NC State Director of Athletics Debbie Yow Q&A, part III
In the final installment of highlights from our interview last Friday with NC State Director of Athletics Debbie Yow, she touches on many of the hot-button issues in college athletics today and also on her future.
Related links:
Debbie Yow interview part I; part II
You mentioned the network studio and the sports medicine renovations (in part II of the interview). What are your future plans for facilities?
“We have a long list of what we need. I want something for baseball. We need to start working on Doak as soon as it’s possible from a phased-in perspective. You do phase I, then phase II and phase III. I think it’s a charming ballpark when it’s full. We just need to continue to improve it.
“You talk to any sport coach here, and they have a wish list for facilities. Tennis has four indoor courts. We need six — that’s how the game is played.
“They need an outdoor pool with that diving well so we don’t have to drive to Greensboro to dive. You choose any sport, and they have the list, and they are not unreasonable lists.
“The funding is secure now for the rest of the indoor [football] practice facility, to finish that, and also for Vaughn Towers. The only piece that is left to finish is Reynolds. As soon as the Wolfpack Club feels like they are in a position to take on a new facility project, we’ll talk to them about those.
“They are also working with the fact that their scholarship bill has gone up considerably, as they have all across the country, with the cost of attendance and increases in tuition. They are working on plans to be able to best manage that, and we’re helping them. I think that’s going to all come together.
“I do believe that baseball should be next.”
You’ve lost two parking lots at Carter-Finley Stadium. Any progress on replacing those?
“We had about that number of spots in other lots that were available, so we’re able to replace them. We’re just not going to be able to replace them all in the same place, so the environment changes. I don’t think you can duplicate what we have, but we did have enough spaces to fill those needs. They’ll be spread out though.
“We will protect every lot that we own. There won’t be anything else built out there. There won’t be anything sold that belongs to the university, to the best of my knowledge. We’ll protect our parking, at least the part that we own.”
Has there been any progress on working with the state legislature to allow alcohol sales at football and basketball games?
“It’s talked about a lot. I do believe it will happen. However, I am not aware of any current legislation that includes that as part of a bill. We believe it should occur, and we hope that it will.”
The halftime pass-outs for football games continue to be a hot-button topic. Have you studied what alcohol sales would do to help alleviate the issue of fans leaving the stadium at halftime?
“The big question is if we sell alcohol, how many people stay in the stadium? There’s no study that will tell you that. We know on average 15,000 people will leave at halftime and 7,000 will return.
“One of the interesting dynamics that should be considered is if we make a no pass-outs policy, how many of those 15,000 leave anyway and then can’t return. Is there a possibility that we could hurt attendance by doing that? We don’t know the answers to those things.
“In my mind, I have separated alcohol sales from pass-outs.”
The Supreme Court has now allowed states to legalize sports gambling. Do you see any impacts that you would need to monitor?
“I am not aware of any legislation in this state to legalize collegiate gambling. When that is entered into discussion in the legislature, then we’ll start seriously considering the situation. The framework for that would all have to be determined. There is revenue distribution that has to be determined. I don’t have any information.
“If I were talking to you now about it anything I would say would be pure conjecture.”
Condoleezza Rice’s commission issued its report on college basketball. Were there any parts of that report that excited you and any parts that conversely you questioned?
“I was glad to see that they at least considered name, image and likeness. They deferred any opinion on it, per se, because there are pending court cases. If you talk to most athletic directors, the majority of us would say that is coming. There will be some type of a carve out to maintain the right to their own name, image and likeness.
“That’ll be very new, but for student-athletes who enter college and don’t come from very wealthy backgrounds, that’s a pretty important change — to be able to continue to provide for their family.
“If we had a freshman here who is a great violinist or who is a great theater major, we would applaud that theater major for making a big splash and applaud that violinist for being able to work with a symphony and be paid.
“We would think that would be wonderful. We would advertise it, especially their work ethics in taking advantage of their skills that they have developed.
“I think that eventually we will see the same things for college athletes. It will bring concerns and different issues with it in terms of a team environment, and it will be messy, but I do believe it will happen.”
Do you have any idea of how it would work?
“I’ve said for 15 years that the money could be put in escrow until they either leave for the pros or until they graduate, but it might be more direct than that at this juncture. Perhaps student-athletes could borrow money based on whatever is in that account. I’m not sure.”
On the issue of one-and-done, would you be in favor of getting rid of it?
“We are all in favor of that. I just read that [NBA commissioner] Mr. [Adam] Silver is not even being considered right now. That’s very, very disappointing that we can’t get help from the NBA players’ association to do the right thing for individuals that are 18 years old.
“I would be very happy if it were the baseball rule — go out of high school or stay in school for three years or some combination. But the one and done is very challenging to manage for everybody.”
The transfer rule is another hot topic issue. Should they be allowed to play right away with a one-time stipulation based on GPA and should restrictions on where to transfer be lifted?
“One of the things that I have noticed in that conversation publicly is that people continue to insist that coaches can just go. That’s not true. Coaches can change jobs. They usually have massive pay buyouts that they owe if they don’t honor the contracts. That’s the fact versus the narrative that has played out nationally.
“I’m not a proponent of free agency where players can just go one year and go to the next school and play immediately — I’m just not. You be hard-pressed to find ADs and coaches that want it that way.
“Could there be something that is more lenient? Perhaps, and we will find out this summer.”
You are choosing to use the wolf head over the block S as the main logo for NC State. What was the thought process behind that?
“The staff convinced me that we should do that, pointing out that it is the distinctive mark of NC State. I still love the block S, but it was confused with Stanford, which eventually put a tree in the block S. it’s also confused with the block S from Syracuse.
“It’s nice not to have someone stop me in the airport, if I’m wearing the block S, and ask, ‘Are you from Stanford?’ I have to say, ‘No I’m from NC State.’
“It is a distinctive mark for us, and it’s an official mark approved by the university. I think we are enjoying it now.”
Your contract is coming up at NC State.
“We’ve been talking about this for three years, and I am kind of tired of talking about it, but it’s up on July 15, 2019.”
Do you know what’s in your future?
“As far as I know, that’s what is in the future.”
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