Matt Hogue: Growing a Division I Athletics Program at Coastal Carolina

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In the increasing competitive collegiate landscape, it is becoming harder and harder to stand out. But Coastal Carolina University is a prime example of a university that has managed its growth well, fielding a football team that has become a powerhouse out of nowhere in recent years and a formidable basketball program. Its new football stadium is already paying dividends, hosting the Myrtle Beach Bowl, one of the newest bowl games on the schedule. Coastal’s longtime athletics director, Matt Hogue, joined us recently to explain how one school has plotted its growth and what other universities and communities can learn about how to make a splash on the largest stage possible. We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Among the topics featured in this episode:

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• When he felt Coastal Carolina’s athletics program had made it to the national level (5:13): “The (2016) baseball national championship … we had to go through the best of the best to win that championship. We had to be Florida. We had to beat LSU, TCU, Texas Tech. We went through so many Power 5 programs to win. I think that served notice that we have an athletic department that punches above its weight.”
• The facilities needed to compete at the Division I level (7:11): “It’s a puzzle and it’s a balancing act that you try to achieve in terms of facilities. The biggest area that we had to address obviously was our football facility, our stadium, because you do have an attendance requirement that come with being an FBS member. … One of the things we’re working on right now is an indoor facility that not only would support what football is doing, but it provides us some auxiliary options for other sports.”
• Improving Brooks Stadium since its 2003 opening (10:56): “We’ve seen our season tickets go up. We just came off the best year ever that we’ve had in terms of total ticket sales in football. … I think now you’ve got to be a lot more focused on the premium areas. We have some nice offerings and premium areas, but I could see over time where we began to start transitioning more. … I think you have to think in terms of regular seats and transitioning to maybe more premium options, because we know that when somebody comes to a game that they want so much more than just sitting in their seat and watching a game, or at least a certain part of the population.”
• Working with local tourism officials on national branding for events such as the Myrtle Beach Bowl and Myrtle Beach Invitational (14:12): “Jonathan Paris and his staff have been tremendous. … (those events) pay huge dividends to the overall goals and vision of our area. And that’s exactly what the bowl game and Myrtle Beach invitational has done. We’ve had years where we’ve had fan bases come into town that have really taken over the area because those events are so important to them and they want to come to town.”
• Can the Chanticleers’ athletics programs be successful if football doesn’t succeed first (18:10): “The reality is college football is driving an enormous amount of money as is college basketball to a certain extent. When we contemplated this move (to FBS), that was a big piece of the expectation that at some point down the road, we probably would see the college football playoff system expanded. Now we haven’t quite gotten there — there’s some intractable issues right now with the way certain conferences view it … but hopefully those will eventually be solved as we get toward the end of the first rights contract, which is coming here in a few years. … Do you want to be on the outside looking in, or do you already want to be a viable piece of the system? … I think if you talk to a lot of our other coaches, they would tell you that recruiting becomes easy for them when they can bring in recruits on an official visit to a big football weekend where there’s tons of people on campus and it’s a great environment. That benefits them, getting better players, winning those recruiting battles.”
• The NIL issue and if it widens the gap between Power 5 programs and other programs (21:18): “We could have the best NIL infrastructure put together but if there’s not a funding mechanism, or funding options within the marketplace, whether that’s donors, sponsors wherever to actually execute it, then you start to fall behind. That’s the part that I think becomes a challenge. … What we do know though, again, is the regulatory environment has become almost completely absent. … I think we’ve all got to be paying very, very close attention to the potential of athletes becoming employed. There’s enough legitimate pieces of legal items moving through the system right now. It may take a few years, that could change the designation of what a student-athlete actually is. That’s going to be another major lever that shifts everything. … I know that there’s a lot of consensus that if we could get some type of federal law or legislation that at least creates a consistent one size fits all kind of regulation that that’ll help maybe rein it in. Because right now it literally could differ from one state border.”
• The changes in the future for college sports and if Division I will split further (25:45): “I think we know that in the fabric of athletic competition, dollars don’t guarantee anything. Now in some cases, they may guarantee a higher probability that you get where you need to, or, or more of a consistency in championships or what have you. But, I hope and believe that you’re still always going to have the essence of who’s competing the best on that given day, who’s coaching the best, who’s the most prepared. Sometimes that doesn’t always just go the direction of who has the most toys, if you will, or the most resources. … With all that said, you’re putting your head in the sand if you don’t realize that comment (this week by Notre Dame’s Jack Swarbrick) has a good bit of legitimacy to it. … I really hope that we don’t damage what I think is a really compelling part of our society when you watch the NCAA Tournament and what St. Peter’s did this year, that you really want to trade that for games that maybe don’t have the same level of interest? And I do think I am a believer that there does become a diminishing value. Now that might not be the case for the rabid fan bases of those particular institutions. But I do think for where college athletics fits in the fabric of the whole society, you do at some point start to have some diminishing value. If you lose some of that uniqueness that has made it really interesting and quite frankly, has made it more lucrative through the years. I’d hate to lose those dynamics or relegate that to a separate division in some cases, because I think we lose the essence and the beauty of what makes this work.”

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