Geez, that was hard to stay quiet about, I had to drop the Mr Ed clue! LOL
UNC did 2 very smart things that allowed this to happen, yes we stepped up the $$$, that was key. But on a day that there is so much anger toward Hubert, I have to call the balls and strikes as I see them, Hubert fought and clawed for this kid and he was smart about it, he stayed in direct contact with the kid and his family where the competition was talking to middle men more than the family. You had to know, with the kid aligned with Klutch, the agency was not going to be pumping UNC up much, they were pumping Ky. Hubert worked directly with Caleb's dad and it was dad in control of things, not the agency. This was a very smart move by Hubert, get the NIL up to where we are at least competitive and then sell the branding aspect, as opposed to selling the branding but being to far out on the NIL.
So what about all those folks screaming UNC didn't have the NIL and that is why we whiffed on several badly needed recruits in both the 25 class of recruits and the last portal? It is very important to understand, this stuff is fluid, what may be true today may not be true tomorrow. It was clear that football was badly under funded by NIL, I think that is well known and has been for a long time. When the football and basketball collectives were combined, basketball money took a hit. There were a number of big time boosters that were not on board with Hubert being hired, those purse strings simply were not opened as wide as the may have been.
Did UNC have $$$ for players, yes they did but as AJ shares, a lot of what they had was spent on returning players, I like having the continuity of bringing back players that help you win games, all UNC fans should realize the value in that. I think it is very clear, we spent far to much money on Tyson, I believe we spent to much to bring RJ back. We had $$$ but what we had left over to pay some of the more big time talents that could have filled our area of need was not going to allow us to out bid some of the other programs that were willing to way over spend. Son, I realize that we are $1 millons less than the other school but at UNC you will have far more branding, you will make more in the long run with us, hard sell if the up front cash is not close, get the up front close and that branding sell sings louder. That is why we got Wilson and why we didn't get Dybansa.
Guys, telling you, the Belichick hire in addition to sending shock waves thru all of sports, drove a major re-alignment and commitment to UNC sports. It drove home the point that you get what you pay for, boosters that have been shy to spend all the sudden are looking at things a bit different. There is a group of former Tar Heel basketball players that have assembled to help the $$$ to flow, indications are that that has started and is expected to grow and rev share is working on with this. Means we can now be closer in up front NIL money and in time be able to flat out bid when needed. Point being the $$$ picture looks much better today than it did over the summer, did we have the money is a very different from do we have the money.
