Ball State University Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham was named to the same position at the University of Tulsa Friday during a news conference in Tulsa, Okla. Cunningham agreed to a five-year contract and said he anticipates he will begin his duties in mid-November.
Tulsa President Steadman Upham said the job selection committee was aware of the ongoing NCAA textbook loan investigation at Ball State.
"The committee and I were fully aware of this situation and investigated it thoroughly and discussed it at length in our committee deliberations," Upham said. Upham said that Cunningham's actions during the NCAA investigation were a key factor in the committee's decision.
"The search committee is especially impressed with Lawrence Cunningham's unwavering commitment with upholding NCAA compliance standards as he clearly demonstrated during a recent Ball State and NCAA probe into student-athlete book loans program," Upham said.
Cunningham has been the athletic director at Ball State since August of 2002, when then President Blaine Brownell named him. Prior to that he was an associate athletics director at the University of Notre Dame.
President Jo Ann Gora said in a statement she wishes Cunningham the very best in his new venture.
"It is always disappointing to lose a strong member of the university's senior leadership team, and I will be very sorry to see Bubba go," Gora said.
Cunningham was in Tulsa Wednesday evening to celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary with his wife Tina. Cunningham said he was interested in the position because of the similarities between his views and Tulsa.
"The reasons why this is so appealing to me is the vision and values of this institution as shared to me by the leadership in the past few days, in the past couple of weeks," Cunningham said,
Tulsa's opening was created when Judy MacLeod stepped down on August 26 for a administrative position with Conference USA. Kevan Buck has served as interim athletics director since that time and will return to his position of vice president for business and finance.
For further updates, look for complete coverage in Monday's edition of the Daily News.
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