🧵 The biggest challenge in college athletics isn’t NIL or recruiting. It’s the cost of managing people, systems, and chaos behind the scenes. Here’s what it really looks like 👇

The programs that run the smoothest aren’t the ones with the biggest staffs. They’re the ones where ops, academics, medical, and coaches stay aligned without chasing each other all week. Alignment is the hidden competitive edge in college athletics.

The turnover gap between ops and coaching staff in college athletics is widening fast. #NCAA

For anyone working in college athletics, what’s the one task that eats up your time every week but shouldn’t? 👇

We’re talking with coaches, ops directors, and advisors about where communication actually breaks. If you’ve lived this, reply or DM. Your story matters. 👇

Here’s the truth: College athletics doesn’t have a people problem. It has a visibility problem. When the systems lag, the people pay.

Academic advisors in Division I programs report chronic stress and role overload across multiple teams. It’s not just ops. It’s the culture. 📊 Source: NACADA Journal (2024)

One missed update. 😨 One outdated sheet. 📋 One late text. 💬 Multiply that by 20 sports, 500 athletes, and 100 staff. That’s where the hours disappear.

Burnout doesn’t come from caring too much. It comes from caring without control. When systems don’t communicate, your people become the system.

Turnover in collegiate athletics has hit 48% over two years…Nearly double higher-ed averages. That’s not bad luck. That’s a broken system. 📊 Source: NCAA Athletic Workforce Report (2024)

Disengagement risk among college athletics staff jumped from 61% to 78% in just a few years. Workload and complexity are the silent crisis. 📊 Source: Athletic Director U, Administrative Burnout Study (2025)

Ops staff don’t clock out. Practice ends, but the work doesn’t. Travel. ✈️ Academics. 📚 Compliance. 📝 Training. 🏃‍♂️ The job keeps moving long after the whistle blows.

Burnout in college athletics isn’t about effort. It’s about the environment. Here’s what’s really driving it 👇

Nearly 60 percent of athletics operations staff report burnout within two years. It isn’t the work. It’s the workload created by disconnected systems. 📊 Source: Athletic Director U, Administrative Burnout Study (2025)

We’re talking with coaches, ops directors, advisors, and trainers about where communication actually breaks. If you’ve lived this, reply or DM. We want to hear your story. 👇

Here’s the truth: College athletics isn’t failing because people aren’t committed. It’s failing because information doesn’t flow the way the sport does, fast and without excuses.

Ops staff report making 200 to 300 micro-decisions a day during peak season. Most of them are avoidable. They exist because the system isn’t connected. (Source: ADU Ops Cognitive Load Study, 2025)

This is why game weeks can add unnecessary stress. Programs are operating on effort instead of information. Everyone is working hard, but not always on the right thing.

According to recent NCAA operations surveys, over 70% of weekly decisions require input from 3 or more departments. That means every slow update multiplies the workload instantly. (Source: NCAA D1 Ops & Logistics Review, 2024)

Then travel ✈️ Hotels. Per diem. Schedules. Buses. One change, even a tiny one, triggers a ripple across 10 to 20 people who now have to update their version of the plan. That’s how double-work starts.

🏋️Strength and conditioning has their own system. Training logs. Attendance. Effort tracking. If anything changes, they send it out manually. If someone misses it, the whole daily plan gets thrown off.