Every April, the NCAA Men’s Final Four puts a spotlight on the coaches who made it there. What most people don’t see is the work that happens behind the scenes. One analysis found that 98 clubs cycled through 170 head coaches in a single season.1 That kind of turnover breaks organizations that never had a plan for what comes next.
Athletic directors and front office leaders are already asking themselves: Who’s next? Not just on the court, but across marketing, operations, development, and executive leadership.
Here’s how to answer that question before a vacancy forces your hand.
What Is Succession Planning?
Succession planning is knowing who steps into critical roles before those roles become vacant. Not just coaches, but also athletic directors, senior administrators, department heads, and revenue leaders. Basically, all the people who keep the organization running when everything else is moving fast.
Most organizations think they have a plan. Instead, what they have is a list of names, and names are not a plan.
A plan means you’ve defined what success looks like in that role.
You’ve identified people who fit your culture. You’ve developed them. You’ve confirmed they’re ready. A list without that work is just false confidence, which collapses the moment you need to act.
Why Plan at All? 3 Reasons to Start Today
In collegiate athletics, turnover has reached nearly 48% over a two-year period in Division I programs.2 This is how quickly organizations can lose institutional knowledge when leadership pipelines aren’t in place.
Unfortunately, most organizations don’t prioritize succession planning until a resignation or retirement forces their hand. By then, the timeline is already compressed and the options are limited. Here’s why starting now matters more than most leaders realize.
1. Panic Hiring Produces the Same Problems Every Time
Without clear culture and fit criteria, succession planning is just a dressed-up version of reactive hiring. You end up choosing from whoever’s available rather than whoever is right. The result is the same cycle of mis-hires, short tenures, and repeated searches. Starting early gives you time to define what you’re actually looking for and to find people who match it.
2. Leadership Depth Is More Than a List of Names
Having a succession document doesn’t mean you have leadership depth. Real depth means you’ve identified talent who are ready, developed them intentionally, and confirmed that they fit your culture. It means you’ve done the work to understand their strengths, gaps, and growth trajectory.
3. Succession Gaps Reveal Culture Problems
The roles you struggle to fill often expose something deeper. If your organization can’t develop internal successors for certain positions, ask why. Is it a lack of investment in development? A culture that pushes high-potential talent away? Unclear expectations that make growth paths invisible?
Succession gaps are a signal worth investigating.
5 Steps to Build Leadership Depth with Succession Planning
Leadership depth doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through discipline. Start early. Stay consistent. Here’s where to start.
1. Define Culture and Fit Criteria Before a Role Opens
Don’t wait for a vacancy to figure out what you need. What leadership qualities matter in this role? Find out what working style fits your environment or what kind of person thrives.
Document it now. Use it later.
2. Identify Critical Roles and Their Risk Level
Not every role carries equal weight. Which positions create the most disruption if left vacant? How prepared are you to fill them? Map it out. Prioritize succession work around high-risk, low-readiness roles.
3. Develop Internal Talent Intentionally
High-potential people don’t become successors by accident. Give them stretch assignments, mentorship, and visibility into how decisions get made.
Create opportunities for them to demonstrate readiness before the pressure is on. Development takes time, so start before you need the results.
4. Maintain External Relationships Year-Round
Internal development alone isn’t enough. Stay connected with external talent who could be a fit for your organization down the line.
This is about building genuine relationships so you have options when the time comes. Organizations that do this well never start a search from zero.
5. Partner with Specialists Who Start Earlier and Look Deeper
Building and maintaining leadership depth takes time most sports organizations don’t have. Working with a partner like Peak Scouts keeps you three moves ahead.
We help organizations define culture and fit criteria. We identify ready-now talent. We build pipelines that deliver when it matters. The work has been happening long before a role opens.
Ready to stay three moves ahead?
Championship organizations don’t wait for departures to ask who’s next. They treat succession planning as a culture discipline and invest in leadership depth before they need it.
Peak Scouts helps sports organizations build pipelines grounded in culture and fit—not just credentials. When you’re ready to stop reacting and start leading, we’re ready to help you draft your next hire.
References
- “Leaders Report – Succession in Sport: Future Proofing through Planning and Development.” Leaders, 16 May 2024, leadersinsport.com/sport-business/reports/leaders-report-succession-in-sport-future-proofing-through-planning-and-development/.
- “Why Employees Are Fleeing the College Athletics Industry.” Yahoo, 14 Sept. 2022, sports.yahoo.com/why-employees-fleeing-college-athletics-124500611.html.
