I was surprised by this too, but evidently Bubba Cunningham—UNC’s athletic director—is not from the South. He was born in Michigan. I didn’t know people born in Michigan could legally go by “Bubba.”
This is relevant because, per multiple reports, Bubba Cunningham is a hot name in Michigan State’s athletic director search. And if you’re asking why Cunningham would leave UNC when the basketball and football programs are on such stellar trajectories, yes. That is kind of the question.
Bubba Cunningham already might be the funniest athletic director in college sports. Deion Sanders is funny (I’m assuming he’s AD by now, in addition to Chief Marketing Officer and Technoking), but Bubba Cunningham is hilarious. Even before the selection committee controversy, the guy was riding a rollercoaster: The Hubert Davis era. A suspended board of trustees. Eight bowl losses in nine trips. Now, he has the chance to make the most relatable escape in history, taking a new job so he can move across the country to flee a crazy girlfriend, and making it all even better, it’s not his girlfriend! It’s Bill Belichick’s!
There’s a chance that in a three or four-month stretch, Bubba Cunningham could weasel UNC into the NCAA T*urnament then escape in the dead of night after accidentally putting one of the ACC’s most valuable football programs in the hands of a 24-year-old beauty pageant contestant with a flair for disruption. Has an athletic director ever gone on a run like this?
If Bubba Cunningham does end up in East Lansing, I hope he goes back to his birth name. Lawrence Cunningham. No one will suspect it.
If only he had a thicker accent to erase.
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