Hi, I'm Dom Manilla and you're listening to the Monarchists Podcast.

I'm Aaron

and I'm Mike

and you're listening to the Monarchists Podcast today. We welcome Old Dominion Athletic Director, Dr. Wood Selig to the show. Thanks for joining us.

Hey Aaron. Hey Mike. Thanks for having me.

So congratulations on another fun season of ODU athletics. We had women's soccer title, a bowl, appearance for the football team, women's tennis championship, a women's golfer in the NCAA championships, a record breaking year for ODU baseball and the biggest news of all the move to the Sun Belt. We're a week away from us officially joining the Sun Belt. Does it feel real yet Wood?

It's about time. Yes it is been a long time coming. We were successful in navigating our exit from Conference USA a year early. And I think it's gonna mean all the difference in the world to our student athletes, our coaches, our fans of ODU athletics in the Hampton roads community to see teams that they really want. to watch, compete against ODU. I think there's gonna be a heightened sense of interest, a heightened sense of awareness. And I think it's gonna be good for everybody in Hampton roads.

I completely Wood, I'm really excited about the renewing of the JMU rivalry, but with the new league comes new opportunities and new challenges. What, if any changes do we need as a program and a fan base to reach the goals of the department in the Sun Belt?

Well, the, the first realization that that we've come to is the Sun Belt conference has such a dynamic broadcast partnership with ESPN and we have to become much better at producing our own sports programming for distribution on whether it be ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, eSPN3, ESPN+, we're gonna be held to some very high broadcast standards to get ODU content out on the various ESPN platforms. It's gonna require an investment of capital. It's gonna require an investment of people. It's gonna require investment of technology. But it's going to help broadcast to the nation ODU and ODU Athletics and all of our programs that we have and the, the great fan base, they'll see the great atmosphere that we have, not just in football, but in volleyball, in soccer. It it's gonna be a great opportunity for us to brand Old Dominion University nationally. It can help us with recruiting. It'll help us stay in touch with our alumni across the country. And I think it'll help us build you know, future followers and, you know, fan base broadening across the country. So the ESPN partnership, which is going to be a decade long partnership is gonna give ODU a platform that we've never had before. to spread the word on ODU athletics on Old Dominion University. But it's gonna force us to up our game with regard to the production of the type of broadcast quality that people assume they're gonna get when they dial into an ESPN broadcast.

Is that in all our venues or are there particular ones where it's needed more than other?

Yeah, you know, for example, baseball we're gonna have to have four camera angles in baseball, not only for the broadcast, but for the replay. So, you know, right now we have one behind center field and we have one behind the plate, but we're gonna have to put one on first and third. So we're gonna have to, again, invest in technology and people to operate the cameras. So, but it's gonna help us with the broadcast, cuz we're gonna have at least four different camera angles. So we're gonna have to become almost a, a, a mini ESPN center here on campus at ODU to broadcast baseball, we have volleyball and you know that each, each sport has its own handbook of what you, you need to do minimum requirements as well as, you know, what they would say prefer you to do that goes beyond the minimum. And, you know, do you have the capacity? Let's say we have two home games running concurrent to one another. Let's say, you know, there, there are times when we might have you know, a men's basketball game in, in late February and a baseball game in late February, both at home. So how do you work that with, with your broadcast team? So that that's gonna be the, the biggest challenge, but I think it's the biggest opportunity for us, because we're required to at least produce and distribute 50% of our Sun Belt conference, home contests for ESPN. It doesn't mean that you, you know, can't go beyond 50%. Our goal is to produce every single one of our Sun Belt conference home games for all of our sports, but we're gonna start at least with 50% for all of our teams across the board who are competing in the Sun Belt conference. And we'll, we'll kind of learn our way and grow our way ultimately to broadcasting every single home Sun Belt conference game across all of our sports.

Well, that's exciting Wood. I, I know I'm excited that I don't have to look at odusports.com anymore about what, what channel it's gonna be on, whether it's Facebook or Stadium or whatever, but that's very exciting. So you mentioned the baseball stadium and we've had a lot of exciting capital projects over the last few years, including the volleyball facility. The resurfacing of the tennis courts, the new football stadium. We also have some projects in line with the baseball stadium renovation and the football locker room upgrades. Are there any other projects that you have planned for, or you have ideas of that'll come after this?

Well, we we've just redone the, the weight room in the Jim Jarrett Athletic Administration Building, and yeah, that's probably outside of, you know, wherever the athletes may be practicing on the fields or in the pool or on the court. The weight room is probably the, the second most investment of time of our student athletes in a location here on our athletic precinct. So the Jim Jarrett Athletic Administration Building houses, a weight room that accommodate almost 50% of our student athletes. So we have completely redone that entire new floor, all new weights, all new weight stations. So it it's got a fresh, new look, new smell when our student athletes get back for those who left during the summer. They'll be pleasantly surprised with a brand new weight room here. And you know, so that, that was an important project for us. The baseball stadium is a 20 million dollar facility. We've raised a little over 17 million toward the 20 million that we need. So we, we hope to close out the final 3 million as we roll through the summer and, and into the fall cuz we really wanna fast track that project and get that under. And get it to Richmond for approval so we can get the official architectural design and then ultimately get it bid and, and, and have it constructed, so that's an important project for us as well.

So with a new conference come rumors, and we've heard rumors that field hockey potentially could be added as a sport in the Sun Belt. Is there any talk about that or we miss hearing.

No, no, you're not mishearing it. You know, actually that that's one aspect of the Sun Belt conference leadership. Keith Gill is the commissioner. Keith was the former athletic director at the University of Richmond among other roles that he has played throughout his career. He played football at Duke. He was with the Atlantic 10 as an associate commissioner before he joined the Sun Belt conference as commissioner, but he's very forward thinking, very progressive and you know, one of our challenges at Old Dominion since we left the CAA is, you know, we've, we've got so many of our sports that are housed in other conferences because our, our main conference, whether it's Conference USA now, the Sun Belt conference sometimes does not offer sports that we have in the Mid-Atlantic such as rowing field hockey, women's lacrosse swimming. So we we've been frustrated with, with so many different conferences for some of our sports. We'd like to have everyone under one umbrella. So we've asked the Sun Belt conference if, if they would consider, you know, cuz we've got JMU plays, field hockey. We have Appalachian state who plays field hockey. We have ODU who plays field hockey. You need six, we've got three. So we're exploring possibilities. Could there be three others or five others or six others who might make sense in the footprint of the Sun Belt conference to establish a field hockey you know, division within the Sun Belt conference? So we're exploring a lot of different options and opportunities right now. It won't happen, you know, overnight, but we're, we're certainly looking at opportunities there. We're also looking at men's and women's swimming and diving. Is there a way to put that under the, the Sun Belt umbrella just like what we were able to, to create for men's soccer. You know, men's soccer will have a, a core group of Sun Belt conference membership, but we'll also have, you know, West Virginia, we'll have Kentucky, we'll have South Carolina, Central Florida. It's gonna be one of the top two or three men's soccer conferences in the country because of the core Sun Belt membership, but also so many outstanding affiliate members. So we're always trying to make sure we can include as many ODU programs underneath the primary umbrella and banner of the Sun Belt conference. And, and the league has been receptive to that request, not only by us, but schools like James Madison and schools in the Mid-Atlantic who have these types of sports and programming and let, let's be honest. I mean, there's not a whole lot of you know, it's a lot of work for the, for the league. To run championships and to, you know, go ahead and administrate you know, all these different affiliate members for a conference championship for an AQ. It's not like they're getting paid extra or it brings in a ton of extra revenue. It really is just more work for our conference officials, but they have shown interest and ability to accommodate the request of the membership. So that's been refreshing, you know, that that's been unique. And, and we're, we've been happy to see that kind of can do attitude out the Sun Belt conference office.

It's very exciting. The more we can get under the Sun Belt moniker, the better. Speaking of adding, a few years ago, we added women's volleyball. At that time I remember Harry Minium saying we still needed to add more women's scholarships for Title IX. Has there been any consideration for what that next sport might be?

Yeah, we're, we're always monitoring and exploring, you know, what future options may be to add opportunities for the underrepresented, which in our case here at ODU would be women's sports, women's scholarship recipients. So you know, one natural might be to look at our volleyball addition and see if maybe there isn't a way to add sand or, you know, outdoor volleyball. So beach volleyball. So that's certainly one that we are keeping an eye on. The Sun Belt conference actually has a, a, a good core membership who have sand or beach volleyball. So that would be a natural, that counts as a separate women's intercollegiate athletic sport, cuz they're typically different style athlete and volleyball players who play the sand volleyball versus the indoor. So that's like adding another program. Typically add more coaching, but you know, it, it kind of plays off the, the volleyball. So I think that's very popular here in Hampton Roads and, and might be a sport that could generate some fan following and, and attention. So that would be a, a natural one. We're looking at some other emerging sports within the NCAA as possible additions down the road. Nothing right now is, is imminent or it's gonna happen in the next year or two. You know, we, we get requests. Why, why not add track and field? Why not add women's softball? Love, both those sports, but there's just such a tremendous outlay of cash for those particular programs, not just in facilities, but squad size scholarship amounts. And you know, right now we are restricted in Virginia with regard to student fees for athletics under the Cox bill. I don't know how we would do that financially you know, with, without raising student fees a fair amount to add those additional opportunities in larger programs like softball and track and field, because there would be a huge. Capital expense for facilities. We don't have a softball field. We don't have a track location. We'd either have to purchase land near ODU or have to go somewhere out into say Chesapeake or Great Bridge or rent someplace. It would be very clunky versus, you know, adding opportunities that we could house here within our existing facilities and our campus footprint. So that, that's kind of what we're thinking with regard to future of, you know, compliance with title I and additional sport offerings at ODU.

Appreciate you sharing insight on that. So while President Broderick was in office, we had heard you a number of times state that top four finishes and competing for league championships was the goal each season. Since President Hemphill's arrival, we've definitely felt a new energy around the program. Has the bar been raised with President Hemphill coming in?

Our goals are still, you know, we wanna be in the, the top quartile of our league, you know, which, which matches the resources that we provide our coaches and student athletes with regard to their overall operating budget, their recruiting budget, the type of facilities that we have constructed here. Typically if the league has 14 schools, you know, we want to finish first, second or third across all of our sports in, in the conference standings, ideally, you know, we're trying to put all of our programs in position to win conference championships so that that's still our goal. We, we want as many playing in postseason at the NCAA post season level as possible. We wanna graduate our student athletes. We wanna play within the rules. We wanna provide a world class experience for our student athletes and we wanna, you know, certainly comply with the NCAA and, and, and balance our budget, we, we need to be responsible financially. One thing that I've noticed as President Hemphill definitely is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and help us achieve all of the goals that, that we have set for our athletic program, including, you know, fundraising assistance, You know, at, at all of our athletic events and contests, not just President Hemphill, but first lady and, and the family the Hemphill family attend a lot of our athletic events. So we, we, we've got great support, great leadership from the top, from the board of visitors that we have. So we we're in a real enviable position. When I talk to my counterparts around the country, you know, not, not many enjoy the type of, of interest and support that we receive here at ODU from their president and board of visitors and, and the members of the administration. So I feel really, really fortunate. We we'll look at the university's going through a, a real in depth, 12 month strategic plan analysis, and coming up with a new university strategic plan, we're waiting for that to be completed sometime in the fall or early winter. And then we'll make sure that the athletic department, strategic plan works hand in glove with the overall institutional strategic plan. And that will also same be true for the campus master plan, you know, there'll be a, a campus master plan that will be hatched for the next five to 10 years. And we'll make sure that athletics is part of that overall process and plan as well.

Thank you for going into depth on Dr. Hemphill and the athletic program there. Recently Sun Belt leadership has publicly stated it's committed to improving the quality of basketball in the league. We've had our own struggles in this area recently; however, Coach Jones has brought in a new roster for the new league. What kind expectations should we set for the squad?

Yeah. I don't know if, if we can be the best team our first year in the league, but I'll be honest with you. I'll be disappointed if we're not. But you know, what, what I think when I evaluate the Sun Belt conference versus Conference USA, with regard to men's basketball, the two leagues are interchangeable when it comes to the RPI or the NET, you know, there are 32 conferences in the country and generally the last five years or so Conference USA Sun Belt conference have finished 15 and 16 or 16 and 15 almost every year. They're they're they're right there in the middle of the pack. What differentiates the Sun Belt from Conference USA is Conference USA over the last five years has had two or three programs that are. You know, a top 40 RPI, a top 50 RPI. So the, the, the top of Conference USA has been better than the top of the Sun Belt, but also the bottom of Conference USA has been pretty atrocious. Now the bottom of the Sun Belt conference has not been nearly as bad. So that's where the averages, you know, come in at 15 and 16. So because there's really no dominant team, like UAB has been very good. North, Texas has been good. Middle Tennessee's been good, Marshall's been good. ODU's been good in Conference USA. In the Sun Belt, you know, it's, it's fairly wide open and you know, there, there aren't that many teams that are finishing in the top 100 at the end of the year, RPI. So when the Sun Belt's talking, we gotta improve our basketball. We've got, you know, the, the bottom needs to get better. Yes. But the top needs to start getting into that 25 to 50 NET or RPI, whichever one you like to use, you know, as far as the statistical ranking. We we've gotta get the, the top better. So that's why I'm very optimistic for both our men and our women. Yeah. There's nobody that's running away with basketball in the Sun Belt conference. Now football's another story. Gosh, you got Appalachian state, you got Louisiana Lafayette, you got Coastal Carolina, you know, their top 25 programs. That's a, that's a hard ceiling to crack, but in basketball, given the history of ODU basketball, both men and women, the Mitchum Performance Center that we have for the practice opportunities for men and women's basketball, the investment that we've made in both of our programs, I really feel like we need to go in and assert ourselves and be the dominant program for men and women's basketball in the Sun Belt.

We got one last quick one for you. We know you're pressed on time. You mentioned football. Football season's right around the corner. Last year we saw a lot of new fan experiences on Kaufman Mall was really awesome. Are there any new things coming this season that fans should be excited about?

Yeah, we're gonna enhance the Kaufman Mall experience even more so than last year. We we're, we're coming up with a new area called The Deck. It's gonna be a premium seating area with food and cocktails on the sideline behind the ODU bench that will give fans an opportunity to kind of a club like experience in the open air, on the lower level of the west side of the stadium, there're only gonna be 400 of those seats available, but The Deck is gonna be a real quality premium seat area for fans who want that type of game day experience where you park your, you come into the stadium, you've got a buffet waiting for you. You've got adult beverages, you've got televisions. You've got your seat. You're watching the teams warm up. You're watching the game. It's all right there contained in one area. That's gonna be a brand new area this year that we're, we're real excited about. So I, I would say The Deck is gonna be one. And then we're, we're definitely looking at the ability to serve, sell beer and wine to everyin S.B. Ballard Stadium this fall. So we're, we're actually meeting on that tomorrow. So it would not just be restricted to the club, the Priority Club, the loge area, or the, the suites. It could be any seat in S.B. Ballard Stadium has the ability to purchase beer or wine throughout a certain time of the game. So I, I think that will help with fan experience at ODU football games. And then, you know, we we've seen the interest. We open up with Virginia Tech on ESPNU on Friday, September 2nd. It's Labor Day weekend. We, we wanted to get it off the Saturday, give people Saturday, Sunday, Monday a long weekend. We felt like we'd have more eyeballs and more national potential for, for TV coverage, which we are with ESPNU so we kick off the season at home against Virginia Tech and then it doesn't get easier when we go to East Carolina and then we go to UVA. And then we have Arkansas State, our first Sun Belt conference game on the 24th of September, followed by Liberty the next weekend at home. And I think that's why our season ticket sales numbers are around 9,500. Right now we're 2,300 above where we were last year. Almost 2,500 new season tickets have been sold and we really haven't gone out with any concentrated marketing or sales effort, which will begin in the latter part of July in about another month. So we, we really want to get to a point where we've, we've sold out on season tickets. So we've got about 4,000 season tickets until we reach that point. So we're gonna be very aggressive in selling these last 4,000 season tickets over the next nine weeks that we have before we kick off the season.

Well, I hope Ballard is full. I love the experience of the new stadium, so I'm really excited to hear about this new deck

That sounds awesome.

And it's awesome to hear 9,500 tickets. It's pretty great considering how scary it was a few years ago with, and then the one, one win season., so congratulations. we can't wait to see it packed again.

We can't either Coach Ricky Rahne and his staff are doing such a great job recruiting with their game plan, getting out in the community, getting the community re-engaged. So, you know, to me, I've been here now, this is my 13th year. I came after year one of ODU football. It was fresh. It was brand new. Everyone in Hampton Roads wanted to come to our games. It's getting to be that feeling again around ODU football, which is a fantastic place to be with regard to interest level and support for our program.

Well, I'm happy to hear, we've been onboard the whole time, so we're not going anywhere. Thank you for your time today Wood. We really appreciate it. I hope we can do this again soon.

We will. Thank you guys. I appreciate your time.

Have an awesome day. Go Monarchs!

Go Monarchs!

All right.

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