Lyke on facilities, Heinz Field, college hoops and more

In part two of Heather Lyke's sitdown with the media on Wednesday, she talked about a major facilities upgrade plan, improving Heinz Field, the state of college hoops and more.

What other things around campus are you looking at, project-wise?
Lyke: Well, you know, leadership matters, right? People matter. Facilities do matter. So we will always look for ways to improve our facilities. We have ongoing projects at football; right now, they’re going under a - the shower area, a massive renovation in the showers and the bathroom and all of that, barbershop, that is needed. So they did the locker room, but basically the shower area was never done and the flow of that and how it’s laid out, so that’s a project, a big project that’s going on at football right now. In basketball, obviously we have our new coaches, we have new ideas, new vision and we have a lot of ways that we can make some improvements on the basketball side of things as well.

But as an athletic department, we embarked about a year ago on - when I first got here, we took a look at what the athletic facility master plan looked like and we kind of shifted away from one direction and I focused on, you know, if we’ve got 19 teams and we want everyone to be competitive in the ACC, then we’ve got to look at the facilities of our 19 teams. So there are some significant needs that you can identify right away. For example, when we eliminated the stadium however many years ago, they never replaced the track. We never built an indoor - a true indoor track. We’ve got an unbelievably strong coaching staff and they’re doing the best they can, but when you don’t really have a facility that you’re recruiting to, you just have some limitations. They have unbelievable teachability and the kids get faster when they get here, but the reality is, we don’t have a great training facility. So that’s just one example.

Then I would also say that, you know, football, you all know where football is, you all know where basketball is; that takes care of three of our teams. We have 16 other teams that work out and train every day up on the hill in the Fitzgerald Field House. That’s 84% of our student-athletes live and learn and train in that facility. It’s a 1951 facility that needs significant change.

So what we did was, we embarked on - okay, if our goal is comprehensive excellence and our goal is giving our student-athletes the most extraordinary experience possible, what do we need to do to improve that? Competitive facilities, I mean, it’s our teaching environment, it’s where our coaches teach every day, so you need technology, state of the art equipment, medical care, nutrition, sports psychology; all of that is - we were just behind. So we redirected our architectural firm to say, ‘Okay, if you were going to do something…’ - and we worked very collaboratively, fortunately, with our university. Chancellor Gallagher has been an incredible leader to work for, number one, and number two, he values what athletics brings to this campus and he wants a plan and a vision for us to enhance it. I think that there are student and student-athlete opportunities to be enhanced from a health and well-being and obviously physical standpoint.

So we worked very collaboratively with the university. They’re going under a huge university master-planning process, so we kind of ran parallel. I didn’t want to build on property that they were going to put a dorm on, you know? We basically - you have to collaborate across campus and say, ‘Okay, what footprint of land can athletics use to redevelop a vision for our athletic facilities?’ It’s all about vision. You have to have - you have to see things differently. So right now, we know the OC Lot if parking, right? Well, what if it wasn’t? We know where the Field House is right now, but what if it wasn’t a Field House? How would it look and feel differently?

So we worked closely with the University and said, ‘Can you give us a footprint of land and let’s see what we can fit in this footprint of land to really enhance our athletic facilities.’ We came up with this plan and we are very laser-focused at this point in time, since we got some of the work done that we need to with the people, now we need to focus on the facilities. So our facility master plan and vision is called ‘Victory Heights.’ You all know what victory lights are, right? So ‘Victory Heights’ is a term that our team came up with because it’s about putting our student-athletes in a position for success and I think there are some really neat student components that we can build in.

But ‘Victory Heights’ is about rethinking about the space really where the Field House is, where Trees Hall is, where the OC Lot is and what can you actually put in that space? 84% of our student-athletes work out every day in a strength and conditioning room that is not air-conditioned. Probably not the best situation, and yet we get unbelievable recruits and we won an ACC championship in volleyball. You can’t use it as an excuse and we get talented kids here, but I just think how much better of an experience, how much better a position we can put them in for success if we had some of these facilities.

So we’re looking at a center for human performance, which would be a new, state of the art strength and conditioning area, a sports medicine area, some level of human performance research, some collaboration with campus, coaches’ offices and then a new 3,000-seat arena for volleyball, wrestling and gymnastics. Then a new indoor track as well; on the backside of the human performance center, we would be having attached a new indoor 300-meter track where you could host events and it would connect to the Cost Center, and there are ways - we did some really nice renovations to the Cost Center. They did put new lights, new turf, new padding throughout that building. But exteriorally, it just doesn’t look that great. This would give us the ability to connect to it and really just diversify our indoor space and our indoor training space for some of our teams that need that.

‘Victory Heights,’ the goals are really to transform the student-athlete experience here at Pitt, to show a demonstrated commitment to comprehensive excellence from a facilities standpoint. And that needs to happen. It has the ability, I think, to unite campus in a more meaningful way. It has the ability to allow us to display and showcase our history and tradition. We’re creating a Hall of Fame, which you know, so where’s the Hall of Fame going to go? Where do we want to showcase that? So there are some opportunities to - we’ll just think of ‘up the hill’ very differently. Our plans are very exciting, bold, necessary and transformative.

Is this on paper? Are there wrecking balls? These are major projects.
Lyke: They’re major projects, a significant project. It’s definitely on paper. It’s definitely in the planning phases. We are in the process of really fundraising a significant - we need to fundraise towards this project and work out all of that piece of it with the University yet. But you have a vision and you have a plan and we know what could fit in what space and that was really the part of the study that was important for us to recognize what could go where and that sort of thing.

But no, there is no wrecking ball. There’s no specific timeline. We have a lot of work to do towards that project. It’s a plan that you start with and you build it from there. And it’s a focus…

We always have to enhance football and basketball, for sure, but I think ‘Victory Heights’ is a part of that vision and we have a chance to really try to transform Pitt athletics from that standpoint.

You talk about collaborating with the University on a lot of this stuff. Do you envision having to raise student fees and tuition, the athletic component of that sort of thing that always gets talked about these days when it gets mentioned that you’re going to transform athletic facilities?
Lyke: No. That is not a plan from the athletics side of the things or the university side of things - to raise student fees to pay for athletic facilities. That is not a part of the financing plan. I think there are some tremendous opportunities to enhance the student experience at Pitt, too, that we’re working on from a recreational and health and wellbeing standpoint, and I know our University is committed to that as well.

You’ve put a lot of work into how difficult it is to have facilities for all these sports in an urban campus; do you still feel like having 19 sports is the right answer for Pitt?
Lyke: Yeah. It’s something we obviously always evaluate: what is the right makeup? But I think 19 or the makeup of the sports that we have right now makes sense, but you always want to figure out, could we do something? What would be unique to Pitt? What would be good additions? I think of it in that terms. And if you think about it, you’ve got to be able to put your student-athletes in a position for success. So what sports could we put our student-athletes in position for success? You know, if you lived in a town that didn’t have a lake or a body of water, you wouldn’t add rowing, right? So you sort of have to evaluate: what’s your school like? What’s your campus like? What sport could you add that would make sense and they could have some level of success? But no changes right now.

When we talk about these facilities plans, there is obviously a cost that comes with them. When you compound that with buying out a men’s basketball coach, buying out a women’s basketball coach, what sort of influx of resources has there been that will help make some of this possible? And from the fundraising angle, how confident are you that you’ll be able to raise what you need to make all of this possible?
Lyke: I’m confident. We have to go build relationships. Obviously, there’s been tremendous support for the Athletic Department for many, many years. There are long-time loyal donors who we are incredibly grateful for because they have supported the Athletic Department through transitions, through everything. But, there’s more people out there that we haven’t met yet. When you have a plan and you have a vision and you know that your resources are going to go to acts and are going to transform the experience of someone else’s kid or transform the student-athlete experience, it’s only going to lead to positive things for the University, people are more excited.

It’s a matter of their engagement: what do they want to be engaged in? How do they want to utilize their resources to make a difference? This will make a difference. I’m confident of it. It will absolutely transform how you guys, we all think about Pitt athletics: how we drive it, how we walk it, how we live around it. I’m confident that - you know, I don’t think that we’ve really engaged them in a meaningful way about what this is about and how it can impact the University.

I’m excited. I can’t wait. We’re obviously in the crux of it; we’re continuing to do this, we have a champions advisory board, we have a number of groups that we’re starting that we’re connecting to that I think are going to be excited. When they give their resources, right now they’re giving it and there’s not really a - I mean, some things, there’s a plan for, but this is definitive. So I’m confident.

Have you put a price tag on all of this?
Lyke: We have projected numbers. We have estimates and projections.

Can you share them?
Lyke: I don’t know that we’re - do we want to share a projected number? I mean, you can look across the country: what would it cost for an indoor track? These are facilities that are - I think the other important thing about the project is, these are not things that are not necessary. They are not lavish. It’s necessary as you need to have a strength and conditioning room for 84% of your student-athletes that has air-conditioning in it. You need to have a place for nutrition and health and wellbeing. You need to have a place where sports psychologists and mental health professionals can meet with your student-athletes who are dealing with challenging issues. You need to have a place for world-class medical care. I mean, we’re in the medical-care center of any university in the country, so you need to have a training room that mirrors what we’re able to do here with our world-class physicians.

So it’s not unnecessary space. It’s very reasonable and necessary.

Spears: I think the scope of the project can expand, too, based on - we talk a lot about meaningful partnerships within the community, right? So we have research opportunities that might be second to none for any institution, individual and athletics, because of proximity to our medical schools and the faculty and staff that we have on this campus. So if they ask us to do something more on an expansion of the research facility, we would definitely do that. So that would increase the scope of the project. There are opportunities for retail space, and if we had partners that came on that wanted to do some retail space in our district, in our athletic district, we would definitely do that. There are restaurants, there is residence, there’s a whole host of different opportunities. So the scope of this project can go from what we need to what the University needs pretty quickly, and thankfully, we’re in those conversations, having those conversations and looking for meaningful partnerships within our campus community.

How similar would you guys say this sort of vision and this plan at Pitt is to what you were envisioning and what you did accomplish at EMU?
Lyke: It’s anywhere. I spent 15 years at Ohio State and we removed Jesse Owens track from the football stadium and built a brand new track, lowered the field, end zone buildings, put a permanent south stands in, we built the Schottenstein Center, we built the brand new softball stadium, we built an indoor golf facility, we built a boathouse; it’s a part of college athletics - studying the facilities that your student-athletes live and learn in every day and figuring out ways to make them better. It’s innate in college athletics. There have been some interesting studies on the amount invested in college facilities over the years, and the numbers - that’s just what you’re competing against. I think it’s very consistent with what anyone would do that walks into a facility or walks into a position and into a department and tries to see, ‘What are we raising funds towards? What’s going to have a meaningful impact on our student-athletes’ lives?’

Years ago, when I very first got to Ohio State, our offices were in St. John Arena. Andy Geiger, who was the athletic director at the time - my office was in a hallway, right? A hallway, and it’s steam heat, so it’s either hot or freezing, you know? The heat goes on at a certain time. And I remember walking into Andy’s office in St. John Arena, walking around the bowels of the second level and I, as a very young administrator, naively said to him, ‘So do we have any facility plans for athletic offices?’ Because we were talking about the Schottenstein Center and the stadium and the new pool and the rec center and all of this stuff, and I was like, ‘We work in a really tough environment.’ He was like, ‘Heather, one thing you’ll need to learn is, it’s not about us. It’s not about building a glorious administrative building. It’s about the student-athletes’ experience.’

So I went back to my little cubicle in the hallway and said, ‘You know what? That’s the lesson you learn.’ So when you come in here and this is a beautiful building, but the fact is, all of our kids are working out in the Field House, and that’s not okay, it’s not as good as it could be. It’s fine. Trust me. We’re winning ACC championships up there and there’s nothing that’s going to stop our coaches from believing and thinking that they can go and win ACC championships every day. But how do we make it better? How do you improve the setting in which your kids work and train? And how do you build pride? That all kind of goes together.

I think it’s natural with whatever - in the world of college athletics, I think it’s natural. I think it’s natural in any business. You don’t stay in the same building. Technology should be built into our - to allow everybody to utilize the technology that’s available now. So you look for ways, incremental ways to enhance.

You mentioned what you’re up against; are there any other urban campuses around the country that you’ve looked at as maybe inspiration or a model for what you want to accomplish here?
Lyke: I mean, the Northwestern University plan; that is aggressive and bold and beautiful and Jim Phillips has done a tremendous job at Northwestern in building that vision and it’s obviously now just coming to fruition. These projects take time, but that’s one that comes to mind right out of the gate that’s pretty transformative for what they were doing there.

You mentioned how old the Field House is; you’re not the first person to say it’s really old. Why do you think it was never a priority for anyone else to go in and say, ‘These sports that Pitt has been good at for a long time, they need this investment, too’?
Lyke: I don’t - I can’t speculate on why people - what priorities were important. You know, football and basketball are always going to be important. They’re critical. They are more of a visible brand. But competitive success is contagious. I’ve seen it, I’ve been a part of it, I get it. So when a team like volleyball goes and wins an ACC championship and you see the recruits that men’s and women’s soccer are bringing in right now and you see the volleyball team go to the NCAA regionals as a team for the first time in a number of years, all of a sudden, people start to notice internally. Externally is externally, but internally. Then we host something like a ‘Breakfast with Champions’ with the volleyball team because we want to celebrate that championship and all of a sudden everybody wants to be better.

So I don’t know why that wasn’t a priority, but it will be a priority for us moving forward.

As part of the ‘Victory Heights’ project, there’s no football stadium in the plans, is there?
Lyke: Not at this time.

In your first year, there have been five coaching changes, you have these very bold facilities plans; once you had been here for a few months and you had time to process where this athletic department was, were you tasked with more of a challenge than you originally thought when you first got here?
Lyke: No. Any job you walk into, you know there are going to be challenges and opportunities. It’s a matter of assessing and building the right team of people that you believe in, that we all believe in what we’re trying to accomplish, we’re going to work hard and be confident in what we’re doing. So I don’t know that it was any more hard to do than I expected.

Andy Geiger always used to tell me, too - he’s a very wise mentor of mine - he always used to say, ‘You don’t walk into a job with a golden baton.’ So it’s not like everything is every going to be all done perfectly, because you always try - the competition is getting better every day, so how do we go to work every day and raise the expectations and try to make the experience better for our staff, for the student-athletes, for the community, for the city, for the campus, all of those sorts of things.

It’s hard for me to go to an event and be like, ‘Okay, everything here was perfect today.’ You always can evaluate and say, ‘What can we do better?’

As far as the football stadium you do have, short of wins and premiere opponents, what kind of conclusions have you drawn after a year of studying how to get more people into Heinz Field?
Lyke: So, the first year, obviously, you’re just trying to figure out where to park and what time to get there and what the gameday traffic flow is like, what’s - again, you’re assessing everything. I’m assessing where people tailgate, where students tailgate, how do they get there, what’s the bus system like, what’s the ease of access, and then once, absolutely from door to door, once you’re in the stadium, what’s the experience like? So not only do we have - we have a lot of people who buy season tickets; we want to get them to the stadium. And once they get there, what’s their tailgate environment like? That’s why we partnered with Tailgate Guys along the river. That is an unbelievable place to tailgate. If I was coming to the game, that’s where I would want to be if I didn’t have to work the game. That’s where I would want to be.

Where our students tailgate, I think, is not good. I don’t know why they are where they are, so we need to move them closer and make them a part of the scene. We have a lot of adjustments, and once you’re in the game, how do you make the experience within Heinz Field remarkable? Again, one of the first things you notice is the student section is all stacked on top of each other, and I didn’t understand that exactly, because when you’re on the lower level, there’s a bit of a disconnect between the people on the upper level if you have all the students there. So this year we decided to move the students all across the end zone so the Panther Pitt is going to all be along the end zone.

I think we can be much more engaged with, organized with and help the Panther Pitt. The Oakland Zoo is probably just a little bit more developed, so I think the Panther Pitt has that ability. Obviously, it’s a lot of the same kids. So we just need to brand it and connect with them and understand what they want and create some traditions. And sometime you have to create it. It’s fine to create something, so sometimes things other than just maybe one song a day that everybody engages in - we have to figure out, what are the other traditions that we can build within Heinz Field? And our team is very actively doing that.

We’ve moved the band over to allow them to play either to our sideline or to the student section. They were sort of more on the sideline and it’s hard to engage the fans from their angle. Again, just things that you study, that you notice. And I think we have to do a lot better job with creating some traditions within the game itself to engage people once they’re there.

But I don’t know if you could get to a more beautiful stadium in a more beautiful setting with an unbelievable backdrop everywhere you look and this incredible opportunity to come see a really competitive football team, a team that can upset and is expected to win. You know, Narduzzi doesn’t go into a single play not thinking, ‘We’re going to execute and do what we expect to do.’ It’s just an exciting game, it’s an exciting team, I love our coaches and their belief system and so I would want to come and watch them play. This year, we only have six home games; come on, it’s only six. Those opportunities are cherished, so it’s a big, big deal and obviously this year we have a lot of fun, new initiatives that we can’t reveal quite yet, but we’ve got some interesting things that will come out and those ought to be pretty engaging for our fans. And obviously we have a pretty strong schedule and an opportunity to host some big games.

One of those home games is Penn State; do you have any thoughts on the future of the series?
Lyke: So this is our 99th year with the Penn State game here on September 8th, and we’re incredibly excited about that game. It’s obviously also - our Hall of Fame induction will be Friday night, the Hall of Fame induction class will be at the game on Saturday, so it’s going to be a big, big deal. And obviously those names have yet to be revealed in that inaugural class.

Then, what we’ve done is, I’ve been in as much contact as I can with Sandy, who I have a lot of respect for, at Penn State; tremendous leader, tremendous mentor, tremendous friend to me. We have an agreement before them, but it has not been signed. We have asked to extend the games for four years starting in 2025, I believe is our next opening…2026 for four years. ’26, ’27, ’28, ’29.

And they haven’t given you much word, one way or the other, on whether they’re going to sign that contract? Have they given you a timeline? Because obviously at some point, you guys need to schedule a game for those four years.
Lyke: You’re right. They have not. We’re going to wait a tad more, patiently, but not much. I mean, we can’t. We have people that want to play us and good opportunities to play, I think, what would be a very attractive game. But I think out of the respect for Penn State and the opportunity within the Commonwealth, we want to play Penn State. But if they don’t, then we’ll obviously shift gears and bring in an opponent that you guys will be excited about, too.

Where are you with Nike? Are you near the end of a contract with them?
Lyke: No. We have been with Nike. They renegotiated the deal right before we got here. February of ’17. So yeah, we’re working closely with Nike on a number of initiatives and opportunities to enhance the brand and they’re a great partner. We collaborate very well and we have great relationships with the people at Nike, so we’re excited about what we’ll be working with them on in the near future. We’re happy with the arrangement as it is right now. We have an opportunity to make it better and we’ll do that.

When you repaint the floor at the Pete, do you have a decision on the colors that you’re going to be using?
Lyke: We may. We may.

There are probes and investigations into college basketball right now; what are your thoughts on the state of the sport?
Lyke: I read the report this morning and the summary of what Condoleezza Rice wrote and I think - a tremendous leader, and when you look at the whole committee, there’s some really thoughtful leaders and respected people, not just in college athletics but in the country as a leader involved, and it is concerning. It was concerning in the search; it was a part of our - we really had to vet a lot of candidates as much as possible because no one really understands how widespread it is.

I think one of the things that I read that Condoleezza wrote that makes you pause is, everybody seemed to know it was happening in the business. Everybody knows this goes on. And yet it still goes on. I think that’s really concerning.

I think the four focus areas that they identified - the need to figure out how student-athletes can have success in college is important. The collaboration of the NBA and the NBA Players Association is critical to some of those recommendations. But I think it needs to happen. I think they put out on the table the things that people want to see happen, whether it’s the one-and-done and if the NBA doesn’t do that, then there has to be a shift to, ‘What are the potential scholarship penalties if you have one-and-dones?’ Is that really what we’re trying to do in college athletics?

You just don’t want the disingenuous student who comes here for a semester and really has no intent to be in college and does not understand the value of a college degree and the difficulty of making it at that next level, you know? I mean, every kid going to college thinks that that’s their path, and I just think it’s important to focus on the value of what the education is that they are getting.

I think the focus on the NCAA investigative process and having outsiders serve on the committee on infractions is good. I don’t know that the penalties can be harsh enough. If people intentionally violate rules and orchestrate ways of doing it, there should be significant penalties if they can really prove that, and that whole process is up for evaluation, I think.

Then, obviously, the AAU. I think they made good points about the AAU organizations and having the NCAA involved in more certifying summer leagues and AAU programs that want to be involved in those summer leagues have to disclose their financial statements, just from a transparency standpoint. I think that they’re trying to get the information to the top and to the surface, so I think the NCAA could take a very active role in certifying summer leagues and that’s where coaches would be allowed to recruit. They wouldn’t be allowed to go to a non-certified AAU summer league program tournament. That probably makes some sense, you know? The logistics of doing that and what do AAU programs have to disclose and how truthful are they going to be - they’re trying to bring to light what is the right thing there and the same with shoe companies. I think she made a point about serving on a lot of public boards of public companies, and those are public companies and the people on the boards may be demanding more transparency about what really goes on with regards to shoe companies and the support of AAU organizations.

And then ultimately, I think their recommendation about the NCAA governance structure and having outside perspectives, not just presidents on the NCAA governance structure, it can’t hurt, right? I value our board of trustees tremendously. They’re not involved in the world of athletics, but sometimes they see things differently and they give you a different perspective, so I think that’s a good suggestion as well.

I thought it was well done and they didn’t drag it on for two years to study it. They know it’s an immediate and important need to fix.

Given your compliance background, outside of the recommendations they made, what would you recommend, what would you do to fix this?
Lyke: I think one of the greatest problems is coaches’ access to kids and the intermediaries. So you’ve got these AAU programs and coaches want access to them, so if you do create a system where you’re certifying the leagues or the organizations themselves and people are disclosing relationships and you know what’s really happening, you have more ability to weed out the hanger-ons and that sort of thing.

You can’t legislate integrity, at the end of the day. You really cannot. So people - it’s got to be innate in their own value systems. I don’t know. There’s just coaches out there that you know have said to you all along, ‘I’m not going to cross that line; I’m not going to do that,’ and they know people who are. I think giving kids the opportunity that have that exceptional talent to go to the NBA, let them go. But the one-and-done, I think, is a real problem because there’s a handful of those kids or a number of those kids that then taint the rest of it. I don’t think every kid is getting paid to go to college; they just really aren’t. But there’s a number of them that there’s too much money involved to think that they’re not.

In your recent vetting process, did you have to scratch some names off your list because of these kinds of things?
Lyke: I mean, for sure. Yeah, there were some situations that you know you just - you had too much concrete information. You didn’t do it on a whim or someone saying something, but if you had concrete information, then yeah; there’s too much at risk for the reputation of our university and our athletic program that we really had to make some tough decisions there.

What are your thoughts on softball and baseball?
Lyke: I’ve only been able to see one softball game so far. Obviously, I watch it online or follow it closely, and I think they are having a good year. She made some changes in her assistant coaches this year and I think both of those assistants have had an impact, which is great.

Those are two programs with facilities that I think are strong; from a playing facility standpoint, those are in really good positions. Baseball had a great win over Miami and has done some nice things and they’re progressing.

We evaluate everything throughout the season and it’s kind of early. It’s early to get outside; it isn’t early for baseball season but it is early for them to be playing outside. But they’ll be both programs we continue to evaluate throughout the season.

Would you be interested in a commission to look into football, evaluate and make changes? Because they have their own set of problems.
Lyke: They do. I don’t think that they - I don’t think it hurts. I don’t think it would ever hurt. People have alluded to the fact that, there’s some issues in football; it’s just not as - they’re probably not as - the AAU system is not quite as developed in football. They have these seven-on-seven leagues and they go around and play and stuff like that. But the AAU system is a crux of the problem as well as the NBA allowing them to do the one-and-done; they don’t have that in football. But it never hurts to say, ‘Okay, what are the greatest challenges? How many staff members do we really need on the sideline? How many headsets should we have?’ and all that sort of thing. Those issues continue to be discussed and I don’t think it hurts. But I don’t think their issues are necessarily the same.