At Notre Dame between 2000-02, Cunningham served as associate director of athletics for external affairs. He renegotiated the school’s footwear contract, developed a communications and marketing plan, created marketing teams for all 26 varsity sports, increased corporate sponsorship income by 400 percent, created a financial/equity plan for the department and served as chairman of the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Committee.

Before that, he served as associate athletics director for finance and facilities (1995-2000). In that time, Cunningham was responsible for a $30 million budget and all business affairs.

In that capacity, Cunningham was responsible for developing and implementing an equity plan to meet Title IX requirements, completed the master plan for Notre Dame athletic facilities, coordinated the bid process and negotiation with Westwood for football radio rights and helped plan and complete the $50 million renovation and 20,000 seat expansion of Notre Dame Stadium. He also coordinated the planning and construction of the Warren Golf Course, an 18-hole championship course on the Notre Dame campus.

At Notre Dame, Cunningham also served as assistant athletics director/business manager (1993-95), ticketing and marketing manager (1988-93), and before that was an athletics department intern (1987-88).

Cunningham earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration, both from Notre Dame, in 1984 and 1988, respectively. He played on the Irish golf team in 1982-83.

Now he has racked up some AD experience at Ball State and Tulsa.

Nice a fit as I’ve seen.

Speaking of, I can’t believe he hasn’t released a statement saying he’s not interested in the job.

I like the direction your mind is heading in. I don’t know if Tyreo has the necessary leadership-in-a-spotlight experience, yet. Hell, he’s only a few years older than me.

But someone with a ND past like that, plus a strong business/leadership background would deserve a look, at least. There are some CEOs around the country with strong ND backgrounds.

I don’t doubt Missy would work in the position of AD with a great deal of spirit, but her lack of AD experience does concern me a ton. Same for Digger. That said, experience as AD is a double edged sword, as most ADs actually are just like White, or aspire to be so.

I’m waffling a bit on my requirement that the new AD have BCS experience. I do think it’s important to know the “real story” about a lot of the deals made within the BCS, so maybe the new AD can hire on a great BCS consigliere .

I hate to admit it, but my own method of finding the right AD would look a lot like the courts finding porn. I’d just have to know him/her when I see him/her.

Great piece, and I agree with you completely. That’s why I don’t shortchange Missy Conboy. Yeah, she’s a girl with a girly name, and she doesn’t have credentials as an AD yet, although she’s been the top lawyer in the athletic department for some time. But she totally “gets it.” She dreamed of going to Notre Dame before ND even admitted women. She played ball there, came back to make a career there, married a Domer and has little future-Domer kids. She and Digger have to be top of the list in Soul Management.