Notre Dame: Replacing Kevin White As Athletic Director

The Rock Report

As we understand it, Kevin White has been shopping around for sometime with the University's blessing (and encouragement from some quarters.) Now that he's found a willing buyer, it's time to turn the page in Notre Dame history, but what should the Irish be looking for?

There are many more ways to get a hire wrong than to get one right. As I wrote in Define Who You Are, an Athletic Director at Notre Dame has to understand what Notre Dame means, but also the role that plays in creating value and ultimately revenue:

""What ND has to protect, above all else, is its unique branding, uncompromised and steeped in tradition. What we keep hearing is how necessary it is to "be like everyone else," yet that thinking is exactly what will ruin the uniqueness, the marketability of the ND experience and ultimately make Notre Dame less dollars.

You usually don't get a second chance once you compromise. If you dilute the brand, you limit the corporate opportunities. If your opportunities become limited (see the BCS negotiations) you're forced to make choices that probably will dilute the brand. So diluting the brand more, limits more opportunities... and around and around the toilet bowl we go.

Here's where emphasizing tradition and experience pays off in both the revenue and branding: Once you commit to this thought process, it raises your level of thinking and creates more and unique options. If one only looks at the landscape that is revenue generation based on current methods, then you, by default, will be picking an option that dilutes the brand."

"If you focus on enhancing the game day experience, there are a myriad of corporate opportunities that will flow from taking this approach that will ultimately have greater value as a marketing channel for corporations and build the brand that will create still greater value."

"Building the brand yields greater and unique options for marketing. Having unique options allows you to enhance the brand. Enhancing the brand...

ND needs to think outside of the toilet bowl. Many companies are forced into bad choices by the market or private equity pressure. Notre Dame doesn't have that liability.""

Under White, it seemed as if Notre Dame was constantly scheming new marketing and revenue generation methods that brought in small dollars at the expense of the Golden Goose. What Notre Dame's incoming Athletic Director has to understand is that Notre Dame's market value is ultimately found in the uniqueness of Notre Dame. So, yes, we absolutely need someone who "gets it."

We also need someone who understands what that means in the larger, changing landscape of college football and our other sports. Whomever the new AD is, he (or she) will have to be able to navigate an increasingly factionalized world of athletics dominated by superconferences, which means the new AD will have to bring a very CEO like level of skills to the table (after all it is akin to running a small company.)

Along with that understanding of Notre Dame and its place in the landscape and competence in athletic administration, the new AD will have to quickly build credibility both within Notre Dame and in the larger NCAA community in order to wield influence.

As we've seen before, the blunt hammer doesn't work and neither did the "let's all be friends" approach of White. That's why being able to bring credibility into many situations is a key component in this equation. Arrogance is not an asset, but neither is acquiescence.

In a recent seminar I worked on with executives, we focused on the differentiating factors of great leaders. In the world of credibility, character and competence are, of course, paramount, but the key differentiating features for credibility were courage, emotional intelligence and the ability to influence others.

We need athletic administration competence, someone who gets Notre Dame, understands the strategic landscape now and where we're headed in the future, changing media and marketing and someone who will be viewed at as a leader both internally at Notre Dame and externally in the world of college athletics.

As we've found with the coaching searches, it's easy to find what you don't want or see what doesn't work, but much harder to find the perfect fit.