UNC picks athletics director to replace Bubba Cunningham, who isn't leaving yet

North Carolina has hired a NASCAR team executive to be the school's next athletics director, setting up a plan to succeed long-time AD Bubba Cunningham next summer amid a rapidly changing college sports landscape.

The announcement came Tuesday, the first day of college sports’ new revenue-sharing era in which schools are allowed to directly pay athletes for the first time.

Cunningham, who has been in the role since 2011, signed a two-year extension to remain with the school as senior advisor to the chancellor through July 2029. Cunningham's current contract was set to expire in 2027.

Steve Newmark, president of Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing, will be the next AD. Newmark joins the department now as executive associate athletic director with a focus on revenue related to football and men's and women's basketball. He will take over next summer.

“Now’s the time,” Cunningham said Tuesday. “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.”

Newmark, a Chapel Hill native, served on the advisory committee that led to the hiring of Bill Belichick as UNC's football coach and is on the advisory group to select the next executive director of The Rams Club. Before joining RFK Racing, Newark worked as a lawyer for a Charlotte-based firm, specializing in sports and entertainment including work with the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA..

He begins at UNC on Aug. 15.

“Like many passionate Tar Heel fans, avidly following UNC Athletics has represented a special and unique bond with my family and friends since childhood, and I recognize the role it serves for the University, alumni, community and broader fanbase,” Newmark said in a statement.

Newmark, who doesn't have experience working for an athletic department, brings experience in sponsorships, marketing, team operations and contract negotiations from his work in NASCAR. That type of experience may be even more important in college athletics moving forward.

"This biggest tension on a college campus today is economic tension," Cunningham said. "It used to be how do you balance your time between your sport and your school. Now it's how do we balance this new economic environment on the college campus."

'Quiet process'

Chancellor Lee Roberts made the decision without a search committee or any public process.

"The chancellor has the authority to forgo a search process for high-level positions when circumstances call for it," university spokesman Kevin Best told WRAL. "We believed the best fit for our program could be identified through a deliberate, careful and quiet process."

Roberts and UNC System President Peter Hans signed off on the moves. In January, after the of-times messy search for Belichick, Hans suspended some of the UNC Board of Trustees authority over athletics at the Chapel Hill campus.

"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," Best said.

New model for college athletics

Beginning July 1, NCAA schools can begin directly sharing up to $20.5 million in revenue with athletes. Cunningham announced last month that UNC would share the full $20.5 million with athletes in football, men's basketball, women's basketball and baseball.

The department is also adding nearly 200 scholarships across its 28 sports under the terms of the House settlement. Eight different programs have won national titles under Cunningham: men's basketball, men's soccer, men's tennis, men's lacrosse, women's field hockey, women's lacrosse, women's soccer and women's tennis.

“We all want to be competitive in everything that we do,” Cunningham said. “We say we want to be top three [in the ACC], top 10 [nationally], and you can say it, but you’ve got to financially support it. It’s just a dream if you don’t have the economic underpinning to do it.”

The department budget is expected to climb more than $30 million in the next year. UNC recently hired Rick Barakat as deputy athletics director and chief revenue officer. Barakat said the school is exploring selling naming rights to Kenan Stadium, various sponsorships in its athletic facilities including jersey patches and on-field sponsors and other revenue-generating possibilities, including a concert series for home football games. Some of those changes will be in effect this year, Cunningham said.

“With collegiate athletics undergoing massive changes at all levels, UNC is well positioned to take advantage of the new landscape," Newmark added in his statement.

Under Cunningham, the Tar Heels have won 24 national titles and finished in the top-10 of the Learfield Directors Cup (all-sports) standings 11 times. Cunningham said he has had opportunities to leave UNC in recent years and months, but “this place, which it may not be unique, it’s certainly special and I want to be here.”

His name was connected to the athletic director opening at Michigan State, where former UNC chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz is the president.

“Bubba is a national leader in his field, and his vision and dedication have helped Carolina Athletics reach new heights while navigating an unprecedented era,” Roberts said in a statement.

Cunningham’s new role

Cunningham, 63, earned more than $1.25 million per year between base salary and quarterly compensation payments under his most recent contract update in 2022. Cunningham can also earn bonuses for athletic and academic success.

Newmark's contract and Cunningham’s new deal are not yet available.

In his new role, Cunningham could help with helping the university develop its Carolina North campus, which could house a new men’s and women’s basketball facility. The university has studied different options for replacing or renovating the Smith Center, including building a new arena at Carolina North.

“We’re going to have to do something with basketball in the next few years, and I think I can be helpful in that area,” Cunningham said. “If that’s where [Roberts] wants me to focus my time, then I’ll be happy to do it, whether it’s on campus or somewhere else.

“I do think having been in college athletics for a long time, I understand what the needs are for a program. Having been all around the country, seeing what different facilities look like and how they fit into different communities, I think would be helpful. So I think I can be a real asset in trying to help navigate that space.”

Cunningham served as chairman of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament selection committee in 2025. North Carolina made the field as the last team in, sparking outrage from West Virginia and others that were left out of the tournament. Cunningham received death threats after the selection.

There has been some friction between Cunningham and some members of the school's board of trustees, who called him out during a public meeting last year. Roberts defended Cunningham. The firing of football coach Mack Brown, which some board members said was done in a poor manner, and Belichick's hiring in December, too, showed friction between the board, which pushed for the NFL champion coach, and Cunningham.

He said that played no role in his decision.

“When you have a job like this,” Cunningham said, “there’s always a lot of discussion about decisions all the time that some people like and some people don’t.”

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