North Carolina’s public university leaders are taking a hard look at the price tag of college sports, and they’re not pretending the numbers are small.
At a meeting Wednesday in Raleigh, UNC System President Peter Hans called the surge in athletics spending “unsustainable” and pointed to football rosters that can now run about $50 million a year. The UNC System is preparing a deeper review of spending across the state’s 15 NCAA athletics departments, a move that reflects growing concern that the money race in college sports is outpacing what campuses can comfortably absorb.
“There's a key paradox here because most people would agree that college athletics model has never been more broken, and yet, it has never been more popular. Thus the considerable attention going forward on spending,” Hans told members of the board of governors budget committee.
He added, “You don’t have to be an economist to figure out that those who spend the most will generally win the most games. That’s why I’m hoping this will be the start of a conversation amongst the board members of how we can remain competitive in athletics, but not, in the long run, at the expense of the academic mission.”
The system’s own numbers show how big the athletics footprint has become. Public college sports in North Carolina generate about $1.5 billion in annual economic impact and include more than 1,400 athletes across the system.
In the 2024-25 academic year, the schools brought in more than $412 million in athletics-related revenue but spent more than $640 million. The gap is covered by student fees, campus support and state government funding, which together account for roughly 36% of athletics spending.
Those student athletic fees vary widely from campus to campus, ranging from $232 a year at NC State to $906 at UNC-Pembroke.
The figures cover the full range of public schools in the system, from UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State, whose athletics budgets are north of $130 million in the Atlantic Coast Conference, to Division II Elizabeth City State University, which operates on a $4.1-million athletics budget.
The pressure is only increasing. Direct revenue sharing with athletes is now up to $21.3 million this year, and what was originally described as a cap has turned into a spending floor for top programs. That has forced departments to hunt for more money to keep pace.
Earlier Wednesday, The New York Times reported that top football programs are spending around $50 million on their rosters this season. In that accounting, NC State’s roster cost is estimated between $22 million and $26 million, while North Carolina’s sits between $20 million and $25 million. Among programs in the four highest revenue-generating leagues, Boston College has the lowest estimated roster cost at between $8 million and $13 million, and Duke is listed at between $12 million and $15 million.
Hans said the system wants to stay in the mix competitively, but not ignore what the financial climb means.
“I certainly want our universities to remain competitive and continue to demonstrate excellence,” Hans said. “At the same time, we should check in on costs, which, with the changing national landscape, are growing at an unsustainable rate.
This is occurring everywhere across the country. Every chancellor and president, across the nation, that I talk to feels the same set of pressures.”
No policy changes were proposed and no votes were taken Wednesday. The presentation instead opened what could be a long conversation. UNC System staff did outline possible guardrails the board could eventually consider, including limits on subsidies, approval requirements and reporting standards.
One of the central questions in the presentation was blunt: “The governance question: Which funding sources absorb it - reserves, campus funds, debt - and with what board oversight,”
Even with the budget worries, committee members emphasized that athletics still matter to campuses for enrollment, as a front porch to the university and as an economic driver in local communities.
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