This is the final week of our 2026 Candid Coaches feature. College basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander surveyed nearly 100 men's Division I coaches in the thick of the offseason; as always, interviewees were given the promise of anonymity in a swap for honest and enlightening answers on a medley of topics. Links to all previous questions are at the bottom of this story. This is the last entry of this year's series.
"Who is in charge?"
Talk to any college basketball coach over the past few years, in person or on the phone, basically about anything, and, at some point, the conversation typically turns to the so-called state of the game. Players are bouncing from one campus to another (and often another and another) via unprecedented transfer numbers while using agents to secure paydays previously unrealized or even allowed. Former professionals, even NBA Draft picks, are circling back to college with the help of savvy attorneys and friendly local judges, sometimes even to the chagrin of the conferences they're trying to join. At least one league, you might've heard, is actually suing one of its own members and football coaches right now in federal court.
The term "chaos" gets thrown around a lot.
"Who is in charge?"
It's often a rhetorical question when coaches ask it, more of an expression of frustration than an actual inquiry. But, given where we're at with things -- i.e., now less than two months from the start of the season with no clear idea of exactly which players will and will not be eligible -- Matt Norlander and I decided to ask roughly 100 coaches the following question:
Who is the most powerful person in college basketball?
Greg Sankey (SEC commissioner)25%The agents23%The lawyers9%The judges8%No one6%Jay Bilas (ESPN analyst)5%John Calipari (Arkansas coach)5%Jon Scheyer (Duke coach)4%Dan Gavitt (NCAA SVP of Basketball)3%Tom Izzo (Michigan State coach)2%Tony Petitti (Big Ten commissioner)2%Rick Pitino (St. John's coach)2%Donald Trump (President of the United States)2%Various others4%Quotes that stood out
On Greg Sankey
- "He has as much influence as anyone in college athletics -- and has been at the forefront of navigating all of the changes involving NIL, lawsuits, eligibility and the future structure of college sports."
- "He's the most powerful person in college sports. He doesn't always assert himself with basketball. But when he does it moves the needle. Many of the significant changes that have occurred (like tournament expansion) can be traced to him."
- "Basketball will always follow football. Money is power -- and [Sankey] runs a league with a lot of both."
On the agents
- "They determine the market. They are the reason we have to go to our athletic directors constantly asking for more money. They have the ability to impact the mentality of players, which then impacts their teammates and coaches. You used to build relationships with parents, but those conversations are now happening through the agents. They can lead a player to sit out of games or practices, to have a surgery, to shut things down, etc. The president of the NCAA, the conference commissioners, the ADs and presidents, they have the ability to set the rules, but the actual behavior and demands of the people you interact with daily are influenced by agents. That makes those agents the most powerful as long as the current system is in place."
- "I don't like it. None of us do. But I have to say the agents. It's their job to get their players the best opportunities. Some of the conversations I've had this year with a couple have been really difficult to [accept]. These guys are dictating so much of what's happening."
- "Right now, they're the ones helping set the market for NIL deals. And because players can effectively become free agents every year, agents have an enormous amount of influence over roster movement. In many cases, they're already working on a player's next destination well before the current season is over."
On John Calipari
- "He's the last of the old guard. He and [Kansas coach Bill] Self to a certain extent, and I know they worked together with Larry Brown back in the day. He, along with [Purdue coach] Matt Painter, have probably done the best job of trying to organize coaches to fix some of these issues. He works behind the scenes. When he's at events, he's trying to get coaches together and get us on the same page to try and fix this thing. ... He still wants to be in the fight. He's not running from this shit like so many of the older guys are."
On Jon Scheyer
- "Just seems like he is a great coach, good ambassador for the game, young enough to assume he will be in college basketball for a long time, gets who he wants in recruiting in arguably the best job in the country. He doesn't have the résumé that Hurley, Painter, Self, Izzo, etc. have. But he is the young buck in the room who has a great way about him with the media, recruiting, coaching, etc."
On Donald Trump
- "He holds the power right now in that if a bill gets to his desk, he signs and changes the sport once again "
The takeaway
The combination of agents, lawyers and judges accounting for 40% of the vote underlines how coaches feel about the current state of things -- specifically that many believe, for the first time ever, that most big developments are now being orchestrated by people who don't even technically work in the sport. The agents largely control player-retention and player-movement, the lawyers are great at blurring the lines between who is and isn't eligible, and the judges in various states actually ruling on these things tend to do whatever would be popular with the football and basketball fans who happen to live in their surrounding areas.
The CBS Sports preseason Top 25 And 1 is a mess!
As you might know, I update those rankings as often as necessary each offseason -- and I'm up to Version 26 so far. In recent versions, I've been reduced to having to explain that I don't really know whether some of these fifth-year players committed to prominent programs are going to wear uniforms this season -- because nobody does, not even the coaches signing them with promises of big paydays, sometimes even in the millions of dollars.
Yes, it'll all get worked-out in time, I think. But the fact that the season starts just eight weeks from Monday, and many rosters still have big questions lingering, is kinda crazy. And if you were hoping there is one person -- one man or woman, either inside or outside of the sport -- who moves the needle in meaningful ways, well, the coaches we spoke with don't believe such a person exists.
"Not sure there is one," one coach told me. "[That's] part of the issue. Who do we go to?"
For what it's worth, Greg Sankey is the person who got the most individual votes -- roughly one out of every four, mostly because he's the commissioner of the SEC, which is still largely viewed as the most powerful conference even if the Big Ten is the league winning the biggest trophies lately. Speaking of, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti is the only other commissioner to get a vote. A common sentiment we heard is that, whether it's Sankey or Petitti, it's definitely their leagues that are running things.
"The future of how college athletics look in one year, three years, five years and 10-plus years depends on how the Big Ten and SEC navigate the ever-changing landscape," one coach said.
Which kind of hammers home the larger point.
Yes, everybody agrees that the SEC and Big Ten carry the biggest sticks among conferences, and the coaches surveyed believe Sankey is the single most powerful individual connected to college basketball. And yet, literally right now, Sankey is being challenged by at least one of his own members and coaches, and watching his conference lose cases in court. Put another way, the so-called most powerful person in college basketball is struggling, in real time, simply to control LSU.
That's where we're at in college athletics -- where even the most powerful people often find themselves getting pushed around these days, leading to a situation where uncertainty rules and confusion lingers. Also, it's probably notable on some level that NCAA president Charlie Baker received zero votes. Once upon time, the person with that job had incredible power. Now, when we asked roughly 100 coaches to name the person with the most power, literally nobody said the president of the NCAA.
"Not one person said Charlie Baker?" asked one coach. "See, that's a problem. The president of the NCAA doesn't have a vote. He can't get shit done because any rule he puts in gets beat down in court."
Other 2026 Candid Coaches questions
- Do you support 2026 seniors being grandfathered into the five-in-five-rule?
- Who will be the best player for the 2026-27 season?
- Who will be the best college hoops team in 2026-27?
- Who was the best coaching hire in the offseason?
- Will an expanded 76-team NCAA tourney lead to more or less job security for coaches?
- Have you ever seriously wondered if one of your players was compromised because of gambling?
- How many games should there be in CBB's regular season?
- Who is the best college basketball team of the 21st century?
