MIAMI — In the era of revenue-sharing and unlimited transfers, the general manager position has become ubiquitous—and arguably indispensable—in college football. Unless you’re Curt Cignetti.
The Indiana coach, who signed an eight-year, $93 million extension midseason, made it very clear before this season began: “I’m the GM and head coach,” he said at Big Ten media days in July. His approach has brought the team all the way to the College Football Playoff national championship.
Some schools began hiring general managers early in the NIL (name, image, and likeness) era, but the position evolved to a requirement in the wake of the House v. NCAA settlement. The settlement allowed schools to share revenue with players up to $20.5 million per athletic department. This year, for the first time, schools could pay players directly. Between the rev-share era and the transfer portal, which allows players to transfer every year, the need for salary cap managers has never been higher. Hence the need for GMs.
In 2025, former Ohio State senior compliance administrator Paia LaPalombara told Front Office Sports that GMs “have become the central clearinghouse for football roster construction, evaluations, and recruitment, NIL strategy, and rev-share cap budgeting, allowing for head coaches to recenter their focus on football.”
Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson told Front Office Sports on Saturday that Cignetti made his position clear in his interview process with the Hoosiers in 2023. “There’s not one recruiting decision that happens that he ultimately doesn’t give his thumbs up or thumbs down,” Dolson said. “That’s how he builds his roster.”
Dolson did explain, however, that “we have all the aspects of a general manager divided up into multiple positions.” Deputy athletic director and COO Stephen Harper and his team, for example, work “on the aspects of talent acquisition…and recruiting to make certain whether it’s on the academic side, whether it’s on the rev-share side, all the things that come into that.”
While Cignetti isn’t the only coach without a GM (Georgia coach Kirby Smart doesn’t have one either), he’s an outlier. But one thing is clear: His unorthodox approach is working.
