As we follow the college sports industry month after month and year after year, we sometimes ask ourselves about a coach: "How does he keep convincing players to stay?" It's true that NIL has increased the incentives for players to stay, something we will discuss here as we go along. Nevertheless, the NBA does offer very substantial money. Todd Golden is making a lot of us ask, "How does he keep convincing players to stay at Florida?" It calls to mind Dabo Swinney at Clemson several years ago.
Thomas Haugh easily could have chosen to go into the 2026 NBA draft, but he chose to stay at Florida. He is a veteran player who knows that in the NBA, older players often slide on draft night. That didn't dissuade him from coming back for another year in Gainesville.
Condon's size makes him an obvious NBA draft pick. He was going to get picked if he entered. Yet, Todd Golden got him to return to Florida for another year. We reiterate the point one more time: NBA teams generally like to pursue younger prospects, not older ones, so the return of Condon is yet another move that cuts against the grain in terms of maximizing an NBA opportunity. How is Todd Golden doing this?
Todd Golden is keeping the band together. In an age when so many players swoop in for one year and then leave, Florida is setting an industry standard alongside Dusty May and Michigan. It's no accident these two teams will be preseason Final Four favorites for 2027.
Florida is now in position to get a No. 1 seed at the NCAA Tournament in three straight seasons. If UF achieves that goal, it will be the first time in program history that has happened. Todd Golden is creating a dynastic power.
Yes, the Clemson coach has lost his fastball, but at his peak, what Dabo Swinney did was much like Todd Golden today at Florida. Dabo reached the College Football Playoff six straight seasons at Clemson, winning two national championship games and reaching four national title games. The secret to this success was roster retention.
Dabo Swinney was able to stack seasons with elite skill players. Having Trevor Lawrence for three straight seasons and getting Travis Etienne to come back to school when he easily could have dashed to the NFL draft were why Clemson's run extended through the 2020 season. Keeping rosters intact and stocked with veterans created that amazing six-year Clemson run.
As tremendous as Dabo Swinney was at Clemson from 2015 through 2020, we do need to point out that in the new NIL and transfer portal landscape, Dabo has been a fish out of water. Dabo losing his edge flows precisely from not being willing to dive into the portal and embrace this new world of annual roster reconstruction.
Todd Golden, unlike Dabo, is mastering the art of roster construction and retention in the portal era. That is a key difference between the two coaches. Nevertheless, it remains that what Dabo did several years ago bears real similarities to what Golden is doing at Florida.
Much as Clemson was a nobody in college football 20 years ago under Tommy Bowden but then became a superpower under Dabo, Florida hoops was a nowhere program for a very long time until Lon Kruger took the Gators to the 1994 Final Four and Billy Donovan then took it to the next level with back-to-back national championships. Now UF is a full-on heavyweight program, with Todd Golden securing roster commitments that have Florida at the very top of the sport.
It goes to show that the right coaches at the right time can dramatically transform programs, much as Curt Cignetti has remade Indiana football. Downtrodden programs don't have to stay down. Hire the right guys and everything can change surprisingly quickly. It's a lesson for everyone in the industry.
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: Todd Golden's player retention at Florida on par with Dabo Swinney