SPECIAL GUEST POST FROM DAN CHRISTIENSEN
For tuition-driven institutions, athletics is often a primary lever for enrollment. When a search committee doesn’t prioritize recruiting and cultural systems, they often inadvertently sign off on a multi-year financial deficit.
As an Athletic Director, you aren’t just hiring a strategist; you are hiring a revenue driver and a culture architect. Here are the three major consequences of failing to get that hire right.
1. The Revenue Gap: The Cost of an Empty Roster
At small colleges, roster management is a Finance and Enrollment KPI, not just an athletic one. A coach who cannot recruit, or cannot retain, creates a revenue gap that you cannot “expense-cut” your way out of mid-year.
Based on industry benchmarks from Ruffalo Noel Levitz, the “Net Revenue” (tuition, room, and board) for a single student-athlete can hover around $23,500 annually.
- 5 Athletes Short: $117,500 loss per year.
- 10 Athletes Short: $235,000 loss per year.
When you factor in the “lifetime value” of a student (average 2.5–3 years of retention), a single coach who misses their numbers by 5 recruits has effectively cost the institution well over $250,000.
2. Reputational Contagion: Culture as a Liability
A coach who recruits for “talent over fit” or lacks the discipline to manage a locker room creates a “problem team” label that spreads through a campus and conference like wildfire.
One season of poor conduct, internal cliques, or public disciplinary issues doesn’t just hurt the win-loss record; it damages the school’s brand.
- Recruiting Death Spiral: High-character recruits stop looking at your program because of its reputation, forcing the coach to recruit even higher-risk “fillers.”
- Operational Burnout: Your athletic trainers, housing staff, and Title IX officers spend their time “putting out fires” instead of building the department.
- Scheduling Friction: When other coaches in your region lose respect for your program’s culture, you lose the ability to build a quality, local schedule.
3. The “Time Tax”: The AD’s Most Expensive Resource
The most underestimated cost of a bad hire is the Administrative Time Tax. An Athletic Director’s job is to be a strategic leader, fundraiser, and visionary. A bad hire turns you into a babysitter.
A dysfunctional coach requires:
- Constant “mentorship” that feels more like basic remediation.
- Time-consuming meetings with disgruntled parents and campus safety.
- The exhausting, expensive process of a mid-year termination and the subsequent search for a replacement.
A bad hire doesn’t just fail at their job, they prevent you from doing yours.
The Bottom Line
At the small-college level, you can recover from a losing season. You cannot easily recover from a coach who undermines the school’s financial stability and cultural integrity. High-performance hiring isn’t a luxury, it’s a prerequisite for institutional health.
Dan Christensen is the Director of Collegiate Consulting for Bechler Leadership. Founded by Jamy Bechler in 2018, Bechler Leadership helps schools, athletic departments, and organizations build stronger cultures and maximize their potential. In the last two years, they’ve worked on 40+ searches, specializing in meeting the needs of “smaller” colleges. Dan can be reached at dan@bechlerleadership.com.