Kevin Willard Contract Saga: Cause for Pause for Villanova Fans?

Villanova Men’s Basketball finalized a deal to make Kevin Willard their tenth head coach in program history on Sunday, March 30, bringing his lengthy contract saga to an end. It’s a novel approach for the Wildcats — who traditionally prioritized commitment to the program and hiring from within — under new Vice President and Director of Athletics Eric Roedl, and signifies the type of changes they might need to make in a forever-altered college sports landscape.

Willard burned plenty of bridges on his way out of College Park, blasting Maryland’s administration for not devoting enough resources to the basketball program, breaking the news that former Terrapins athletic director Damon Evans would leave town for SMU and making himself the storyline amidst a Sweet Sixteen run.

Criticize Willard though one might, that’s the cutthroat world of the NCAA in the year of our Lord 2025, where Name, Image and Likeness deals reign supreme and no commitment between player (or coach) and program is forged in steel. Should Wildcats fans hold reservations about their new head coach after seeing how he departed Maryland?

Villanova Rolls the Dice

It wasn’t enough to scare off the Villanova search team, one that (per a report from The Villanovan’s co-sports editor Dylan Johnson) included university president Father Peter Donahue, Roedl, Senior Associate Athletic Director Brian Beacham, Wildcats’ alumnus Randy Foye, Associate AD and Department Chaplain Father Rob Hagan, trustee Tom Quindlen and, of course, former head coach Jay Wright.

That’s quite the lineup and, despite Willard’s unceremonious exit from Maryland, we don’t know exactly when Villanova offered him — they haven’t even released the terms of his contract yet — or when the deal materialized, when Willard made the decision to head to the Main Line.

With the program at a crossroads in a sports league amidst a paradigm shift, kudos to the Wildcats for rocking the boat. Their approach could end up backfiring, but it’s hard to argue against a coach who’s made the NCAA Tournament in seven of the last nine eligible seasons, 49 years old and trending up after a Sweet Sixteen appearance. Villanova managed to swipe Willard away from Maryland (and the Terrapins, in turn, poached him away from Seton Hall in 2022), but there aren’t many programs in college basketball that could provide a better sales pitch than the Wildcats can, especially in a conference like the Big East utterly devoted to basketball.

In the end, it’s eat or be eaten in the NCAA. Willard understands that and Villanova does too, rightfully deciding to carry out their coaching search like one of the big fish.