Episode 56 - Dr. Wood Selig

podcast

Monarchs

I'm Aaron

And I'm Mike.

and you're listening to the Monarchist podcast. Today we welcome Old Dominion Athletic Director, Dr. Wood Selig, back to the show. Thanks for joining us Wood.

Thank you, Erin. Thank you Mike. Good to be back with you guys.

thank you so much for joining us. We first wanna start out by giving you our heartfelt condolences, to yourself, the friends, teammates, and family of Nikki McCray Benson. the messages that have been pouring out about her have shown her kind, energetic spirit will be missed greatly.

Yeah, that was a tough, tough loss. I mean, I know she battled breast cancer courageously and for quite some time, and I think ultimately it, it, it got the best of her. 51 with a, a young son. just heartbreaking. but gosh, she did such a, a, a great job for O D U for our women's basketball program. she really propped us back up to the level that we were trying to get. Had covid not occurred in March of 2020, we were either gonna win the conference championship tournament outright, or we were in position to be an at large selection. So we were gonna presumably go to the NCAA tournament for the first time in a number of years. and we were built for success. We had a lot of talent that was gonna come back the year following 2020. When any coach leaves, there's disruption that follows. And DIA's done a terrific job, and I think we're knocking on the door of where Nikki left us. but Nikki helped get us back to that NCAA caliber program that all of our women's basketball fans have grown accustomed to.

so we just flipped the calendar. It's July entering year two. As members of the Sunbelt. If you were to look back at year one, What are the things that you would say that went really right for us and maybe some opportunities that we have moving into year two?

Yeah, I think we saved a lot of money in travel. I think we connected with programs and institutions that resonate with our fan base. Marshall always j m u great to be back, with them as rivals. Appalachian State is a, a phenomenal, program with great support across the board. Coastal Georgia State, Georgia Southern. When you have seven schools in five contiguous or Yeah, seven schools in five contiguous states. It reminds me of the old a c C that went from Maryland to Georgia where everything is compact and you can get to any game you want. Football, basketball on the ground. It's an easy. Easy road trip. So I think that was really number one. It was great for our student athletes, less missed class time, less wear and tear due to travel. Like I said, it saved money. And then competitively, I believe we, we really were successful. We, we won three Sunbelt conference championships. We only have 11 of our programs in the Sunbelt conference. So from a percentage standpoint, we won a high percent of championships for the sports that we fielded in the Sunbelt conference. Only one school, Arkansas State, won more Sunbelt conference championships than ou. They won five, they won all five of theirs in track and field, indoor, outdoor, and cross country. So, you know, they had one team that was loaded and won all their championships in one sports. We won 'em in three different sports. So I feel really good about the success of our student athletes. Competitively in the Sunbelt conference and look forward to even more. I, I love the competitive nature. Uh, not only football. Football is obviously well known. But to me it was surprisingly stout. In, in men's basketball in particular, there were four teams that were ranked in the top 100 of the net out of the Sunbelt conference. And that's, pretty strong. When you get a chance to go against four schools in your league that are in the top 100, that's what the good leagues that, that they benefit from a number of their conference opponents being ranked in the top 50, the top 100, cuz you play them most frequently and then that fuels your overall conference net as well as your institutional net, which is what the selection committee uses to gauge at large or even a seating spot for an NCAA tournament team. So, feel really good about that. Those aspects really like our comm, our commissioner, we have great leadership within the Sunbelt conference. Keith Gill, our commissioner, played football at Duke. Very smart young man, has been an athletic director, been on a campus, uh, has been at the A 10 now. The commissioner of the Sunbelt conference, I think he's one of the forward thinkers, one of the innovators, one of the leaders. We have great dynamic leadership and he is surrounded by some really good associate and assistant commissioners. So I feel really good about the leadership within our conference. So those are just some of the initial takeaways from year one. I just think the feedback that we heard from our fans, they're so happy to have teams coming in to Norfolk, whether it's ESP Ballard Stadium, whether it's Chartway Arena, whether it's the, they're watching teams that they care about, that they know about, that they want to come out and see.

would, we are obviously huge baseball fans and we were wondering if you could give us an update on the baseball stadium renovation project.

Yeah, we're actually doing soil samples as we speak. The baseball stadium is over my left shoulder. Uh, we're doing dozens of, of hole drill drilling to see what the soil is underneath. there's a lot of preliminary work that needs to be done, before we actually start construction. we are a little nervous. we were intending to initially play 2024 somewhere else and do construction between now and 2025. just given the amount of time it's gonna take for the preliminary work. And we still don't have a budget. For the state of Virginia, the Commonwealth of Virginia, which means we don't have an approved project yet. So to be safe, we're gonna play 2024 in the Budd and we're gonna do the construction during the 2025 season and we'll be open for business in 2026. That gives us the best chance to only impact one baseball season versus the potential to domino and impact 24 and 25 by default.

So two follow-ups. where do you see us playing in that year, where we're doing construction, and how has the budget been impacted by inflation?

Yeah, we we're looking at Peninsula, the Peninsula Pilots, we're looking at Harbor Park. Where the tides play. We're looking at other facilities, Williamsburg, some even in Northeastern North Carolina. Uh, so we're looking throughout, about a 60 mile radius to make sure we cover our bases. So, uh, we're looking at all the options. I'm not gonna say there's, it's a delay, but we feel that the, the schedule that we are on currently for the stadium, uh, you know, right now, the, the prices have been so inflated. Uh, the cost of, of labor, the cost of materials, we actually feel that we could help ourselves, by starting a little bit later. we don't think it's gonna take off anymore. And if anything, maybe the costs, come back in some areas, better than where they are now. We've raised around 19 million and some change of the 20 million that we estimate needing for the project, but we'll find out when we go out for bid. once the project is officially approved, we'll have a better idea of what the total cost of the project might be.

Quick follow up to that one. Um, Andrew Griffiths with Field Hockey lives in my neighborhood, so we get a chance to chat from time to time. And maybe a week or two ago we were talking and he was super, super excited about the new scoreboard. last year we saw an upgrade in the weight room at the gym, Jared at administration building in the football locker rooms. Are there any other projects in the works, you know, whether they're, they're small, medium, or large that, fans might be interested in?

Yeah, we, we just resurfaced the volleyball court, so that that's brand new surface for, this coming fall for our women's volleyball team. we just spent a hundred thousand dollars to completely redo the women's s soccer locker room and lounge area. so that is almost done. We've resodded, the soccer field. we would ideally like some lights on our outdoor tennis courts that would expand our potential for day and evening matches. So that's something that, that we've, we've looked into, as you said, we have a new scoreboard for both field hockey and women's lacrosse. so those are some of the, the, facility improvements. Baseball will get a complete overhaul very soon. and, you know, we, we always do wow factor things. So one of the wow factor, if you've ever been in the gym, Jarrett Athletic Administration building, when you walk into the front of the building, and it's exactly across from our, our folks Stevens Tennis Complex. There's this big. Square box, that's the entranceway that is, really a shrine to Jim Jarrett, which it should be. He was the athletic director here for 40 years and did some great things. We were the first school in the Commonwealth of Virginia to give athletic scholarships for women. So that's a pretty neat stat for o d to to claim. But that whole area could house probably 40 or 50 student athletes. In a lounge capacity with chairs and sofas and a 90 inch tv, we could watch NCAA selection shows in there. Right now it is just a pass through foyer. It's outside of our weight room. It's outside of our academic advising area. And if you think about it, there's only one team that has any kind of locker room and lounge facilities in this Jim Jarrett building, and that's volleyball. Everybody else football's over in LR Hill, field Hockey, lacrosse, LR Hill, soccer's in the soccer facility, baseball's in baseball. Rowing is over in Lakewood. Sailing is on the Elizabeth River. So our athletes come to the gym, Jarret building to get academic tutoring to get counseling, for classes to visit the business office, to visit the media relations. Area, and they really have nowhere to go, nowhere to sit, nowhere to congregate. So this is gonna be a, I think we're, we're gonna call it the lions den, and it's gonna be a place where student athletes from all of our different teams can congregate and call it their own, and have a lounge area where they can study, they can get on their computer, they can do work, uh, or they can send their family, you know, emails or whatever they need to do. So I think that's gonna be a, a real quality of life, unifying factor that we are putting together this summer.

That sounds like a phenomenal facility, especially with, student athletes from different programs and come and mingle and, get them together, passively a bit, where coaches aren't having to actively do that. that's really cool. We enjoyed great success this season in sports like women's soccer, field hockey, and both tennis teams, both women's tennis and women's soccer now have a conference champion streak, which is awesome. So that brings us to our next question. we wanna make sure that the coach, coach Doms of the world, the Coach Hines, is of the world, coach Finney, are awarded for winning and, locked down for a while. Um, but we don't typically see or hear, extensions announced. is there a reason why you guys tend not to do that? Because Mike and I, see that as like a, those are successes. Those are, those are wins. it seems like a missed opportunity sometimes from a fan's perspective that is,

Yeah. Yeah. No, uh, yeah, we, we really don't see it as that. It's big a deal. it's between us and the coach and, that's what's most important. most of our coaches are on multi-year contracts, uh, and most of them start with five and go anywhere from two to five years. So, uh, I think sometimes fans read into it too much. Oh, this coach only has two years left. They're in trouble. This coach has five years. Oh, they're in great shape. that really may not be the case because you're only as, as, as strong as what your buyout is. You could have a hundred year contract, and if you've got no buyout, you're on a day-to-day contract. So it really doesn't matter what the length of time of a contract is. a coach might say it helps them in recruiting, but again, we, we've seen that things change very, very quickly. So, uh, you know, contract is what it is. We just don't feel like, it deserves to be overplayed or overhyped. because I think sometimes people tend to read in too much to that.

this next question may or may not land the right way. it is safe to say the first year of the royal rivalry did not go in old dominion's favor. did they catch us in a weird year or does something really need to change, to get on the right side of victory in this rival?

I, I think it's, you know, a tribute to J M U. I mean, they, they have the biggest budget in our conference and they moved, uh, from F Cs to transition F B s, but yet they led all other budgets by millions of dollars. I think they've got 10 million more than O D U. In their athletic budget. So, I mean, what's going on there? I mean, they're, yeah, they're, they're built for success. Again, that's a, a tribute to, to J M U, uh, and, and what they've been able to accomplish in Harrisonburg. So, so good for them. They're gonna be good for, for years to come. they cut, I don't know what, 10 programs, maybe eight or nine years ago, and they kind of got lean and, they redistributed the, the revenue that they had to the remaining sports. And they pledged to, to get very, very competitive in all of them. They've hired great coaches, Jeff Bourne's, a terrific ad. So they've done extremely well. We just gotta get better.

So you mentioned their, big budget, obviously with the move to fbs, they're gonna have to add a woman's, another woman's sport for Title ix, or we would assume they would. And in the state of Virginia, we have the Cox Bill to deal with, so they can't fund that with student fees. Has there been any conversations about potentially maybe getting that law changed?

Well, first of all, I don't know if they need to add women's sports or not, you know? Yeah. They added 22 men's. Football scholarships to go ffc S to f p s, but I'm, I'm not familiar enough with J M U to even begin to comment on what they may or may not need to do from a Title IX perspective. Uh, the Cox Bill, at the f c s level, you can have, I think 72% of your revenue from student fees. Uh, f p s at our level, it's 55%. So at least on surface it looks like they're gonna have to wean themselves from 72% down to 55% revenue from student fees. So yeah, I don't know how, they plan to approach that. I'm sure they'll, figure, figure out a way. is that gonna go away? I don't know. I mean, that's, uh, that's been around for I think five, six years. And I, I don't get any, indication that, that there's a big push to eliminate that. So we're just making sure that we comply with the Cox Bill and that we stay within our 55% ratio of revenue from student fees versus other privately generated revenue.

All right. So football season's right around the corner. We're getting more and more excited each and every day. last year we saw new fan experience of cornball field with a deck which offered fans a premium experience. really cool looking, we also saw the introduction of stadium wide alcohol sales. Are there any new things coming this season that fans should be excited about?

Yeah, Coffman Mall will continue to get better and better. You know, we'll have live music every Saturday. We'll have, family friendly events, bounce houses for kids. We'll have, adult beverages. We'll have food, we'll have other entertainment on the Kaufman Mall lawn. if, if I'm a fan and I don't wanna try and put together some big tailgate, I would just find a, a easy to park. Cheap place to park, walk to Coffman Mall, enjoy myself for several hours, watch the team march through, and then I'd just walk over to the stadium when I felt like coming in. So I think we're gonna continue to improve that and our game day atmosphere. And then as you said, Aaron, uh, we do sell, uh, beer and wine throughout the stadium so people can continue if they're in that tailgate mood, they can continue that once they walk into SB Ballard Stadium. So,

We asked, our listeners and fellow fans for. Submissions, questions. They'd like to hear you, answer and this will be the first one. fans are interested and thankful with the new Sunbelt tv deal with espn, and we know it runs through 2031 and will have us on ESPN plus at least, every football game and basketball game and baseball game. I know our fans are enjoying being able to watch more road games, but we're not really sure about the different tiers and how those rights work. So is there any option for Dominion to maybe license at a game to a local channel or maybe a regional sports network?

Yeah, our rights are really tied up with the Sunbelt Conference and espn. Whether it's espn, ESPN two, espn, you. ESPN three or plus. Uh, the good news there is you can get it on your phone, you can get it on your tv. I mean, you, you know where to go, you know where to look. You don't have to hunt for, is it CW Station? Is it, you know, the P B S station out of Petersburg? you just go to ESPN and you're gonna get it. We had three times more of our teams on E S P N and on national TV last year than we did the year before when we were in our last year of conference U S A. So we tripled our exposure across all of our sports three times as much, and everybody knew exactly where to go. Just find an E S P N listing and you will find Old Dominion. So that was one of the goals of our move to the Sunbelt conference. We wanted to clarify and simplify where might a fan go to find O D U Sports? And simply put, it's espn if we can, if we can develop our budget and get more staff and get more people. the limitation is really on O D U. the amount of times that we can pay to produce a home game, be it a non-conference baseball game, be it a soccer match, be it a volleyball match, the more of those that we can pay to produce the more opportunity we have to put those events on the E S P M family of networks. So our goal is to grow our budget so that maybe eventually, any Home ODU athletic event, you're gonna find somewhere on an ESPN platform.

that'd be great. I mean, I know the feedback that Mike and I get all the time. It's, it's very positive. Uh, we got one, we talked with Isaac Weaver a couple weeks ago and, uh, you know, he's out in LA playing with the Chargers, and he told us he got. To watch every single old Dominion football game last year because of the way it is now. So it's definitely been, definitely been a, uh, a very good thing for Old Dominion fans. and that includes former athletes. all right, so another fan submission question. a lot schools in the Commonwealth and in the Sunbelt have partnered with craft breweries to make a school themed beer. Can Old Dominion fans expect to see one in the not too distant future.

We, uh, we've partnered with new realm. And we are gonna have a launch within the next four to six weeks. So we think we're gonna have something that will be available, before the, the start of the football season where our fans can, support. Uh, I don't wanna give away the name of the beer or the, the type because I know the university, just approved all the artwork, the name, the branding, the logo usage. we've had taste testing. So we're, we're moving out, on a a, an ODU branded, beer that I think our fans are gonna really respond positively to.

That's exciting news to me as a beer drinker. thank you for sharing that with us. this goes back to the game day atmosphere. We know parking is at a premium in Old Dominion, but a lot of fans are interested in single game tailgating. has there been any consideration to turning in one of the lots to a single game, tailgate, access area?

Yeah, you know, right now we, we've got such limited surface parking, lot close proximity to the stadium opportunities because the school is expanding so rapidly that we're taking so parking lots and we're turning them into academic buildings or on campus residence. So, you know, we, we have very little space and it drives the value of those limited spaces up. So we'll continue to maintain the, the close surface parking lot as season space. But we really wanna push people to Kaufman Mall. I mean, if, if, if you, you know, if you can't find a, a side street, or if you can't find a location, uh, for your, you know, single game tailgate, just park and go to Kaufman Mall and you've got everything you would bring yourself right there. And then maybe you've got even more. You got a ton of people. You got big screen TV showing football games going on around the country. You got live music and entertainment. You got food, you got adult beverages, you got the alumni association has a tent every game there. You got other groups that have tents. You got the bookstore that's selling merchandise on Kaufman Mall. So I wouldn't even worry about trying to find a place of my own to do a tailgate. I just migrate to Kaufman Mall and even, and once you get there, you're probably 20, 30 yards from the stadium itself. So you're in the shadows of Ballard's Stadium.

How are we doing with time here? Five, six minutes.

that's fine. Yeah.

Oh, okay. so obviously as a a G five, mid-major school, you have different budget. Constraints and different things that you have to contend with that a lot of the Power five schools may not have. Can you talk to the fans just a little bit about some of the budget challenges, the things that you really have to think about at being at this level of college sports?

Yeah. To me, the biggest challenge has been the, yeah. After covid, uh, when, when, you know, you look at inflation, you look at travel costs, uh, our program budgets haven't really gotten much of an increase the last two or three years. So think about around your own household. You know, if you're trying to spend what you did three years ago on food and travel and entertainment, uh, at today's prices, you, you don't stand a chance. And so that's, that's kind of where we are, uh, with, with our athletic budget and our, our constraints. It's just, uh, uncontrollable costs and the impact that they have on our overall program. Budgets.

All right. At a recent OD DAF event, we learned of the ODU collective that is being formed by some donors. How has that process been for you and what can fans expect moving forward?

Yeah. Well, I mean, first a collective is exactly what the name and implies. It's a group of individuals who get together and decide, let's collect money. to support student athletes. So a collective operates completely outside of the purview of an athletic department. So we have absolutely no control on who they employ, who they target for fundraising, how they operate their business. the, from what I understand, the, the collective that is being established is gonna be called the, the pride of odu. it'll be a 5 0 1 C three, organization. they have partnered with another charitable organization, from what I gather that will allow individuals to get a tax benefit, a tax write off. For any contributions made to the pride of O D U through this other, tax deductible charity. And then they'll work with our student athletes to, determine what charity and what, events they will need to support in exchange for their, the compensation that they receive. I read an interesting article last night, that was in one of the trade publications and it was about Texas a and m and Texas a and m. From August 1st, 2022 to June 11th, 2023, uh, they, uh, reported student athletes at Texas a and m reported income of 8.5 million, 8.5 million. Just within the last, 12 months, 8.5 million, in their first year, it was about 4 million. So they have doubled their earnings, Texas a and m student athletes from 4 million to 8.5 million in their second year. And the vast majority of that goes to support football. 80% goes to support football. So imagine 80% of 8.5 million that leaves you around 7 million is going to support Texas a and m football student athletes. And the last time I checked, they didn't even make a bowl game. So, you know, everybody thinks that there's a strong correlation. We gotta get our players money, we gotta, you know, support, name, image, and likeness and collectives. It doesn't always translate into on the field success. So we've tried to maintain a healthy balance. Let's do it the right way. Let's not, you know, let's get into the game, but do we really need to go full bore and try and outspend everyone at our level, those with whom we compete, or let's just be smart about it, uh, and let's use it to our advantage. But not just go in with, with no regard of value or impact on the locker room and on the transfer portal. speaking of transfer portal, I just read a stat today that one out of 11. Of all transfers this past year transferred up, 10 out of 11 were either at the same level or down a level. And if you put the rosters together today, from the last year of transfers, 44% of all transfers never made it to another roster. So almost half these student athletes who hit the transfer portal are out. Only one out of 11 transferred up. So to me, the message is, the grass is not always greener on the other side. Maybe you should stay where you are. Stop worrying about how much money your collective is gonna give you. Worry about your degree. Worry about getting better. Worry about playing time and make the most of your playing experience. I think there are too many distractions right now for our student athletes, and we're starting to see the, the statistics on what's really going on. And the pendulum will come back. It'll find, you know, better equilibrium, but right now it's a system in chaos.

Yeah, I absolutely agree, especially on the, the portal, side of things. However, uh, old Dominion has been really good about showing students support in a variety of areas. I think the last thing you guys created were, was a mental health, support system for our student athletes with this n i l money coming into play. These student athletes will now have to report that as income. Has there been any consideration to offering these, student athletes financial support to make sure that they stay in right with the i r s?

Yeah, we, we've had financial literacy programs in place for the last three years. So our athletes, because we, we give them cost of attendance. Cost of attendance can be as much as $3,000 a year per student athlete. So we started financial literacy a number of years ago for all ODU student athletes. It's mandatory. we also bring in, corporate leaders from around the community to talk about financial literacy. So feel pretty good about where we are there with the support of our 475 ODU student athletes. The other thing, that this collective and the partnership that they have, is they have a, it's kind of the back of the house where every single donor is, sent a letter of recognition that they can use for IRS purposes. All the student athletes. Uh, a computer keeps, information on how much have they been compensated. It generates, the W2 or the 10 99. So it tabulates everything that they will need to know come year in for tax purposes. So they should not, if they're paying attention, get into any kind of trouble. Uh, with regard to i r s reporting.

Dr. Sig, thank you so much for coming on today. We, appreciate you going into detail on so many of these things that we've asked, and even things we didn't necessarily ask. We know that Monarch Nation is, really gonna enjoy listening to this and here's some things that they didn't know about before. Mike, you got anything?

I just wanna say thank you so much for joining us today. it was always, it's great as always to chat with you. we'll give you the opportunity to, is there a message you'd like to give Old Dominion fans?

Well, one, I wanna thank you both Aaron and Mike. I, I appreciate the service that you guys provide for all ODU fans everywhere. I, I, I think the appetite is growing. Now that we've gone fbs, now that we've gone Sunbelt conference, I think the appetite for ODU sports and ODU sports information, just continues to grow and you help feed that appetite. So thank you for the role that, that you play. I just, I love our future. I think we've got great coaches. We've got terrific leadership. President Hemphill is, is the best president I've ever worked with in my life. he is so enthusiastic. We're now research one institution. The E V M S merger is, is happening. the profile of Old Dominion is changing not just in our own backyard, but nationally. Uh, so it, it, it's a real, a great time to be a part of O D U, both academically and athletically. so yeah, our, our best days are still ahead. We've had some pretty good days, uh, but our best days are, are still ahead and really looking forward to the future here at O D U.

Completely agree. I still can't believe how much this campus has changed in the 13 years I've lived in Norfolk. I, I imagine you feel the same way about from your childhood,

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I used to, I used to pedal my bike around this campus and, you could, you know, see five students walking around campus cuz it was such a commuter school and it was nothing. But you're talking about surface parking, that's all this place was. It was a couple academic buildings in like 4,000 parking spots because it was a commuter school. Now it's completely flipped where residential college, residential university. And, it's just got a really good vibe to it. So it, it has completely transformed, uh, since those days.

thanks again for joining us. we really do appreciate it. And go Monarchs.

Monarchs.

All right. Thanks guys. Have a good one. All right. Talk to you soon.

Podcast

Monarchs