WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

UNC Board to hold emergency meeting

Oct 14, 2011

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees have called an emergency meeting via conference call Friday morning at 9 a.m.

The call is "to discuss a personnel matter" according to a press release distributed Thursday afternoon.

A news conference is expected to follow the meeting at 11 a.m.

The news conference will be live on WRAL-TV, WRAL.com and 99.9 FM The Fan. 

According to the release, a portion of the meeting will be closed door.

Lawrence "Bubba" Cunningham's name has been uttered in more UNC circles this week than ever before as rumors of the school's interest in him to replace Dick Baddour as director of athletics have surfaced.

On Thursday, Cunningham missed his monthly media luncheon, "Brunch with Bubba" according to the Tulsa World.

In the article, the Tulsa World notes:

"TU spokesman Don Tomkalski said Cunningham was “out of town.”

While the luncheon has been rescheduled before, Cunningham has never missed one."

Further adding to the intrigue of the rumor, late Wednesday, Inside Carolina reported that Cunningham was in fact in North Carolina and on campus to meet with the 13-person search committee appointed to find Baddour's replacement.

Cunningham has been at Tulsa since 2005 and last year turned down the athletic director position at University of Kansas, signing an extension to stay at Tulsa.

At Tulsa, Cunningham has overseen a $25 million dollar football stadium renovation, according to the Tulsa World.

Carr Associates is assisting the search committee at UNC which is led by Lowry Caudill. On Monday, Caudill said that they have conducted “a good sized number” of interviews, including one out of town interview, but would not elaborate on where or the exact number conducted.

UNC will sit before the NCAA Committee on Infractions on Oct. 28 to learn their ultimate punishment stemming from nine major NCAA violations.

While some have speculated that the deadline to fill the position prior to the NCAA meeting in Indianapolis, Caudill said Monday that they are not deadline driven. Two meetings have been scheduled (Oct. 19 and Oct. 26) before the NCAA meeting.

At a July, 28 press conference to announce the firing of head coach Butch Davis despite no new allegations of wrongdoing in an ongoing NCAA investigation into the football program, Baddour made it known that he would be stepping down from his position as director of athletics. In making the announcement, Baddour said that he wanted a new athletics director in place so that person could hire their own head football coach.

Interim head coach Everett Withers has the Tar Heels off to a 5-1 start to the 2011 season.