Longtime ESPN insider and newsbreaker Adrian Wojnarowski announced Wednesday that he’s retiring from ESPN and returning to his alma mater, St. Bonaventure, as general manager of the Bonnies men’s basketball program.

So, uh … what exactly does that mean?

The job of a college basketball general manager — and even the specific title — varies dramatically from school to school, which should be expected considering how new the concept is. After all, Duke’s Rachel Baker was the first such hire in the sport’s history, and that was only in May 2022, shortly after Jon Scheyer replaced retiring head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Baker’s hiring, at the time, sent shockwaves throughout the industry, especially given her background at Nike and with the WNBA. More schools, like DePaul and Howard, followed shortly thereafter, taking advantage of new NCAA rules that allowed for larger coaching and support staffs.

GO DEEPER

Adrian Wojnarowski leaves ESPN to become GM for St. Bonaventure men’s hoops

But this offseason, the trend of college programs hiring general managers grew to new levels. Syracuse, Arizona and Butler, among others, have made similar additions, under a variety of job titles. Arizona’s Matt King, for example, is officially the Wildcats president of basketball…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

During the season in this space, we often like to begin with a bit of pop culture or history or some other random bit of nonsense unrelated to college basketball. So, uh, is it OK if we just do that for the entirety of this final installment?

Because we’re going to be totally transparent here. For the first time in six years of making mock brackets for The Athletic, we go into Selection Sunday with no earthly idea of what the selection committee is going to do. Oh, sure, there are always small surprises, but for the most part, the field is obvious except for maybe one slot.

Not this year. After one of the wildest Championship Week Saturdays we can remember, which included two power-conference bid thieves and a still-hard-to-believe outcome in the American, we find ourselves utterly confused by the bubble. And whether North Carolina will hold on to that final No. 1 seed or if surging Iowa State will take it. At least we’re not alone:

Been doing this since 2006. It’s never been this hard for the committee, not only because of how close so many of these teams are, but because of the…