Auburn is looking for a new athletic director after Allen Green’s early departure ahead of the expiration of his contract.

ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel appeared on “College Football Live” Friday. Thamel named 7 potential candidates for the job.

Thamel expects the next AU athletic director to have Auburn ties.

“A couple names with Auburn ties are UConn AD David Benedict, Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock and FIU AD Scott Carr.”

Thamel continued with potential candidates.

“Another couple names to think about would be Brent Jones at Troy, Jared Benko at Georgia Southern, John Hartwell at Utah State and Bryan Maggard at Louisiana,” Thamel said. “It’s still a job where you can win the national title in football and there aren’t a lot of those jobs in college football, just comes with some rocky terrain.”

We’ll see if Thamel is right about “Auburn ties” or if AU looks to bring in an outsider to be the new AD.