Dr. Camden Wood Selig

Dr. Camden Wood Selig is in his 14th year as Director of Athletics at Old Dominion University, where his “Championship Effort” philosophy has helped guide the department as one of the most respected and successful intercollegiate programs in the nation. Of the 133 FBS Athletic Directors, Selig is the 13^th longest FBS tenured in the country. He is in his 25^th year as a Division I AD.

During his tenure, Selig has directed the University’s move through two FBS conferences and has Old Dominion positioned strongly in the Sun Belt Conference. He has overseen the transition of a startup FCS football program to the FBS level, led major athletic facility expansion and enhancement for virtually all 18 programs, and added women’s volleyball in 2019.

One needs only to visit the ODU campus to see Selig’s contributions to the growth and improvement of Monarch athletic venues with well over $100 million invested in Intercollegiate athletic facilities since his arrival. Projects completed and initiated under Selig include:

·      ODU opened the $67.5 million Kornblau Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium on Saturday, August 31, 2019 against Norfolk State. The stadium rebuilding was completed in nine months.

·      A $20 million baseball renovation began in the fall of 2022. The new stadium, which should be complete for the 2026 season, will be called the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex.

·      The Bernett & Blanche Mitchum Basketball Performance Center, a privately funded $8.4 million state-of-the-art facility, is complete and is the new training center for the ODU men’s and women’s basketball teams.

·      The $3.5 million repurposing of the arena in the Jim Jarrett Athletic building is now the brand-new 900 seat home of the ODU women’s volleyball program.

·      A $3.5 million expansion of L.R. Hill support facility for football, women’s field hockey, and women’s lacrosse, including a new state-of-the-art weight room.

·      The addition of a $2.3 million video replay scoreboard, LED ribbon panels, and digital tables at Chartway Arena.

·      The $600,000 Paul A. Keyes Indoor Hitting Complex, which opened in the fall of 2014.

As collegiate athletic costs continue to rise, Selig has placed a premium on increasing privately generated revenue. Since his arrival in 2010:  

·      Total ODAF philanthropic gifts for athletics have surpassed $140 million.

·      Corporate sponsorship revenue has surpassed $33 million.

·      Staff giving to the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation (ODAF) has remained at 100% for thirteen consecutive years.

And, in ODU’s first year in the Sun Belt Conference, they led in attendance for men’s and women’s basketball and set a single-season ODU record for football.

One of the most dramatic and gratifying accomplishments for Selig has been the academic success of the 18 teams. Highlights from 2022-23 include:

·      An ODU record 197 student athletes (49%) earned Dean’s List honors with a 3.4 or higher GPA.

·      An ODU record 3.26 cumulative GPA for all 475 student-athletes.

·      At least a 3.0 GPA recorded by 71% of student-athletes.

·      A 3.0 GPA or higher for 16 of 18 teams.

Monarch teams have performed well on the playing fields under Selig, highlighted by:

·      Fifteen Conference Championships since 2010, including back-to-back championships for women’s soccer and three straight conference championships for women’s tennis.

·      ODU’s three Sun Belt Conference Championships in 2022-23 were the second most in the league and the most of the four new arrivals (ODU, James Madison, Marshall, Southern Miss).

In Selig’s tenure there have also been numerous firsts and achievements that haven’t been accomplished in many years, including:

·      Linebacker Jason Henderson in 2022 became the first ODU football player to earn All-America honors at the FBS level.

·      In 2016, ODU participated in its first bowl game in the Bahamas. In 2021, went to its 2^nd bowl game in Myrtle Beach.

·      Women’s soccer won its first C-USA Championship in 2022 and first conference championship since 2006.

·      In June 2022, baseball first baseman Matt Coutney was named C-USA Player of the Year and honored on four All-American teams. Additionally, he earned CoSIDA Academic All-American honors becoming the first baseball player in 17 years to be named an Academic All-American.

·      In May 2021, the women’s tennis team won the Conference USA Championship for the first time, its first conference championship since 2001. They have since won three-straight conference championships and have won an NCAA first round Tournament match three-straight years, including wins over Arkansas and South Carolina, and has advanced to the final 32 each of the last three seasons.

·      Over the 2021 and 2022 baseball seasons, ODU was one of just 11 schools in the country and the only school in Virginia to have back to back 40+ win seasons.

·      ODU baseball has the 17^th best winning percentage in the country since 2021.

·      The baseball team won its first C-USA Championship, earned a No. 1 seed at the NCAA Regionals and received its highest final ranking in July 2021 of No. 16 in the Top-25 poll.

·      Nineteen baseball players have been drafted under current head coach Chris Finwood, who Selig hired in 2010.

Hampton Roads Community outreach and support has been a staple under Selig’s leadership:

·      Selig spearheaded the return of the annual Khedive Shriners’ Oyster Bowl game to Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium in 2011 and helped raise over $250,000 for the Shriners’ Children’s Burn Hospital since that time. 

·      In 2022-23, ODU student-athletes were ranked #9 in the country with 5,321 total community service hours in the NCAA TeamWorks Challenge for all Division 1 schools.

Selig spent 11 years directing the Western Kentucky University Hilltopper athletic program, which won 70 Sun Belt Conference Championships from 2000-2010 and a national record 19 crowns in two seasons, 2008-2010. He also led WKU from FCS to FBS and is the only AD in the country to lead two institutions in this transition.

Prior to his stint at WKU, Selig served as the Senior Associate Athletic Director at the University of Virginia from 1988-1999, overseeing external operations his last five years. He began his athletic career as the Director of Ticketing at VCU, where he served from 1985-1988, finishing his stint as Assistant to the Athletic director.

Selig was a four-year member (2006-2010) of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee and served as Chair of the Final Four site selection committee. He served as Chair for both the Sun Belt Conference Athletic Directors and the Men’s Basketball Committees during his tenure at WKU. He has served on the prestigious Division I Championships/Sports Management Cabinet representing the CAA and is currently on the Elizabeth River Trail Board of Directors and serves on the executive committee for the Norfolk Forum and was recently named the groups secretary. He is a two-time winner of the Tom Fergusson Metropolitan Person of the Year award by the Norfolk Sports Club (2014, 2023), symbolic of his impact on the region’s sports profile. 

Selig was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, where he attended Norfolk Collegiate School. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Washington and Lee University, a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Virginia, with a minor in business from the UVA Darden School of Business. His dissertation “The Study of Donor Predictability Among Alumni Athletes”, won the 2002 CASE Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation.

Selig and his wife Ellen of Annapolis, MD, have three children, Lex, 26, Nick, 24 and Julianna, 19.