Former University of Tulsa athletic director Lawrence “Bubba” Cunningham has been selected as North Carolina’s next athletic director, University officials announced Friday.
Cunningham was approved by the Board of Trustees Friday morning, and his contract states that he will receive a base salary $525,000 per year with an expense account of $40,000.
Cunningham’s contract includes four potential bonuses of a month’s pay each if the football team is invited to a bowl game, if the men’s or women’s basketball teams are invited to NCAA tournament and if the academic progress rate of all varsity sports exceeds 975. His term as athletic director will begin Nov. 14 and run through June 30, 2017.
After spending nearly six years at Tulsa and three years as athletic director at Ball State, Cunningham was selected by a 13-member search committee and UNC chancellor Holden Thorp after a seven-week search process.
At a press conference at the Dean Smith Center on Friday, Thorp introduced Cunningham and thanked the search committee for it’s diligence throughout the process.
“The search committee’s charge was to find the best person in America for our job,” Thorp said. “Bubba Cunningham is that person. He is the right person to lead Carolina athletics into the next chapter of its history.”
Committee chairman Lowry Caudill, who also spoke at the press conference, said that there were about 60 applicants for the job — 13 of which were interviewed.
Cunningham, who was one of three on a list of names given to Thorp by the search committee, met with committee members Wednesday for further interviews.
“Bubba, we love competition in Chapel Hill. And we love it at the highest level,” Caudill said to Cunningham at the press conference. “And in this competition, you beat out the very best in the industry.”
