NCHSAA commissioner Que Tucker grilled by lawmakers over association history, finances

N.C. High School Athletic Association commissioner Que Tucker was questioned by lawmakers Thursday about the association’s origin and its finances.

After the two-hour, 10-minute meeting, Sen. Phil Berger, who co-chaired the special subcommittee, said no action would be taken Thursday but expected that there would be future meetings to continue the investigation.

Among the meetings highlights:

▪ Sen. Vickie Sawyer (R-Iredell) presented research showing the NCHSAA had total assets of more than $40 million, far higher than any other state high school association. She even compared the NCHSAA finances favorably to those of the ACC.

Sawyer said if the NCHSAA stopped charging dues, assessing fines, receiving gate receipts and stopped earning interest on its $26.5 million endowment, it would have enough assets to operate for nearly a decade.

“If I were a member school, and we have heard from many of them, which is why we are here today, I’d be very concerned about the amount of money going in the association’s door versus what is going out,” Sawyer said.

▪ Tucker gave the subcommittee a history of the association and its endowment and dug into its finances, which include an annual membership fee of $1 per enrolled student.

She said the association began in 1913 and became a 501C3 company in 1976. Tucker said the association started its endowment in the 1990-91 school year, saying it was worth more than $440,000 in the first year. She explained the plan was to let the balance grow and use the interest, and that in 2010 the NCHSAA Board of Directors decided to ramp up efforts to return endowment monies to the member schools, which now number 421.

▪ Tucker said the NCHSAA board approved returning $4 million to member schools during the 2020-21 school year, which was ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tucker said, in recent non-pandemic years, the association has returned an average of $1.3 to $1.4 million to its schools, adding that a new formula will be used for the next four school years in an effort to make sure more needy schools receive a larger share.

▪ Rep. John Bell (R-Wayne) asked about what he called a competitive imbalance in 1A athletics, which are currently being dominated by charter schools. Bell believes the charters, which can draw from multiple counties within a 25-mile radius of campus, have an inherent advantage against 1A schools, which have a defined geographic region.

Tucker said finding something that’s fair for both sides is difficult, but added that a new formula to determine playoff eligibility may help address the 1A issues in the upcoming realignment, which begins in the fall.

“We are keenly aware of the concerns of our more traditional schools with our charter schools,” Tucker said. “We have convened, on several occasions, a nontraditional schools committee to try to address concerns from traditional schools. ... I believe in the next realignment cycle, we may see some of that adjusted by some criteria that’s been put in place. Some charter schools that are 1A (will now be) moved to 2A (in the playoffs).”

▪ Toward the end of the meeting, Sen. Paul Newton (R-Cabarrus) told Tucker that he felt that was “some belief” that there’s an imbalance between the amount of the money the association has and the good it could potentially do for its member institutions.

Tucker said that will be a focus as the NCHSAA readies for its annual May meeting of its board of directors.

“In my wildest dreams,” Tucker said, “I never thought I would be sitting in front of you trying to defend why we have money,” she said. “But we talked about fact that one of the things we want to do is hear from you and share with you what we’re trying to do, and then as we hear you share with us — is that we grow and we go back and in two weeks when our board comes in, then we can begin to have that discussion (about potential financial changes) and put (things) in place where we can do even more than we have done.”

▪ Following the meeting, Tucker released the following statement to the media: “We want to thank the members of the General Assembly Committee for the opportunity to discuss high school athletics in North Carolina. This was an insightful experience, and we appreciate hearing the legislators’ concerns and open dialogue about our Association. We believe we accomplished our goal to better inform legislators of our mission, vision and values. We look forward to continue this dialogue in the coming weeks.”