There is a famous scene in the pilot of the TV show “Mad Men.” Set in the era when smoking is first being linked to cancer, ad man extraordinaire Don Draper is trying to think up a new marketing strategy for the cigarette company “Lucky Strike.” The owner explains to Draper the process of a cigarette — tobacco seeds are bred, planted in North Carolina, grown, cut, cured, toasted …
“There you go,” Draper said, writing on a chalkboard: Lucky Strike. “It’s toasted.” “But everybody else’s tobacco is toasted,” an exec says. “No,” Draper fires back. “Everybody else’s tobacco is poisonous. Lucky Strike’s is toasted.” That is marketing. Is it true? Sure. Is it the best articulation of what is actually being sold? Probably not.
Which brings us to the title sweeping through college football, the job that didn’t exist two years ago and is suddenly the hottest position in the sport. The general manager. In sports, a GM was always thought of in the professional context. They are high on the pecking order, often heavily involved in hiring and firing coaches, drafting players, choosing players to sign, deciding who to cut, making trades, negotiating contracts, etc.
For decades, none of that was necessary in college athletics. But as NIL and the transfer portal continue to dictate how rosters are assembled, some college football programs have decided that they need a general manager. They don’t just want someone who handles recruiting, but someone to do all that other stuff, too.
