All along, Ed Kull was the favorite to be the next St. John’s athletic director.

From the moment news broke that the school was parting ways with Mike Cragg in the spring, Kull’s name kept coming up for two specific reasons.

His success as a fundraiser.

His history as an athletic administrator at St. John’s.

Wednesday, Kull, the Fordham athletic director the past three years, accepted the job. A news conference will be held on Tuesday at 1 p.m.

“To say this is the honor of my professional life would be an understatement,” Kull said in a statement. “As a kid from the neighborhood who got his start working as a graduate assistant in Carnesecca Arena, to be able to follow in the footsteps of Jack Kaiser as the athletic director at St. John’s is surreal. I understand the work that we have ahead of us will not be easy, but I wholeheartedly believe that we will commit every resource necessary to restore St. John’s to its natural place atop the collegiate athletic landscape.”

Kull worked at St. John’s from 2011-17. That included a stint as the vice president of athletics.

There was significant interest in the position. VCU athletic director Ed McLaughlin was interviewed and Lenny Kaplan of NJIT, Shawn Heilbron of Stony Brook and Rick Cole of Hofstra were also candidates.

But Kull was really a no-brainer, when you consider his familiarity with the Queens school, his strong relationship with top athletic booster Mike Repole, and his strength in fundraising.

At Fordham, the Queens native raised $7.6 million in the fiscal year ending in June, a school record. He set up the New Era fund for men’s and women’s basketball, which led to improvements in the programs’ facilities, more charter flights and additional staffing.

Under Kull’s watch, there were major increases in ticket revenue and attendance. The men’s basketball team also won its most games the past three seasons since 1990-93 in large part due to the hirings of Kyle Neptune and then Keith Urgo when Neptune left for Villanova.

Most of all, Kull changed the athletic culture at Fordham, generating excitement among alumni and students. In an ironic twist, St. John’s will open the men’s basketball season against Fordham on Nov. 4.

In the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) era, and the potential of revenue sharing with athletes expected to happen in the near future, Kull’s fundraising skills were considered particularly important.

“What he’s done in three years as the athletic director at Fordham, he’s done 15 years of work,” Repole, the billionaire business mogul, told The Post. “He hired an amazing coach who is now a Big East head coach, and made another good hire with Keith Urgo. With his athletic administration background and being an athlete, and knowing the school and working with multiple presidents in the past, he’s been involved in a lot of great things already.

“I think he checks off a lot of boxes. He knows the board of trustees, he knows the alumni. He’s extremely well-liked and he gets stuff done. It’s a great hire. … President Father Brian Shanley, [COO] Joe Oliva and the board of trustees have really done an amazing job bringing in both Rick Pitino and Ed Kull. They deserve a lot of credit.”