North Carolina’s offseason spending tells you a lot about where the Tar Heels are trying to go - and where they still stand.
After a 4-8 season that included a 2-6 mark against ACC opponents, UNC entered the new year with plenty of attention on Bill Belichick’s first offseason in charge. That attention only grew as the program dealt with turbulence off the field, including the resignations of general manager Michael Lombardi and defensive coordinator Steve Belichick after investigations. Freshman wide receivers CJ Sadler and Keeyun Chapman also were tied to an off-field incident, with Chapman suspended indefinitely and Sadler ruled out for Saturday.
Even with all that noise, UNC remained active in building its roster. Earlier this week, The Athletic polled 70 college football sources - including coaches, general managers and athletic directors - about how much programs spent on roster construction this offseason, and North Carolina came in with an estimate of $20 million to $25 million. That placed the Tar Heels eighth in the ACC.
That number sits below several of the league’s bigger spenders, including No. 23 Louisville ($22-25 million), North Carolina State ($22-26 million), Georgia Tech ($23-26 million), Florida State ($23-30 million), Virginia Tech ($25-30 million), Clemson ($29-32 million) and No. 5 Miami ($44-50 million).
The raw dollar figure is large, no question. But compared with the national heavyweights, UNC’s total doesn’t touch the biggest arms race in college football, where top teams poured nearly $50 million into NIL to build championship-level rosters.
What stands out for the Tar Heels is how far that money appears to have gone. North Carolina’s roster is described as well-rounded, if not loaded with the same high-end talent some other programs can boast.
In other words, the Tar Heels may not have bought the flashiest roster, but they did put together something more competitive than last season’s group. Their work in the transfer portal was a major part of that, especially considering the resources they had compared with other schools.
The next test comes quickly. North Carolina opens ACC play this weekend against Clemson, which was estimated at $29 million to $32 million.
For a program that has taken heat for the money going to Belichick and Lombardi, the bigger question now is how efficiently those roster dollars translate once the games start. UNC spent aggressively this offseason, just not at the level of the country’s biggest buyers.
In Other News...
UNC Pressure Around Bill Belichick Just Took Another Turn
North Carolinas football program has spent much of the fall trying to steady itself while an independent investigation examined allegations tied to the culture and climate around the team. The review concluded that certain isolated actions did not reflect the universitys values, but it did not find a systemic failure inside the program, a distinction that matters as the Tar Heels try to separate broader scrutiny from day-to-day football.
The pressure, though, has hardly gone away. Steve Belichick has resigned from his role, Michael Lombardi has stepped down as general manager, and freshman wide receiver Keeyun Chapman was suspended indefinitely after an arrest on a misdemeanor gun charge. Bill Belichick was not found to have committed any wrongdoing in the investigation, but with so many personnel changes and off-field questions piling up, the program still has more to sort through. [Read more 🡒]
UNCs Biggest Football Spending Problem Just Came Into Focus
UNCs football spending picture has come into sharper focus as the school heads toward the 2026 roster cycle. The Athletics study pegs the Tar Heels roster budget in the $20 million to $25 million range, which lands in the bottom 40% among Power 4 programs even as North Carolina continues to pay top dollar for its head coach and coordinators. It is a revealing split: plenty of money is going into the sideline, but not nearly as much appears to be reaching the roster itself.
The broader concern is what that means when the competition for talent keeps getting more expensive. North Carolinas budget ranks 41st nationally, a place that makes it harder to keep pace in recruiting and retention against schools willing to spend more aggressively on players. For a program trying to climb in a landscape where depth and star power matter more than ever, the question is not just whether UNC has invested in football, but whether it has invested in the right places. [Read more 🡒]
Tar Heels Just Delivered The Tobacco Road Result Fans Needed
North Carolina got the kind of Tobacco Road result that can steady a season and energize a crowd, knocking off No. 2 Duke 4-2 at home in the 58th meeting between the rivals. The seventh-ranked Tar Heels had to fight through a second-half deficit, but they still came away with their first ranked win of the fall and their first home win over Duke since 2020. Lilliah Blum paced the attack with a pair of goals, while Amari Manning and Bella Devey were among the other players who helped turn the game in UNCs favor.
For a program that measures itself against the best, this one carried the kind of weight the standings alone cant capture. Beating Duke always matters, but doing it in Chapel Hill after falling behind added a little extra edge to it, and it gives North Carolina a result it can point to as the schedule tightens. The bigger question now is whether the Tar Heels can turn this into more than just a rivalry night high. [Read more 🡒]