UNC will share $20.5 million with athletes in these four sports

Football and men’s basketball players at North Carolina will receive the majority of the school’s $20.5 million in revenue sharing beginning next month. Women’s basketball and baseball players will receive some revenue sharing, too, the school’s athletics department announced Monday in a letter from athletics director Bubba Cunningham.

North Carolina will share the full amount — $20.5 million — allowed by the House settlement between the NCAA, five major conferences and former players. The settlement allows for revenue sharing with current athletes. It is up to each school to determine how it distributes that money, though football and men’s basketball are expected to receive nearly 90% nationally.

Football coach Bill Belichick’s term sheet, released publicly when he was hired in December, indicated that football would get $13 million in revenue sharing. That would be a bit more than 63% of the total cap, which is below the 75% figure that is expected to go to former football players in the settlement.

The revenue-sharing cap will increase by 4% annually.

The settlement institutes roster limits for all sports, but removes scholarship limits. As a result, UNC will have fewer athletes, but more players on scholarship. The Tar Heels are increasing their scholarships from 338 to 532. The increases will happen across UNC’s 28 sports.

UNC estimates that its portion of the $2.7 billion in backpay to athletes who weren’t allowed to profit off their name, image and likeness will be around $2 million annually for the next 10 years. The NCAA is funding the payments by withholding a portion of its annual distribution.

Cunningham said UNC’s budget will grow by $30 million or 20% by next year. The Tar Heels’ budget is about $150 million. UNC hired a new chief revenue officer, Rick Barakat. He told the school’s Board of Trustees that the school is exploring selling the naming rights to Kenan Stadium, as well as sponsorships for various parts of the football stadium.

“You name it, we’re trying to turn over every rock and find new ways to drive revenue through athletics and the football program,” Barakat said.

Cunningham said the school has been “fairly conservative” in tapping new sources of revenue. The school recently began selling beer and alcohol at football and men’s basketball games.

“Do you go to hard liquor?” Cunningham said. “Do you do more signs? Do you do more naming rights? Are we going to get to jersey patches? Can we create digital content or any other kind of content that we can monetize and sell to fans? There’s things that we haven’t done in the past; it’s just we didn’t feel like we needed to do.”

“As a not-for-profit, if you will, we’ve always spent what we created. So now we have another expense category. We have to think about how do we cover that category with what we can create. Are there other expenses that we have that we don’t need anymore? Or should we limit what we do?”

UNC is set to renegotiate its contract with Learfield, which owns its multimedia rights. The deal expires in 2029. While UNC is guaranteed a royalty fee of at least $13 million annually from Learfield, Barakat said the school is looking for a substantial raise on its next deal before the negotiating window with Learfield ends Oct. 31.

“Ideally we would never get to that stage, and they’ll bring us a deal that we all feel really good about and we’ll extend,” he said. “If not, we’re prepared to look at other opportunities.”

Several schools — including Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas A&M — have announced publicly which sports they plan to include in revenue sharing. Every school has included football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. After those three sports, revenue sharing varies based on school with baseball, softball, women’s volleyball, women’s soccer, women’s gymnastics and wrestling also getting revenue sharing at some schools.

Under the new roster and scholarship limits, UNC could add 14 additional scholarships in women’s soccer, 15 in field hockey, 5.5 in women’s tennis and 26 in women’s lacrosse. Baseball can add 22.3 and men’s lacrosse could add 35.

Men’s basketball can add two scholarships and women’s basketball remains at 15. Football can go from 85 scholarships to 105, but schools may leave room for walk-ons and not fund all 105 spots.

State lawmakers want to include UNC’s and NC State’s athletic departments in the revenue distribution from sports betting taxes. Currently, the schools are not included, but other UNC System schools are.

Under the Senate’s plan, which includes a doubling of the tax rate paid by operators, the schools could receive $56 million over the next two years. Under the House’s bill, the schools could see about $26 million over the same period. The chambers, however, are at a budget impasse, one that seems unlikely to be resolved soon, putting that money in limbo.

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