Tar Heels' AD Discusses Steve Newmark Taking Over In 2026

July 1 was a landmark day in college sports.

It was more than the day North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham announced 2025-2026 would be his last year serving in that capacity. It was more than the day that Steve Newmark was announced to be the successor to Cunningham.

It was the day the settlement agreement in House v. NCAA would take effect.

Enter Newmark. The president of RFK Racing in stepping into the athletic department because of the House settlement. He is going to usher North Carolina into a new era of college athletics. For the first time in college sports history, student-athletes can negotiate with the schools for a salary in return for their services.

The days of just getting a free education and room and board are over. The meal money and per diem will pale in comparison to the monies student athletes can earn.

Cunningham told the Carolina Insider on Thursday Newmark is the perfect guy to help usher North Carolina athletics into this new era.

“We have a guy coming in who has connections to the college space, connections to Carolina, but isn’t deeply involved in it,” Cunningham said. “For the next year, I can mentor him on, what does intercollegiate athletics looks like today? Where do I think it’s headed? What does Carolina look like? Where does the Rams Club fit? Where do all the other entities fit? And then, have him share with us where he thinks he can add the most value. Specifically, he’s going to add value in our revenue areas."

Cunningham then addressed the role deputy athletic director Rick Barakat will serve in the new administration. He also spoke of what Barakat will do to assist with the House issues and the revenue sharing plan among the programs.

"Rick Barakat has come in as our Deputy AD for revenue generation – he’s our chief revenue officer. So he’s been in the trenches already … figuring out what is the best way for us to pay for the investment we made in our football program and continue to drive revenue for expansion of all of the opportunities for our student-athletes," Cunningham said. "So Steve will work directly with him and get his mind around that."

Cunningham plans to help bring Newmark into the college game. Newmark was successful in NASCAR, where the money was just as big, but not on an individual level. He will show him how to work with the representatives of the different athletic team programs and find out how they operate.

“We have general managers in football, basketball, baseball, women’s basketball. So how are we going to continue to evaluate talent, value talent and then, evaluate our own performance in that area?” Cunningham said. “In addition to that, how do we take this commercial space – that he’s very familiar with – and integrate him with the campus community and the educational values that we feel are so important here."

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