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RALEIGH — N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler agreed to end his working relationship with the university Tuesday after almost 10 years.

Fowler, 58, will work through June 30 and be paid $280,000 annually through Sept. 2013.

Further details of the buyout arrangement were not immediately available.

"It has been a challenge," Fowler said. "For 10 years, I've always tried to do what's best for this university and all of our athletic programs."

In a statement released this afternoon by the university, Woodson said he will name an interim athletics director and immediately start a national search for Fowler's successor.

Under Fowler, the Wolfpack made significant facility upgrades totaling more than $120 million to the football stadium, baseball complex and several other on-campus venues.

But with the Wolfpack's main revenue sports — football and men's basketball — stagnating in the second half of his tenure, Fowler faced growing criticism from the fan base. State hasn't had a winning season in football or made the NCAA tournament in men's basketball since 2006.

N.C. State has 13 ACC team titles in Fowler's tenure. Rivals Duke (33) and North Carolina (38) have significantly more in the sports the three schools have in common during the same period.

Fowler was flying to Phoenix Tuesday with football coach Tom O'Brien for a coaching seminar sponsored by the Fiesta Bowl. He is also scheduled to attend the annual ACC meetings next week.

"It's not like I'm cleaning my desk out today," Fowler said.

Fowler was hired as Les Robinson's successor in September 2000, the same month Wolfpack football coach Chuck Amato started the first of four straight winning seasons and four bowl trips. The Wolfpack has had three straight losing seasons under O'Brien.

The men's basketball program was in its fifth season under Herb Sendek, who led the Wolfpack to the NCAA tournament five times in the next six years. They haven't been back under Sidney Lowe.

Fowler said he was too young to retire.

"I'm going to take some time off and re-evaluate my life," Fowler said. "I still want to work."