The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is spending big on men’s basketball and football.
The salary for the Tar Heels’ new football coach, Bill Belichick, is $10 million. Mike Lombardi, the general manager for UNC’s football team, earns a salary of $1.5 million.
Advertisement
And this week, according to a report from Inside Carolina, it was revealed that more than $14 million was invested into shaping the Tar Heels’ men’s basketball roster for the upcoming season. The report says that amount is triple what UNC spent on its roster a year ago. Additionally, the recently hired general manager of the men’s basketball team, Jim Tanner, earns an $850,000 salary.
When it comes to making money in college sports, football and — albeit at a lesser degree — men’s basketball are the driving forces. Their sports earn lucrative television contracts that help fund a university’s athletic department, and success in those sports can boost the sales of tickets and merchandise and drive enrollment.
But North Carolina also has a proud tradition and history of success in women’s sports too. The Tar Heels won national championships in women’s soccer and lacrosse this season. Its field hockey team owns 11 national titles and has been to the Final Four in three straight years.
And under Courtney Banghart, the women’s basketball team has enjoyed a resurgence in recent seasons, piling up 116 wins, four NCAA Tournament appearances and two Sweet 16 trips over the past four years. That’s 15 wins more than the men’s team and one more March Madness berth in the same stretch. This year, the Tar Heels were a top 16 seed and hosted opening weekend games in Chapel Hill.
Advertisement
Like men’s basketball has since 1991, women’s hoops started earning units this year for success in the NCAA Tournament, meaning that postseason wins now translate into direct revenue for the schools. And despite the NCAA deciding to lump women’s basketball in with all of its other championship sports in the TV package it sold to ESPN, the 2021 Kaplan Report suggested that, if the women’s basketball tournament’s media rights were sold separately — like football and men’s basketball — it could be worth between $81 and $112 million annually. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley recently said that the NCAA should go back to the negotiating table with ESPN and demand more money.
“We should get more money from ESPN,” Staley said at a recent event for her book. “… Let’s negotiate in good faith, because where we’ll be five years from now, right, we’ll think about you all coming back to the table today and maybe not hit you so hard in five years. So that’s what I would want. I want ESPN to step up to the plate and give us a little bit more from collegiately to the WNBA.”
So women’s sports, specifically women’s basketball, can generate revenue. And investing in talent can create real success. Just look at Texas Tech’s softball team, which won the Big 12 and made the Women’s College World Series this season for the first time ever, largely because the Red Raiders secured the best pitcher in the game, NiJaree Canady, with an NIL deal north of $1 million.
All of this context is necessary to preface this question: If North Carolina is ponying up $14 million for it’s men’s basketball roster, what is it spending on it’s women’s team?
Advertisement
Documents obtained by SB Nation through a Freedom of Information Act Request offer a glimpse into what Banghart had to work with this offseason, and what she’s asking for in a post-House Settlement era where schools can directly share revenue with players.
In an email on April 9, Banghart asked UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham for more money for this year.
“Can I get more for this year? Used raised money until April 7 – then got $250 (sic) total to spend in portal,” Banghart wrote. “3 spots. Not enough. portal is $500K $600K.”
The funds Banghart was asking Cunningham for are seemingly from the Old Well Management, a consolidation of two former UNC-affiliated NIL collectives that is now led by Kevin Rice.
Advertisement
“This would allow us to save our donor funds in our bench seat for when we need them AFTER the settlement is signed,” Banghart wrote. “We’d like a ‘no strings attached’ agreement to use … for any transfers we sign between now and the official house settlement signing.”
It’s unclear if that money faucet was turned on for the women’s basketball team, as no reply from Cunningham to this email was included in the batch of documents SB Nation received from UNC’s public records office. However, the Tar Heels did land two notable transfers during the offseason, adding Louisville starting forward Nyla Harris and UCLA guard Elina Aarnisalo.
Still, even if Banghart was granted $600,000 in NIL funds to boost her roster, one longtime Power 4 assistant coach characterized that spending budget to SB Nation as being in the “lower tier.” An agent in the sport was a bit more optimistic about the number, saying it was “middle of the pack” in the Power 4.
Banghart ended the email with this: “REV SHARE next year. Need 1.5 million.”
Advertisement
Back in January, Ross Delenger of Yahoo Sports wrote that most schools playing FBS football will put “as much as or more than 90 percent (of revenue), to football and men’s basketball.” That lines up with some figures that have been released so far. Texas Tech is putting 74 percent of its revenue-sharing pie towards football and just 2 percent towards women’s basketball. Georgia is expected to spend $13.5 million on football and $900,000 on women’s basketball.
The $1.5 million figure Banghart is asking for is a fraction of what UNC’s football team will get, as Belichick’s contract stipulates that when the House Settlement is passed, the football team will get $13 million to spend on its roster.
While some schools are beginning to publicize their spending plans in a post-House Settlement world, UNC has not. Though, coaches and officials in the athletic department have been discussing it for a while. On Nov. 7, 2024, Cunningham sent an email to Banghart that included charts outlining how scholarships, roster sizes and costs would shift after the settlement is signed.
“This settlement has presented a challenging situation, but really appreciate your patience and flexibility as we adapt to a new environment,” Cunningham wrote.
