UNC's big bet on football and Bill Belichick
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Bill Belichick waves to the crowd at the Dean E. Smith Center in December. Photo: Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images
With the hiring of Bill Belichick as its football coach, UNC-Chapel Hill has entered a new economic reality for its athletics department.
Why it matters: But the steep financial outlay is not without its uncertainties — with UNC Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham even calling it a "risk" for the university.
- "We're investing more in football with the hope and ambition that the return is going to significantly outweigh the investment," he told the UNC-focused sports site Inside Carolina.
- For many, the hope is that UNC can match similar investments by peer institutions, such as UCLA and the University of Michigan, and keep up with the financial success of many schools within the rival SEC or Big Ten conferences.
By the numbers: Belichick is set to make $10 million per year at UNC.
- Add $3.5 million in potential bonuses, $10 million to hire assistant coaches, $1 million for strength and conditioning staff, and $5.3 million for other support staff, and UNC-CH was declaring a new era for football.
- The team's $40 million budget will increase by at least $8 million, not including the $13 million that's been pledged to compensate football players or the $7 million the school budgeted in severance pay to outgoing coach Mack Brown and his staff over the next two years.
Zoom in: Even before it ramped up its football ambitions, the university had been shoring up its athletics budget by transferring millions of dollars from other institutional funds to support varsity sports.
- UNC provided $21.4 million to support athletics last year between direct payments, services, debt payments and rental fees, according to its annual financial report to the NCAA.
- That figure doesn't include student fees that go to athletics, which totaled more than $8 million last year.
- Such transfer payments are the norm at many universities, but not in Chapel Hill. From 2011 to 2022, the university provided less than $2 million a year in services to athletics, but no direct payments or facilities payments.
The big picture: It's all part of UNC's attempt to evolve as a new economic model for college athletics has taken root. When a series of lawsuits are settled, as soon as next month, universities will begin paying athletes directly.
- The pressure to keep growing revenues for athletics to keep up with that new financial reality is only going to increase.
Go deeper with Axios and The Assembly's look at UNC athletics' big moment