College sports don’t have trades, not yet, so there is no perfect comparison for the Luka Dončić-Anthony Davis swap that has the sports world buzzing and Dallas sports fans finding appreciation in the general managership of Jerry Jones.
College athletes do switch teams, quite a lot lately, and significant headlines and outcomes stretch back to Randy Moss (Notre Dame to Marshall), Jeff George (Purdue to Illinois) and Troy Aikman (Oklahoma to UCLA). How about Doc Blanchard from North Carolina to Army in 1944? Still, a coach leaving one job for another is the lifeblood of collegiate click collecting.
Here are the top 10 most stunning college sports transactions of all time, including one from a few months ago, coaches going to and from the pros and one school benefiting (or so it thought) twice.
10. Pete Carroll leaves USC for the Seattle Seahawks, 2010
By the time Carroll and the Seahawks carved out a deal after much speculation, the bombshell element had passed. Still, this was a national championship coach in command of a program at the top of the game, with a 97-19 record in his nine seasons and unsurpassed recruiting clout. And he was leaving for the league that had sent him packing more than a decade earlier. Carroll was getting out ahead of NCAA sanctions, though, sparked by a Yahoo Sports report detailing impermissible benefits given to former star running back Reggie Bush. Bush lost his Heisman Trophy, USC got hammered, and it hasn’t approached those heights since. It worked out pretty well for Carroll, at least.
9. Lincoln Riley leaves Oklahoma for USC, 2021
And by the way, honorable mention goes to Lane Kiffin leaving Tennessee for USC, shortly after Carroll bolted for Seattle. That didn’t surprise anyone, but it sure did set off a bizarre, rage-filled night on the Tennessee campus. Riley abandoning the blue-chip program he was gifted by Bob Stoops, in order to restore the Trojans, was a true shocker. A “running away from the SEC” narrative emerged, which Riley refuted. There may be something to moving from Norman, Okla., to Los Angeles. But so far, neither football program has taken well to the change.
8. Nick Saban leaves the Miami Dolphins for Alabama, 2007
This may be the most impactful coaching decision in college football history. But weeks of reporting and speculation made it seem almost inevitable by the time Saban accepted the job — 12 days after declaring, “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.” A career path that always seemed destined to end with Saban as a longtime NFL coach instead saw him go 15-17 in two seasons with the Dolphins. That followed a national championship run at LSU and preceded the Saban realization that he’d like to resume having the best players on the field in every game, thank you very much.
7. Brad Stevens leaves Butler for the Boston Celtics, 2013
Stevens was always going to leave Butler, right? It was just a question of which college hoops powerhouse was going to finally lure him away after the young coach’s wild success with the Bulldogs, including back-to-back runs to the national championship game in 2010 and 2011. He was the Indiana fan’s white whale. UCLA, Illinois and Oregon were among the schools that reportedly threw blank checks at him, despite his proclamations that he would not leave Butler for another college job. Well, he didn’t. “I’ve probably cried three times in my life. I cried three times that day,” Stevens told USA Today of his decision day. He’s now in the Celtics front office. And Indiana … may have an opening soon.
6. Steve Spurrier leaves Florida for Washington of the NFL, 2002
NFL teams had approached Spurrier previously, but it made sense for him to be a lifer at the school where he won the Heisman as a player and the 1996 national championship as head coach — part of a brilliant, brash tenure that saw him go 122-27-1. It also made sense for the NFL to be skeptical of his offense and his coaching style working in that league. That seemed to be the prevailing sentiment. But Washington owner Daniel Snyder took the bold step of offering him a record $25 million contract. It was a disaster in two seasons, primarily because of the Snyder-Spurrier relationship. Snyder kept on being a disaster. Spurrier returned to college ball and had big success at South Carolina.
5. Kim Mulkey leaves Baylor for LSU, 2021
When Mulkey made the leap to LSU, she was just shy of her 59th birthday and had spent 21 seasons at Baylor, having won three national championships and reached four Final Fours and 10 Elite Eights. She was Baylor athletics, a consistent force amid the turbulence of other programs at the school — not that her tenure was free of controversy. Rather than add to her legacy in Waco, Texas, and retire, Mulkey returned to the state where she grew up, wowing the sport. As a player, she won the first women’s NCAA title at Louisiana Tech, not LSU. But one national championship and countless ostentatious ensembles later, she’s a Tigers legend, too.
Kim Mulkey has won a national title as both a player and coach in the state of Louisiana. (Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
4. Brian Kelly leaves Notre Dame for LSU, 2021
A few months after LSU athletic director Scott Woodward left women’s basketball speechless by luring Mulkey from Baylor, he delivered a college football thunderbolt. It has not gone nearly as well, though Kelly’s attempts at sounding like a Louisianan and dancing like a TikTok influencer were tremendous. Why leave Notre Dame for LSU? Kelly framed it as if he had limitations at Notre Dame that he would not face at LSU, then watched successor Marcus Freeman lead the Fighting Irish to the national title game this season. This move goes from “stunning” to “bad” if Kelly doesn’t at least get LSU into the College Football Playoff in 2025.
3. Bret Bielema leaves Wisconsin for Arkansas, 2012
This made absolutely zero sense. Bielema had done great things at Wisconsin, three straight Rose Bowls, carrying on the consistent excellence his boss, Barry Alvarez, established in the 1990s. He was the handpicked successor and was set up for more success at a place that fit the former Iowa walk-on defensive lineman perfectly. And he left that for the SEC West?! As it turns out, Bielema and Alvarez had some disputes over staff pay. Neither is the type to back down. Bielema went 29-34 in five predictable years at Arkansas, but now he’s back in the Big Ten, happily trolling Shane Beamer in person and Jim Harbaugh on social media.
Really…. Why did you leave?
Was looking forward to playing but understand why you ran to the #NFL
See you in the future and can’t wait #famILLy #ILL https://t.co/4y7C5ecvUA
— Bret Bielema (@BretBielema) January 29, 2025
2. Bill Frieder leaves Michigan for Arizona State, 1989
This was an all-time college sports soap opera, starting with Frieder’s announcement that he would be taking the Arizona State job in March 1989 — that is, after coaching his talent-stocked team in the NCAA Tournament. But athletic director Bo Schembechler put a quick stop to that, ordering Frieder to leave immediately and proclaiming, “A Michigan man will coach Michigan.” So assistant coach Steve Fisher stepped in and coached a team that had been inconsistent all season to six wins and the national championship. Not only did Frieder not get to take part in the run, he took a massive pay cut, to about $150,000, to go to ASU. That’s how bad his relationship with Schembechler had become.
1. Bill Belichick takes his first college football coaching job, as head coach at North Carolina, 2024
A prisoner-of-the-moment choice, you say? Maybe, but this figures to stand the test of time. It’s a shocking, bizarre development, a 72-year-old coach who is chasing the all-time NFL wins record but takes a job at a perennially “meh” college football program instead. We probably aren’t talking about this if Belichick felt good about getting an NFL job. Clearly, he has the itch to coach and believes he can win big with resources. But has he noticed how many coaches, including former assistant Saban, are getting out because of the increased difficulty of managing a college roster? If Belichick has success much beyond mayonnaise baths, the “Belichick only won because of Tom Brady” narrative must die.
(Top photos of Brad Stevens, Lincoln Riley: Streeter Lecka, Brian Bahr / Getty Images)
