Steve Pederson partial transcript from Thursday presser

Thursday, 19 July 2012 14:01

Written by Ray Fittipaldo

Highlights of Steve Pederson’s Thursday session with reporters

Opening statement: “The minute everything was signed and finalized, we wanted to get it out there as quickly as we could. Everyone has been anxious to find out what the future holds. It was most important for me to know our students and coaches know immediately what the future holds for them. That’s been a concern all along. We didn’t want to have this kind of limbo situation where everybody didn’t know exactly what was going to happen next. Now they know what’s going to happen next.”

On the lawsuit helping move the settlement along: “We had to get the process moving somehow. We had everyone in the room and got it solved. We’re glad we got it completed.”

On where the extra $2.5 million is coming from: “You can almost look at the television contract and know within a year we’ll be able to make up the difference and get this taken care of. We’ll handle that with increased revenues from the ACC.”

 On funding Olympic sports:  “We’re funding our sports at a level where they can be successful right now. With increased revenue hopefully we’ll be able to take that money and try to use it in appropriate ways to strengthen the sports where we think it can have an impact. We put a lot of resources recently into baseball, softball and soccer with the new Petersen Sports Complex. We have a lot of things we’ve addressed already. We’ll look at how we can use that money to impact various sports.”

 On competing in the ACC: “The high tide lifts all boats. I believe our recruiting will only get better as we get into ACC areas. That opens up a whole new recruiting area for us. We want students to play back in their home areas a little bit. It’s a very competitive conference. It’s going to be a challenge for us, but I’ve been meeting with our coaches and they’re up for it.”

On other ACC schools being committed to staying in the ACC: “We’re in meetings rooms with these guys. The teams that are talked about are very committed and working hard for the ACC. I haven’t seen the slightest bit of weakness from anyone at all in this conference. If you think about it, you have a conference that controls the eastern seaboard from Boston to Miami. You have unbelievable television markets and academic institutions. The east coast is such an important part of the United States. When you control the east coast you have something special. We’re sitting in the greatest spot we could ever imagine.”

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