Now in his fourth year as the Director of Athletics at the University of Cincinnati, John Cunningham has proven to be the perfect fit for the Bearcats, packing win after win into his time on Clifton Heights since taking the helm in December 2019. Some of the many highlights of his tenure include guiding the Bearcats into the Big 12, launching a landmark $100 million Day One Ready fundraising campaign and serving as the administrative oversight for the first-ever Group of Five team to advance to the College Football Playoff.
In his first few months on campus, Cunningham led the Bearcats' response to the COVID-19 pandemic and created the Next Level Success Fund to provide the necessary resources to achieve competitive success and crucial support for UC's student-athletes.
In 2021, Cunningham spearheaded Cincinnati’s charge to join the Big 12 and launched the $100 million Day One Ready Campaign initiative. The Day One Ready Campaign will raise money in the areas of student-athlete wellness, signature facilities and operational resources to compete for championships in its new conference, which Cincinnati will join July 1, 2023.
The centerpiece of the Day One Ready Campaign is the Indoor Practice Facility and Performance Center, which broke ground in May 2023. The state-of-the-art complex is scheduled be ready for football practices by fall 2024 and completely finished by fall 2025.
Cunningham restructured his leadership team to provide a new focus on internal and external operations, tapped Wes Miller, one of the nation’s best young coaches, to lead the men's basketball program, hired two-time conference coach of the year Scott Satterfield to guide the football team, and brought UC alum Katrina Merriweather back home to coach women’s basketball.
Cunningham welcomed Satterfield and Merriweather during a busy 2022-23 academic year in which he also added head coaches Jordan Bischel (baseball), Erica Demers (women's soccer) and Aimee Ponte (women's golf) to guide Bearcats' programs.
Unprecedented Success on the Field and on the Course
The Bearcats’ football program found unprecedented success in 2021, winning a school-record 13 games and a second consecutive American Athletic Conference Championship en route to becoming the first non-“Power Five” team to participate in the College Football Playoff.
UC football is an impressive 31-6 with two conference titles and 15 NFL draft selections since 2020.
Additionally, the Cincinnati men’s golf program has found its most success in program history in recent years, culminating with the Bearcats first-ever NCAA Regional Championship appearance in 2023.
Cunningham has also embraced the changing landscape of college athletics, fully embracing Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) by creating IMPACT, a comprehensive NIL development program, and partnering with Altius Sports Partners to bring a full-time NIL GM on campus. More than 200 NIL deals with a total value reaching seven figures were signed by UC student-athletes in the first year of NIL.
UC Creates Sports Psychology and Nutrition Departments
Cunningham has focused attention and resources on student-athlete-centric initiatives such as launching the department’s first ever Sports Psychology Department and creating the Sports Nutrition department, while prioritizing student-athlete mental health and wellness and revamping the athletics department One Team Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. He also hired Brad Pike as UC’s first ever Senior Associate AD for Health and Wellness and added Senior Associate AD/CFO John Daniel and Deputy AD/External Anthony Di Fino.
UC has reached new heights in academics under Cunningham, as well.
In the spring of 2023, Bearcats student-athletes achieved an overall GPA of 3.4 with 78 percent joining the honor roll. In 2022, six student-athletes collected Academic All-America accolades, as well.
Prior to joining the Bearcats, Cunningham oversaw the external operations at three NCAA Division I institutions, Boise State, Syracuse and Minnesota and served as a sport administrator for bowl teams, conference-championship teams and NCAA Tournament teams.
Cunningham Serves as Deputy AD at Minnesota and Syracuse
Before leading the Bearcats, Cunningham served as Minnesota’s Deputy Athletics Director for Administration from 2016-19, overseeing the day-to-day administrative operations of the department, working with all 25 Gopher programs and external units, as well as serving as sport administrator for football, men’s basketball and men’s golf.
He was part of the fundraising and implementation of the Gophers' Athletes Village, a privately-funded project of $166-million which added more than 338,000 square feet of new academic, leadership, nutrition, practice and team support space for all sports.
Cunningham joined the Minnesota staff from Syracuse, where he also served as the Deputy Athletics Director for Administration from 2015-16.
Prior to his tenure at Syracuse, Cunningham worked at Boise State University from 2011-2014 as the senior associate athletics director for external relations and executive director for NCAA Compliance.
Boise State and TCU Bolster His Resume
At BSU, Cunningham was promoted to senior associate athletics director for external relations in 2014 after leading the NCAA Compliance program for three years. As the head of external relations, Cunningham led the operations of Boise State's development, marketing, media relations and ticket offices. He was also the sport administrator for men's basketball, men's and women's golf, and men's tennis.
Prior to his appointment at BSU, Cunningham worked at Texas Christian University for five years in the compliance field. He was hired by the Horned Frogs in 2006 as the assistant director of compliance and followed up a year later with a promotion to director of compliance. In 2011, he was promoted again to assistant athletics director for compliance. In that position, he was responsible for a comprehensive rules education program and provided rules interpretations for athletics staff, coaches, student-athletes and university officials.
Love for Sports Traced Back to Youth in Lincoln
Cunningham started his career in collegiate athletics as the compliance coordinator at the University of Maryland. While in law school, he was a compliance intern at Maryland for two summers.
A 2001 TCU graduate, Cunningham received a law degree from the University of Nebraska’s College of Law in 2005.
A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, he developed his love for college athletics by following his hometown Cornhuskers as a kid.
Cunningham and his wife, Caitlin, have two sons, Gus and Hank.
