University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heel Monthly: Baddour on Carolina Football
September 15, 2003 | General
Sept. 15, 2003
The balance between a successful major college football program and an institution of higher learning is a delicate issue. This month, Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour discussed some of those issues with Tar Heel Monthly.
Tar Heel Monthly: What does it mean to you to be competitive in major college football?
Dick Baddour: It begins with an institutional commitment to be successful in football, just like everything else we do academically and athletically. That commitment includes the Board of Trustees, the chancellor, athletic administration, faculty, students and alumni. Then it means the athletic department provides the resources to be successful. That could be anything from having competitive salaries to facilities to scholarships to maintenance issues. Basically, it's an acceptance and commitment by the institution to be competitive.
THM: There is sometimes a negative connotation with respect to having a competitive major college football program. Can it be done without those negative things?
DB: Yes. When you run a program that is committed to academic success and operates with the highest integrity, then winning the right way becomes the norm. You can win and run a clean program. We've done it, others have done it and that's the ultimate goal for everyone in college athletics. A program comes under scrutiny when it operates on the margin in admissions, recruiting or other areas. But that's not limited to football. Those issues are there for any sport, although football gets more attention because of its enormous popularity and media coverage.
THM: Coach Bunting has talked a lot about changing the culture of Carolina football and a big part of that is the game day atmosphere. Where do you think Carolina stands with that?
DB: Coach Bunting and I have talked a lot about the culture of Carolina football. I discussed that culture with him extensively on his interview three years ago. We have focused a lot of our staff's attention in the last few years on the game day experience. We started looking at that in the mid-1990s and that led to the creation of Tar Heel Town. We wanted a place near the stadium where fans of all ages could gather and have a great time before the game. Coach Bunting has brought new energy and purpose with the Old Well Walk and has emphasized how important it is that the fans be involved.
The staff has done a good job coordinating the band, cheerleaders and other activities. The video board is going to be a tremendous asset because it will add an audio and video element that will enhance a fan's experience at the game. We want the video board to add to the fun, but not be the central focus.
Our fans are great. They are the most underestimated in college athletics. We didn't win at home last year, but overall we had great crowds. Our season ticket sales are maintaining last year's levels even with the economy still being slow and coming off a 3-9 record. Carolina fans love their football and they have great affection for Coach Bunting and his players. They understand that building a football program takes some time. It takes good recruiting years each and every season, not just one or two. It takes hanging in there in the lean years, because they know that will make the great years even more enjoyable.
One aspect that gets overlooked is the size of our crowds. Kenan Stadium seats 60,000, which puts it in the top quarter of stadium capacities. Last year, we didn't win a single game at home, yet we averaged better than 50,000 fans per game. We drew more than all but three ACC schools and 28 other schools that play in the six BCS conferences.
And that's with four other Division I schools in our state, all within a two and one-half hour drive from Chapel Hill. I don't know of another state like ours. Think of a fall Saturday when UNC, State, Wake Forest, Duke and East Carolina play at home. It's happened before. Based on average attendances from 2002, that's nearly 180,000 college football fans. If you compare our state with some of the others, you see states with either one or maybe two Division I programs. North Carolina has just as many football fans as most other states, allegiances are just spread out a little more.
THM: Is it frustrating that Carolina is typically referred to as a "basketball school"?
DB: It depends on the context of the question. On one hand, it's a tremendous compliment to our basketball program and it reflects on the consistent level of success and recognition that program has brought to the University.
On the other hand, that statement overlooks the rich tradition of success that football and a number of our other programs have established over the years. Is it a slight that we are not known as a soccer school when we've won 17 national championships or a field hockey school with four national championships? Sure, but the fact is over the years Carolina basketball has brought so much positive attention to the University, that its success and the national recognition people like Dean Smith and Michael Jordan have done nothing except help all our programs in recruiting, including football.
Football has brought great attention to the University. The football lettermen have given tremendously to the University. Football is entrenched in our culture to use that word again. Tens of thousands of our fans support the program and consider UNC be an "excellence in athletics school" as I do and as does the University administration.
THM: There are budget issues that must be met in order to succeed at the highest levels of college football. Can Carolina compete there?
DB: We've reviewed a number of budgets across the country, both ACC and non-ACC schools. There's no question we have the resources to be successful in football. First, we have one of the best universities and maybe the best overall collegiate experience in America. John Bunting will prove to be one of the best coaches in the country. He has put together a quality coaching staff that is well compensated. We have levels of support staff in place that provide the football program with a wealth of outstanding resources. Those include people who work for Coach Bunting in the Kenan Football Center who handle the off-the-field issues that impact a program with 120 or so students, plus academic advisors, marketing staff, communications professionals, etc. And Kenan Stadium is by most measures one of the top facilities in the country. The Kenan Football Center may be the best, period.
Just in the last five or so years, we've done a $50 million renovation to the stadium, increased salaries, added staff, resurfaced the playing and practice fields, built a state-of-the-art indoor practice facility that allows us to practice regardless of bad weather, installed a high tech video system for scouting and teaching purposes, not to mention finding funding for a $600,000 video board. We have one of the highest operating budgets in the ACC for football.
THM: In recent years facilities have become a big issue. The Kenan Football Center set the bar in the ACC. Is it still the standard?
DB: I do think we set the bar with the Kenan Football Center. The Rams Club and its members stepped up big time in developing that facility. The leadership of the Rams Club, Eddie Smith, John Ellison, and John Swofford and Mack Brown, created that standard. Schools still come here to look at what we've done. A lot of schools have subsequently built similar structures. We don't necessarily have a unique facility anymore, but we do have a first-class facility. I don't think anybody has done one better.
Another thing you have to consider are some of the other facilities. We just replaced the whole turf at Kenan, and we want to make sure the field itself is always of the highest quality. The Eddie Smith Indoor Fieldhouse is a wonderful facility. It enables us to never miss a day of practice. We can be out on the practice field, get a lightning alert, have the players change shoes, and be inside in 10 minutes. That's a wonderful asset to have. We also have an outdoor artificial turf field, so we can properly prepare to play a team that plays on turf. And we spend a great deal of time and money maintaining the Navy practice fields so they play fast, drain well and are safe.
THM: Salaries of assistant coaches have gotten increased publicity lately. Is there room in the budget to be competitive in that field?
DB: We made a lot of progress during Coach (Carl) Torbush's tenure. Mack (Brown) raised a concern about his staff having competitive salaries, but we stepped up every time there was a concern and met that challenge head on. We've monitored other schools, and we made a major jump of our own during Coach Bunting's first year when we brought on some new coaches. He did such a careful job of interviewing the staff, and his interest was in some people who were on the higher salary scale across the country. I told Coach Bunting, 'Let's get the staff you want.' We also had some people who were already here who John wanted to keep, and they shouldn't be penalized for their loyalty to the school.
THM: What major assets does the strength and conditioning program have?
DB: First of all, the facility is one of the finest in the country. When Coach (Jeff) Connors was hired, we increased both the number of people in his area and their salaries. We continued the graduate assistant program that we had in place and even enhanced it. The student-athletes train on the best equipment in the industry.
THM: The final piece of the puzzle for a competitive program might be scheduling. Can we expect to continue to see exciting non-conference schedules?
DB: A lot of the teams we're playing right now were scheduled when Carl
Torbush was head coach, so he deserves some of that credit. Coach Bunting made a clear statement about his scheduling philosophy when we were asked to play Oklahoma his first year. In fact, we just had a meeting about scheduling and the impact of the ACC expansion. It's not as simple as people might think. We want to keep six home games in Kenan Stadium.
With an odd number of non-conference games, that is difficult to do. You're frequently in a situation where you have to schedule a game that is a non-return game, one that we don't return with a trip to that team's home stadium. An example would be a Furman or a William and Mary or an Ohio. Next year, we already had Virginia Tech on the schedule. That will become a conference game, and we're probably going to have to add a non-return game because the only time we can return a game is in 2007. It is hard to get a home and home series with somebody when there is a three- or four-year separation. But overall we are talking with the kinds of schools our fans want to see, including some in the Big Ten, the SEC, and the Big East. On future schedules we have Notre Dame, Wisconsin, and Colorado.
THM: Do fans need to worry about any of those anticipated future games dropping off the schedule because of the conference additions?
DB: Those games are intact. We already had Virginia Tech and Miami scheduled, and those games will become ACC games. We want to make sure the future conference home schedule is balanced and attractive. For example, if we're playing Virginia Tech, Miami and Florida State in the same year, you wouldn't want all of them on the road.
THM: There's been discussion by fans about the relationship between the athletic department and admissions. How does that stand?
DB: There is always discussion about admissions and the proper balance with athletics. We've got a very complicated and detailed process on admissions, one that involves the admission office, staff, and the faculty committee on admissions. They consider cases on an individual basis. The questions to be asked are does the student have the capability to graduate and are we bringing in a good citizen? When we've been able to answer those in the affirmative, the faculty committee on admissions has responded.
Carolina has been a leader in getting an increase in core course requirements at the NCAA level so that it corresponds more with existing University of North Carolina requirements. The closer those two standards are, the better off we are.
THM: Are transfers a legitimate option for UNC?
DB: They are. However, this program hasn't been built on transfers and it never will be. Coach Bunting doesn't want that, I don't want that, and the institution doesn't want that. But there have been times when we've needed to fill in gaps, and from an admissions standpoint we have been successful in doing that when the student presents the kinds of courses that are acceptable to this institution. The most difficult part of accepting transfers, especially from junior college ranks, is the number of credit hours a transfer must bring. Many junior college students don't have the proper number of transferable credit hours. There is a misconception out there that we are against junior college transfers. That's not the case.
Just look at Chris Keldorf. He came here from a junior college in California and proved to make All-ACC both academically and as one of the finest quarterbacks in UNC history. This year we signed Lionell Green from Texas. He also attended a junior college in California.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly, click here.
