The September 2026 update to our coaching databases is out to subscribers, and alongside August it’s one of the two largest cycles of the year: 9,963 change events across 1,993 schools and all 39 sports in the file. Where August was a fall-sport buildout story, September is something different — a sweeping, every-level, every-sport refresh. Nearly 78% of every school in our database had at least one coaching change this month.
The Numbers
Across the full September update:
- 6,265 new coaches added
- 3,535 removals
- 68 job changes, 83 email updates, 26 phone updates
- 9,963 total change events — second only to August’s 11,370 this year
Combined with August, that’s over 21,000 coaching changes across just two months. The in-season coaching landscape has turned over more in the past 60 days than it did in the entire first quarter of the year.
Every Sport Was Touched
For the first time all year, every single one of the 39 sports in our file had new coaches added — from football and basketball at the top of the volume charts all the way down to men’s gymnastics (5 new hires across 47 database rows). 23 sports had 50 or more new hires, and 21 sports crossed 100.
The volume leaders:
- Football: 842 changes, including 570 new hires
- Baseball: 731 changes, 443 new hires, 23 new head coaches
- Men’s Basketball: 676 changes, 454 new hires
- Men’s Soccer: 636 changes, 416 new hires
- Women’s Track: 627 changes, 378 new hires
- Men’s Track: 606 changes, 367 new hires
- Women’s Soccer: 552 changes, 388 new hires
- Women’s Basketball: 538 changes, 350 new hires, 30 new head coaches
- Softball: 518 changes, 318 new hires, 42 new head coaches — the largest HC class of any sport this month
- Women’s Volleyball: 501 changes, 323 new hires
63% of All New Hires Were Assistant Coaches
The composition of September’s changes is the most assistant-heavy we’ve tracked. Of the 6,265 new coaches added, 3,984 — nearly 64% — were assistant coaches. This is the depth-build month: head coaches hired in June, July, and August are now finalizing their benches, winter sports (basketball, wrestling, swimming) are stocking staffs ahead of competition, and fall programs mid-season are patching in replacements.
The full composition of September’s new-hire breakdown:
- Assistant Coaches: 3,984 (63.6%)
- Graduate Assistants: 873 (13.9%)
- Head Coaches: 497 (7.9%)
- Volunteer Coaches: 453 (7.2%)
- Directors of Operations and other Directors: 227 (3.6%)
- Coordinators: 101 (1.6%)
- Associate Head Coaches: 45 (0.7%)
- Recruiting Analysts and Personnel: 16 (0.3%)
Every Division Level Was Touched
The volume distribution:
- NCAA DIII: 2,107 new hires (34%) — the largest share of any division
- NCAA D1 (including FBS and FCS): 1,419 new hires (23%)
- NCAA DII: 1,099 new hires (18%)
- JuCo (all leagues combined): 890 new hires (14%)
- NAIA: 743 new hires (12%)
If you recruit at the DIII, DII, or NAIA level — where most of the actual scholarship-and-roster conversations happen outside the Power 4 — roughly 63% of this month’s changes landed in your target range.
The Structural Exits
September’s removals weren’t just coaches moving between schools. The file also captured five institutional-level exits that permanently reshape the recruiting landscape:
- Siena Heights University (Michigan, NAIA) closes at the end of the 2025–2026 academic year after 105 years. 67 coaching contacts across 26 sports were removed from the database.
- Oakland City University (Indiana, NAIA) is closing. 33 contacts across all sports removed.
- University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis and University of Valley Forge each had 26 contacts removed as athletic programs ended.
- Rosemont College had 13 contacts removed.
- Simon Fraser University, the only Canadian school in the NCAA, is leaving the NCAA and returning to U Sports (Canada’s university athletics system) for 2027–28. 28 Simon Fraser contacts across 16 sports were removed.
All told, 193 coaching contacts were removed this month solely because the school or athletic program is no longer competing. If any of those programs were on your target list, this update is the clean break.
Why It Matters
Most monthly updates have a single center of gravity — a cascade in one sport, a staff shuffle at one program, a seasonal cycle in one group. September doesn’t. It’s a cross-sport, cross-division, cross-role update that touched 78% of the schools in our file. If you’re a recruit at any level in any sport, there is a non-trivial chance your target list needs a refresh this week.
Two months in a row of nearly-10,000-change cycles. The college athletics coaching landscape has rarely moved faster.
Browse our coaching databases by sport →
ContactCollegeCoaches.com updates its college coaching contact databases every month. The September 2026 update is live now for existing subscribers.
