The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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30 ■ THE WOLFPACKER we are going to be close to $4 million this year, so we're building it. "We have another reserve for facility repair and enhancements, and whatever money we put in there year to year gets spent almost immediately. We have 16 buildings and fields at NC State for athletics. We are not a centralized athletics program, and that's expensive because you have more buildings and your personnel spread out all over the place. It's a little bit more expensive to maintain. "But that's what we do with the money. We just split it, part of it goes to operational expense and part of it goes to facility repair and enhancement." What's the latest on the potential ACC Network? "It's being pursued. We have a consultant who is working on this. I don't have any- thing substantive to say other than the AD's always ask about it. "We get routine updates. I think it's still a viable option. It's very time-consuming to figure all of this out." Would it follow the SEC model that is about to launch? "I think that it would follow the SEC model very closely, so we're watching what's happening there." There was a report in the Triangle Busi- ness Journal about converting luxury suites at the PNC Arena into loge boxes where multiple parties would be allowed to share it. Is that something you are monitoring? "There's a revenue share for those seats at PNC, so anything they can do to help bet- ter sell them is good. We're doing the same thing in football. "The Wolfpack Club is converting several suites to loge seating because they think it would be easier to sell. Those are positive things. They should be doing those things." The sports marketing campaign had been, "This is Our State." "There is a new campaign. It has not been rolled out. It will be soon. We will roll it out to the staff first, and then go public shortly thereafter." What are your thoughts on the black alternative helmets in football? "I'm for anything that is legal that will attract the best recruits in the country. I've been told that this helps. I do know that on the night of the reveal, which I thought was very cleverly done with Coach [Dave] Doeren on the motorcycle coming in, we trended nationally on Twitter because of the helmets. Maybe there is something to the fact that 17-, 18-year-olds really enjoy change. "It is a specialty item. It's a specialty hel- met, but there will also be a specialty uni- forms, which will be primarily black. The only thing I have said is would you please pick a game to wear this where we are pretty sure we are going to win." There has been a lot of talk about the NCAA model and its future with the power five conferences. Do you foresee more au- tonomy for the power five conferences? "Absolutely, in the 12 areas that have been identified. That's going to happen, it's all good. It's messy, but it's good. It needed to happen long ago, but I'm happy we are go- ing to create a space for ourselves where we can make some choices that make sense for these five conferences that don't necessarily make sense other conferences. "I think that it's a positive, and hopefully we'll have something more definitive by August." What are some of the changes that are needed for student-athletes and college athletics? "I have talked about this off and on for 10 years — for the very small number of student-athletes who are so talented that retail outlets sell their jerseys, I do think we have to figure out a way to get them inside the loop. That is easier said than done be- cause of all the team dynamics. "Whether or not that's an escrow account that they can only access after they graduate or leave college, I'm not sure what form it would take. I'm pretty sure that once we have an ability. as a group of five confer- ences. to talk about those things that we will do that. "We also need to figure out as a group, as we have been doing for years, how to meet the needs of our athletes. If they have full scholarships, they should still have the abil- ity to get full Pell Grants if they exhibit the need — it's about $5,700 per year. "Then we have the Student Assistant Fund, known as the SAF, where a student- athlete can access hundreds of dollars for clothing, trips home, dental needs. Those things have been in place for years and years. You don't see them discussed in the media but all of those things are there. "Now we have the boundaries on food removed. We'll be discussing new models here as they are everywhere else about what that will look like. That is going to make the scholarship expense go up. How much, we're not sure yet, but it could be as much as a million dollars mainly because for the first time ever we can pay for food for both walk-ons and partial scholarship student athletes. We have hundreds of partial schol- arship student athletes. We're trying to plan for all this now." There are several lawsuits facing the NCAA, the Ed O'Bannon antitrust case, one about concussions, and you had the union- ization efforts at Northwestern. Do you think those cases have potential ramifica- tions for what happens at NC State? "We don't know yet about the ramifica- tions from t some of those cases, but we have always been about doing the best we could for our student-athletes, not be- cause somebody forced us to but because The football team's special alternate helmets may attratct the interest of recruits, and the night the helmets were revealed, the Wolfpack trended nationally on Twitter. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS 26-28,30.32.Interview With Yow.indd 30 6/27/14 12:03 PM