As college sports become more like a professional entity, the Arkansas Razorbacks hired an accomplished NBA scouting director, Remy Cofield, to serve as the general manager of their athletic departments.
Arkansas Hires Boston Celtics Director of Scouting Remy Cofield As the GM of Razorbacks Athletic Department
The landscape of college sports is changing with the advent of the transfer portal, NIL, and conference realignment. As the landscape changes, so too do athletic departments.
The changes have resulted in college sports more closely resembling pro sports, with the transfer portal seemingly turning into free agency and NIL deals essentially being contracts.
Past changes—and potential future changes—with conference realignment further complicate things such as TV deals, travel, and maintaining the reality of “student” athletes.
The Arkansas athletic department made a move today to help them transition all sports into the new world that college sports has become. Jon Rothstein for CBS Sports first reported the news.
Remy Cofield, now the former Boston Celtics Director of Scouting, had served in that role since 2020.
He had major success in that role as the Celtics became one of the best teams in the NBA. During his tenure, the Celtics traded for guards Derrick White and Jrue Holiday to pair with their star forwards Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
White and Holiday proved to be an excellent tandem on both ends of the court, suffocating opposing players on defense and showcasing their long-range shooting on the offensive side. Those key moves—which aren’t cleared without the scouting department’s opinion being heard—were a huge reason behind the Celtics’ winning the 2024 NBA Championship.
Now, with the NBA playoffs nearing and Boston still looking extremely strong, Cofield has decided to leave his position and become the GM of Arkansas Sports, a new job that showcases how far college sports have come.
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But he’s not the first; the North Carolina Tar Heels hired former NFL scout Michael Lombardi as the head of their football program, while the St. Bonaventure Bonnies hired former ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski as the head of their basketball program.
Cofield is still among the first wave of college sports GMs to be hired, and there are likely many more to come.
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