Houston hires New Mexico's Eddie Nunez as new AD

The Univ. of Houston has hired Univ. of New Mexico AD Eddie Nunez to be their 14th AD. He signed a five-year deal and will be formally introduced at noon on Wednesday at the TDECU Stadium Club. Nunez leaves UNM after seven years as AD. He also brings “significant Power Four experience,” serving as Deputy AD for 14 years at LSU. Nunez will take over a “cash-strapped UH athletic department” that has been without a leader since former AD Chris Pezman was fired in late June after six years. He will lead UH into their second year in the Big 12 with the “smallest operating budget among power conference schools” and one of the “most subsidized athletic departments in the nation” with nearly $200M in direct institutional support since 2018-19. Nunez was selected over Univ. of Tennessee Deputy AD Ryan Alpert (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 8/17).

This comes after Pat Hobbs resigned as AD at Rutgers on Friday after nine years in the role. Noted Rutgers observer Steve Politi wrote, “So much of this doesn’t make any sense. The weird timing. The clumsy announcement. The resignation itself, for that matter. … The press release announcing the news, meanwhile, is just four paragraphs with a glaring typo. It did not include a single laudatory quote — not from football coach Greg Schiano, not from basketball coach Steve Pikiell, not from university president Jonathan Holloway. There are departing golf coaches who have gotten a bigger send off” (Newark STAR LEDGER, 8/17).