Following recently mediocre results on the court, Davidson College is starting a $10 million-plus fund for its basketball programs.
Initial support for the fund comes from NBA superstar Stephen Curry, his wife Ayesha, and college supporters Don, Matt and Erica Berman. Curry, 37, starred for three years at Davidson, from 2006-09, and has since become an international celebrity because of his unprecedented long-distance scoring for the Golden State Warriors.
Known for generations as an elite, academic-oriented school that prepares future lawyers, doctors and preachers, the north Mecklenburg County college became nationally competitive on the court during the 33-year tenure of men’s coach Bob McKillop. His son, Matt, succeeded his father as basketball coach in 2022.
The men’s team has lost about as many games as they’ve won over the past three years, so Davidson is looking for a fresh start. The team ranked 144th nationally at the end of the 2024 regular season, according to basketball analyst Ken Pomeroy.
Meanwhile, the Wildcat women’s team has had five winning seasons since joining the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2014.
Curry and his former Davidson teammate Matt Berman will be assistant general managers, acting as advisers to invest time and experience with both men’s and women’s teams, the college said in mid-March.
Berman’s father, Don, started Cardworks, a consumer finance company based in Woodbury, New York. In January, Cardworks bought a $2.3 billion credit-card portfolio
from Charlotte-based Ally Financial. The companies had announced a similar sale in 2020, but the deal was canceled because of the pandemic.
Curry is the first active player in U.S. major professional sports to take an administrative job with an NCAA team. He is earning $55.7 million this year to play for Golden State. He has received $357.8 million from the team in his prior seasons, according to basketball-reference.com.
“I had the opportunity to play basketball at the highest level, got a great education, an amazing network through the Davidson alumni and continue to wave the Davidson flag,” Curry said via a news release. “I want very talented, high character student-athletes to have that same experience.”
The new fund could presumably help Davidson become more competitive in offering name, image and likeness contracts to talented basketball players. Details on NIL deals tend to be confidential, but the most elite players are receiving annual compensation of more than $1 million.
“When our basketball programs are successful, they provide much-needed revenue and exposure to support all our athletics programs and raise the overall visibility of the college,” Athletics Director Chris Clunie says.
Davidson President Doug Hicks and Clunie have emphasized that the college is committed to upholding its commitment to academics and integrity amid major changes in the sports world. They noted that the college’s athletes have traditionally outperformed the overall student body in grade point averages and graduation rates.
Davidson College had an endowment of $1.4 billion as of June 30. The private college has about 2,000 undergraduate students. By comparison, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem has an endowment of about $2 billion, and enrollment of more than 9,000 students.
To lead the effort, Davidson named Austin Buntz as general manager and assistant athletic director for basketball development. He has helped raise money for athletics at Davidson since 2021. ■
