How UNC basketball is operating in the world of NIL

Posted by Artie Phelan on Thursday, May 2, 2024

Time for part two.

In last week’s mailbag, I tried answering some of your biggest player-specific questions about UNC. (Understandably, there were a lot.) But y’all also had plenty of big-picture questions, too — about NIL, facilities, things beyond the 13 scholarship players — that I just didn’t really have room to answer in full. So let’s do that now. As always, thanks for interacting and asking smart questions:

I’d love to know more about the NIL situation for UNC men’s basketball and football. What kind of money are the players making? From whom? How does this compare to other ACC and/or peer programs? How much of a “distraction” is it really? What roles are the players’ families playing in this new NIL world? — Jonathan C.

Happy to peel back the NIL curtain as much as I can. But before I get started — because NIL is a mess, as much as anything in college athletics right now — I would strongly encourage everyone to check out this piece (or at least the introduction of it) that I recently co-wrote with Kyle Tucker, our Kentucky beat reporter. Kyle and I were together in Emerson, Ga., two weekends ago for the first EYBL session of the summer, and NIL was as hot a topic as anything. In particular, check out this quote from Miami coach Jim Larrañaga, whose program has become as publicly associated with NIL — thanks to billionaire booster John Ruiz — as any in the sport:

“I think kids are misled so much that they think, oh, I’m going to get a million dollars from this school. And it’s nowhere near that. I don’t know anybody getting that. I read about it, but does that mean it’s correct? I don’t think so.”

He’s right. Few, if any, players nationally are making millions of dollars off their name, image, and likeness — and that’s including both conventional NIL (brand deals with deliverables, like social media posts or appearances) and pay-for-play, which makes up a much larger share of the money exchanging hands. Those two buckets are dramatically different, with the former being what NIL was intended to be, and the latter being what it largely has become. Accordingly, the money we’re talking about for each is very different. Here’s one example: I know of at least one UNC player, since the onset of NIL, who signed a conventional brand deal with a business worth $10,000 and another $3,000 in gift cards/vouchers. In exchange, that player produced deliverables for the business: Appearances, autographs, and partaking in a commercial shoot. Not life-changing money, but it definitely helps, especially for college kids who are creating millions of dollars in revenue for the schools they represent.

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Pay-for-play is a whole different beast, though. And this isn’t the old days of McDonald’s bags getting dropped in grassroots gym bathrooms, either; it’s much more complex, intentionally, and bathed in legalese. Here’s a common example of how it works: Local Business A tells Player A — who could be a returning star or a transfer portal target — they want to partner on an NIL deal. Let’s say it’s for the “going rate,” according to multiple coaches and industry insiders, of around $250,000. (Yes, really.) Local Business A then lays out a series of NIL deliverables — in these cases, usually in-person appearances — that Player A has to meet to earn that money. Now, here’s where it gets a little complicated: NIL, per NCAA rules, can’t be used to induce a player to attend any specific university. So, what’s the workaround? The fact that realistically, Player A will only be able to complete Local Business A’s deliverables if he lives in that specific geographic area — thus why so many of those “deliverables” are in-person appearances. (To the devil’s advocates out there: Sure, Player A could accept Local Business A’s pay-for-play deal and then choose another school … but if the requirements of that deal are for Player A to make three in-person appearances at the business every week, how is he going to be able to do that living anywhere else?) As you would expect, pay-for-play deals don’t always result in businesses getting back commensurate value/exposure for their investment, so I’m interested — like many others in this space — to see if those markets eventually course-correct.

Final recruiting rankings for the players in UNC’s 2023 class:

No. 44 Simeon Wilcher
No. 85 Zayden High

— Brendan Marks (@BrendanRMarks) May 4, 2023

To bring this all back to UNC, I can’t speak as much to the football side, but the men’s basketball program isn’t ignoring NIL. Several players this season made six figures, although those absurd valuation figures I’ve seen floating around aren’t accurate. (Case in point: Armando Bacot is one of the more outspoken national advocates for NIL, and his mother told several media outlets last season that he earned over half a million dollars.) Many UNC players have conventional NIL deals, where they sign autographs, hold camps, sell merchandise, film videos or recordings, and post on social media. As for it being a distraction, I haven’t heard a ton about that across the sport, and the same applies at UNC. Kids aren’t pocket-watching and hating their teammates for making money; they’re excited for their friends, even if some wish they could earn a little more themselves. I could go on and on and on about NIL, because it really is so consequential now, but for now, there’s just one more thing I’d like to add …

With a general manager role becoming more common in college basketball, do you see UNC creating a similar role? What impact could we expect such a role to have on the team? — Alex G.

If I could recommend one change to the UNC men’s basketball program, this would be it: Add a general manager. From what I’ve been told, there has been a push for one from some within the program — athletic director Bubba Cunningham isn’t opposed to it — and in my opinion, it would be a tremendous asset for Hubert Davis and his staff. That doesn’t mean I’m expecting someone to be hired immediately, or even at all, but North Carolina has the resources and backing to get this done if it wants.

So, why would it? For a full rundown of how GMs are operating at various programs nationally — Duke and Villanova have them, but also DePaul and Howard — check out this story I wrote in February; it gets into more of the nitty-gritty, about how general managers operate at the macro level (setting program-wide NIL policy), but also at the micro level (advising players on deals, tracking their deliverables, etc.). Basically, the biggest benefit is that it takes a gigantic amount of work off Davis and his staff’s plate. (Currently, much of UNC’s NIL infrastructure falls to director of operations Eric Hoots.) Coaches already have more than enough to deal with — like coaching, recruiting, media obligations, and donor and university functions — without the burden of trying to keep up-to-date with NIL legislation and happenings. Allowing a separate general manager to handle that would allow Davis and his staff to focus on what they do best, while still providing the best resources and guidance for players. Having a general manager who can keep UNC competitive and up-to-date on NIL would absolutely make the school more attractive to high school and transfer recruits. NIL isn’t for every kid, but for the ones who care about it, you better have a strong plan in place — and a GM would solve many of those issues.

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What’s the perception around the league from other coaches about UNC and how Davis has been running the program? — Leon L.

Fascinating question, and one that’s a little difficult to answer fully. What, opposing ACC coaches are going to publicly crap on their colleague? No shot.

But in speaking with several ACC head coaches and assistants two weekends ago in Georgia — and generally over the course of the last two seasons — there are a few sentiments worth sharing. One: UNC fans may not give Davis full credit for the 2022 national title appearance, given what transpired this season, but opposing coaches definitely do. His ability to flip the team on its head midseason earned a lot of admirers. Two: While player continuity is important, especially from a program culture perspective, several ACC coaches thought UNC — and Davis specifically — could benefit from some turnover. That’s a sentiment shared by, I believe, a large portion of the fan base (and myself). Davis inherited the bulk of the players he’s coached through two seasons, and a number of his peers are intrigued by how a team of “his” players will perform.

UNC has made a lot of facility improvements for a lot of sports over the past few years — football, lacrosse/soccer, field hockey, women’s basketball, etc. — but nothing has really been done for men’s basketball, outside of some minor tweaks. At what point will UNC try to do a major facility project for men’s basketball? — Samuel F.

It’ll probably be a while.

UNC’s men’s team has been playing in the Dean Smith Center since it opened in 1986, which, yeah, was over 35 years ago. Not exactly state-of-the-art now with the too-small concourse and funky bathroom layouts. In fact, conversations about what exactly to do with the Smith Center — Tear it down and start over? Complete renovation? Tweaks over time in calculated phases? — have been going on for over a decade, since before I was in school at UNC. In fact, the university contracted an architecture firm during my college years to assess what a new venue might look like — and cost — but those plans were never pursued.

The locker rooms and team meeting spaces were updated before the 2016-17 season, and more recently, video boards were added in the corners of the building. This offseason, as part of a larger athletics project, new LED lights are being installed in the Dean Dome (as well as Carmichael Arena and Kenan Stadium); those will allow for colored lights, spotlights and overall lighting improvements in those venues. But as far as major changes, I wouldn’t get my hopes up for anything imminent. A project of that scope will be both costly and timely — which, given how much COVID-19 and NIL have impacted athletic department funding in recent years, doesn’t seem particularly attractive right now.

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In your two years of coverage of Hubert’s first two teams, how would you describe his desired team structure? I watch every game and feel like I have only a vague idea. With Roy Williams, we played two bigs, rebounded the heck out of the ball, and always ran the floor in transition … What would you say is Hubert’s philosophy? — Dalton L.

I’m not sure we’ve seen Davis’ desired team structure yet, although I do think we’re getting closer to it.

He’s proven he wants a more modern offense — which I can appreciate and believe was necessary — which includes a heavy dose of ball screens, especially high ball screens. Defensively, Davis clearly values rebounding and not committing fouls; he’s more conservative on that end of the floor, rather than attempting to jump passing lanes and turn teams over. (Yes, I know that’s been a point of consternation amongst fans, but just because you don’t like that philosophy doesn’t mean it’s inherently bad!) Philosophically, those are solid starting points, and Davis has shown the capacity to adjust on both ends of the floor as matchups dictate, including utilizing more slip screens and changing ball screen coverages (hedging, icing, etc.).

Now personnel: Davis wants mobile big men, who ideally can handle some level of switching on the perimeter; right now, due to Armando Bacot’s limited foot speed, the Tar Heels are kind of stuck playing drop coverage in a lot of ball screen situations, which is only so effective. I don’t think he’s opposed to a traditional big — obviously, Bacot has been his star for three seasons — but understands the need to support a player like that with at least three consistent outside shooters. (The closest we came to this was during the 2022 postseason run, when Brady Manek, Caleb Love and R.J. Davis were hitting from 3.)

That frontcourt construction, in turn, would ideally open up driving lanes for the guards. At point guard, given that he’s recruited Seth Trimble, Simeon Wilcher, and now Elliot Cadeau, Davis seems to prefer a conventional pass-first option, someone who can organize an offense and prevent some of the ball-sticking we saw last season. Additionally, all three of those recruits are above-average athletes who can win in one-on-one situations, when they have the space to attack the rim. That’s even easier when you surround them with multiple shooters and a dump-off option at the dunker spot (next to the rim.) Like I said, I don’t think we’ve seen the fully actualized version of that yet, but rather flashes.

If you can create the 2022 postseason offense with any consistency, though, then I think the majority of fans would take that in a heartbeat.

(Top photo: Grant Halverson / Getty Images)

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