Kevin White
Athletic Director, Duke University
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Part 1: White talks about conference realignment, the NCAA and what he thinks about paying student athletes.
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Part 2: White on plans for Duke athletics, from facilities to revenue generation to building a winning football program.
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Part 3: White talks about running, hanging ten and the gadget he can't live without.
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Conference realignment has
been front and center in the
news.
White: “My sense is it’s still a
pretty fluid environment out
there.”
Where do you see the conference
realignment headed?
White: “Four or five major consortias
with 14 to 16 institutions.”
How has your conference benefited
from it?
White: Adding Syracuse and Pitt
is “a home run for the ACC.”
What has Duke’s role in the expansion
process been?
White: Evaluate, vote, but Commissioner
John Swofford “does all
the heavy lifting.”
What have you learned about
the NCAA’s Mark Emmert?
White: “He’s a consummate
leader [with] the ability to move
an agenda.”
What about the plan to pay student
athletes a $2,000 stipend?
White: It’s reasonable. Student
athletes’ share “hasn’t really
changed since the ’30s.”
What’s new at Duke on the facilities
front?
White: Looking at “a pretty dramatic
face lift of Wallace Wade
[Stadium].”
Football has been a greater
challenge than basketball.
What’s your vision?
White: “To become pretty
darned competitive, in the ACC”
and nationally.
Can you find additional revenue
in football before the victories
come?
White: “It is a bit of a chicken-and-egg game.”
What about balancing preservation
and revenue generation at
Cameron Indoor Stadium?
White: “Preserving the authenticity
of Cameron is absolutely
critical and non-negotiable.”
You teach a sports business
class. What do you tell students?
White: “It’s an industry that’s absolutely
exploding.”
What kinds of technology have
you embraced?
White: “I am an absolute Black-Berry freak. … I’d be a great
commercial.”
You were a sprinter in college.
Do you still run?
White: “That’s probably a misnomer.
I’m a bad jogger.”
Is that when you do some of
your best thinking?
White: “It’s the time … when nobody
else can get to you.”
Where do you run?
White: “I’ve got trails around
Duke” and the house, plus the
treadmill.
What other forms of entertainment
do you like?
White: “I’ve had a great love
affair with the sport of surfing.”
Where could people have seen
you catching a wave?
White: “The Atlantic Ocean and
the Pacific and Hawaii and everyplace
else.”
