According to a new report, that may be the case right now with the North Carolina Tar Heels, one of the most iconic brands in all of college basketball.
A report by Inside Carolina states that that UNC’s payroll for its roster this upcoming season has exceeded a mark of $14 million, a number which would be more than triple what was spent on last season’s roster.
The Tar Heels massively underachieved last season and though they were granted a spot in the NCAA Tournament, they were eliminated in the first round after a 23-win season.
Clearly committing to major changes, the program had already hired longtime NBA agent Jim Tanner to be the general manager back in February and better help head coach Hubert Davis to navigate the difficulties of this current era and the chaos it brings.
Spending this kind of money on the roster is part of the investment that bringing in Tanner — who is set to make $850,000 this season — came along with.
Not only did the Tar Heels bring in a top-15 recruiting class from the high school ranks, they also took in four transfers from the portal in order to try to regroup and get things right.
With guys like Jarin Stevenson of Alabama and Henri Veesaar of Arizona, there’s no question a huge chunk of those funds were spent in the portal.
Notably, the high school class is headlined by one of the top players in the nation in big man Caleb Wilson, who is already featured by On3 on their NIL 100 list as the No. 81 highest paid athlete in college athletics.
Davis is headed into his fifth season as the head coach for the Tar Heels and this is not a program that is used to losing.
A massive budget for the upcoming season is only going to bring more pressure upon Davis as he tries to figure out how to turn this ship around.
UNC is making a commitment to getting back to being one of the sport’s premiere programs, and they are putting up the cash to show it.
No Comment! Be the first one.