NCAA Basketball Notre Dame Football

You are the Athletic Director at a school in Conference USA where the first thing that is associated with your football program is, "Oh, yeah, the only program to ever get the death penalty in football." The men's basketball team last made the NCAA Tournament in 1993. There's an opening for a job that pays more, greater prestige and doesn't struggle to be the 6th most relevant program in the state.

Of course you would listen if Notre Dame wanted to talk to you about taking their vacant AD position.

SMU athletic director Steve Orsini said Monday he would be willing to listen to Notre Dame officials about their vacant AD position if he is contacted about the job.

Odds are, he'd probably lick broken glass while crawling amidst scorpions to make the interview if needed. Not that he's actually been contacted yet.

It is also worth mentioning that Orsini graduated from Notre Dame, and was co-captain of the football team that won the national championship in 1977. Plus his wife is from South Bend, Indiana. Kind of increases the "duh" factor on a story that discloses Orsini has interest in the job.

Multiple media outlets, including the News & Observer, are reporting that Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White will leave to take the same position at Duke.

White has run the show at Notre Dame since 2000, and his most notable moves were hiring football coach Tyrone Willingham and then firing him and replacing him with Charlie Weis. White is also a member of the committee that runs the BCS; he will presumably be replaced in that role by whoever becomes the next athletic director at Notre Dame.

At Duke he'll replace Joe Alleva, who left to become AD at LSU in April. White's experience seemingly makes him a good fit for Duke; like Notre Dame, Duke is a private school with ambitions of excellence in athletics without compromising academic standards.

However, White is known as a guy who likes the spotlight -- he has his own radio show in South Bend and in Chicago -- and he'll have to accept that the person who really runs the show when it comes to Duke athletics is Mike Krzyzewski.