AD choosing Duke over Notre Dame? What did we miss?

If you are Kevin White, you do not leave Notre Dame for Duke. You do not leave and tell the world with a straight face it was "the right time and right place." They are two great schools full of very smart people and great athletes but, really, there is no comparison.

Notre Dame football's TV deal alone brings in more than Duke's annual subsidy. (US Presswire)

One is God's School, the other is Coach K's School. A subtle, but big, difference. One exists to worship that Supreme Being. The other is Notre Dame.

But Kevin White did bolt South Bend for Durham over the weekend, departing Notre Dame after eight years as athletic director to take the same job at Duke. Duke. The school with half an athletic department tied behind its back. Football anyone?

Was this job a safety net for White? Maybe. Comfortable landing spot? Probably. Lateral move? Not even.

You do not leave the most prestigious administrator's job in college sports and ask us to consider it a climbing of the athletic corporate ladder. Duke's board of trustees approved the school's first long-range strategic athletic plan last month. Notre Dame's first such strategic plan began with a guy named Rockne when the great coach figured out football could sell the university nationally. Almost 80 years after Rockne died, Duke hasn't figured that part out yet.

Duke has an annual subsidy of $7.5 million. Notre Dame probably makes that in interest on its endowments. Daily.

Notre Dame has its own network deal that brings in $9 million per year. How's that for a strategic plan? Let me repeat: You do not, if you are Kevin White, leave Notre Dame for Duke. Being Notre Dame's athletic director is one of those tombstone jobs. So important that they make note of it on your slab, put it in the first sentence of your obit. The job defines you.

So when White left suddenly, something didn't smell right. The offer came out of nowhere. White reportedly didn't meet with Duke officials until Wednesday. The deal was done by the weekend. "Bolt" is definitely the correct verb. The point is that when the right job came along, White sure didn't give his superiors much time to counter -- presuming they wanted to.

Here's what makes more sense: The rumor making the rounds was that White would be the next Pac-10 commissioner. White has Pac-10 ties having been Arizona State's AD. Current Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen is nearing retirement. At least a commissioner's job could be construed as a step up. White already was a de facto BCS commissioner as part of the "Gang of Seven" who rule college football's postseason structure.

Other than that, you do not leave Notre Dame for anywhere, really, unless ...

Unless you're not really the athletic director at Notre Dame, not in the strict definition -- the one that states that you oversee all the sports. Don't be mistaken, White did great, great things for Notre Dame in his eight years. Revenue grew. Olympic sports are thriving. The hockey program got to the Frozen Four for the first time in its existence. Mike Brey has basketball on a steady beat. Baseball got to the College World Series.

The man is one of the classiest individuals in or out of sports. One of the smartest too. Ask anyone. On his way out the door, White said he'd miss the "Catholicity" of Notre Dame, the "spirituality." Anyone else and your BS meter would go off. When White said those words, Notre Dame got 50 more applications.

In the end, he traded in an 800-pound gorilla (football) that had started to weigh a ton. When White stressed on his way out the door that he and Charlie Weis were on good terms, we were starting to get closer to the issue, if not the truth.