NC State AD Boo Corrigan Talks Revenue Share, Expansion

NC State AD Boo Corrigan met with the media on Friday to discuss a variety of topics relative to Wolfpack athletics.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Opening Statement...
Thanks everyone for coming out. I just want to start with some general comments about where we are entering, believe it or not, our seventh football season as the A.D. and we got here. I think the big focus that we wanted to have when we arrived in Raleigh was what can we do to be the best NC State we can be. I think comparison's kind of the thief of joy in what you do and you can worry about everything else and what have we really focused on being the best NC State that we can be. And what does that mean? 

Okay, you know, what does that mean to us? How do we, how do we compete, right? So in the last five years we've won more ACC championships than any other school in the ACC.

What are we doing academically, right, for our students? We have the highest graduation rate, highest APR that we've had in the history of the program right now.

What are we doing with our students from a standpoint of social interaction and what are they doing in the community? And I think there's so many great stories about our students going into the community and serving the community of Raleigh and being a part of it.

In the new landscape of everything that's going on, what are we going to do to be competitive? We're going to go all in. We are all in with regards to the 20.5 million dollars in scholarships and everything. I think it's important for our fans to know that. We've known it. I haven't seen this as a point of reference of we're going to do this with football and this with basketball and this with all of our other sports, but our coaches have known since October that we were all in on what we're going to do. We look forward to the upcoming season.

Additionally, we have a new chancellor in Chancellor Howell and look forward to working with him as well as we move forward. We had a great one in Chancellor Woodson for our first five and a half years, six years, whatever the number was and we look forward to working with Chancellor Howell moving forward. 

When you say you're going all in, obviously that's you're talking about everything that's taking place over the summer, but how much does that kind of affect the way that you operate and the way that this actual administration operates given the fact that now the money, portion of the at least, is coming from the school? 
It affects everything, but you know we could see it, you see it coming with the house case, right? You believe it's going to settle and you're talking to attorneys at the ACC, attorneys on campus, everyone to get an idea of where we are right within the process. So you need to start making plans. I think as it got closer and closer, quite frankly, the scarier part was what if it doesn't settle and what do we do and how do we go about moving forward?

But you know the Wolfpack Club has been great. You know you look at the opportunity to host concerts at Carter-Finley. You look at the naming rights opportunity. You look at what we've done with what we call Pack Forward, right, which affected donations and parking and tickets. The one thing we didn't really want to do was look at this whole thing and say, you know what, we're going to raise our tickets 30 percent.

We're going to put all this on the back of our fans. We owe, as an administration, everything that we can think of for the ability to raise as much money as we can to try to spread this out as far as we can.

Thanks for doing this, Boo. I appreciate it. When you talk about all-in for the 20 and a half million, can you give us any sense of what sports are going to get that direct revenue share and how many scholarships you added and how much that takes away from the 20 and a half million? 
It's going to be part of it. I don't know the specific numbers, to be honest with you, but my guesstimate would be close to two million dollars in new scholarships as we're looking at that spread across all of our sports. Obviously everything is a deduction, right? You got the 20.5 and then up to 2.5 million in scholarships is deducted, as well as 2.5 max on money. What we did with our sports was we gave them a number, right? And as opposed to your baseball, baseball gets 10 point or 11.7 scholarships. Instead of doing that, we went and said, here's a number. If you want to do that in 25 scholarships, you can do it in 25 scholarships. If you want to do it in scholarships plus [$] and lower the number of scholarships, you can do it that way.

Ultimately, we trust our coaches. We want our coaches to have skin in the game of what we're doing. So we provided maximum flexibility for our coaches by giving them a number and then allowing them to plug the numbers they wanted to. 

So according to the EADA report, obviously men's basketball and football bring in the lion's share of the revenue for the athletic department in terms of, individual sport breakdown. Obviously you want to continue funding those heavily. How do you kind of balance ensuring, those are at the top of their game, have all the resources that they need and provide equity for some of those other Olympic sports? 
Sure. We're very honest with our coaches. I mean, all of our coaches, and if you talk to any of them, they understand the importance of football and specifically men's basketball, right? Women's basketball does generate revenue, gymnastics, volleyball, wrestling, a number of other sports as well. But the best thing that we can do is be really good in football and basketball. So it's a very frank conversation with our coaches. And as we look at that, again, as we look at it, 550 student athletes, that number over time will go down, right? As we get to the roster limits, that total number of athletes will go down over time. But we care about everyone's experience as they come through, whether you're a women's tennis player, volleyball, cross country, wrestling. We want you to have the best experience you can have as you're here. And what does that mean for us? It meant giving them a number and them filling out the team the way they want to. Use wrestling as an example. Pop believes that the best way to do it is to recruit five different weight classes, right? And be great in those five classes. And that's what's going to make us competitive nationally. That's his option. He didn't take that option, right? You know what I'm saying? And he spread it out amongst the team. But, you know, again, we want to give them maximum flexibility. 

Where do you see this all kind of ending now that we have Rev. Share? I feel like I need a lot of people to talk about players becoming employees with the CDA or being some sort of antitrust exemption. So there could be some sort of cap without that happening. Where do you see the endgame?
If you would have said five years ago we would end up where we are today, no one would have believed it. So the idea of forecasting where we're going to be in five years, I think, is a challenge.

The idea from a federal standpoint of all the states being equal, I think is really important to us. The antitrust exemption is important to us. The employee piece, I don't know if the students want it or not. I mean, you hear all kinds of different information, right? If students wanting it to be an employee, not wanting to be an employee. Is collective bargaining probably the best way to get there over time? Yes, but you need to figure out the employment piece  before you can move into the collective bargaining piece. So where does it end? I know the one thing that we talk a lot about in the athletic department is being patient because you're not really sure what's going to come out in two weeks or three weeks that's going to change the dynamic that you're working under. So ours is taking a really patient approach to what's going on as opposed to making an immediate decision that you have to change. We'd rather be patient with it, thoughtful with it, and then come out with the right decision. 

How influential has One Pack been since NIL started and how important will they be going forward in this revenue sharing era? 
They've been great. They really have been.

One Pack has really stepped up not only from the more significant donors but as well from the subscription model that they've laid out. I think it's a good example of being patient, Rob, right?

Because there was a time six, eight months ago that everyone was like, all right, we're going to shutter all of our collectives, right? And that was kind of the general thought that people were going to have and we didn't. And we talked to them to try to figure out where it is.

Is there a place for One Pack moving forward? Absolutely there is. And what does that look like? I think that's part of the great unknown, with NIL Go and trying to figure out what deals we'll get through.

How do they get through? There's been a new ruling or a new opinion as it comes to collectives that still needs to be vetted out. And what do those deals look like? What is fair market value and how does that work?

But One Pack certainly has a place in NC State Athletics moving forward. 

Can NC State realistically compete with the Oregons, the Texases, and the Ohio States of the world? 
Yeah. I mean, talk to one of our coaches and say, you know, it's nice that you're out here competing, but, everyone's here to win and we want to be competitive on a national level. And I think we've shown that through a number of our sports. A couple of years ago, we had a pretty good run in basketball, right? You got two teams in the final four and your baseball team is in the College World Series, going to bowl games every year. It's our job as an administration to do everything we can to put them into a situation where we can be competitive, get out on the field. Dave's done a great job with his staff and the staff that he has brought in. Good job in the portal. Good job developing young people as they come in and we'll take our chances. We'll go out there and compete. 

Every university has concerns about federal funding and changes with the current administration. When it comes to NC State, you know, how much of that bleeds over into athletics and, are there concerns about, you know, how much we're funneling into athletics and, in terms of, some people are concerned about, you know, should we put this money in another pot? 
Sure, sure. I'm a proud member of Chancellor Howell's cabinet, right? And I'm in there with all the other vice chancellors. I have never wanted athletics to be over the hill through the woods and some separate entity on that NC State's campus, right? So we're in those meetings, in those discussions, leading with, feeling for, right, the other people on campus because it's, specifically around the research dollars, that's a big part of it. Not having a hospital, NIH is a little bit different here than it is in other campuses that do have a hospital, but, we're feeling that as a campus and we want to be a good campus partner everywhere we can be. So that's why the importance of everything we can do to find our own revenue, everything we can do to be a good steward of our resources and make sure that we're holding up our end of the bargain. 

A quick one on, have you made any progress on the naming rights for the stadium at this point? 
We have, there's a lot of interest in it, right? I was really, really hopeful that we would be able to have something this year. At this point, what are we, three weeks away? I don't think that's going to happen at this point, but there has been a great deal of interest in it and we've been meeting with them on a regular basis and making sure that we're going through all of our lists and contacts and, the good thing for us is that Raleigh is such a vibrant community, right? From a corporate standpoint, people are moving in. Selfishly believe that a lot of these companies are coming here because of our graduates, right? And they want NC State people working there, right? So I think there's going to be a great opportunity out there for us. We just haven't found it yet. 

Boo, a couple months ago, last time we got to talk to you was right after you hired Will Wade. Just your thoughts on, he hasn't been able to coach a game to this point, but just your thoughts on not only the team that he's been able to put together, but also the resources that were put behind that and the fan support now at this point.
Yeah, he's undefeated, right? I mean, that's awesome being undefeated, but, I think I said it yesterday or two days ago at the Centennial Authority meeting, we sold over 1,600 new season tickets and we're excited about that. We're excited about the young men that he's brought into the program, as well as as he's built out his staff and, Coach Wade does a really good job, knows who he is, knows what he wants, has a staff around him that has been around him, that they have their model of what they do and how they do it. I'm really excited about it. The search was very intense inside. Hopefully our fans didn't feel a lot of that, right? I mean, our goal as an administration is to go out and hire a coach, and hopefully they feel that we handled it, professionally, did it the right way, found the person that we believe is the right leader for us and we're all going to move forward together. 

Boo we got the Clemson-FSU settlement and ACC, so things have kind of stabilized for now, but it seems like around 2030, Domino's could start to fall again. So what are you guys doing now to kind of prepare for that moment? I guess I'll just ask you directly, have you explored or look into moving conferences to the SEC or Big Ten?
I mean, the best thing we can do, again, go back to where I started, is be the best NC thing we can be, right? I mean, selling 30,000 plus season tickets for 25, 30 years in a row, right? Going to Reynolds Coliseum and women's basketball sold out, going over to the Lenovo Center, moving forward and seeing fans, competing at a really high level, right? Showing the support that we have. Does that lead to better TV windows? Yes, it does, right? And I think the best thing we can do really is focus on who we are. We're a proud member of the ACC, I love being in the ACC. I believe it's a highly competitive conference on a national level with great teams and, we win football games, we go to the CFA, right? You win basketball games, you go to the NCAA tournament and see how it works out from there. So again, our focus, are we, what's the old line, my old boss Kevin White, surveying the landscape? Of course we are, right? But I think it all comes back to being the best NC State we can be. 

Yeah, it's sort of surreal. I guess it's six or seven years at NC State now, time's flying. I think my best memory of you is in Dallas when they showed the women's team winning the game. I think you got up and started bouncing around and giving high fives down the aisle. You talk about NC State being the best NC State. What is it about, how do you be the best Boo Corrigan you could be? When you see kids succeed, graduate, do things like that, win, how does that spur you? 
Fair question. Just coming to work hard every day. I mean, that's really what it's about, being as consistent as you can be, particularly during these times where it's easy to get up and down and, what about this and what about this? There's so many different variables that are changing all the time. From a leadership standpoint, I think it calls for calm, right? And finding those moments, right? When I go home and my wife and I are sitting there, we get pretty damn fired up, I'll be honest with you. You know what I'm saying about everything that's going on, but those are more private moments. In the public moment, you just are so happy for the young people, right? And so happy for the coaches that have worked so hard and the trainers and to see the excitement, whether it's a manager or an assistant coach or a strength and conditioning or a trainer in that moment, to see the young people be the best version of themselves, right? To go to a level beyond what they thought they could maybe go to and just enjoy that moment. And then the other part is just our incredible fan base. To see the excitement, right? You win the ACC tournament in D.C. a couple years ago and I don't know who was there out of this group, but there were a lot of people crying, right? And not quite sure what was going on and, standing with our sons and daughters who are now 25 years old who hadn't experienced anything like that and just seeing the joy that they have and the connection they have to this great university. I think those are the moments that I enjoy the most. 

We talked about the ACC. How do you feel about the settlement, in particular the viewer distribution? Do you think the ACC needs to do more to generate more revenue for its programs? And then related to that, your game against Notre Dame, which probably was going to be your highest rated game of the season, got moved to Peacock, which is going to have a direct financial impact now on what you get from that viewership distribution. Obviously out of your control, but it seems like things out of your control may impact how much you make. 
Yeah, you would think as a Notre Dame grad maybe you'd do a little bit better, when you go back out there to play. But yeah, it goes back to being as good as you can be, right? The better you are, the better the slot, the better the ratings. I think it's a creative answer, right, to where we are. I think if you look at a lot of conferences around the country, they do have a couple of three, four, five schools that are driving the majority of the ratings. I think Commissioner Phillips took a big step forward by trying to create a creative answer to something. It's in our wheelhouse. We have the opportunity to do that, to get better slots, right? The beauty of football. I don't know that we all love this, but you know, the 10-day window, the six-day window and all of those things, I think it'd be better a lot of times if we could say right now what time every game is and be able to do that. 

But you know, there is that opportunity to get to the big show, right? To get to the ABC, to get to the ESPN, to get to the primetime game and those opportunities. So again, a lot of it's in front of us. What opportunities do we have? We've got a Thursday night game, we've got a Friday night game. 

So there are some windows there for us to really take advantage of it.

I believe it was at this time last year, the same exact setup, you revealed the highs and lows of your journey being on the CFP committee. Now that you're a whole year removed from it, you got to kind of enjoy last season as a fan and true athletic director.  How did that experience maybe change your perspective on how valuable football is in terms of revenue sharing and money and success, but also as a fan of college football and all this change? What was it like just kind of being able to be present last year?
It was great. I was sitting with my wife before the first show came on and I turned and looked at her and said, I'm really nervous right now. So it was a little bit of PTSD as Ward got up there and Ward did a great job as the chair. 

But you know, college football is just great. I was trading texts with some media members yesterday, like it's around the corner, isn't this great? You know, it's coming. And there's nothing like college football. 

When it starts and the pageantry and what it means to people and the opportunity, you know, to come back right to your university and celebrate the university. Right. So that's kind of the baseline. 

And then just to see the competition and be a part of it. But it was a great honor to be on the CFP. It was a great honor to be the chair of that. 

And I feel glad that I'm not on the committee anymore. I'm not the chair anymore, but it's something I'll look back as as it gets further away. I'll look back upon it more fondly.

We talked a lot about football. I know what the season right around the corner, I know this program has had, you know, it's ups and downs over the last couple of years. So I mean, what does a successful season look like in your eyes? Do you feel like a benchmark against a number of wins or anything like that? But just overall, what is a successful season on the football field?
It's really hard to go into any season and think anything other than you're going to win them all.  Right. I mean, that's the attitude you have to have when you go into something like this. I'm really encouraged by the leadership on the team. 

And in my opinion, the best teams have the best leaders on the field. Right. And I think that's something that Coach Doeren’s really focused on this year, and it becomes more and more important as more people come into your program every year. Right. So five years ago, six years ago, you'd bring in 21, 22, 23 freshmen, some of them with red shirt. 

Right. Maybe you'd have one or two transfers. Now it's 35, 40 new people every year.

And it's not just you. It's everyone that you're competing with, at which point I believe leadership matters even more. And what are we doing to train our leaders? Right. 

It's one thing to say you're a leader, but that's a lot. You know, it's a blessing to be a leader. Right. 

But it doesn't mean you know how to be a leader. And I think Coach Doeren has done a really good job developing leaders on this team. But everything's in front of us right now. You know, let's go out there and let's strap it up and let's play games.

I just wanted to know, you mentioned the 1,600 additional season tickets. What was the approximate number last year?

Of new season tickets?