'People invest in CEOs': How Dusty May's job has changed since he became a head coach

Michigan Wolverines basketball head coach Dusty May said during his introductory press conference in March 2024 that he spent 25 percent of his time on NIL. Now that NIL has become even more prominent and revenue sharing has officially begun in college sports, there’s a chance that percentage has further increased.

May was a longtime assistant coach, serving in that role at Eastern Michigan (2005-06), Murray State (2006-07), UAB (2007-09), Louisiana Tech (2009-15) and Florida (2015-18). In 2018, he became the head coach at Florida Atlantic, which at the time was categorized as one of the worst jobs in college basketball, and grew the program to Final Four heights.

Florida Atlantic went from not needing any pay-for-play funding ahead of the 2023 season to scrambling to garner donations after that season’s Final Four — and with that May’s job description changed. Once he took the job in Ann Arbor, more adjustments were needed due to the scale, with Michigan being one of the most storied programs in the sport’s history.

“Just the role definition of my job,” May said of the differences on a podcast appearance with Curry Hicks Sage (which can be purchased individually for $3). “Before, there was a lot of just a purity in coaching and developing and investing in people and relationships. And now, that investment in relationships has to go in a lot of different directions.

“You’re the face of a major, one of the best universities on the planet, if not the best university on the planet, and you’re — along with football and some other sports — the front porch of that university,” May said. “There’s just a lot more other than coaching that comes with it, but our staff is bigger, we have an extremely qualified staff that makes my life coaching a lot easier and more efficient.

“But it’s just the difference in how you use your time. It’s not as if you’re spending more time; you’re just using it differently. And you’re a competitor, so the way I look at it is, what’s the best way for us to have really quality people who are the fundraising piece and I’ve studied this stuff for a couple years, because we kinda got out ahead of it at FAU because that was the infancy stages of we didn’t have any at the Final Four and we needed it quickly [after].”

Unsurprising given May’s background as a lifelong learner, the Michigan coach studied how start-up companies fundraised and found that trust in CEOs is very important.

“I studied start-up companies, because that’s where we are,” the Michigan coach explained. “The one thing I learned from the numerous books I read on tech companies in Silicon Valley and whatnot is that people invest in CEOs. When they believe in the CEO, they will give you venture capital, they’ll give you seed money. If they lose faith in the CEO, then they’re pulling their money and they’re not going to invest.”

There’s not much rest for an individual in May’s position. Just last month, he said he and his wife had their first weekend being home in Ann Arbor since the end of the season, and on a different interview following the NBA Draft revealed that his limited offseason downtime will come in August.

“I feel like as the CEO, I have to really get out in front of people and, I guess, show them our vision of what we’re building and who’s gonna represent them as people who really care about this university and athletic department, so just the role has changed,” May said.

“But if you’re a competitor, you’ve gotta figure out a way to have the best roster you can with the highest quality people. In today’s climate, that’s the way it is.

“At one point, it was, who can make the most phone calls? At another point, it was who has the most connections and who can develop players the best? So now, our jobs and responsibilities have just changed, and I don’t anticipate them ever not changing over time.”

It’s a lot of work — and less of it is on basketball — but May, who signed a contract extension in February, is enjoying his time at Michigan.

“I have a blast,” he noted. “The people you work with and who you get to coach — I love our guys. We have ambitious, hard-working players.

“The guys we inherited, these guys have done so much to make this transition smoother. They really care about people. They’re not just about themselves.

“This place attracts that, if we do a good job through our screening process and if we’re honest about our processes and recruitment.”