NC State All-Sports Look-In

AD & Department General NC State Administration Non-Revenue61

From February 16, 2004’s edition of The Wolfpacker magazine’s Q&A with NC State Athletics Director, Lee Fowler: More from this interview by clicking here

Question: What are your goals as an athletics director for the upcoming year, in terms of improving athletic programs and in improving facilities? How will those goals be measured? – Herb, Archdale, NC Class of 1987

Fowler:

My goals are the same as when I came to NC State three years ago: we want to be top-25 program in all sports. I maintain that goal, and I feel it is very reachable. I think we are moving in that direction in most sports…

…We have to ask our coaches to take their programs toward those levels. But we also have to provide the facilities for them to at that level if we are going to demand those results. And I think that ‘t what we are doing.

By the end of ‘05, we will have most of our programs in the types of facilities that coaches can be held accountable to. I don’t think that was the case when I first got here. I think we had teams competing against people with a lot more assets than we had.”

Question: How do you determine and measure what levels of success each program reachs? Does this vary from program to program? When and how is this barometer evaluated?” – Mo, Greensboro, NC

Fowler:

“Every sport is judged by their wins and losses, and how they compete on a national level. I also consider if they are competitive against teams on their own level, and see what they do against teams that are already where you want to be. As an administrator, my job is to not be quite as emotional as fans, even though I go up and down like the fans do with wins and losses of different teams. I have to step back and observe the progress of the program.

2008-2009 Standings by sport through April 5, 2009

Baseball: 6-9, 16-15, 9th in the ACC
Football: Finished 4-4, 6-7, Tied for 5th in the ACC
Men’s Basketball: 6-10, 16-14 10th in the ACC
Women’s Basketball: 5-9, 13-17 tie for 8th in the ACC
Gymnastics: Finished 1st of 8 (EAGL)
Men’s Soccer: 3-5, 9-9-1, tied for 7th of 9 teams in ACC
Women’s Soccer: 0-10, 8-12, 11th of 11 teams in the ACC
Softball: 3-6, 18-16, 6th of 8 teams in the ACC
Men’s Swimming and Diving: 3-3, 6-3, 6th of 10 teams in the ACC
Women’s Swimming and Diving 2-3, 5-5, 8th of 11 teams in the ACC
Men’s Tennis: 3-6, 9-12, 9th of 12 teams in the ACC
Women’s Tennis: 1-7, 4-14, 12th of 12 teams in the ACC
Volleyball: 3-17, 9-26, 10th of 12 teams in the ACC
Wrestling: 0-5, 4-15-1, 6th of 6 teams in the ACC
Men’s Golf: N/A; Finished 2nd – 6th in several tournaments
Women’s Golf: N/A; Finished in bottom half of just about every tournament played
Track and Field: Men’s Indoor Track – 6th of 12 ACC Teams
Women’s Indoor Track – 6th of 12 ACC Teams
Cross Country: Men’s – 2nd of 12 ACC Teams
Women’s – 10th of 12 ACC Teams
Rifle Rifle 1 of 8 (SEARC)
Rifle 7 of 7 (GARC)

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

AD & Department General NC State Administration Non-Revenue

61 Responses to NC State All-Sports Look-In

  1. Wolfpack_1995 04/06/2009 at 4:53 PM #

    How long is Bobby Purcell going to be able to take money and hand it to Fowler?

    How long?

    We are just SUCKERS!

  2. whitefang 04/06/2009 at 5:10 PM #

    The positive in me says this is the root of the discussion we had Friday. I hope that someone is finally putting the heat on Fowler, and his moving on is just a matter of time and final details being worked out.
    Look at the ACC schools ahead in the Director’s Cup even if you throw out Carolina. Are we saying that Wake Forest, Virginia, and Duke are ranked so much higher than us because a. we can’t compete with them in athletic money and b. our academic priorities are so much more important to us than their’s are.
    It is freaking ridiculous the futility of our overall athletic department compared to our peers.

  3. Dogbreath 04/06/2009 at 5:22 PM #

    Is it true that Lee Fowler asked for catfish at the Angus Barn last year? Did anyone else hear this story?

  4. turnoffthetv 04/06/2009 at 5:38 PM #

    The gymnastics team has saved Lee’s Job at least for another year!

  5. Cardiff Giant 04/06/2009 at 5:55 PM #

    A most impressive portrait of futility as the Periclean Age of Lee Fowler continues.

    Send a copy to your favorite trustee today.

  6. CStanley 04/06/2009 at 5:58 PM #

    Jesus what a pathetic performance chart.

    I just hope that after O’Brien has a fantastic year in football (fingers crossed), the Board doesn’t take that as any reflection on Fowler and grant him any more time.

  7. JeremyH 04/06/2009 at 6:18 PM #

    who are the good ol’ boys in this network you speak of?

  8. old13 04/06/2009 at 6:49 PM #

    ^ It seems to run rampant throughout the NCSU organization. See MAF’s firing of deadwood professors and being criticized for trying to improve the quality of faculty. You don’t think that Oblinger got to be chancellor on the basis of merit, do you!

  9. wolfprof 04/06/2009 at 7:07 PM #

    chancellor–hired from within
    provost–hired from within
    at least one dean–hired from within
    graduate school dean–hired from within
    the list goes on and on…

  10. BSIE80 04/06/2009 at 7:18 PM #

    ok, u convinced me. Fire Jed and lets move on.

  11. bluelena69 04/06/2009 at 7:33 PM #

    I have pretty good information that MAF left when she saw how futile the clean up job was gonna be. NC State has some great academic minds. It also has plenty of people holding academic rank who have no business with PhD’s, much less teaching or research positions. Those people want to keep their jobs because no one else will take them. Thus, we have Oblinger.

    I have sat on numerous University-wide task forces and the fundamental, prevailing inability to take advantage of the resources on this campus is simply breath-taking.

  12. JeremyH 04/06/2009 at 7:39 PM #

    so you either support your teams no matter what, bitch and moan about how shitty the state of affairs is, or you shut yourself off to it altogether, because college basketball isn’t that important in the larger scheme of things.

    wow that looks like an evolutionary cycle of a state fan. I think i’ve been pin-balling between 2 and 3.

  13. Alpha Wolf 04/06/2009 at 7:51 PM #

    Me, I am glad it is over tonight, except for the bragging.

  14. newt 04/06/2009 at 7:54 PM #

    Anybody else get a survey from the Wolfpack Club tonight?

    I slammed Lee Fowler for publicly criticizing NC State fans and devaluing the head basketball coaching position at NC State.

  15. buttPACKer 04/06/2009 at 8:01 PM #

    MAF was a BIG, BIG loss for NC State. . . If I were her I probably would have gone too, but just b/c I’ve always wanted to live in CA.

  16. WV Wolf 04/06/2009 at 8:03 PM #

    I just filled out the same survey. I find the timing of a survey to “determine what motivates donors to give to athletic fundraising organizations” veerrry interesting, despite the claim the survey is being conducted at two other universities.

  17. nikemike 04/06/2009 at 9:00 PM #

    State fans consistently overrate MAF’s contributions. I think, and most people who worked for her would agree, that she was a piss poor manager and a pretty horrible boss.

    But if we don’t miss her actual leadership, I do think we miss her leadership philosophy. She valued and demanded excellence. She may not have been a great executive, but she provided a shot of adrenaline and self-confidence that the University desperately needed. She was the Chuck Amato of Holiday Hall. The trick for State is to find a leader whose executive acumen matches his or her vision.

    But make no mistake–you can’t have such horrific numbers on a consistent basis without a leadership failure of epic proportion. Only a mediocre institution would breed and tolerate such a climate of mediocrity.

    I hesitate to call my alma mater a mediocre institution, but I’m starting to wonder…

  18. choppack1 04/06/2009 at 9:23 PM #

    nikemike – I’m with you.

    I have a son now and I can honestly say, I’m not sure if I want him to grow up a State fan. I don’t know how can you slap an institution in the face anymore than that – but that’s my true feelings right now.

  19. redfred2 04/06/2009 at 10:24 PM #

    X

  20. Greywolf 04/06/2009 at 10:35 PM #

    OK, We fire Fowler. But does that really explain such a miserable record across the board. Does the next AD come in and fire 10 or 12 coaches right away?
    `
    This is in no way an out for Fowler, but IMO the years, YEARS without either a consistently good revenue sport team — football or basketball, I think affected all sports in recuiting. Yet if this were true, what is the “rubber meets the road” source of such dismal records. How could we be SO bad. A more revealing statistic might be the records of coaches HIRED by Fowler. Lowes record is bad but he is competing in a sport that is considered to be the basketball gold standard conference. What’s our excuse in the ordinary run of the mill sports?

  21. GAWolf 04/06/2009 at 10:47 PM #

    Why push your kid to be a State fan/student should he decide to go elsewhere? What’s the benefit in that? Why set your child up for a lifetime of disappointment? If he/she decides on his/her own to do it… support it… otherwise, what do we have to give good reason to our children to continue our measly “traditions.”

    It will take a death penalty like investigation and punishment for us to ever catch the Heels in basketball. OR… it will take a National Championship in football which will in turn put the spotlight on our athletic department as a whole.

    Thank God for football.

    “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?”

  22. Greywolf 04/06/2009 at 11:24 PM #

    Screw the student surveyor. I sent this to the email that sent me my Wolfpack Caravan invite.

    To whom it may concern,

    Is this a prank? I can’t believe you would send out a survey like this while Carolina is playing for the NC on television even as I get this.

    I have listed the NCSU records in the ACC by sport. Except for a Tie for 5th in football and a 2nd in Men’s Cross Country, our teams finished below 50% with 3 last place finishes and several next to last place finishes.

    What are we doing with the scholarships our donations fund?

    This is not excellence. This is not good or even OK. This is just darn right bad. What the heck has happened to NCSU athletics? Sweep this under the rug if you want, but it is not going away.

    “Greywolf” (of course I signed my real name)
    WPC Member
    LTR football
    ’63

  23. Wolf74 04/07/2009 at 6:36 AM #

    “to be fair to fowler though, when his budget is $20 million less than UNC’s, he shouldn’t be held to exactly their standard.”

    But that is not exactly the case, as a friend of mine talked to Fowler and was complaining about this very issue and Fowler’s response was (and I summarize based on my buddies explanation): The reporting methods for schools leave room for a lot of interpretaion. NCSU reports only the revenues and costs associated directly with the athletic department and do not report other revenues from independent sources such as the Wolfpack Club. Other schools, such as UNC-Ch, report those revenues in thier budget as they are associated with the athletic department. If you add in those outside revenues to the NCSU budget, we would compare very favorably with those schools budgets.

  24. graywolf 04/07/2009 at 7:04 AM #

    BOT have gotten what they want : Sports don’t mean much at NCSU. Those of us who love NC State and sports are left to be frustrated for the rest of our lives.

  25. Rick 04/07/2009 at 7:24 AM #

    “I have a son now and I can honestly say, I’m not sure if I want him to grow up a State fan. I don’t know how can you slap an institution in the face anymore than that – but that’s my true feelings right now.”

    I am with you. If he wants to be a fan of a school that cares about winning then I will not stand in his way.

1 2 3

Leave a Reply