AD experience 'ideal' in UNC search

Search committee chair Lowry Caudill said today that the “ideal” candidate for the University of North Carolina’s athletic director job would have experience in college athletic administration.


At first, that statement seems obvious. But it has become common in recent years for schools to look outside of college athletic administration when hiring athletic directors.

Michigan’s David Brandon is a former Wolverines football player who was CEO of Domino’s Pizza. Notre Dame (Jack Swarbrick) and Indiana (Fred Glass) recently tapped the same Indianapolis law firm, Baker& Daniels for athletic directors.

But Caudill said athletic administration experience ‘is a very important factor.”

“We want someone with experience, whether they’re a sitting AD or an associate AD, someone that understands all the dynamics and all the issues with respect to athletics and running an athletics program,” Caudill said.

Caudill spoke today after the third meeting of the UNC search committee that’s charged with recommending candidates to chancellor Holden Thorp.

Virtually the entire meeting, which lasted almost 2 ½ hours, was conducted in private as the committee discussed potential candidates. Caudill said UNC has not yet moved forward in a serious way with candidates who might be frontrunners because the committee is still collecting nominations for the job.

“We’re definitely aware of those that basically are gathering our interest,” Caudill said. “We’re aware of those folks and we’ve got them on our radar. Let’s put it that way. But we’re still in that gathering stage at the moment.”

UNC is hiring a replacement for Dick Baddour, who is retiring. The first big task for the new athletic director will be hiring a new football coach at the conclusion of the 2011 season.

Everett Withers is serving as interim coach after Butch Davis was fired as the football program faces NCAA allegations of nine major rules violations.

Ken Tysiac