UNC Athletics: Larry’s Not the Problem, Bubba Might Be
From the outset of Bubba Cunningham’s arrival as UNC athletic director in 2011 I’ve wondered about his fitness for the job. His formative experience was at Notre Dame in a support role and at Tulsa as AD – two private institutions with nothing like the sort of very public and essentially political role of UNC’s AD. Cunningham was going from manager to CEO. Now with news that Cunningham says UNC will accept a bowl bid following a lackluster 6-6 football campaign and with the NCAA still sniffing around the university, I think it is safe to say Bubba just does not fit in the big chair.
There are very good reasons to turn down a bowl bid. First, following a dismal 35-7 ass-whoopin’ at home at the hands of NC State, UNC fans are not exactly clamoring to see this Larry Fedora-coached team again. This means that Bubba’s department will almost certainly end up eating thousands of tickets to whatever fourth-tier bowl extends an “invitation” to the Heels – the “invitation” basically being a contract to sell a ton of tickets to the bowl and otherwise spend money on the bowl. In sum, the financial angle says stay home Heels.
Declining a bowl bid would also communicate clearly to Fedora, staff, and players that 6-6 is nothing to be proud of – not with the talent level and resources at UNC. The Tar Heels were a preseason Top 25 pick and by many measures are the the single most underachieving and disappointing team of 2014. The team laid massive eggs in games with in-state rivals ECU and State and showed little improvement or consistency week-to-week. As shows of disapproval go, Bubba would be letting his football program off relatively lightly with no bowl – Auburn immediately fired its defensive coordinator after the Tigers gave up 55 points to hated Alabama. Yet the staff that gave up 70 to ECU and routinely gave up career days to ACC foes remains intact at UNC. Again, Bubba just does not seem to get the big picture here.
And then there is the NCAA matter. Simply put, self-banning this year might save UNC a bowl ban in some future year – a year when the bowl might actually be worth attending. That is a somewhat strategic move, but one not unheard of in the cunning world of big time college sports. In fact, before the State game some UNC fans were wondering out loud about the wisdom of going to a bowl this year.
Instead, Cunningham seems to view a bowl as something to sell to alums and, especially, the Big Rams – which brings us to the crux of the matter. The Tar Heel basketball team jetted off to the Bahamas for a Thanksgiving tourney, an event heavily promoted to and for the Rams Club. And it was a great field and surely a nice time. However, the entire tourney was not broadcast by ESPN or FOX, the de facto standards for national level programs. Instead, a marquee match-up of UNC and UCLA was broadcast on Mark Cuban’s AXS TV – a channel unavailable to large chunks of North Carolina and the nation.
(Aside, Bubba’s department released game notes for the game indicating that someone in the department thought that ESPN2 was carrying the game – perhaps just a goof or an indication that UNC simply assumed all games would be Bristol-worthy.)
Now maybe the AXS TV thing could be written off as an unfortunate one-time event – except that days before the very attractive and certainly regionally compelling UNC-Davidson tilt from Charlotte was likewise relegated to a tiny fraction of its potential viewership by somehow ending up on an obscure Time Warner Cable-only channel. With this, you can’t help but think UNC did not think beyond what fun a Charlotte game would be for the city’s large alumni base.
If UNC is a brand – and it surely is – it is either growing or shrinking. And, yes, that applies to the platinum-plated Tar Heel hoops program as well – the one with its last Final Four appearance in the previous decade and chronic confusion about the 3-point shot. Ask the folks in Ann Arbor about how a seemingly bullet-proof brand can quickly slide down in today’s jam-packed media world. Even three years ago the notion that Michigan football would be hurting for fans and in need of some major rebuilding would’ve seemed nuts. But that is what blinkered arrogance can do to any organization which depends on public engagement and interest.
Bubba can spend years marketing to and up-selling the tried-and-true UNC diehards. But that pipeline will steadily shrink as he does so, absent a major change in the way he does business. UNC is not immune to the forces operating around it; it is not above the fray or below the radar and therefore must make decisions based on real-world constraints.
And the real world is telling Bubba, stay home.
