Selig: Sun Belt worth the rush
AD says quick transition to new conference has been a challenge, but will be beneficial
NORFOLK — Wood Selig has a full plate. The Old Dominion athletic director is dealing with the school’s imminent July 1 move from Conference USA to the Sun Belt, an ongoing fundraising effort to build a new baseball facility and a still-young football program that saw unexpected success last season.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Pilot, Selig recently spoke on those topics and more, including the Monarchs’ complex conference history, the little-known expenses and headaches of changing leagues and the “transient’ state of college athletics overall.
This is the first of two parts. The second part will appear in Sunday’s editions.
What about the transition to the Sun Belt would surprise people? Is it harder than it looks?
“Yeah. I never imagined moving a year early would be such a heavy lift that required a lot of legal maneuvering. But well worth it for our student-athletes, our coaches, our institution and our fans.”
How is this different from the transition to Conference USA?
“That was more of a traditional time frame transition. I don’t recall the exact bylaws. Well no, I do. How is it different? When we left the CAA, we adhered to the full length of time, which was two competitive seasons: part of one and a full of another. And we witnessed firsthand how damaging it was and demoralizing it was to remain in a conference for an additional season that you had no future with. So we were penalized by the CAA, not being eligible for conference championships. And we had some very good teams that year who could’ve won conference championships. We had to qualify [for the] NCAA [Tournament] as an at-large, basically. So it was a very difficult, challenging year the final year in the CAA. Because we let Conference USA know so early — it was in October of ’21 — that we were going to be moving to the Sun Belt, had we stayed next year as well — ’22-’23 — it would’ve been, for the most part, two full years of an acrimonious situation.”
Lame-duck seasons, so to speak.
“Yeah, and even though Conference USA allowed us to be eligible for the conference championships, there was still a feeling of uneasiness among the membership. So it just made complete sense to, if at all possible, terminate at the end of the first year — June 30, ’22 — as opposed to let it ride for one more year. Fans didn’t really respond to Conference USA institutions anyway when they came to Norfolk. I can’t imagine how little interest they would show in a final lame-duck year. One more round of Conference USA would not have been met with enthusiasm.”
All that being said, if your exit from Conference USA was not imminent, does the baseball team make the NCAA Tournament?
“Yeah, I think that’ll always be a question because Conference USA was the RPI fifth-best league in the country out of 32, yet only got two schools in: the regular-season champion and the tournament champion. And the Sun Belt, who finished a notch below — RPI sixth — got four schools in. So, yeah, it is a head-scratcher. We’re on our way out, and we don’t get in. We’re going to make Sun Belt Conference baseball, with Southern Miss and ODU and Marshall and JMU, even better than they already are. I would imagine Sun Belt will replace Conference USA in the top five in the country in baseball quality. So I think we’re helping our baseball program immediately with more at-large possibility.”
Well, since we’re talking baseball, what kind of time frame are you looking at for the stadium?
“We have quickly and somewhat quietly raised $17 million of the $20 million required to renovate our baseball complex. So we’ll continue to raise money this summer, and then we’ll work with our internal facility and administration and Richmond to see what type of construction timeline we might be facing. Obviously, the sooner the better. The biggest question is: Can we do all the work in between competitive seasons? It would be very similar to the football stadium.”
I was going to say: You made a football stadium in no time.
Yeah, we made that work. Now, you pay extra to fast-track a facility project, so we would have to look at what type of additional expenses are involved with trying to do this project between June and February. Or do you do Phase I June to February, play your season February to June and then come in and do Phase II the following June to February? So right now, we’ve got the conceptuals of what we think the new park is going to look like. But we’re focused truly right now on raising $20 million, and then that’ll get us to the table for the design and the construction portion of the stadium project.”
I’m guessing you know this, or somebody over there knows this: What’s going to be the ultimate financial cost to move to the Sun Belt?
“That’s a good question. The short answer is the main cost is that we don’t receive any conference revenue distribution this year from Conference USA, which is roughly $1.1 (million) to $1.2 million. And we don’t receive any revenue distribution next year moving into the Sun Belt. We wouldn’t have received it in Conference USA, and we’re not going to receive it in the Sun Belt next year. So you could say it’s a $2.4 million expense.”
And then there’s an exit fee. Is that correct?
“Well, there is no such thing as an exit fee. You just forfeit two years of revenue. So that is the exit fee: You lose two years of revenue. So we figured we’re going to lose a year of revenue in Conference USA next year had we stayed. Why not move to the Sun Belt and start competition with schools that we want to be with a year early. And we’re not going to get any revenue from the Sun Belt because they weren’t prepared to take us early and share their revenue three more ways. But we weren’t going to get any money anyway in Conference USA, so let’s save money on travel by moving to the Sun Belt and having more bus trips than flights. Let’s presumably see greater attendance and more interest, which translates into more revenue, more season ticket and single-game ticket sales. And let’s get started on this great ESPN TV package that we’re going to be a part of. And we see right away with Virginia Tech on ESPNU Friday, Sept. 2. Let’s go ahead and get ourselves immersed into the Sun Belt Conference-ESPN TV partnership and get much more of the national platform and distribution for all of our athletic teams, which should translate into greater visibility, perhaps better recruiting, better connectivity to alumni and fans around the country and the overall growth and development of the ODU brand.”
That actually leads perfectly into my next question: How long do you anticipate that it will take to make up the money that you’re losing from this move?
“We anticipate that after the ’22-’23 season of no conference revenue, that in ’23-’24, we will be making more than we were making annually in Conference USA. So our revenue distribution will be greater than $1.2 million from the Sun Belt. Plus, I think ticket sales, donations, all of the interest in ODU athletics should increase as a result of Sun Belt competition. So I expect in two to three years, we should be seeing a replacement of lost revenue, and moving forward, that new revenue as a result of the move.”