Is Debbie Yow “financially illiterate” ??

Debbie Yow
BobLee
December11/ 2015

NC State AD (and BFF to our own Bob Kennel) Debbie “Frau” Yow made a comment recently while on a Forum panel .  A comment I 100% agree with.Debbie Yow

Her comment questioned that the controversial cost-of-attendance stipend i.e. “paying college athletes” would likely be spent in frivolous fashion (“on hoverboards”) by college athletes who are – in Yow’s words – not “financially literate”.

I have proffered that rather than a check, these financially illiterate student-athletes simply be given a pair of Beats by Dre headphones and a monthly complimentary tattoo of their choice at a local “inkery”.   My idea has not been approved to date.  It should be.

That the cost-of-attendance stipends – between $3-5,000 – are going to be invested in a slow-growth Mutual Fund or saved for airfare home when their grandmother dies is, hopefully, not believed by anyone on Earth.

So anyhow, the author of the USAToday article – Domonique Foxworth – immediately attacked AD Yow using her financial record while AD at Maryland as proof of her own inability to properly manage money.   The fervor of his attack indicates he has a sizable ax to grind with AD Yow.   He was a member of the Maryland Football team.

Foxworth stopped short of calling Debbie Yow “a racist” but he was close enough to implying that to reach out and touch it.

Yow’s performance while AD @ Maryland was well vetted when she was being hired at NC State and explained to complete satisfaction of NC State officials.

Maryland Athletics WAS $83,000,000 in debt when she left.   Her performance while AD at NC State has done nothing to cast the slightest aspersion on her administrative acumen… or her financial literacy.  Quite the contrary.

NOTE:  I ran this article by BK before I posted it.  His reply was something to the effect that “anyone who questions Debbie Yow better have a good medical insurance plan” ’cause BK is coming after you with a ball bat and a bad attitude. …. YIKES!

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What athletic directors don’t get about NCAA athletes’ finances, by ex-NFLPA president Domonique Foxworth

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/12/a-former-ncaa-football-player-explains-what-athletic-directors-are-doing-wroFoxworthng

By: | December 11, 2015 7:30 am

 

During the first day of the IMG Intercollegiate Athletic Forum while on a panel about cost-of-attendance stipends,

North Carolina State athletic director Debbie Yow voiced a concern. “You try to teach student-athletes about financial literacy,” she said of the school’s student-athletes, “but know you failed when you see them on their new hoverboard.”

Shortly after, the white-haired Alabama athletic director, Bill Battle, interrupted the moderator to add “tattoos and rims.”

(He later told AL.com that he was referring to the incident at Ohio State that led to Jim Tressel’s resignation).

To me, a former college and NFL player, it feels like a couple of out-of-touch executives mocking line-workers, the people whose names don’t appear on an org chart but collectively are more indispensable to the operations of an organization.

Yow at least gets credit for trying to teach financial literacy and having the self-awareness to know that she is failing, but that is where the self-awareness stops. Maybe what psychologists call “projection” is driving Yow’s comments. Prior to taking over at NC State, Yow was the athletic director at Maryland, where I played football. The sports teams performed well for much of her tenure. She left the teams in pretty good shape to compete on the field, but left the athletic department business in financial crisis with $83 million of debt and a growing annual deficit.

Most adults can point to something they purchased during their college years as “dumb” or “impulsive” or “regretful.” For example, at least once a week, one of my college teammates would get a new tattoo. I couldn’t embrace the idea of having something permanently inked onto me so I graduated with no tattoos. However, rims were a different story. I put some chrome feet on the whip, an Isuzu Rodeo. Like the previous sentence, my rims were cool in ‘05 and I would embarrassed by them today. It was an ego purchase. Coming off of Maryland’s first ACC Championship season since 1985, I felt I deserved a little reward.

I’m not sure I would give Yow a passing grade for her tenure at Maryland. There were a series of questionable financial decisions made while she led the Terps. Maybe they are defensible, but like the coaches she is tasked with hiring and firing, she is judged by outcomes, and $83 million in the red is not a good outcome.

If the NC State “hoverboarders” Yow referenced failed to budget properly, they will certainly feel the impact of their carelessness and hopefully learn from the pain they’ll experience when their money runs out. Yow may not understand that pain because she left Maryland before seven teams were cut — a result of the questionable financial decisions made under her watch and those of the athletic directors before her.

My intent is not to expose Yow for having been a poor athletic director at Maryland. That is a tough job at any school — with the possible exception of Alabama.

NOTE:  Domonique Foxworth retired from the NFL in 2012. He played for the University of Maryland from 2001-2004. He is also a former president of the NFLPA.

READ MORE…. LINK

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A 2nd Article on the same subject…. including Debbie Yow’s “joking comment” ….. LINK

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