Column: Why hiring Carla Berube is a sign Northwestern is competitive in a new college landscape

EVANSTON, Ill. - Mark Jackson was understandably excited.

Northwestern's Director of Athletics had a consistent smile as he introduced Carla Berube as the next Wildcats women’s basketball coach. The former UConn guard under Geno Auriemma, who became a consistent winner at Tufts and Princeton, is now in charge in Evanston.

It was Jackson’s first major hire at Northwestern, replacing the retiring Joe McKeown. Those aren’t easy shoes to fill, but it’s easy to feel comfortable about the future when your newest coach has won over 80 percent of the games she’s coached.

"We knew when Joe announced his retirement, we had a really big window to launch into a search," Jackson said. "In a place like this, there's a lot of coaches that want to be here."

But in 2026, interest is just half of it.

In hiring Berube, Jackson is taking action to make Northwestern competitive in this new college sports landscape. He’s walking the walk, not just in hiring Berube but in making sure NU is competitive in a new landscape to a point where coaches want to pursue openings in Evanston.

"I don't think it was time," Berube said of her departure from Princeton to Northwestern. "It was place."

What they're saying:

Jackson didn’t hire Chip Kelly. That was a football move, and head football coach David Braun is rightfully in the driver’s seat of that program.

Braun needed an offensive coordinator, and Kelly, the long-established coordinator, was interested. Jackson helped make that happen. It’s a big step in bringing NU football to a place it might have never been before offensively.

Braun thanked NU’s athletic leadership in Kelly’s introductory presser for helping keep NU competitive in athletics. It’s a sign that Jackson had a hand in making sure football gets what it needs. But, doing the same for women’s basketball speaks volumes.

The NCAA’s settlement with the House of Representatives allows participating institutions across the country to directly pay student-athletes. That makes its way into head coaching conversations.

According to USA Today, candidates for NU’s women’s basketball coaching job were reportedly offered a coaching salary of about $800,000. For reference, the USA Today’s 2024 women basketball coach salary database noted six coaches making at least $1 million. Four made less than $800,000. 

Northwestern also told candidates that their revenue-sharing resources would be about $1 million. Those are resources available for roster construction.

That investment landed a highly sought-after coach.

"I think the commitment is there," Berube said. "I don't think I would have come to Northwestern and move my family across the country if I didn't feel like we had the resources and the commitment to win here. I'm fully confident that we can do that and bring in really talented student athletes."

It does help that Northwestern had over a year to search for a women’s basketball coach. McKeown announced he would be coaching for one last year before retiring. That gave Jackson time to work.

There were reports that Northwestern zeroed in on Berube earlier this year. Kristy Curry, Alabama’s head coach and the former Purdue coach who led the Boilermakers to a national title game, was rumored to be a top target, too. Curry took the job at South Florida. It may sound like an oxymoron, but USF has more women’s basketball resources available than Alabama.

In this day and age, resources speak as much as salaries do.

What Jackson presented Berube was a vision accompanied by the right resources.

"It was about the place," Berube said. "I wasn't leaving Princeton for a place that I didn't believe in and that my values weren’t aligned with. That's when Northwestern came to light and had really great conversations with Mark. And it just felt right and felt like the right time."

Big picture view:

The Ivy League is a stark contrast from the Big Ten. This could go without saying. That’s why it’s still impressive that Berube took Princeton to the NCAA Tournament as often as she did, which helped the Ivy League become a multi-bid league.

These coaches were doing this without much to work with, either.

"We can’t get transfers," Harvard coach Carrie Moore told reporters at a press conference on March 10. "I’ll just blatantly say that we can’t do it. And I think your folks at Princeton also cannot do that."

That was the concern for Northwestern, too.

Could NU find a way to keep up with some of the bigger programs? Northwestern obviously won’t be able to keep pace with the likes of Maryland, Iowa and Indiana, the three highest-paid coaches in the conference. But offering a competitive salary and resources is necessary. Jackson did it.

This all comes on the heels of NU men’s basketball coach Chris Collins’ comments at the Big Ten Tournament about the need for resources.

Northwestern is searching for its next university president. Collins said that next president needs to be committed to finding resources for NU athletics if athletics wants to win championships at any level.

"In order to win now at the high major level, there's got to be unbelievable alignment from everybody, not just the coaching staff. I mean at the presidential level," Collins said, speaking passionately. "You've got to want to compete in football and basketball, and you've got to invest, and it's got to be important. It's got to trickle down to the administration and coaching, and everybody's got to be in alignment in order to win because the programs that are winning, that's what they're doing. They're aligned. There's a commitment to winning with resources, with investment. There's no reason that we can't be one of those places in my mind. I'm fully convinced. But it's going to take everybody together to want to do that."

Jackson proved he’s going to uphold his part in that. He said he wanted his women’s basketball coach to be a proven winner, to have NCAA Tournament pedigree and to face the challenges of the new landscape head-on in an effort to win Big Ten Championships. Jackson got that coach, who comes from the Auriemma tree and looks the part. No wonder he’s excited.

The next president will be key in determining how much of those resources are available to NU athletics. 

"We're not shying away from all the industry changes that are in front of us right now," Jackson said.

He’s made that loud and clear in Evanston. Jackson is making the right moves.