The Oklahoma Sooners have become the gold standard in this new era. The Sooners have built an incredible front office led by general manager Jim Nagy and an elite recruiting staff.
Nagy has a long history as an NFL scout before becoming the director of the Senior Bowl. His job is to make life easier for head coach Brent Venables and the coaching staff. No longer does Venables have to worry about the business side of the NIL era. Instead, he can focus on what he does best: coaching.
NFL draft guru Todd McShay revealed that teams across college football are looking at Oklahoma as the model for this new era.
"What Jim Nagy is doing for that program as the general manager at Oklahoma, they have built the model," McShay said on the 'Brandon Walker College
Football Show.' "I can tell you now, because I'm dealing with a lot of these GMs in college. That front office for the Oklahoma Sooners is the model that everyone's chasing right now. Everything that was pitched from Michael Lombardi and Bill Belichick about the 33rd NFL team, it's what actually is going on in Norman."
The praise from McShay highlights just how much the structure of a college football program has changed. With NIL, revenue sharing, the transfer portal and roster management becoming increasingly important, coaches can no longer be expected to handle every aspect of building a team.
That's where Nagy's background becomes particularly valuable for Oklahoma. His experience evaluating players at the NFL level gives the Sooners a front-office perspective that traditionally hasn't existed in college football. Instead of asking Venables to be the head coach, chief recruiter, roster manager and personnel executive all at once, Oklahoma has created a structure that divides those responsibilities.
That approach also gives the Sooners another advantage when it comes to identifying talent. Oklahoma can evaluate high school recruits, transfer portal players and its own roster through a more centralized personnel operation.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X (formerly known as Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on X @jaronspor.
This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Oklahoma is the gold standard in college football
