‘Football’s in the driver’s seat.’ Amid budget cuts, UNC’s Roberts defends athletics spending

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina’s highly anticipated football season opener and the debut of coach Bill Belichick is still a month away. The Tar Heels haven’t yet begun practice, but that hasn’t lessened the excitement for the sold-out game against TCU on Sept. 1.

“We’ve reached, I think, close to a fever pitch now,” UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts said. “We couldn’t be more excited.”

The excitement for – and spending on — football, including a $10-million annual salary for Belichick, and athletics overall comes as the university is seeking ways to cut costs campuswide. The university announced a plan Wednesday to cut costs by $70 million over the next two years across the university amid state and federal funding concerns.

The athletics department is projected to spend $185.4 million in the 2025-26 fiscal year. Nearly all of the revenue is generated by the department through television rights, sponsorships, ticket sales and donations.

For the first time, schools can share revenue directly with athletes. UNC will share $20.5 million, the maximum allowed this year, with athletes in football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball. Further, the department added about 200 scholarships across its 28 sports.

“We’re sensitive to that,” Roberts said of the budget cuts and the athletic spending. “We certainly understand that concern. The revenues for football come from sources that aren’t available for other university priorities. We can’t take money from the ACC television contract and spend it on the chemistry department. And all our peers are in the same situation.

“We’re in an unprecedented era of college athletics. Everybody is trying to figure out how to drive more revenue. Football is in the driver’s seat in that regard. We’re committed to staying competitive in football, to representing Carolina’s standard of excellence on the football field as we do in every other sport, and we’re going to continue to invest to try to ensure that level of success.”

Spending on the UNC football program has increased dramatically over the past few years — even before the December hire of the 73-year-old Belichick, an NFL coaching legend who won six Super Bowl titles as head coach of the New England Patriots. In 2017, the program spent $21.8 million. By 2021, that figure was $34.4 million. In 2024, it was $44.7 million – and expected to rise.

UNC committed more than $16 million for assistant coaches, strength and conditioning staff and support staff for football in Belichick’s first season. Roberts said in January, shortly after Belichick was hired, that the school was going to continue to “invest” in football and that he wanted UNC to be a leader in that area.

UNC has sold every available ticket for each of its six home football games. It is the earliest that’s ever happened for the Tar Heels. ESPN will broadcast a pregame show live from Chapel Hill before its primetime coverage of the TCU game.

“After all the talk about getting ready for football season, I know Coach Belichick is eager to get out and actually play some football,” Roberts said Thursday. “And we’re all excited to see it.”

Belichick repeatedly mentioned Roberts during media appearances at last week’s ACC Kickoff in Charlotte.

“Lee’s been great, Chancellor Roberts,” Belichick said. “... Overall the staff and the administration has been very supportive.”

Belichick and the Tar Heels were picked to finish eighth in the 17-team ACC in the league’s preseason media poll. But Belichick’s presence on the sideline is expected to make the Tar Heels a top pick for broadcasters, including ESPN, and that should mean more money for UNC. The ACC is implementing a viewership-based component to its revenue distribution formula beginning this season.

That change was part of a settlement between the ACC and the league’s top football brands — Florida State and Clemson. The settlement, agreed to in March and finalized in May, included a clear exit fee structure for schools that wish to leave the league.

UNC is considered one of the top candidates to join the Southeastern Conference or the Big Ten Conference, the only college leagues that generate more revenue annually than the ACC.

“Delighted that the settlement was reached,” Roberts said. “Good thing for the conference. We are a proud member of the ACC, a founding member of the ACC. We’ve been a member of the ACC since 1953, so over 70 years now. As always, we’ll do what’s best for Tar Heel athletics and for the university as a whole.”