How Vanderbilt Is Quietly Building a Contender | Vanderbilt Football GM Barton Simmons

Jul 31, 2025

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In this episode of Next Up with Adam Breneman, presented by Teamworks, Vanderbilt GM Barton Simmons joins the show for an unfiltered look into what it actually takes to build a college football roster in 2025. From the chaos of the transfer portal to the complexity of NIL and data analytics, Barton explains how his role has evolved into one of the most important front office jobs in the sport.

Barton shares how he went from being the Director of Scouting at 247Sports to running roster strategy in the SEC, why evaluating talent is more about minimizing misses than maximizing hits, and what it really feels like to build a program from the ground up alongside lifelong friend Clark Lea. They get into recruiting philosophies, how to watch highlight tapes the right way, why multi-sport athletes matter, and how Vanderbilt is using a year-by-year strategy to balance high school recruiting and portal acquisitions.

Barton also opens up about the future of NIL, revenue sharing, and what college football looks like when a salary cap becomes real. And through it all, one thing becomes clear he genuinely believes Vanderbilt can win a national championship, and he’s not afraid to say it out loud.

This conversation is part of a larger look—presented by our partners at Teamworks—at how NFL-style general managers are changing college football. Their end-to-end solution, Teamworks GM, is purpose-built for this new era.

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CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Intro

1:39 - Getting the GM job at Vanderbilt

3:31 - Process rebuilding Vanderbilt

6:05 - Day in the Life as Vanderbilt Football GM

8:40 -Evaluation process

12:18 - Transfer Portal process

15:16 - Using Data to make decisions at Vanderbilt

22:13 - Common denominator across best players

25:50 - Reviewing highlight tapes

31:55 - Building a team from high school recruits vs. transfer portal players

35:24 - Future of NIL

40:25 - Importance of recruiting rankings

46:25 - Best Clark Lea story

51:00 - Success at Vanderbilt On Next Up, college football analyst Adam Breneman sits down with the most influential names in college sports and lets them tell their stories unfiltered, direct to the fans.

Next Up is a Front Office Sports Network show featuring candid, open, and honest conversations with the most impactful figures in college sports including head coaches, athletes, athletic directors, commissioners, entrepreneurs, media personalities, agents, and executives shaping the business of college sports.

Adam is a former All-American, Penn State alum and media personality. Front Office Sports is the leading multi-platform media and news organization covering the intersection of sports, business and culture.