'Nothing's Getting Fixed'... Dusty May Details Reason to Leave Michigan for Mavericks

It caught a lot of people off guard when the Dallas Mavericks were able to hire Dusty May away from the University of Michigan to be their next head coach.

May was fresh off winning a national championship in just his second season in Ann Arbor and was at one of the biggest brands in college athletics. No coach had been more successful over the last few years, as he even took Florida Atlantic to a Final Four.

Yet, the Mavericks were able to convince him to make the jump to the NBA, and it came late in the process, with the announcement coming just ahead of the NBA Draft in June.

So, what made May decide now was the best time to make the leap to the NBA? The current state of college athletics.

Michigan coach Dusty May celebrates after winning the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional final by defeating Tennessee 95-62 at United Center in Chicago on Sunday, March 29, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

“I was so excited for Big Ten meetings, like, ‘We’re going to find some solutions,’” May told The Athletic, via CJ Moore. “I go there, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God, nothing’s getting fixed. Ever.’

According to Moore, May said a lot of coaches in the Big Ten were complaining about the transfer portal, but May saw too much complaining and not anything being done about it.

May just found he was also spending too much time not coaching as the head coach.

"I just spent so much more of my time doing everything but coaching," he said. College coaches do a lot of fundraising, booster tours, recruiting, and retaining their own players- something that isn't a lot of fun for a lot of coaches.

May, according to Moore, wants to build relationships and actually coach the players, something the NBA offers a better chance of doing. College players can be there for five years now, but rosters are constantly changing because there are no transfer rules, no NIL limits, and no contracts that bind someone to a team.

Jun 29, 2026; Dallas, TX, USA; New Dallas Mavericks’ head coach Dusty May answers questions from the media during an introductory press conference at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

How Dusty May Would Fix College Basketball

“Collective bargaining in some way, shape, or form needs to happen. And number two, figure out a way to make contracts binding," May said.

“Like, you can’t have a kid sign at this Big Ten school on a Friday and then go on an official visit the next day and sign at another Big Ten school for twice the money on Tuesday. It just can’t be like that. If they are gonna sign rev-share contracts and they’re gonna sign NIL contracts, let’s at least make those binding.”

College athletics are in a frustrating place right now, and it's hard for fans to stay rooted in the team with so much constant turnover. Because NIL was just unleashed without any regulations, players are free to do pretty much whatever they want, and it may be too far gone to get collective bargaining in its current state.

If the bigger leagues make one super league, they could possibly install some form of collective bargaining, but we're still likely far from that.

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