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Carolina may have been close on A.J. Dybantsa, but not close enough.
The fact that the No. 1 recruit in the high school basketball class of 2025 had UNC in his final four speaks for how serious the Tar Heels may be getting to breaking through in the NIL sweepstakes they have not been in for years.
Now, it’s not unusual for Carolina to be in the top 10 of most 5-star recruits, whose reputations are actually enhanced by including one of the top brands in college sports among their finalists. But when those lists were pared down to four, Hubert Davis’ program did not come up a winner.
That BYU, where Dybantsa committed Tuesday, won out had to be about NIL money, which has been reported between $5-7 million. The 6-9 guard-forward hails from Brockton, Massachusetts, which is about as far away from Provo, Utah, as you can get. Alabama, Kansas and Carolina are a lot closer to home, but that much jack will allow his family to fly out for every game or maybe just move there for his one-and-done season.
BYU is in the Big 12, which still has the lowest TV ratings for college basketball. So is Kansas. Alabama is in the SEC, the richest league in the country, and the ACC does not go public with how much money their top signees are getting.
Thirty-two multi, multi-millionaires (and maybe a $3 billion endowment) are part of BYU’s collective Royal Blue, after the school was among the first to jump in to sign Cougar recruits before NIL had even settled in.
It is no secret that Carolina is way behind in building an NIL war chest. Mack Brown complained about it for most of his six years as head football coach. Hubert Davis will not comment on NIL publicly, but reports say he has met with some wealthy UNC alums to see where the future lies.
As Davis and his team prepare this week for hosting LaSalle Saturday and face Florida of the SEC and UCLA of the Big Ten in the next weeks, the Tar Heels have already gone against some players they recruited and did not land. Alabama and Carolina were even-steven last year, but the Crimson Tide added NIL players such as 6-11 Clifford Omoruyi, who visited Chapel Hill and wanted much more than UNC would give him. The Heels lost other 5-stars who did not visit after finding their bottom lines would not be met.
So that’s why a kid from Massachusetts will play in Utah when, in the Dean Smith and Roy Williams days, they might have wound up wearing light blue. And after R.J. Davis departs, and the program adds two more guards, the same front court will remain undersized.
Unless, hopefully, something changes.
Featured image via USA Basketball
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/court-report-the-details-on-why-aj-dybantsa-chose-byu-and-how-much-nil-money-the-no-1-recruit-is-set-to-make/
It was a lot more that went into it than money. Read that article. UNC met the asking price but he ultimately went to BYU for the staff and environment.
Mr Chansky, the kid is already playing HS ball in Utah, so it’s not that big a move…
Was it NIL money? Maybe, maybe not. He is a one year player it appears. I’d prefer we let those go.
Money is often blame when there are other reasons. The, “how could any player decide to attend anywhere else other than UNC because of the tradition, Dean & Roy, all those banners” faction is part of the problem, hence lower dollars for NIL. It might be institutionalized arrogance. Hubert’s only able to bring a knife to a gunfight. Big Ram donors will give $millions to have a building named but not for renting players and Hubert gets the blame.
So that’s the dilemma. Do you pay millions for a 5 star that will stay for one year,maybe two or do you go after 3 and 4 star recruits that will likely stay longer, possibly be more coachable and have more focus on college and improving as a player? Or to try for a mix of both approaches adding from the transfer portal as needed? It’s all a crapshoot. NIL is fine but as pay for play money amounts escalate so does the likelihood of scandal. If there aren’t any guidelines or limits imposed on the money and the transfer portal soon there won’t be college programs only franchises. But no one seems to care about that right now.