Auto racing exec to succeed Cunningham as UNC athletics director
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- North Carolina has taken an unusual route to establishing a succession plan for athletic director Bubba Cunningham, fittingly coming amid a new landscape of revenue sharing in college athletics.
Cunningham will complete a 15th sports season as UNC's AD before moving next summer into a new advisory role, while the school is hiring an auto racing executive in RFK Racing team president Steve Newmark for a transitional role before becoming Cunningham's eventual successor in 2026.
UNC announced the moves Tuesday, one coming with no public announcement of a search process or hiring of a search firm. Rather, the news simply dropped on the same day as the official start of revenue sharing, where schools can begin directly paying athletes following the $2.8 billion House antitrust settlement.
And going from a lifer in college athletics to an outsider running a NASCAR team certainly illustrates how rapidly things are changing.
"Now it's time for somebody else to continue to build on the things we've had and make sure that we continue to grow as a department, and support the kids," Cunningham said after the announcement. "We've got revenue shares, we've got to figure that out. And so ... I just think now's the time. I think it's a really good time for me to say, 'Hey, we've gotten it to here, let's hand it off to somebody else - but I can stay involved in some other projects on the campus.'"
To that point, the transition includes a two-year contract extension through July 2029 for the 63-year-old Cunningham, who has served as athletic director since late 2011. He will move to advising Chancellor Lee Roberts and eventually Newmark on projects tied to athletics next summer, according to the school's release.
Cunningham said he and the school had discussed building a succession plan at the time of his last contract extension, signed in 2022. Tuesday's announcement brings that to fruition in a different climate, with college players having profited from their fame through the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) for four years now and timed with the arrival of revenue sharing.
It's different, too, in terms of the process of hiring Newmark as UNC's eventual AD. School spokesman Kevin Best said the process in hiring Newmark was approved by Roberts as well as the president of the state's public university system, which provides oversight for the Chapel Hill campus.
"The chancellor has the authority to forgo a search process for high-level positions when circumstances call for it," Best said. "We believed the best fit for our program could be identified through a deliberate, careful and quiet process.
"The fact that we landed on such a qualified individual to work with Bubba to continue to modernize our approach to athletics is confirmation that saving the resources a search firm would have required was appropriate. We look forward to having two strong leaders in Carolina's athletic department working together."
UNC's announcement touted Newmark's experience in sponsorships, marketing and contract negotiations, coming at a time of landscape-altering changes to college athletics with the arrival of revenue sharing.
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Newmark - who has been president of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing for 15 years - officially begins work Aug. 15. He'll spend the 2025-26 season working as an executive associate AD and reporting to Cunningham. The school said Newmark's initial focus will be on "revenue-driving initiatives," particularly tied to the school's men's basketball and football programs, before eventually taking over as AD after the sports season.
"I look forward to working with Bubba and the entire Tar Heel Nation to continue to elevate UNC's status as a premier brand in college sports with top-tier programs across the board, and with student-athletes who represent North Carolina's flagship institution with class on and off their respective playing fields," Newmark said in a statement from the school. "With collegiate athletics undergoing massive changes at all levels, UNC is well-positioned to take advantage of the new landscape."
Newmark is a Chapel Hill native with multiple ties to the school, including serving on an advisory committee in the hiring of six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick as football coach in December. He is also part of the advisory committee in the Rams Club's search for a new executive director.
Before joining RFK Racing, Newmark was a partner in a Charlotte-based law firm and specialized in sports and entertainment, including work with the NCAA, Southeastern Conference and Conference USA, UNC said in its release.
Cunningham's tenure included elevating Hubert Davis to take over as men's basketball coach when Hall of Famer Roy Williams retired in April 2021, as well as Belichick's hiring.
It also included navigating the school through a multi-year NCAA infractions case tied to academic courses popular with athletes. That case reached a no-penalty conclusion in October 2017.
The school also won often. Eight different programs combined for 24 of the school's 63 national championships in Cunningham's tenure, while the school also had 22 individual national titles across seven sports.
Cunningham also recently completed a five-year term on the committee that selects the men's NCAA Tournament field, including serving last year as chairman.
The Associated Press contributed.
