A quick note on timing: this is labeled the March 2026 update, but the data inside it is verified current as of May 7, 2026. Our update cycle ran out of sequence this round, so subscribers are getting the freshest possible snapshot under the March release name. Every number and every contact below reflects May 7, 2026 reality.
If you’re a high school athlete or recruiting parent, the coach whose email you saved three months ago may not be at that school anymore. College athletics moves faster than most families realize, and the only way to know who’s actually answering recruiting emails today is to keep the data current.
We just wrapped the latest refresh of all 38 of our college coaches databases, and the scale of change in a single update cycle is a useful snapshot of where college athletics sits right now. Here are the takeaways worth writing about, with the underlying numbers.
The headline: 4,890 verified changes across 103,000+ coaching records
The updated database tracks 103,534 coaching and support-staff records across 1,967 schools, 207 conferences, 39 sports, and all 50 U.S. states plus Washington D.C. (with additional coverage extending to the U.S. Virgin Islands and select Canadian programs). Inside that, this cycle logged:
- 1,672 new people added (new hires, promotions, fresh staff)
- 558 job changes (existing coaches in new roles)
- 132 verified email changes
- 437 phone number updates
- 2,144 coaches removed (departures, retirements, program changes)
That’s roughly one out of every 21 records that moved in a single update. A spreadsheet you bought last summer is materially out of date by spring.
Takeaway 1: Football is the engine of the coaching carousel
Football alone accounted for 523 new hires and 242 job changes this cycle — more than every other sport combined among new adds. FBS contributed 157 new hires and FCS another 92, which lines up with the late-winter staffing churn that follows bowl season and coordinator hires at the Power 4 level.
For families recruiting in football, this is the most important practical point: the position coach you contacted in November is, statistically, the most likely person in the database to have moved by spring. Verifying every football contact before the spring evaluation period isn’t optional.
Takeaway 2: Basketball hiring season is in full swing
Men’s basketball saw 203 new hires and Women’s basketball saw 187 in this cycle. That timing is not random — March and early April are when assistant coach reshuffles happen, driven by tournament outcomes, transfer-portal-related staff changes, and head coach moves.
If you’re a basketball recruit watching the portal, the staff churn around it matters just as much. The coach evaluating you in February may report to a new head coach by April.
Takeaway 3: Notable men’s and women’s basketball head coach hires
Most of the 1,672 new records are assistants, but the head coach hires are the ones that reshape a program. Here are the most notable names in this update — every one of them flagged as a brand-new hire in the database (the “x” flag, meaning a person who wasn’t in the file last cycle).
Women’s basketball
Tanisha Wright — Penn State (Big Ten). A Lady Lion alum and one of the most decorated players in program history, Wright returns to Happy Valley after a WNBA coaching career that included three seasons as head coach of the Atlanta Dream (and a 2022 AP Coach of the Year award) followed by a stint with the Chicago Sky last season. She’s the seventh head coach in program history and the first to both play and coach at Penn State. Hired in March after the firing of Carolyn Kieger.
Tammi Reiss — Florida (SEC). Florida poached Reiss from Rhode Island after she led the Rams to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 30 years and a school-record 28 wins. She’s a three-time A-10 Coach of the Year and a former Virginia All-American who played in three Final Fours alongside Dawn Staley. Tasked with rebuilding what’s been one of the SEC’s underperforming programs.
Pauline Love — Alabama (SEC). Love is a familiar face in Tuscaloosa — she spent 2024-25 as Alabama’s recruiting coordinator before going to Oklahoma as associate head coach for a season, where she helped the Sooners reach the Sweet 16. She replaces Kristy Curry, who left after 13 seasons to take the South Florida job. At 39, Love is among the youngest head coaches in the SEC.
Ayla Guzzardo — Georgia (SEC). Guzzardo just engineered the best single-season turnaround in Division I women’s basketball, taking McNeese State from 10 wins to a school-record 29 in a single season. She replaces Katie Abrahamson-Henderson at Georgia and brings a Southland Conference Coach of the Year track record from Southeastern Louisiana before that.
Aaron Roussell — Virginia (ACC). Virginia moved fast — three days after firing Amaka Agugua-Hamilton in the wake of a Sweet 16 run, the Cavaliers hired Roussell from Richmond. He posted a 148-72 record at Richmond with three straight NCAA Tournament appearances and back-to-back A-10 regular-season titles, and now takes over a Virginia program that received a “transformational” multi-year gift from Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams in 2024.
Carla Berube — Northwestern (Big Ten). Berube was one of the most successful Ivy League coaches of the past decade — 147-29 at Princeton with five straight NCAA Tournament appearances. She played on UConn’s first national championship team under Geno Auriemma in 1995. She takes over a Northwestern program that hasn’t had a winning season in five years, replacing the retiring Joe McKeown.
Kristy Curry — South Florida (AAC). Curry left Alabama after 13 seasons to take the USF job (her move is why Pauline Love is now at Alabama). She’s a veteran SEC head coach with deep recruiting connections and brings immediate credibility to a USF program that just lost head coach Jose Fernandez to the WNBA.
Men’s basketball
Justin Gainey — NC State (ACC). An NC State alum and Tennessee associate head coach under Rick Barnes for the past four seasons, Gainey takes over after Will Wade’s abrupt departure to LSU. He’ll be the Wolfpack’s third head coach in three seasons. Gainey was the lead recruiter for Tennessee’s freshman star Nate Ament and was instrumental in the Vols’ three-consecutive Elite Eight appearances.
John Groce — College of Charleston (CAA). A veteran with 18 years of head coaching experience and seven NCAA Tournament appearances, Groce comes to Charleston after nine seasons at Akron, where he won three straight MAC championships. He previously coached at Illinois (five seasons) and Ohio. The 2025 Hugh Durham Mid-Major Coach of the Year. He replaces Chris Mack, who left for South Florida.
Bryan Hodgson — Providence (Big East). Hodgson is one of the fastest-rising coaches in the sport — Providence will be his third head coaching job in four seasons. He went 45-28 over two seasons at Arkansas State, then went to South Florida and won the American Athletic Conference regular-season title in his only season. Providence athletic director Steve Napolillo specifically cited Hodgson’s analytics-driven approach and recruiting prowess (247Sports once named him the No. 2 recruiter in the country) as the reason for the hire.
Travis Ford — Arkansas-Little Rock (OVC). Ford is a well-traveled head coach with previous stops at Eastern Kentucky, UMass, Oklahoma State, and Saint Louis. The Little Rock hire is a get for the Ohio Valley Conference — Ford brings high-major head coaching experience and recruiting ties that the OVC rarely lands.
Kaleb Canales — Weber State (Big Sky). Canales brings extensive NBA experience to the Big Sky — 18 years as an NBA assistant across the Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, and Indiana Pacers, including a 23-game stint as Portland’s interim head coach in 2012 that made him the first Mexican-American head coach in NBA history. He spent last season as associate head coach at Troy, helping the Trojans reach the NCAA Tournament. Weber State alum Damian Lillard, now the program’s general manager, was a driving force behind the hire — Canales coached Lillard during his early years in Portland.
Other notable hires in the database
This update also includes new D1 head coaches at Boston College (Kate Popovec-Goss), Butler (Maria Marchesano), Texas State (Chris Kielsmeier), UCF (Gabe Lazo), Pittsburgh (Robin Harmony, women’s), Memphis (Hana Haden, women’s), Loyola Chicago (Morgan Paige), Vermont (Maureen Magarity), Richmond (replacing Roussell — see above), Quinnipiac (Roman Owen), Stetson (Melissa DeVore), High Point (Wyatt Foust), Georgia Southern (Heather Macy), and Georgia State (Marcilina Grayer) — among others. Every one is in the database with current contact information.
For recruits and families already tracking specific programs, every one of these moves means the whole staff hierarchy below the head coach is also in flux. New head coaches almost always bring assistants with them, so the position coach you’ve been emailing at any of these programs is very likely no longer there either.
Takeaway 4: Three schools closed or merged — and 238 coaches went with them
The cleanup side of an update is just as important as the additions. This cycle, 168 coaching records were removed due to school closings and 70 more due to mergers. Three specific schools account for the bulk:
- New Jersey City University (merger): 70 records removed
- Anna Maria College (closure): 54 records removed
- Trinity Christian College (closure): 44 records removed
The higher-ed closure trend is real and accelerating. Any recruiting list that doesn’t track program-level events is going to send athletes after schools that no longer exist.
One additional data point: 12 records were tagged “program ended” — sports cut at schools that are otherwise still operating, which is its own category of risk for recruits chasing niche programs. Those included the Saint Louis University men’s and women’s tennis programs, as well as the University of Arkansas’ men’s and women’s tennis programs.
Takeaway 5: D1 isn’t the only level moving — and most of the database isn’t D1
Of the 1,672 new hires logged, 717 were at NCAA Division I (including FBS and FCS), but 324 came from D3, 304 from D2, and 134 from NAIA. Junior college additions totaled another 193 across all JuCo levels (NJCAA D1/D2/D3, CCCAA, and NWAC).
The recruiting media focuses on D1 hires because that’s where the famous names move. But for the average high-school athlete — who is statistically far more likely to play at the D2, D3, NAIA, or JuCo level than D1 — those 955 sub-D1 staff changes are the ones that actually matter for their list. A current contact at a D3 program is worth more than an out-of-date contact at a Power 4 school you’ll never be recruited by.
Takeaway 6: Assistants move more than head coaches — by a wide margin
Among new hires this cycle, the position breakdown looked like this:
- Assistant Coach (generic): 567
- Head Coach: 272
- Volunteer Assistant Coach: 49
- Graduate Assistant: 45
- Director of Operations: 45
- Position-specific football assistants (DL, OL, WR, RB, DB, ST, QB): roughly 175 combined
Assistants are usually the person actually answering recruiting emails, watching film, and replying to questionnaires — not the head coach. The fact that assistant turnover is roughly double head coach turnover means the “who should I email” answer changes far more often than the “who runs the program” answer. Recruiting outreach lists need to be built around the assistant rolodex, and that rolodex moves.
What this means for the spring recruiting season
The practical implication of this much movement, all at once, is simple: if you’re sending recruiting emails this spring with a contact list pulled before May 2026, you’re working with a list where roughly 1 in 21 records has changed and a meaningful share of your “no reply” emails are going to people who no longer hold that job.
The March 2026 update to our databases — current as of May 7, 2026 — is live for current subscribers. New subscribers get the updated file as soon as they sign up, plus the monthly refresh going forward.
Frequently asked questions
How often is the college coaches database updated?
They are updated on a monthly cycle. This March 2026 release is verified current as of May 7, 2026.
How many college coaches are in the database?
103,534 coaching and support-staff records across 1,967 schools, 207 conferences, and 39 sports — covering NCAA Division I (FBS and FCS), Division II, Division III, NAIA, and every level of junior college (NJCAA, CCCAA, NWAC).
Which sports had the most coaching changes in March 2026?
Football led with 523 new hires and 242 job changes. Men’s basketball (203 new hires) and women’s basketball (187 new hires) followed, reflecting the typical March-April hiring window after tournament season.
Which schools closed or merged?
New Jersey City University (closing/merging), Anna Maria College (closing), and Trinity Christian College (closing) — accounting for 238 coaching records removed in total.
Do you cover Division II, Division III, NAIA, and junior college coaches?
Yes. Of the 1,672 new hires in this cycle, 955 were below the Division I level — more than the 717 D1 additions. Every division is updated on the same monthly cycle.
