The Man who turned a Flagship into a National Punch Line

December 12, 2024

UNC’s Board of Trustees – traditionally a motley collection of trust fund babies and political hacks – MIGHT have outdone themselves this time. …

BoT Chair John P. Preyer has declared himself Admiral of The Flagship managing to turn an esteemed academic institution into a global Punch Line … if you count those 8,000,000,000 Chinese.

Sure … every sports pundit who covers college football and the NFL COULD be wrong. And Bill Belichick COULD be laughing his butt off at a joke his 24 year old former cheerleader / current girlfriend told him … but what are those odds?

If you are among the umpteen gazillion seeing this as it flies thru cyberspace at supersonic speed … you might not know – or particularly care – for the gory details. “Blondie”, my life partner of 40+ years and “The World’s Greatest Political News Aggregator” ( 24 years as Rush’s personal show prep preparer does have its perks and fame) finds anything about “sports” to be terribly boring compared to the for-real “blood sport” of politics that she slogs through each day.

That said, what has transpired “amid UNC’s Kenan Stadium’s lofty pines” over the past several weeks has been about as pathetic, sad and convoluted as a Kackles2.0’s (remember her?) word salad.

A Hall of Fame Football Coach had to be fired after reneging on an mutual agreement and trying a public “power play” that flopped quicker than Shane Battier faking a charge. All of Mack Brown’s used car salesman acumen failed him in his final desperate soliloquy to a stunned albeit sorta sympathetic media,

One of college sports 3-4 most respected Athletics Directors – Bubba Cuningham – yes, his name IS “Bubba” – had no choice but to “get the hook” and immediately change the previously agreed-upon “retiring” to “You’re Fired”. “The Browns” – Mack and wife / agent Sally were stunned having assumed their cadre of Influential UNC Friends would circle the wagons in their moment of awkward need. Well, one did sorta … and therein lies today’s sordid tale.

The Man Who Turned a Flagship into a National Punch Line

UNC’s Board ofTrustees (BoT) is an “advisory body” to the school’s Chancellor. The administative “board” is a Board of Governors which oversees the 18 campuses of The UNC System. UNC @ Chapel Hill considers itself to be The Flagship of “the system”. Few, if any, of the other 17 campuses share the high regartd for the Chapel Hill campus that it has for itself. Especially the highly regarded STEM school – North Carolina State University in nearby Raleigh.

The UNC BoT has little / no admin power serving primarily as a resume and obituary enhancer for its 13 members.

Those BoT members -as with most such boards for high academia – tend to be a collection of “trust fund babies”, “silverspoons” and “political hacks”. With an occasional intelligent accomplished alumnus tossed in to explain the multi-syllable words to his/her fellow board members. Alas, this present board appears to lack that fourth category.

Moving right along … the current BoT Chair – one John P. Preyer (see opening paragraph above) had been groomed by Mack Brown to be “an important person to have in his pocket” if a coup d’etat was ever necessary. Mack’s “power play” was such a moment in time.

Chairman Preyer seized upon it with vigor … publicly attacking the character of AD Cunningham as “shameful” in his treatment of Preyer’s close personal friend (??) the now “fired” Hall Of Famer Brown.

It turned out that Chairman Preyer had decided he did not like AD Cunningham for reasons yet to be ferreted out.

DISCLAIMER: I DO like AD Cunningham AKA “Bubba” very much and have enjoyed a friendship with him over his 10+ years as AD at UNC.

From what I have learned about John Preyer I don’t like him, or his arrogant ilk, very much at all. If you haven’t figured that out yet.

I have suggested to “Bubba” on several occasions over the years that he was simply “too good” as an executive administrator to be at “a silly snake pit” like UNCCH. I see him as CEO of The PGA Tour. He always dismissed my suggestion stating his enjoyment in the challenges of administering a 20+ sports department at a Power4 institution. …. We have not spoken since this glorious mess blew up. He might be changing his mind. More about that down the page.

That shameful unprofessional action by Preyer pretty much lit the dumpster fire that would turn into a full-blown trainwreck resulting in a series of pratfalls and gaffes that averted a national sports media’s attention away from the annual cuss-fight over who should be in the college football playoffs.

As Bubba began the process of replacing the fired Brown in the normal professional manner one would expect. Using a “short list” that every top AD always has in his top desk drawer just in case. John Preyer seized the moment to conduct his own coaching search separate from Bubba’s. Uh Oh …

A maneuver so unprofessional that no one on Bubba’s “short list” would return his call. It screamed UNC is a dysfunctional nuthouse – STAY AWAY!

Preyer is rumored to have finished 3rd in last year’s fantasy football league at his exclusive club although that has yet to be confirmed by anyone who claims to like the SOB. Ergo, he obviously knows quite a bit about football. He started with the A’s and got to the B’s and saw Belichick which sounded familiar so lets go get him.

Convincing enough of his silverspoon fellow trustees that he could SAVE THE DAY FOR GOOD OLD ALMA MATER he put his goof ball plan in motion.

Blah blah yadda yadda …. cutting to the chase …. today 72 year old Bill Belichick is UNC’s latest over 70 Head Football Coach with unlimiterd power to do or not do whatever the hell he chooses to.

The six time Super Bowl Champion coach immediately realized he was dealing with a dimwitted dilettant in Preyer and notified his son he had found a sucker that they could fleece for multi-millions. And they did just that.

FYI: The number of mostly lame jokes about Belichick’s 24 year old cheerleader / gal pal had reached 6.5 million as of 7 PM today. It is expected to top out at 10M.

Belichick gets $30,000,000 over three years plus all the bling bucks he wants to spend on whatever he wants to. He answers to no one and Preyer better not forget that or Bill will give the guy a “wedgie” he will never forget.

UNC is rumored to be considering getting Belichick’s $$$$ by putting Silent Sam’s statue up on eBay. Anyone interrested?

Plan B involves “MJ” – if you don’t know who MJ is why are you reading this UNC stuff? Although Saint Dean told his players to never donate to UNC because their on-court donation was enough. MJ might have his UNC/NBA buddies throw a bunch of Benjamins in UNC’s meager NIL war chest … we’ll see if that happens.

Yes, this is already much worse than Butch-gate and its been less than 24 hours. UNC’s bevy of “hated rivals” are in hysterics as every unfavorable stereotype of UNC Chapel Hill is on full display for all to marvel at and enjoy. Like pulling over to look at roadkill.

Sure, it might work … and a full recount of the November 5th election results MIGHT reduce Trump’s victory from a massacre to a landslide but thats not the way 99% of Earth is seeing this. Sure, the Franklin Street “Sleeping GIant” Gang are going orgasmic that they might live to see Carolina finally beat NC State …. but that gaggle of goggle-eyed goofballs don’t count … never have, never will.

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BobLee, what about Bubba?

We have NOT spoken during this glorious mess so I can only speculate … I have a saying … actually I have many sayings but one in particular applies here ..

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ADs, Chancellors, School Superintendants, City Managers and Baptist Preachers all come with a “Use By ________” Expiration date. For poor ones it comes quickly. For the really good ones like Bubba Cunningham it builds up. Making tough decisions as good executives must do daily invariably makes vengeful enemies of small minded weasels. i.e. John Preyer.

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IF, and it is an IF, Bubba decides life is too short and he is too good to put up with this grade school crap, he will have plenty of alternatives to choose from.

I would not be at all surprised if SuperAgent Jimmy Sexton has not already called with 5-6 Power4 AD gigs ready to make a “whatever it takes” offer to get an executive of Bubba’s proven calibre. BTW, Bubba is chairman of this years NCAA Basketball March Madness. A high honor in the AD bizness.

Or maybe he will choose to stay at UNC and slug it out with Preyer and his little trustee cronies. I don’t have a clue what he is thinking.

Every university engaged in major sports has its “John Preyer types” … just different actors playing the same roles. Bubba knows that.

With some SEC programs its a loud-mouth bozo who owns 157 Jiffy Lubes and has an 80′ motor home with two stripper poles and a hot tub … who calls the AD at 3 AM to complain the stoopid coach isn’t using the tight end properly. Bubba knows that.

IF Bubba bolts, UNC will likely pick a “yes man” sycophant as AD as they have done in the past. UNCCH is nothing if not predictable.

Some UNC sports fan somewhere today is going to be told “you have cancer”. Suddenly he/she doesn’t give a damn about any of this silliness. Trust me … I’ve been there, done that. It reorganizes your “give a damn” list really quick.

However this mess develops, I am certain of one thing….