Join on Tuesday, October 22nd as the Ruth Pauley Lecture Series will present a panel discussion “The State of Play in the NCAA” with Debbie Antonelli (Moderator), Lawrence R. (“Bubba”) Cunningham and Dr. James J. (‘Jim”) Phillips.

Debbie Antonelli is a 1986 graduate of N.C. State where she was a three-year starter on the women’s basketball team under legendary coach Kay Yow. In 2021, she was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and in 2022 into the national Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She is now entering her 30th year in sports broadcasting and is a two-time Emmy award winner and Gracie Award recipient for broadcast. She covers college basketball for ESPN, CBS, Raycom, and Westwood One and has broadcast in the WNBA since its inception in 1996, including the last 21 years with the Indiana Fever and Charlotte Sting. She spent the first eight years of her career in college athletic departments as Director of Marketing at Kentucky and Ohio State.

Bubba Cunningham became the Athletic Director at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2011 after serving as athletic director at the University of Tulsa from 2005-2011 and at Ball State University from 2002-2005. At Carolina, he oversees an athletic department for a school that consistently ranks among the top not only in national titles won, runner-up finishes, and NACDA Learfield Directors’ Cup placement, but in student-athlete graduation rate, academic achievement and community service. The Department also partners with the UNC Sport Administration Graduate Program, which is ranked third globally by the 2023 Sports Business Post Graduate Course Rankings.

​Jim Phillips, one of the leading voices across the college sports landscape, began his tenure as Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner in August 2021. The fifth commissioner in the history of the ACC, he has more than three decades of experience in NCAA Division 1 athletics, a track record of tremendous achievement, a vision for the future of intercollegiate athletics, and a passion for helping student athletes achieve impact and success in competition in the classroom and in their communities. He served as part of the 28-member NCAA Constitution Review Committee formed to identify the core principles that define college sports and propose a new governance model that allows for quicker change without sacrifice to broader values while reaffirming or redefining those values. For the 2024-25 academic year, Jim Phillips serves as President of the Collegiate Commissioners Association.

The event will begin at 7:00pm in Owens Auditorium at the Bradshaw Performing Arts Center on the Sandhills Community College campus. The lecture will be preceded with a cash bar in the auditorium lobby and will be followed by a Q&A session and then an informal gathering with the speaker and refreshments in the lobby. All Ruth Pauley lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information, CLICK HERE.