UNC close to hiring athletic director

The University of North Carolina Board of Trustees is holding an emergency meeting via conference call at 9 a.m. Friday to discuss an athletic director’s contract amid online reports that the school may be close to an agreement with Tulsa athletic director Bubba Cunningham.

School spokeswoman Nancy Davis said the Board of Trustees would have to approve the contract of a new athletic director if one were hired. UNC announced that a news conference is expected to be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the Smith Center.

Cunningham missed his monthly luncheon with the media today; the Tulsa World reported, because he was out of town. Tulsa sports information director Don Tomkalski has said Cunningham doesn’t comment on job opportunities and said this afternoon that he has no new information on Cunningham’s situation.

The school is replacing Dick Baddour, who is stepping down to allow his successor select the new football coach.

Everett Withers is serving as interim football coach after Butch Davis was fired in July.

Cunningham has been Tulsa’s athletic director since 2005 and previously served a three-year stint at Ball State. He has overseen a $25.1 million renovation of Tulsa’s football stadium and presided over a program with 34 Conference USA titles – more than any other school – since 2005.

Before he was hired at Ball State, he spent 15 years in the athletic department at Notre Dame, his alma mater. He began as an athletic department intern and worked his way up to an associate athletic director position.

Ken Tysiac