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Retained search

A head coach search run by people who have sat in every chair at the table.

Culture House Advisory runs retained searches for head coaches and athletic administrators at colleges that cannot afford a mistake and do not want to pay a national firm's fee to avoid one. Fixed fee, not a percentage. A 45-day process. A twelve-month replacement guarantee. And a pool built from direct calls to people who were not looking, which is where the right hire usually is.

How a Culture House search runs

  1. Days 1 to 7: the profile. We sit with the athletic director and the committee and write the honest program assessment, the three-year outcomes, the must-haves, and the four criteria every candidate will be scored on: Vision, Value Add, Transferable Skills, Culture and Fit. The committee agrees on what it is hiring before it meets anyone.
  2. Days 5 to 18: the pool. Nominations from head coaches, athletic directors, and our own network; direct outreach to sitting coaches who will not apply to a posting; a long list of twenty to thirty names with a sourcing record. Confidentiality is written down and every committee member has signed it.
  3. Days 12 to 24: the screens. Phone screens and a recorded first-round interview on eight to twelve candidates, scored independently on the rubric, with a slate review with the AD before the committee meets.
  4. Days 22 to 32: the committee. Video interviews with four to six candidates, the case exercise built around your program, and the teach-the-room session. Every panelist scores before anyone speaks.
  5. Days 28 to 38: references and vetting. Nine reference calls per finalist including four from a 360 and two back-channel; degree, employment, and conference-office verification; social media review; a background check through your vendor; and a conduct question asked directly and documented.
  6. Days 34 to 42: campus. Two or three finalists on campus, hour by hour, with stakeholder feedback collected on a form and a decision meeting run in order, so a split committee reaches a decision with the risk on each finalist named out loud.
  7. Days 40 to 45: the close. The offer, the contract components, the announcement, closing the loop with every candidate in the pool, and a first-90-days plan the new coach and the AD build together.
  8. After the hire. A 90-day check-in with the coach and the AD, and a twelve-month replacement guarantee: if the hire leaves or is dismissed inside a year, we run the search again for expenses only.
Fixed feePriced by the search, paid in thirds, never a percentage of the coach's compensation. You know the number before we start. National firms charge $50,000 to $270,000 per search and are rehired by the same school about a third of the time.1
Confidential by designCandidates' names reach the full committee only when they agree to be finalists. Nobody contacts a candidate's institution without written consent. Public-records exposure is managed from day one.
The AD keeps the decisionWe run the process, build the pool, and name the risk. The athletic director and the committee make the hire and keep the relationships.
A pipeline, not a databaseOur candidate pool is built through advisory work with coaches all year, so the sitting coordinator who was not looking takes our call.

1 Athletic Director U, The Influence of Search Firms in College Athletics, a study of 217 FBS football and athletic director hires, 2008 to 2020.

Start a conversation

Tell us about the position and the timeline. We reply within one business day with a short call to walk through the search, the fee, and whether we are the right fit. Nothing you share here is public, and nothing obligates you.

Received. We reply within one business day, from a real person, and nothing about your inquiry is shared with anyone.
We do not share inquiries, add you to a list, or contact your institution. If you would rather talk first, email the address in the footer and we will call you.

Running the search yourself? See The Search Playbook