‘Everything is Under Consideration’: UNC’s Cunningham Shares How COVID-19 Changes Athletics

This article is based on an exclusive conversation between Bubba Cunningham and 97.9 The Hill’s Art Chansky about the UNC Athletic Department’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cunningham spoke about changes made to protect players’ health, athlete eligibility for next year, differing operations for the ACC compared to other athletic conferences and much more. The audio from the full conversation can be found at the bottom of this story.

With many UNC athletics programs set to play their first games of the year this month, the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic still looms large.

One of the largest impacts the coronavirus has on athletics is its budget. With no UNC fans in the stands through at least September, as well as no fans following the cancellation of spring sports at the onset of the pandemic, the athletics department is operating on thinner margins than normal.

Cunningham has made previous comments about the potential losses his program faces and recently announced plans for salary reductions and furloughs for some staff. He told 97.9 The Hill about the challenges of handling such financial balances for a group so widely celebrated.

“The reality is it’s a math problem when you’re looking at your budget and doing projections,” said Cunningham. “It’s a personal problem when you have to articulate that to your staff, the people that are working really hard and are committed and dedicated, and tell them they’re going to get less than we had anticipated. That’s a very difficult conversation, but it wasn’t a surprise because I feel like we’ve communicated [those losses well] over the last three months.”

Such changes could lead to further reductions, like to sizes of coaching staffs, player scholarships and even the number of varsity programs. Cunningham said while he has no interest in doing that, he’s working to openly discuss all the possibilities with those in athletics to keep them updated.

“Everything is under consideration,” he said when asked about program changes. “I’d rather have the open, difficult conversation as often as we need to so we can all stay on the same page. We know our priorities: our priorities are our people and our programs. We’re doing the best we can to support them. But we also recognize our resources have been shrinking for the last six months.”

UNC athletes are also some of the few students left on the Chapel Hill campus. With the university leadership pivoting back to remote learning in August, many students have gone back to permanent addresses. Cunningham talked about the position that puts athletes in, and why it’s different from the spring semester which saw no sports conducted.

“Everything has changed since March until now [because] we have new information,” said the athletic director. “We realized [in August,] ‘you know what, it’s probably isn’t safe for this many people to be in this community. So we’re going to de-densify.’ We didn’t close down. We still have a percentage of students living in the dorm. I think if you said, okay, the university’s closed and no one is going to be here, then we’d be in a different position.”

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