Looks to me like six rewards and one deal made.

UNC announced new contracts or extensions for seven coaches this week. And among them is women’s Hall of Famer Sylvia Hatchell. Curiously, Hatchell’s contract was extended through the 2020 season, while no other coach got signed up beyond 2019.

Not that Joe Breschi, Anson Dorrance, Sam Paul, Karen Shelton, Jenny Levy or Carlos Samoano have security issues. Each has won NCAA and/or ACC championships in recent years. Hatchell, by contrast, hasn’t won an ACC title since 2008 or been to the Final Four since ’07, and her one national crown came 22 years ago in 1994.

Breschi has taken all eight of his UNC lacrosse teams to the NCAA tournament and his Tar Heels beat Maryland in one of the greatest title games ever played in the sport last spring. Levy, his counterpart in women’s lacrosse, has been to nine Final Fours and won two NCAA titles in the last four years, including also beating Maryland on the same weekend as the men.

Dorrance is the most dominant coach in the history of women’s soccer, winning 21 national championships, and probably couldn’t care less about a new contract. Samoano won his first NCAA title a few years ago and has led his men’s team to the soccer dance each of his five seasons as Carolina’s head coach.

Shelton has been almost as dominant as Dorrance in field hockey, winning six NCAA titles and regularly reaching the Final Four. Paul took his men’s tennis team to a No. 1 ranking and won his first national championship to go with seven assorted ACC titles.

Yes, Hatchell has won 975 games in her 41 years as a head coach. But the hard truth is that her ACC title drought is now eight years old. And the harder truth is that her program was the only one mentioned in the NCAA investigation into academic fraud at UNC.

And the hardest truth of all, if you believe widespread reports, is that Hatchell lawyered up last year and threatened more bad publicity for the school if she did not get a contract extension to match Roy Williams’ through 2020.

Did someone at Carolina cave? Maybe.

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