Mississippi State football is looking to rebound in an era of uncertainty over the future of college athletics. A team that typically doesn’t recruit at the level of many Southeastern Conference peers is now tackling the newest foils in recruiting, particularly name, image and likeness compensation and revenue sharing.
Beyond the external challenges now facing all athletic departments, MSU’s transition was even more complicated due to seismic changes in team and administrative personnel, complicating an already precarious period for MSU football.
From 2022-2024, the Bulldogs had three head football coaches, all with different philosophies. Athletic Director Zac Selmon arrived in 2023 to replace Auburn-bound John Cohen – amid those changes – after Zach Arnett had been elevated in the wake of Mike Leach’s passing. Arnett was fired during his first season as head coach, and Selmon brought in Jeff Lebby to lead the program.
Lebby had his own struggles in 2024, overseeing rapid roster changeover, availability issues and injuries in a lackluster debut season.
Selmon acknowledged the difficulty of navigating that time and the position it put the program in.
“To build programs takes consistency over time,” he said. “For a variety of reasons, we didn’t have a lot of consistency over time. We knew we needed somebody to come in and give a spark in a short period. As we went through the season, clearly 2-10 wasn’t the standard of Mississippi State football. It’s a recognition of: Where are we as a program? What do we need? What’s the infrastructure we need in this era?”
A major change in the sport has been the introduction of general managers who can handle recruiting duties as well as administrative coordination of the team.
Enter Marc Votteler, an associate athletic director and football general manager.
Votteler arrived alongside Lebby in 2024 after stints overseeing player personnel duties at Alabama, Marshall and Ohio State, where he helped assemble much of the Buckeyes’ 2024 national championship roster.
“It changes daily, as you can probably tell from all these executive orders and changes,” Votteler said when asked about his duties. “It’s all encompassing with roster management. Everything from high school recruiting, transfer portal, to everything with rev share… Just trying to manage and oversee everything with roster retention, roster management, recruiting, all of it.”
The position isn’t new in recruiting coordination terms, but the position’s importance has grown as recruiting standards and responsibilities have become more complex post-NIL, and now with revenue sharing.
With the 2025 revenue-sharing cap set at $20.5 million, MSU athletics had to determine how best to distribute that money among its student-athletes. Much of that responsibility falls to Votteler, but he’s taken pointers from cap management in the National Football League.
“Because it’s so new to college, I went through NFL breakdowns, how they’ve broken down position groups in years past, just to get a baseline for it,” Votteler said.
NFL models allocate salary cap space by position, with quarterbacks allocated the highest percentage of the cap as the most important position, followed typically by pass rushers, defensive linemen and wide receivers all the way down to kickers, long snappers and fullbacks.
It’s a challenge for Votteler, but he’s enjoyed navigating a new aspect of team building at the college level. He noted that while some schools have reworked contracts and player agreements, MSU had a “smooth transition” without changing theirs.
Throughout 2024, Selmon and Votteler were focused on preparations for the new reality. Because the details of the House v. NCAA settlement were well known, senior leadership was able to establish a department-wide approach by the time changes went into effect.
The department sought advice from Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti on running a small-market franchise, sought advice from NFL models on player retention and roster building strategies, and brought in Mitch Moser and Greg Phillips to oversee finances and talent management, respectively.
“I’m overjoyed with the progress we’ve made in that area,” Selmon said of their preparations and application of changes. “That’s something that is going to constantly evolve, but your commitment is to make sure that we continue to be at the forefront of everything that we’re doing.”
The talk around money won’t end just yet, but the real football returns in two weeks. After a season to forget in 2024, the department and team have shown confidence in their offseason approach to rebuilding the roster and retaining leadership in key positions. All that’s left now is to let the games begin.
“To sign over 50 new players, the most complete class in the history of Mississippi State football, coming off of a tough season, a season that’s so far beyond where we know we need to be, it says a lot about who Coach Lebby is as far as a connector and a relationship builder,” Selmon told The Dispatch. “(He is) somebody who knows the game at an elite level, and an elite-level motivator of talent.”
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