Dan Hurley: College basketball programs should operate like NBA teams
Monday night, UConn coach Dan Hurley met with reporters following his team’s season-ending loss to Michigan in the national championship. During is press conference, the transfer portal window opened, meaning the offseason was in full swing. Coaching staffs have been hard at work this week as players officially hit the open market following the 2025-26 campaign.
As of Wednesday night, more than 1,800 players entered the portal through a few days of the window. For UConn and Michigan, there wasn’t much time to rest after Monday’s title game. SUBSCRIBE to the On3 NIL and Sports Business Newsletter That’s why Hurley stressed the importance of front office-type positions within college basketball programs, considering coaches are fresh off the grind of the season.
He said teams should strive to operate more like those at the professional level, including the NBA. “This is terrible, right now, what’s going on,” Hurley said Thursday on The Dan Patrick Show . “It’s not terrible in the sense of NIL .
I think the NIL for the players is awesome. Our players made a lot of money this year and their commitment level was to the max. So the money didn’t make them lazy or hard to coach.
They were awesome the whole year. “I think as college programs right now, you literally have to have a front office that takes over at this point of the year. To take a coaching staff that now, did the six-month-season.