Editorial | ODU Unfiltered
Pop the champagne and fire up the bulldozers! The Norfolk Sports Club has announced that Old Dominion University Athletics Director Dr. Wood Selig will be receiving a "Lifetime Achievement Award" at their upcoming June Jamboree.
It is a fitting tribute. After all, if there is one thing Dr. Selig has achieved in his 16-year tenure, it is a lifetime’s worth of frustration from Monarch Nation.
According to the glowing press release dispatched by the university, the award celebrates Selig’s "leadership" and a "$200 million athletic facility boom." It proudly lists the shiny new S.B. Ballard Stadium, the Mitchum Basketball Performance Center, and the (eternally delayed) Ellmer Family Baseball Complex.
And they are right. Selig is arguably the greatest real estate developer in the history of Hampton Roads.
The official release breathlessly cites "several firsts" under Selig’s watch. They note that men's basketball achieved its first-ever AP Top 25 ranking in 2014-15. Notice how they had to reach back a full decade to find a basketball achievement to brag about? They conveniently omitted the fact that under his watch, the once-proud flagship program of the university has devolved into a regional afterthought. While VCU basketball remains a national brand, Chartway Arena is serving as an expensive, climate-controlled mausoleum.
But wait, the press release gets better! It praises Selig for ODU's transition to the FBS. Yes, let us applaud the man who guided ODU to the highest level of college football in 2014, only to watch James Madison University—who waited eight more years to make the jump—kick the door down, win the division in year two, reach the CFP playoff in year 4 and instantly render ODU the "little brother" of Virginia football.
And of course, no PR spin would be complete without mentioning the academic success of the student-athletes. A 3.35 cumulative GPA is genuinely fantastic, and those young men and women deserve every ounce of credit for their hard work in the classroom. But let's be honest: fans don't buy season tickets to watch guys study for a midterm. We want them passing exams and passing the football.
The award announcement correctly points out that Selig hired Ricky Rahne, who finally dragged ODU to a 10-win season and a Cure Bowl victory in 2025. We truly applaud Coach Rahne for achieving this despite the systemic decay above him. But one good football season in over a decade does not a "Lifetime Achievement" make.
The modern athletic director must be more than a hand-shaker, a fundraiser, and a glorified construction foreman. They must be a competent evaluator of talent and a visionary strategist. On those fronts, the "Lifetime Achievement" is actually a lifetime of mediocrity, stagnation, and watching our peers lap us.
So, congratulations to Dr. Selig on his award. We thank him for the beautiful stadium. But if ODU wants to fill those expensive new seats with fans rather than empty promises, the only "achievement" we are applauding is a change in leadership at the end of this year. Change is on the horizon and it can’t come fast enough for Monarch Nation.
See you at the Jamboree! We’ll be the ones wearing hard hats.
ODU Unfiltered covers Old Dominion University athletics and institutional affairs with the honesty the official channels won't provide.