RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina State has chosen Maryland's Debbie Yow as its new athletic director.
Yow spent the past 16 years with the Terrapins, leading an athletic department that won more than 20 NCAA championships. She replaces Lee Fowler, who resigned in May and ends a 10-year tenure with the Wolfpack next week.
Yow has a strong tie to North Carolina State. The North Carolina native is the younger sister of Kay Yow, the Hall of Fame women's basketball coach who spent more than three decades with the Wolfpack before her death in January 2009 following a long fight against cancer.
Yow, 58, had told The Associated Press Thursday night that she planned to travel to Raleigh to meet with the search committee, though she wouldn't say whether she had been offered or accepted the job. The school's board of trustees approved a contract for Yow on Friday morning, said Keith Nichols, the school's director of news services.
The school will release details of that contract at a news conference Friday afternoon to formally announce Yow's hiring.
Yow inherits a program that has spent millions on facility upgrades -- most notably in football -- yet has a frustrated fan base with the slow growth of its two highest-profile teams. In football, Fowler hired Tom O'Brien away from Boston College, only to see the Wolfpack reach just one bowl game in his first three seasons.
In men's basketball, Fowler hired former Wolfpack player Sidney Lowe after a monthlong search that missed on top targets John Calipari and Rick Barnes.
Lowe inherited a program that had been to five straight NCAA tournaments, but he has failed to reach the NCAAs as he enters his fifth season, while nearby rivals North Carolina and Duke have won the past two national championships.
One of Fowler's last coaching hires was Kellie Harper as Kay Yow's successor. Harper, who was on the search committee, led the women's basketball team to the NCAA tournament in her first season.