Purdue’s new general manager adds to growing trend in college football
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAs the landscape of college football continues to evolve, a number of major programs are now hiring general managers, including Purdue University.
The pressures of recruiting and player development in the era of Name, Image and Likeness, as well as the transfer portal have led several major programs to rethink their approach. Enter the general manager—once a role exclusive to the NFL and professional leagues, but not anymore.
Stanford University hired former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck to serve as its GM in late November. The University of North Carolina hired Michael Lombardi, a longtime executive for NFL teams, while the University of Oklahoma tapped former AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson to be its GM.
Earlier this month, Purdue announced Brandon Lee would be the general manager for its football program.
The business of college football is now on a whole new level, entering 2025 with teams’ payrolls upwards of $20 million.
“General manager is a new position to collegiate athletics, and over the years, it’s just kind of been shaping and making more and more sense to have a general manager be a part of it as college athletics has shifted to a more pro model-like organization,” Lee said in an interview with Inside INdiana Business.
Lee is an Indianapolis native and former Lawrence Central High School football standout who played college ball at the University of Missouri. He came to West Lafayette after serving as associate athletic director for student athlete brand strategy and innovation at Mississippi State.
Lee said being a head football coach is a tall task itself, and there have been more facets piled onto that role over the years.
“There’s a lot of moving parts in college athletics,” he said. “There’s the NIL side of it. There’s the [revenue] share that’s coming up, and then there’s the transfer portal, and there’s recruiting and scouting…and I haven’t even mentioned coaching. I think the general manager role is someone that’s able to be trusted in that position to take those things off of their plate so that they can focus on the traditional foundational pieces of coaching and being a head ball coach.”
As college football becomes more about winning the transfer portal and banking NIL deals, Lee says his role is to serve as somewhat of a buffer.
“The idea of it is to separate the two, where coaches can coach and then the general manager is doing the general management of those relationships, contracts, negotiations, all those different things,” he said. “Because when you mix the two, that’s when it gets a little bit messy.”
In his new role, Lee said he is looking at football as more of an executive group of an organization with more departments that are focusing on the growing areas beyond just coaching.
“You don’t have time to miss your target,” he said. “Otherwise that will set you back from the inside working it, and then also outside, from alumni, donors, fans, anybody who’s affiliated with this institution specifically at Purdue or other institutions, nobody wants to see you miss.”
Lee also has an existing relationship with Purdue’s new head football coach, Barry Odom; Lee played for Odom at Missouri.