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Is Old Well Management the collective that Carolina needs?
It is not unusual for conference powers to be fiddling with their NIL programs, since the enterprise of paying college athletes is still in its embryo stages. There are lots of ways schools are constantly maneuvering to get the best athletes.
Ohio State alumni were furious that Michigan – that school up north – won the national football championship, but that fury soon morphed into excitement of the almost immediate uptick in donations to The Foundation, Cohesion Foundation and the 1870 Society, the athletic collectives supporting Buckeye sports.
UNC was slow at the NIL switch, beginning with a couple of former football players making phone calls to Rams Club members and alumni trying to get more blood from the same stones Carolina has been mining for years. It didn’t work even after the football collective went formal with the name Heels4Life and later a campaign called Hold The Line.
Basketball followed with the Secondary Break Club, named for one of Dean Smith’s scoring innovations. That hasn’t come close to raising the money that Duke, Kentucky and more recently Arkansas have been piling up pursuing 5-star prospects. The result is a lot of social media buzz for all the great players putting Hubert Davis and the Heels high on their lists.
But the fact that Carolina is losing more transfers than it is signing up and not bringing in a busload of freshmen one-and-dones means it is still behind in giving out legalized recruiting money. And most of the Olympic sports coaches are beating the NIL bushes these days.
So consolidating is the latest move for a university that offers more than most schools except for NIL money. UNC’s program is solid in teaching athletes how to market themselves and get involved with some businesses, but there is no machine behind it all like Duke uses Creative Artist Agency (CAA) in New York as a partner.
Old Well Management, the new combined Carolina collective, sounds like its goal is serious money raising, organizationally at least. It has the ring of Franklin Street Partners, the long-time firm that has helped many athletes invest the money they make from playing professionally or business ventures.
The Tar Heel brand is still strong enough for the best athletes to visit and consider Chapel Hill, but most of them are looking for more NIL money than UNC can offer at this point. Two 5-star big men transfers visited but took seven figures to go to Kansas State, the Little Apple that could win its first national basketball championship this coming season.
With either of them, Davis’ fifth team has enough talent at the other four positions to get back to the Final Four and win it all. But they will open the season as a long shot because money talks and without it players walk to somewhere they wouldn’t even consider before NIL became the name of the game.
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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.
Hello Art,
It is important to have a single entity managing the NIL. I would love to give, but it is unclear who is doing what. I always thought the RAMS Club was doing it and it seems that they should be running the show?
I appreciate your insight on this VERY important issue. WE cannot be elitist and assume the Carolina Brand will prevail above all things.
It is only after you have lived it that you understand and value the Carolina experience and the brand value.
Young athletes actually might not get that.
Hi Art, please provide evidence that our basketball program has not raised the same NIL money as other schools.