The fans who pack Cameron Indoor Stadium to watch the top-ranked men's basketball team might find themselves asking the question: Who wouldn't want to become Duke's next athletic director?
But after two front-runners recently withdrew their candidacy from the AD race, the question for insiders has become: Who still does?
With administrators set to name Tom Butters' successor by the end of the week, the answer is only now beginning to emerge.
Much of the buzz surrounding the search has focused on outsiders hailing from large public universities. That was the case for both candidates who dropped out a few weeks ago: University of Utah AD Chris Hill and Iowa State University AD Gene Smith. And that is the case for Bob Bowlsby, men's sports AD at the University of Iowa, who the Associated Press is reporting has been offered the position.
But Duke, a private school with a small enrollment by NCAA Division I standards, will present its new AD with challenges different from those posed by most public institutions. At a school that prides itself on placing third in the latest U.S. News and World Report academic rankings, the main difference is the University's high scholastic standards.
Coaches can only recruit student-athletes who meet University requirements-a much smaller pond than the one from which most Division I programs fish, said Stanford University AD Ted Leland, whose school, like Duke, has successfully combined athletic success and academic excellence.
"It puts a great onus on an athletic administrator to come up with the ways and means to support coaches [in recruiting eligible athletes]," agreed Mike Wadsworth, AD at Notre Dame University-another private, Division I school with strong academics.
And that process is becoming harder, said Chris Kennedy, Duke's assistant vice president and director of academic support. In recent years, NCAA academic standards have tightened, and now more and more schools are coveting athletes with strong grades and SAT scores.
Because of Duke's academic standards, Kennedy said, its coaches have to recruit nationally, whereas most public schools can focus primarily on in-state athletes. But student-athletes who do meet the school's requirements, he added, appreciate the education it offers in return.
"The kind of kid we recruit is generally a different kind of kid," said Duke men's lacrosse coach Mike Pressler. "[The academics are] our ace in the hole."
Furthermore, the top-notch education can overcome some of Duke's deficiencies, Pressler explained, since the University's athletic facilities lag behind those of other Atlantic Coast Conference schools, both in size and age.
"I would say up until now it's been a major sore spot for a lot of us," Pressler said.
Pressler added, however, that Duke's current plan to improve its athletic facilities-an overhaul which will cost more than $30 million-should allow the University to equal or surpass the rest of the ACC.
Stanford's athletic facilities are considered among the best in the nation, but as of the early 1990s, Leland said, they were the worst in the Pacific-10 Conference. The school has allocated $60 million during the last five years in improvements and plans to spend an additional $25 million.
Still, Leland dismissed the idea that great facilities produce great programs. When men's tennis coach Dick Gould arrived at Stanford three decades ago, Leland said, the lamp in Gould's office had a light bulb but no shade. Fourteen national championships later, the $5.8 million Taube Family Tennis Stadium opened in Palo Alto last spring.
Of course, improving facilities costs money. North Carolina State University AD Les Robinson said universities with strong football teams are able to generate more funds for the entire athletic program. And more often than not, such schools are public-again owing to admissions criteria.
"Obviously, at either a private or public school a rise in football is usually the result of adjusted academic standards," he said. "You see that throughout the country."
Duke's football team has recorded a combined 2-20 mark in the last two seasons. And although it has had small spurts of success in recent years, the winning has never been sustained.
Stanford, on the other hand, which boasts a consistently ranked football team, has allocated about $85 million overall to improve athletic facilities. Duke is spending less than half that.
The rumor is, however, that Duke does have a men's basketball team. And in the latter stages of the AD search process, coach Mike Krzyzewski has publicly put his support behind Associate Director of Athletics Joe Alleva, arguing that an in-house candidate deserves the job.
Still, Leland and Robinson said they do not believe Krzyzewski's preference would scare off a non-University candidate. Rather than acting as a deterrent, Leland said, Krzyzewski would be an asset, virtually guaranteeing the new AD a successful, upstanding program.
Thanks to the national prominence of Duke's basketball program and its strength in other sports, its AD will be subject to intense scrutiny. After Smith withdrew his name from consideration, Senior Vice President for Public Affairs John Burness said the intense media coverage surrounding the search helped to dissuade the Iowa State AD.
But both Robinson and Leland said the Duke job's visibility would not scare off any potential candidates, noting that aside from a few potential difficulties the position is an attractive opportunity.
"It's a special job," Leland said. "They have great basketball tradition and have worked hard to be strong in both athletics and academics. It's one of the great jobs."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.