There will be an athletics director in place at N.C. State — almost certainly in an interim role — by the end of June. Meanwhile, the search for a permanent athletics director is heating up in Raleigh.
June 30 is outgoing Athletics Director Lee Fowler’s final day. When Chancellor Randy Woodson first announced the ouster, he said he would name an interim athletics director before Fowler’s time ran out. Woodson has not yet named an interim athletics director, but he made it clear there would not be a “gap in leadership” on July 1.
“At this point, we are focused on the search for our next athletics director,” Woodson wrote in an e-mail interview. “As we get closer to June 30, I will make a decision on the appointment of an interim AD to lead the organization until our new AD can begin at N.C. State.”
Late last week, WRAL reported that the candidate field had shrunk to six, and Woodson would further narrow the field before interviewing finalists for the job.
Woodson would not reveal any of the six names on the list, citing privacy concerns for individuals that might already be employed at other universities.
Persistent rumors have Wolfpack Club Executive Director Bobby Purcell on the list of finalists. Purcell, who has publicly expressed interest in the post, did not return a phone call requesting comment on the list of finalists.
No matter the final choice for new athletics director, N.C. State will be on the hook for a pair of athletics director salaries for three more years. The University said it plans to honor Fowler’s contract, which pays him $280,000 annually through 2013.
It’s not yet clear what the University might pay the new athletics director, but salaries for other ACC athletics directors already outpace Fowler’s.
According to Bloomberg News, Fowler’s guaranteed base salary for 2009 was the lowest among public universities in the conference. Private schools, like Wake Forest and Duke, are not required to make this financial information public. Using the Bloomberg statistics, the average athletics director salary for a public university in the ACC in 2009 was about $368,000.
Georgia Tech’s Dan Radakovich topped the list with $560,000 in 2009, followed by Clemson’s Terry Don Phillips at $418,000. UNC Athletics Director Dick Baddour had a guaranteed base of $295,000, seventh in the list of eight schools. The following list shows public ACC universities’ athletics director salaries in decreasing order: Georgia Tech, Clemson, Maryland, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Virginia, UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State.