Athletic Director Confident In NC State's Ability To Compete
As conference realignment and changes to the financial rules continually shake up college sports, NC State athletic director Boo Corrigan conveyed confidence in Wolfpack athletics.
Corrigan, with the program since 2019, shared his thoughts on the state of the athletic program in Raleigh with the media Friday morning during an annual press conference before the start of the fall sports seasons in the coming weeks.
What Corrigan Said
The veteran athletic director and former commissioner of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee was plainly asked whether he believed North Carolina State could compete with programs like Ohio State, Texas and Oregon. In other words, could the Wolfpack earn a seat at the table with the power brokers of college sports?
Corrigan's answer echoed a common theme throughout the team's football program: confidence.
"Yeah. Talk to one of our coaches and say 'It's nice that you're out here competing, but,'" Corrigan said. "Everyone's here to win and we want to be competitive on a national level."
Competitiveness at a national level, both financially and athletically, starts and ends with college football. As the revenue-driving sport, athletic programs begin and end on the gridiron. Corrigan stated that success in football, men's basketball and women's basketball creates enormous positive benefits for every other sport.
"The best thing that we can do is be really good in football and basketball, so it's a very frank conversation with our coaches," Corrigan said.
The Wolfpack's Success
Many fans of collegiate athletics point to schools relevant in football year in and year out as the gold standard of triumph. While championships are incredibly valuable, simply being in the conversation helps programs as well.
North Carolina State hasn't been devoid of success athletically over the last decade.
"I think we've shown that through a number of our sports," Corrigan said. "A couple years ago, we had a pretty good run in basketball, right? We had two teams in the Final Four. The baseball team is in the College World Series. We're going to bowl games every year."
Corrigan also said that in the last five years, NC State won more ACC Championships across all sports than any other school. The school totaled 16 wins over the last five years.
Boo Corrigan said NC State has won more ACC titles than any other school over the last five years. I did the math. He's right.
— Brian Murphy (@murphsturph) August 8, 2025
NC State: 16
Duke/UNC: 15.5
Virginia: 14.5
Florida State: 14
Clemson: 11
Notre Dame: 10.5
The Final Four run for men's basketball in 2024 raised the bar for the program and ultimately led to the leadership change with Will Wade coming in to take over for Kevin Keatts.
Winning, especially on the football field, also creates opportunities to generate more eyeballs. More eyeball leads to more revenue. More revenue leads to more support for the programs. As the SEC and Big 10 slowly took over the college football media rights landscape, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips quietly worked to fill in the gaps with ACC games. In Corrigan's eyes, NC State's task to gain more attention is simple: win.
"The better you are, the better the slot, the better the ratings," Corrigan said. "I think you look at a lot of the conferences around the country, they have three, four, five schools that are driving the majority of the ratings. I think Commissioner Phillips took a big step forward by trying to create a creative answer ... It's in our wheelhouse."
Clemson, Florida State, and, now, Bill Belichick and North Carolina seem poised to carry the ACC, for football at least, on television. However, as Corrigan hinted at, opportunities exist. The question is, can the Wolfpack pounce on the chances when they come?
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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