The University of Maryland has approximately 160,000 alumni,the vast majority living within driving distance of the College Parkcampus.
Approximately 1,500 people donated money to the athleticdepartment last year. That's less than 1 percent. In some years,it's been as many as 2,000 donations. Either way the athleticdepartment at the University of Maryland is in trouble in thefund-raising department. All the other schools in the Atlantic CoastConference raise more money for athletics than Maryland, which alsoranks last competitively in the ACC. Combine those two elements andit's no coincidence the athletic department has a $6 millionoperating deficit.
So you know what Debbie Yow's No. 1 priority is now that she'sthe director of Maryland's perpetually underfunded athleticdepartment? Raise funds. Be a miracle worker. Do something herfour predecessors in the past 13 years have been unable to do. SellUniversity of Maryland athletics to two metropolitan areas -Baltimore and Washington - which may show passion for some homebasketball games, but have too many sporting distractions to botheropening up their wallets.
Every Division I school you visit, people wonder out loud aboutMaryland. To everybody who has never worked in College Park, theAD's job at the University of Maryland appears to be one of thegreat jobs in all of college sports. It isn't. It's one of thetoughest jobs in college sports. Not only is Maryland competing forthe public's sporting attention with the Redskins, Bullets andCapitals, but with Georgetown and seven other schools that playDivision I sports.
In that landscape, Maryland has been trying for years to carveout its niche. Baltimore has a hard time identifying with anything10 minutes from Washington. A lot of the best athletes in the D.C.area go to Chapel Hill or Charlottesville or Georgetown. As oneperson close to the Maryland athletic department said: 'The schoolhas a lot of things going for it except that not enough people whowent there care about it in terms of committing resources toathletics. Even legislators and governors blow hot and cold. Itjust doesn't seem to grab the emotions of a lot of people.'
Also, the source said, the number of people who donate moneyhasn't grown in numbers and, as individuals, they're growing older.
This isn't good news considering the competition. 'Maryland isnow trying to compete with schools that have deep, deep pockets,'our insider said. 'Carolina has deep pockets, so does Georgia Techand Clemson. Virginia has deep, deep pockets. Duke ... you can'teven compare Duke with anything except Stanford. And Florida State,you can forget about it.'
Another Maryland insider believes the new AD will have to tapinto the corporations in Baltimore, but quickly adds that unlike theClemsons and Oklahomas and Nebraskas, where the business communitywill stand alongside and support while teams build, that's not goingto be the case in Baltimore-D.C., where corporations have too manyoptions and will simply wait to hop aboard the bandwagon of awinner. Maryland's teams, even men's basketball and football, are inthe position of having to jump-start themselves.
When you throw in the fact that the football program has lostmoney for four straight years, it's obvious this is a very difficultsituation into which the 43-year-old Yow steps. We're not going tospend a single moment discussing how rare it is for a woman to benamed AD, other than to say minorities and women usually are ignoreduntil a situation is so desperate that the powers that be willexpand their vision to truly include the most capable candidates.
Asked about his successor, former Maryland AD Andy Geiger (nowat Ohio State) said yesterday: 'She's the best possible personMaryland could have hired. Raising money has to be the number onepriority there and that's what she does. She worked miracles at St.Louis University. She's the person Maryland needs.'
Yes, Yow was a basketball coach. She compiled a record of 160-69at Kentucky, Oral Roberts and Florida. She's been described as acoach's AD, which ought to come as a relief to Gary Williams, whosebasketball team is subsidizing everybody at the moment.
But dealing with coaches is secondary now. Fundraising has toconsume her right now, perhaps even more so than graduation ratesbecause there ought to be enough people on staff in College Park toeducate kids. Yow is a rainmaker. There are people on every campusin America who can deal with compliance and administrative junk.Let's hope Yow doesn't get bogged down with that stuff in the comingseasons. Somebody, under her leadership, has got to figure out howto successfully market Maryland athletics (football particularly) toan area that has turned away since the death of Len Bias, the firingof Bob Wade, and the crippling NCAA probation.
That's going to be difficult, given the competition for theathletic dollar in this area. Everywhere Debbie Yow has gone, she'simpressed peers and bosses with her ability to raise money forathletics. But chances are, she hasn't yet encountered as difficulta challenge as this, one that will call on every bit ofresourcefulness she has. And then some.
