Campbell coach's departure a troubling omen for college athletics

Andrzejek, who graduated from Columbia in 2013 and previously acted as the university's director of basketball operations from 2014-16, returned from the Florida Gators, where he served as an assistant on the program's 2025 national championship team. In his lone season as Campbell coach, the Fighting Camels went 16-18 and finished ninth in the Coastal Athletic Association.

Per basketball analyst Jeff Goodman, Andrzejek is accepting a role as Louisville Cardinals associate head coach.

In a blunt assessment announcing his departure, he wrote, "There are no pathways that the institution will support to fund the program appropriately moving forward."

We've seen coaches, most prominently in college football, in recent seasons leave head-coaching gigs for assistant jobs, but that was generally more due to the transfer portal leaving coaches with less time to focus on their primary job responsibility. It's also not uncommon for coaches to leave one program for another that promises to invest more resources. 

What's rare, however, is for a departing coach to flat out say his former employer has "no pathway" to contending in the modern era.

Campbell, a private institution with 2,699 undergraduate students, per US News, is one of several smaller universities that will have tough decisions to make about athletics funding as revenue share takes hold.

A month after the June 2025 House v. NCAA settlement that paved the way for schools to directly pay athletes, Campbell released a statement to The News & Observer, which read in part, "The House settlement is one of the biggest changes ever to college athletics. Through this process, Campbell has planned and prepared, and as a result, our department is stable and poised for growth."

Those comments came after slashes made to the wrestling program in October 2024 in preparation of the rev share model being approved, with the university telling ABC 11 in a statement, "Like many smaller colleges and universities across the nation — we have been evaluating our operational expenses and have made some strategic decisions to ensure the future of this great institution."

Coming directly from a power conference program, Andrzejek knows the type of investment it takes to field a competitive roster. Smaller universities will never be able to match the big dogs, and that may only lead to more coaching exits as the disparity deepens. If these schools are unable to attract and retain promising coaches, the product will suffer, impacting ticket sales, which affects revenue. It's a vicious cycle with no clear off-ramp.

For Campbell and other small mid-majors, Wednesday served as a warning. In this era of college sports, they might not have a seat at the table.