It has been nearly a decade and a half since Wood Selig took the helm as Director of Athletics at Old Dominion University. In that time, the landscape of college athletics has shifted violently. Conferences have dissolved, NIL has rewritten the rulebook, and the transfer portal has turned roster management into free agency. Through it all, Dr. Selig has remained a constant presence in Norfolk—a genial fundraiser who can point to a shiny new stadium and a move to the Sun Belt as evidence of progress.
But if you look past the brick and mortar of S.B. Ballard Stadium, the foundation of ODU athletics is rotting.
For too long, the Monarch faithful have been sold a bill of goods that conflates activity with achievement. We are told that moving conferences is a victory in itself. We are told that facility upgrades are the ultimate scoreboard. But in the cold light of day, the on-field product—the only metric that truly matters—is a picture of mediocrity, stagnation, and regression. It is time for the university administration to face a hard truth: Wood Selig is an administrator for a bygone era, and his tenure has allowed ODU to be lapped by the very peers it once looked down upon.
The JMU Indictment
There is no greater indictment of the Selig era than the meteoric rise of James Madison University.
For years, ODU fans enjoyed a sense of superiority over their counterparts in Harrisonburg. ODU made the jump to the FBS first (2014), planting its flag in the highest level of college football while JMU remained in the FCS. We were told the transition would be hard, that patience was required, that "building a program takes time."
Then JMU arrived.
The Dukes moved to the FBS in 2022—eight years after ODU. They didn't need a decade of "transition years." They didn't need to beg for patience. They kicked the door down, won the Sun Belt East in their second year, and earned a bowl bid (and a ranking) while ODU was scraping together six wins. JMU’s immediate dominance proves that the "transition excuse" ODU has leaned on for a decade is a lie. It wasn't the difficulty of the level jump that held ODU back; it was the quality of the leadership.
While Selig was busy securing "moral victories" and minor bowl appearances, JMU built a monster that instantly rendered ODU the "little brother" in Virginia’s Group of Five hierarchy. That failure falls squarely on the Athletic Director’s desk.
The Basketball Tragedy
Perhaps the most unforgivable sin of the Selig tenure is the decay of the men's basketball program. Before football arrived, Old Dominion was a basketball school. The Monarchs were giant killers, NCAA Tournament regulars, and the pride of the athletic department.
Under Selig’s watch, ODU basketball has faded into irrelevance. The tedious end of the Jeff Jones era and the uncertainty of the current direction have left Chartway Arena feeling more like a mausoleum than a thunderdome. While VCU continues to be a national brand and JMU basketball experiences a renaissance, ODU—historically the premier program among the three—has become an afterthought. To allow the flagship sport of the university to wither while pouring resources into a middling football program is a dereliction of duty.
The Verdict
Wood Selig is a fine fundraiser. The new S.B. Ballard Stadium is beautiful. But a stadium is just a venue; it is not a program. You cannot hang a "Nice Facilities" banner in the rafters.
The modern athletic director must be more than a hand-shaker and a ribbon-cutter. They must be a ruthless evaluator of talent, a visionary strategist, and a guardian of the university's competitive standard. On these fronts, Selig has failed. He has allowed ODU to drift into the "mediocre middle" of the Sun Belt while our rivals sprint past us.
Old Dominion sits in one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country. It has a passionate, hungry fan base and top-tier facilities. The ingredients for a powerhouse are here. The chef is the problem.
We thank Dr. Selig for the stadium. But if ODU wants to fill it with fans rather than empty promises, he must go. Immediate change is not just an option; it is a necessity for the survival of Monarch pride.