Mizzou Football Hires Gaurav Verma as Director of Football Strategy and Finance
8/8/2025 2:00:00 PM | Football
New role designed to lead Mizzou’s football program into modern era of roster, recruiting, and revenue share management
COLUMBIA, Mo. – As college football begins the new era of roster management and revenue sharing, Mizzou Football has hired Gaurav Verma as the program's first-ever Director of Football Strategy and Finance, Tigers head coach Eliah Drinkwitz announced Friday.
Verma, who most recently worked with the Denver Broncos as a salary cap specialist, brings a decade of experience across sports finance, data analytics and investment banking. His hiring marks the latest forward-thinking step for Mizzou Athletics as it embraces the NCAA's recent implementation of revenue sharing for student-athletes, continued Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) expansion and the complexities of multi-year roster construction and scholarship management in the transfer portal era.
As part of his responsibilities, Verma will lead strategic planning in five key areas:
- Roster, scholarship and revenue cap planning
- Talent evaluation and scouting operations
- Recruiting calendar and logistics
- Analytics and recruiting infrastructure
- Compliance, NIL and interdepartmental collaboration
"We are really excited to add Gaurav to our program," Drinkwitz said. "His NFL experience, as well as his business background, will help us navigate revenue sharing and contract management."
In this newly created role, Verma will report directly to Drinkwitz and oversee the program's revenue share cap planning, roster and scholarship modeling, recruiting analytics and talent evaluation infrastructure. He will collaborate closely with the coaching staff, recruiting staff, compliance department, athletics administration and Every True Tiger Brands to drive data-informed strategy across all aspects of football operations.
"I'm thrilled to join Mizzou Football at such a transformative time," Verma said. "With college football evolving rapidly through revenue sharing and strategic roster management, I'm excited to apply my background in finance and the NFL to help Mizzou build sustainably competitive teams on the sport's biggest stage — the SEC. I want to thank Coach Drinkwitz for this opportunity and can't wait to help build on the program's success as we compete for national championships."
A Boston native, Verma earned an MBA in Finance from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2023 and holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science from Johns Hopkins University. In addition to his recent NFL experience, he has worked in investment banking, data science and business development, giving him a broad perspective on resource optimization and decision-making under pressure.
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