Debbie Yow is leaving the University of Maryland to become North Carolina State's new athletic director, Maryland's athletic department said today.
Maryland said it confirmed the hiring with N.C. State, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference along with the Terps. Yow will be introduced at a 2 p.m. news conference today.
University president C.D. "Dan" Mote, who is set to retire Aug. 31, said today that the search process for Yow's successor would begin immediately.
"If you start the process after the new president arrives, even if that president should arrive on Sept. 1, which is not a given by any means, it's going to take two or three months before you get an athletic director," Mote said. "That's too long for a high-powered national class athletic program to go without an athletic director. There's lots and lots of decisions that are made constantly that are significant ones that we really can't afford to wait."
Mote said that a search committee will be formed in the next few days and that an interim athletic director would be named next week. He wouldn't speculate whether he or his successor would name the next athletic director.
"She leaves a program that is in very strong shape," Mote said. "Most ADs when they leave, they leave a lot of bad baggage behind, like the athletic program she inherited when she came. Huge debts and huge problems. When you look at the program she's leaving compared to the one she took over, you have to say it's been a spectacular run."
Yow, Maryland's athletic director for the last 16 years, is returning to her native North Carolina. She formally interviewed for the job on on N.C. State's campus this morning.
"Much of the credit for how far we have come as an athletic program clearly goes to our coaches and staff. These are the hardest working and finest people I have ever known," Yow said in a statement released today. "In regard to facility upgrades, I especially recognize the excellent work of coach Gary Williams and the leadership of [Sen. Thomas V.] Mike Miller that made the building of Comcast Center possible and coach Ralph Friedgen and the Maryland Gridiron Network that were keys in the expansion of the Gossett Football Team House and Byrd Stadium."
"Our faithful fans and donors have also been the lifeblood of our success," she added. "With our excellent facilities, improved academic performance, our sound financial standing and our recent recruiting success across the 27 sports, the future is bright for the Terps. This is a good time for new leadership to pick up from here and move forward."
Mote said he was not "very surprised" by Yow's resignation, but added that "it moved a little more quickly than I anticipated."
He said that it was Yow's choice to leave, citing a strong pull from her home state as the reason for her departure.
"It was a chance to go home and be where her real roots are as she thinks about her life and her career is going to play out is something she is considering," Mote said.
Earlier, Yow said in an e-mail to The Baltimore Sun that she "decided to visit on campus with the search committee at N.C. State. I am going to do that."
N.C. State said last month that Lee Fowler would depart after 10 years. A 13-member search committee was named to find his successor. Yow attended Elon College in North Carolina. Her sister, Kay, who died in 2009, coached the Wolfpack women's basketball team for 34 years.
Officials who attended Thursday night's Terrapin Club meeting described Yow as particularly emotional during her talk to the club, which provides scholarships for athletes. One official at the meeting said the tone of Yow's comments had participants wondering if she were leaving.
Yow has overseen Maryland's 27 teams -- 15 for women and 12 for men. The average number of teams at the Atlantic Coast Conference's eight public universities is 22.
Maryland has balanced its athletic department budgets each year since 1994 and reduced its inherited $51 million debt since then to $6.8 million, according to an internal report last September.
The report said Maryland had won 18 national championships in the previous 15 years. That was before the women's lacrosse team won the national title last season.
Yow had strained relationships with men's basketball coach Gary Williams and football coach Ralph Friedgen, according to multiple sources.
She said in December that budget pressures and a losing record last season contributed to the strain with Friedgen. "This type of stress-related pressure and conversations were probably occurring across the nation at all other struggling football programs between ADs and head coaches this year, so I don't think it was unusual," Yow said.
Maryland is entering a period of uncertainty with the expected departure of Yow and the retirement of university Mote.
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