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The criticism of Carolina Athletics comes from lack of dollars and no sense.
The UNC Board of Trustees levelled some misguided ridicule of the athletic department and director Bubba Cunningham recently. And most of it comes from “bad data” that had been provided to the committee by who knows.
The most interesting bit of data was the $135 million athletic budget proposed for the upcoming 2024-25 school year. Here is some data for you that should make the Trustees put their collective tails between their legs.
After the winter season, the annual Learfield Directors’ Cup standings had UNC in third place overall trailing only 26-time winner Stanford and two-time winner Texas, which have endowments and/or budgets that dwarf UNC. The Tar Heels program won the initial Director’s Cup for overall excellence in 1993-94. Since then, Stanford has won 26 times and Texas has won twice.
Stanford had a $159 million athletic budget for fiscal 2023, but its endowment is valued at $36.5 BILLION. Texas, which fields only 20 NCAA varsity teams (compared to UNC’s 28), has a budget that exceeds $200 million. In the winter standings, Stanford is in first place and Texas is in second place.
After Carolina, the next eight schools are Michigan, Penn State, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Alabama and Tennessee – all whose budgets are close to double Carolina’s. So where is the credit to Cunningham, who has led his program to a top 10 finish in seven of the last eight years. Overall, UNC has been that high 24 times, battling schools with far greater resources.
You notice, all of the above schools are current members of the Big Ten and the SEC, which is adding Texas and Oklahoma beginning in 2024-25. According to David Glenn’s recent “Holding Court” column on this website, the Trustees “have been handing Cunningham budgets that are smaller than the Power 5 average and barely in the top 40!”
Glenn, an award-winning journalist and attorney, emphasizes that under Cunningham Carolina “consistently has been producing top 10 results on the court/field.”
The Trustees also criticized the UNC AD for missing a meeting in March, when Cunningham was serving on the NCAA Basketball Committee, on which he has been for the last four years will be the chairman this coming season. Obviously, they should have known about that conflict.
Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts came to Cunningham’s defense, and that of his budget, after the board’s denouncement. It was too little too late. So next should be a public retraction and apology.
Featured photo via Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill.
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.
Good article. But are you sure David Glenn is a “practicing attorney”? The NC State Bar website has listed his license as inactive for quite some time.
I do believe the trustee’s received bad info. They do have a responsibility to make sure our money is well spent.
And the money, as the results point out, is very well spent.
Thanks, Art. Nice to have all this put in perspective. And, surely, a BIGGER budget could have a few positive impacts.
As a proud 1973 graduate, I am amazed at the vitriol flung at Bubba Cunningham by several Trustee Board members. This fine man has done an unbelievably great job during his tenure. Several of these critics need to be better prepared and more objective or we may lose him to another institution that covets his talents.
Art – great insight as always. Thanks Hank