revolution in college sports.
Gatens, a former star at Iowa and assistant coach with Auburn and Iowa, is charged with responsibilities beyond on-floor coaching—covering roster construction, transfer portal strategy, analytics integration, recruiting coordination, and essentially serving as the bridge between coaches, players, NIL collectives, and athletic administration. According to reports, Auburn intends for this role to relieve Pearl and strengthen the program’s operations as they navigate ever‑more complex NIL, changing NCAA regulations, and a hypercompetitive recruiting environment.
The emergence of GMs in college basketball is rooted in several powerful forces reshaping collegiate athletics:
The Supreme Court’s House v. NCAA decision opened the floodgates for Name-Image-Likeness compensation. Schools must now manage fundraising, compliance, and deal structuring—tasks that increasingly fall outside coaches’ traditional remit. As The Wesleyan Argus describes: “With a GM, the money can be allocated properly to student-athletes and coaches… without blending too much into the role of the coaches”.
Year-round player movement demands constant monitoring, negotiation, scouting, and roster planning. The GM role centralizes that operation. As one college onlooker noted on Reddit, these GMs often serve as “someone whose primary job is to assemble a roster using money and benefits and let the coach focus more on coaching,” reflecting an NBA-style front-office model (reddit.com).
While coaches remain on-court tacticians, GMs are increasingly analytics-savvy: building target lists, evaluating efficiency, predictive modeling, and integrating new tools. Auburn’s emphasis on scouting and high-level roster strategy underlines this evolution (w
Beyond NIL, GMs are often the public face of donor outreach and resource coordination, creating new revenue opportunities. The MarketWatch report highlights that at mid-majors like St. Bonaventure, GMs take on “extensive fundraising to compete with Power 5 programs”
Auburn’s hiring of a GM follows a wave of high-profile precedents:
- Duke Men’s Basketball hired Rachel Baker in 2022. A former Nike exec, Baker manages NIL deals and player branding under Coach Jon Scheyer). Duke credits her efforts with helping land top recruits like Cooper Flagg and their 2024 class Syracuse brought in Alex Kline—a former Knicks scout—as GM in 2024, tasking him with scouting, NIL, transfer portal strategy, and fundraising.
- Villanova promoted Baker Dunleavy (ex-head coach at Quinnipiac) to GM of men’s basketball operations in 2023
- UConn recently named Tom Moore—a long-time assistant—as its GM to manage NIL, budgeting, scheduling, and donor relations
- Notably, Florida State even appointed Active NBA forward Terance Mann as Assistant GM in 2025, specifically to inject playing-level insight into NIL and player development
- Some programs (e.g., St. John’s with Matt Abdelmassih) place proven NIL fundraiser and transfer strategist at GM roles
This isn’t isolated. More than 30 Division I programs—not just Power 5 schools—now employ GMs in basketball In football, and increasingly in women’s sports, the GM model is also gaining traction.
Gatens is no stranger to Auburn or NCAA competitive environments:
- Player & Pro Experience: Four-year starter at Iowa (2008–2012); played professionally across Europe and in the NBA G-League.
- Coaching Background: Previous Auburn assistant (2017–18) under Bruce Pearl; then an Iowa assistant where he helped orchestrate four straight 20-win seasons and build strong upperclass rosters (
- Familiarity with Program: Reconnected with Pearl’s staff amid Auburn’s historic 32-win 2024–25 season including its first-ever Final Four appearance and SEC championship .
- Front-Office Skillset: At Auburn previously handled travel logistics, scouting, video breakdown, camp coordination, and player development—all germane to GM-level execution rmer player with coaching credibility, analytical know-how, operational discipline, and trusted program relationships
While each GM’s day varies, common responsibilities include:
- Coordinate student-athlete deals
- Work with collectives/donors
- Build strategy to maximize exposure and revenue
- Scout portal entries and exit risks
- Strategize recruiting/retention
- Forecast roster fits and timeline
- Build player profiles
- Use data scouting tools
- Monitor efficiency metrics and projections
- Liaise between coaching staff and athletics department
- Free coaches to focus on X‑and‑O’s
- Fill gaps across operations
- Navigate NCAA/IRA rules
- Coordinate boosters and NIL collectives
- Report to AD on revenue and logistics
- Oversee travel, camps, event budgeting
- Work on scheduling non-conference, summer league, foreign tours
Auburn’s hires like Gatens aim to integrate all these facets to support Pearl’s program coming out of its Final Four season.
What this shift signifies:
Per MarketWatch: “College sports generating billions,” and “require full‑time administrative attention”—a pro-level operational demand (
As one Redditor observed: “College GMs are there to manage NIL money, not necessarily recruit … coaches don’t have to be top person on that regard,” freeing coaches to focus entirely on basketball
Former NBA scouts (Syracuse), execs (Duke), pro players (FSU), and coaches (UConn) are now stepping into college front offices. The lines between pro and college organizational models are blurring.
Teams now build detailed statistical profiles of recruits and portal transfers, using metrics comparable to NBA scouting . Auburn’s emphasis on data-driven scouting—reflected in Gatens’s GM remit—signals how analytics have become indispensable.
While promising, the GM model also raises concerns:
- Role Clarity: As one Reddit poster noted, in some cases GMs are essentially glorified NIL deal managers rather than full strategic partners—raising questions about budgeting, scope creep, and transparency .
- Equity Across Programs: Not all schools can afford to hire top-tier GMs. Grad‑level budgets and non‑Power 5 limits may create imbalance.
- Compliance Complexity: NIL is a regulatory minefield. GMs must ensure deals remain NCAA-compliant—a potentially hazardous terrain.
Neither Auburn nor others have publicly mapped out exact GM roles in fine detail. We’re seeing experimentation and porous role definitions.
32–6, First Final Four in program history—Auburn needs sustainable organizational structure to keep climbing.
Pearl’s promotions (assistant coach Mike Burgomaster, scouting director Ian Borders) show strong internal elevation pathways (auburntigers.com, wsfa.com). Hiring a GM is the natural next step.
As competition heats up with NIL and transfer battles, Auburn joins conference rivals like Florida (Fla St adding Mann), Georgia, Alabama in institutionalizing a front office.
Getting ahead in the portal demands full-time attention—not merely coaches doubling as de facto GMs.
If Auburn can link GM backbone to on-court success, other programs (especially mid-majors) will follow suit to avoid falling behind.
Already seeing entry into football. Women’s sports may see similar moves, as evidenced by Villanova’s GM model.
UConn’s investment, Syracuse’s NBA-scout transition, FSU’s inclusion of NBA players—as noted—signal an arms race in talent and financial sophistication.
The NCAA’s allowance for greater staff limits (two additional coaches) can absorb front-office roles (hoopdirt.com). More administrative-heavy roles may find space in compliance-heavy environments.
Key milestones to watch:
Auburn’s hire of Matt Gatens illustrates much more than an organizational tweak—it’s a signpost in the professionalization and business evolution of college athletics. Coaches once juggled recruiting, tactics, fundraising, and compliance. That era is ending.
Programs now prize dedicated, specialized roles: players transitioning to scouts, marketing execs reinventing coaching staff, NBA talent lending credibility to front offices. Auburn, Duke, Syracuse, and others aren’t just experimenting—they’re redefining the playbook.
As this 2,000‑word overview charts:
- It is a structural evolution prompted by NIL, portal, analytics, and donor demands.
- It reflects a broader NCAA ecosystem transformation, where business acumen is now table stakes.
- Auburn’s move may well redefine success metrics—on-court wins will be evaluated alongside operational effectiveness.
In five years, the question likely won’t be whether Auburn experimented with a GM—but whether all major basketball programs have them. We’re moving fast; and as Auburn’s investment in a GM demonstrates, it’s no longer optional—it’s foundational.
Let me know if you’d like a deeper dive into any specific program’s GM models, NCAA governance changes, or how this trend is affecting coaches’ careers. Happy to explore!
