Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White is expected to be named the new Duke AD, two sources confirmed for The News & Observer late Friday night.

Duke has been searching for a replacement for Joe Alleva, who left Duke for the same post at Louisiana State, since April.

White, 57, could not be reached for comment.

White has guided the Notre Dame athletic department since the 2000-01 academic year after holding the same post at Loras College, the University of Maine, Tulane and Arizona State.

One of his noteworthy accomplishments at Notre Dame was to successfully negotiate a renewal, through 2010, of the unique television contract that the Irish football team has with NBC.

As the Notre Dame AD, White also serves with the 11 conference commissioners in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) on the Bowl Championship Series committee.

That type of experience should serve him well at Duke, another private school with a successful athletic department and a unique marketable commodity in the Duke men's basketball program.

Duke is ready for a transition more than a year since the Duke lacrosse case found some closure, several weeks since a new strategic plan for the department was approved by the Duke University Board of Trustees, and four months shy of a highly anticipated 2008 football season under new coach David Cutcliffe.

White would be giving up something of a public presence in South Bend, Ind. White has his own weekly radio show and a pre-game radio show segment during the football season.

White, a native of Amityville, N.Y., ran track at St. Joseph's College in Indiana before completing his bachelor's degree in business administration in 1972.

He earned a master's in athletics administration from Central Michigan in 1976 and a Ph.D. in education from Southern Illinois in 1983.

According to White's bio on the Notre Dame athletic department Web site, White did his doctoral dissertation at Southern Illinois on the impact of Title IX on a major Division I athletic conference.

It was titled: An Appraisal of the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Programs, and the Relationship to Men's Athletics at the Big Ten Conference Institutions Before and After Title IX Implementation.

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