Last December 3, eight days after Mack Brown was fired as North Carolina’s football coach and nine days before Bill Belichick was introduced as the program’s new leader, Tar Heel Illustrated reported in a lengthy article that UNC was going to significantly elevate funding for football moving forward.

The article included information from multiple sources as well as THI obtaining financial documents regarding spending on UNC football during periods under former head coach Larry Fedora followed by Brown’s second stint at the helm.

The point of the article was to report that UNC was going all-in on football. That decision was made while other coaches remained candidates including Belichick. It was a UNC decision regardless of who would replace Brown.

So, with Brown’s recent comments on Sirius/XM radio about changes UNC has made for Belichick, it makes sense to dip back in time into our report of more than 5-and-a-half months ago. What Brown said this week is correct, as we reported a week after he was terminated. For perspective, here is what he told Sirius/XM followed by some of the numbers:

*“As far as North Carolina and Bill Belichick now, he’s arguably the best coach ever. They’ve committed money to it. They’ve helped him with academics. They’ve lowered those standards some. So, there’s absolutely no reason they shouldn’t be successful.

“And anymore, they’ve changed the roster... So you’ve got a chance to succeed at the highest level, and I expect him to do that and I’m proud for him.”

*According to the football financial documents obtained by THI, UNC spent $10,130,493 on football personnel in the last full academic year (2017-18) Fedora was head coach. In 2022-23, UNC spent $23,764,394 on Brown’s staff. That’s a 57.4% increase in just five years. And that's with much of the fundraising being gobbled up by renovations not currently needed.

*With that, UNC spent $139,859,514 on football facility enhancements in the last seven years.

*Furthermore, from the same five-year period of 2017-18 to 2022-23, athletic department personnel expenses rose by 20% but football personnel expenses nearly doubled.

*This shows the UNC administration and athletic department made much greater investments into football during Brown’s second stint than it had previously. Sources inside the football program told THI last fall the investment in football “simply isn’t enough” and that made "competing very difficult."

Those comments were validated when UNC decided to take a deep plunge into spending on football in the post-Brown era. So, Brown and sources inside the program were right that they didn’t have enough, but the truth is they had already pushed pricing well above where it was.

In reality, UNC wouldn’t have reached Belichick money without first meeting many of Brown’s demands.

More than a week after our report, UNC Athletics Director, Bubba Cunningham, publicly said, "We are going to make a more significant investment in football."

As for the Belichick cash:

*His salary of $10 million per season with bonuses that could push him above $13 million is more than double what Brown made. Belichick’s salary is for five years, with three essentially guaranteed.

*Belichick’s staffing number is $16.3 million, though less than $13 million has been spent on assistants, personnel department, front office, and so on.

*Brown’s NIL budget for his final season was $4 million, but most of that was used to keep players like Kaimon Rucker and Omarion Hampton from transferring. UNC had well below $1 million left to use in the portal in December 2023. Belichick’s first NIL budget pushed toward $20 million.

In addition, Brown said UNC has lowered academic standards for Belichick, something Brown also pushed for but was usually not granted. Many UNC fans complained about the drop off in recruiting over Brown’s last couple of seasons, but a big part of that was NIL limitations but also the need to find players that academically fit at UNC and were less likely to transfer.

Belichick’s NIL abundance allows him far more freedom to find better players, more experienced players in the portal, and to stack a roster with more P4-caliber bodies than Brown could. And that 52 scholarship players from last year’s team are no longer at UNC, Belichick and general manager Michael Lombardi needed that cash.

Many have received Brown’s recent comments as sour grapes, and that might be to a degree. Having spoken multiple times with sources who know Brown quite well, he is bitter about how things played out. He didn’t hesitate tossing away Carolina blue duds for the burnt orange of the Texas Longhorns.

He and Sally moved back to Austin, and Brown has been all over social media at Texas basketball games and other events often flashing the horns hand signal. Obviously, he’s Texas and not UNC. And that’s fine and certainly shouldn’t take away from what he said this week.

UNC is spending now on football what it should. Brown was right in that he needed more funding and allowances to succeed. No doubt. But he also got significantly more than Fedora.

And perhaps the best way to view Brown in this whole conversation is how integral he is in building a financial bridge to where hiring Belichick and making a full monetary commitment to football possible.