For athletic directors around the country, it’s an ever-changing world in college athletics. Next week, Tennessee director of athletics Danny White will join his fellow SEC AD’s for the annual spring meetings which will feature plenty of topics.

White sat down with Volquest last week to discuss a variety of topics. In part one of our two-part Q&A, we discuss facilities including plans for Neyland Stadium and Lindsey Nelson, scheduling, the NCAA investigation and more.

Q: Let’s talk about facilities, you're on pace with Neyland Stadium in the vision of what you had?

White: Those were the two projects that made the most sense to move forward with first. We have a lot of work to do there. We have four or five years worth of work to do in Neyland Stadium. We are working on a specific plan. Here pretty soon, I would like to be able to tell our fans what that plan looks like and kind of a schedule on how we get there. These two made the most sense because both of them are revenue positive. They are both profitable. So when you think about the lower west club that will generate four to five million dollars a year and debt service will be about half that. So that club is going to pay for restroom and concessions that we all know need to get done that don’t generate direct revenue. The same thing with the north end zone party deck. Obviously, the video board from a fan experience stand point is going to be huge. There’s a whole lot that we can do with that on gameday having two video boards. I’m excited about that. That’s what made those two projects a no-brainer — that we could execute them by 2022. There wasn’t much we could do that quickly, but they both help us in terms of building a business model to do a whole lot more work in that building. I’m excited about them both. I think both kind of modernize that iconic building. We want to continue to thread that needle with honoring the tradition and the past of Neyland but also modernizing it a little bit. I think they accomplish that and they are significant contributors to a bigger business model to deliver. That’s a small fraction of what we need to invest financially into that building. By the time we are done, it is going to be a significant project to set up for the future.

Q: Are you in the design phase for the next few years down the road?

White: I don’t want to stop construction between seasons. Our plan is to deliver new projects in Neyland Stadium in ’23, ’24, ’25. If we aren’t done by then, potentially ’26 as well. We have concepts, plans. We need to pull the trigger on what things we want to start designing to deliver and start construction on following this upcoming season, then the season after. It’s about timing of those. It’s about a business model that makes sense. There are things in that building that generate revenue. There are things that don’t. We know we need to do them all. We need to supplement things that don’t generate revenue with philanthropy. We are having those conversations too. It’s a complicated project just because of the scope of it. We want to be disciplined though. That project needs to pay for itself either by revenue generated by the building or by philanthropy towards the project. We need to get back to having the top operating budget in the country. That doesn’t matter as much if we are just spending a piece of it on capital projects. We really want to be disciplined on all of our projects we have to make sure they pay for themselves in some way certainly with things like Neyland and Lindsey Nelson. Those projects present premium revenue generating assets, but there should be a way to do those projects without supplementing them through the operating budget.

Q: You mentioned Lindsey Nelson. Your baseball team has obviously captured the fanbase. You have approval for funding. Where is that project in terms of a design standpoint and what’s a timeline there?

White: We can’t legally hire an architect to design until July. The project won’t have state final approval till then. It’s not officially an approved project within the state process. We have been able to work with an architect on the programming part of it, so we have concepts. We are working with our staff and the baseball staff to make sure that number one we are thinking about recruiting and the day-to-day experience of our student-athletes in that building. We have great student-athlete development facilities. Where can we get more 'wow' factor and make sure we aren’t doing things from a stadium fan standpoint that take away from what I think is the most important part — the student-athlete experience, how that impacts recruiting and our ability to build our program competitively. Let's make sure that's sound and let’s create an awesome fan experience. We already have one that’s kind of grown organically. I think what makes it special. I know I’ve said it publicly and I’m stealing Tony’s (Vitello) quote, but it’s a hornets nest. Let’s not lose that. We have this really tight footprint which could be a challenge, but I look at it as an opportunity. Let’s get as many people as close to the field as possible as we contemplate what this new stadium looks like. Then having it in such close proximity to Stokley where our athletes live and Smoky’s, our nutrition center, it’s a pretty awesome experience in terms of their day-to-day and how close everything is together. We are looking at different premium inventory that can generate revenue and provide that experience because that’s what fans want, but it also pays for the project. How we can kind of double -down on getting more people in the building with a bigger stadium, but keeping that tightness and intimate feel that I think makes our baseball experience special.

Q: You went through that at Ole Miss in building a stadium there, do you have a window of capacity? There’s big, too big, too small. That’s an interesting balancing act. Is size and capacity something you and Tony have discussed?

White: We have. I will use a couple of examples. NFL stadiums that I think would probably check the box when I talk about a more modern approach. The Cowboys' stadium and the stadium in Atlanta, I think they both did a good job of having the capacity of seats that can swell to standing room. I think with baseball with our fan base, people like standing room. People like the social experience of that if you are smart about setting up standing room areas. You can be at a Cowboys game and there can be 60,000 people there and it looks full. But for a big concert or a big game it can swell. I don’t know what their total capacity is. I think it’s over 80,000. They have that much standing room. It doesn’t look empty then there is nobody standing there. We want to be smart about that kind of thinking. We are also doing that with Neyland. Having a baseball seating capacity that’s bigger than what we have now, but just with the footprint we are not going to be one of the biggest stadiums in college baseball. But with the passion of our fanbase for big games how can we be smart about setting it up where there’s the opportunity to have a lot more standing room only party and social spaces where people can come in and we can swell that to a bigger attendance number. That’s kind of the philosophy we are looking at.

Q: Would you realistically start projects in there this fall or is that an end of ’23 season before you dive into it?

White: The traditional brick and mortar construction can’t feasibly happen till after the ’23 season. We can have a concept, but the architects and engineers have to design it. It takes them the better part of a year to do that and since I can’t hire them to do that legally till July. There’s no way we can do that till ’23. But my goal would be that we are ready to roll as soon as the ’23 season is over to break ground and start the bricks and mortar construction. We are looking at ways just like we did this past season, where can we find different things to enhance the experience for next year. I’m hopeful we can do some things but we are still working on that.

Q: As for the NCAA investigation, do you have a timeline on when you might receive a notice of allegations or a conclusion with it all?

White: Don’t have a timeline. We are continuing to work with the NCAA. I’m not at liberty to talk about the investigation as you know, but I feel great about everything we have done and how we have handled it starting with our Chancellor before I got here. What I talked about earlier in simplifying the rules and having accountability, I don’t think there’s a better example of an institution trying to do that and do everything the right way than the University of Tennessee. We will continue to approach it with that philosophy.

Q: In terms of future scheduling, what is your philosophy regarding neutral-site games versus home-and-away series?

White: Obviously, the most important thing to us is games in Neyland Stadium. The experience on our campus and all of that. We want that for our fans, student-athletes, competitive reasons, recruiting. We want to be in Neyland Stadium as much as possible. We are scheduled out through I think ’32 so there’s not a ton of opportunities to look at neutral-sites. I’m not overtly against neutral-site opportunities. Obviously, we just agreed to one in Nashville. But only when it makes sense for us considering all those factors. In this instance (Virginia game), there wasn’t an opportunity to play in Neyland Stadium so it’s not like we were taking away a game from our campus to play in Nashville. Having said that, Nashville is a huge priority for us. That city needs to be as orange as it was 20 years ago. We need to get back to that and that’s not just about playing games. We need to be more intentional in our marketing efforts and those things to engage Nashville. I think it’s a very important market for us from an alumni standpoint, a new student standpoint and a student-athlete recruiting standpoint. We are going to continue to find ways to enhance our brand in Nashville. That’s why we are excited about the game there in 2023.

Q: We saw the ACC talk about eliminating divisions and their football scheduling. You are getting ready to go to the SEC Meetings in Destin. Where do you think the league is on scheduling from divisions to no divisions to pods, protecting traditional games, not protecting those games? Where are you with that topic right now?

White: There are a lot of conversations, a lot of excitement. Obviously, people are thrilled to have Oklahoma and Texas joining the conference in ’25. We need to figure out what the schedule looks like. We haven’t finalized anything yet obviously. It’s not appropriate for me to share the level of options we are looking at, but I certainly have some opinions and I have been voicing those. I think it’s important as someone in that room, I need to be looking out for Tennessee’s best interest but also make sure we as a conference are doing what’s right for the league and college football. We are a leader in college football. It’s the best conference in America, everyone knows that. I think the decisions we make, whether it’s scheduling or a host of other things, I think we need to be good stewards of the role that we are in and make sure we are continuing to grow the game nationally.

Q: What do you like about where your football program is right now?

White: I think we are way ahead of schedule and I say that from what I see happening in this building everyday. That group has really bought into each other and it starts with Josh and his staff. The culture is just in a really strong place. What that means competitively, we will learn this fall. I have said since the day I got here before we even hired Josh, you don’t measure football success one game at a time or one season at a time. It’s a long-run view. With the size of the roster, how long it takes to develop kids, culture is so important in that sport. It is in every sport, but probably in that sport more than any other just because of the size of the roster. We are excited about everything we see happening. I’m excited about it. I’m a fan. I can’t wait to see us play. I want to win every game we play, but I also think we need to be smart about building a program for the long haul that we can all be proud of. I think that’s exactly what Josh is doing.

Q: How much easier is your job when your programs are as competitive as they are right now? You look at your programs, baseball is No. 1 in the country, football exceeded expectations, basketball won the league tournament, Coach (Kellie) Harper got to the second weekend of the tournament, tennis is winning, swimming, softball. Your programs have been good. How much easier does that make your job where you aren’t worried about the competitiveness of your teams?

White: It certainly helps just the feeling around here. People are excited about this early momentum we have. But we aren’t as good as we want to be. We want to be the best athletic department in the country. You can’t get any better than we are in baseball right now. We are No. 1 in the country. But there is always room for improvement across the board. We have really competitive coaches. We all want to be the best. I say that from a macro-standpoint. We aren’t going to ever, well I know there’s never been an athletic department where every single team is the best in the country. But across the board if we are all in the hunt in the SEC then we are going to win our fair share of championships. I think we have won four or five in the last year. I’m really excited about that. That needs to become the norm and we need to improve on that as we move forward. Great early momentum and early success, but hungry for a whole lot more success. We aren’t sitting here feeling like everything is great competitively. We know we need to improve and we can improve in a lot of areas.