Bubba Cunningham Shares Revenue Sharing Split For UNC Football, Basketball

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Bubba Cunningham shared a bit of his vision for revenue sharing for North Carolina earlier this summer after the approval of the House Settlement, and he disclosed the specifics on Friday about how UNC is dividing the money.

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When speaking on UNC’s Carolina Insider podcast, Cunningham said the majority of the revenue sharing percentages are split with 65% for football and 35% for men’s basketball, with baseball and women’s basketball, respectively, receiving the rest. UNC’s model for splitting the revenue will differ from the proposed outline.

“The settlement itself from the House case is 75-15-5-5: 75% to football, 15% to men’s basketball, 5% to women’s basketball, 5% to everybody else,” Cunningham said on Friday. “That is one way to do it, and a lot of schools are doing it that way. When I looked at how we generate commercial activity, that’s not the way ours is broken down. Ours is broken down 65% to football, 35% to men’s basketball. I know that’s 100 right there, so we don’t quite go over 100%, but that’s roughly where it is. And then baseball is next, women’s basketball is fourth.”

UNC will be permitted to share $20.5 million with its student-athletes for the 2025-26 fiscal year. Cunningham said UNC gave $13 million to football, $7 million to men’s basketball, $250,000 to baseball and $250,000 to women’s basketball, basing those numbers on what those sports generated in the last athletic season. He said the school will adjust after this year based on what the figures look like.

The school’s statement back in June said that UNC expects its athletic budget, which was $150 million in 2024-25, to go up by $30 million in the next academic year.

Cunningham said on Friday that UNC has already operated in a revenue-sharing model based mostly on the money that football and men’s basketball brought in to support other programs. But now with the House settlement, the division will operate differently for UNC’s varsity sports.

“Football and basketball generate a lot of money, and we shared it with all of our teams,” Cunningham said. “So we are continuing to sponsor 28 teams, and we’re continuing to offer championship experiences. But for the commercial activity, I thought it was best to give it to those that generated it.

“We’re going to have fewer student-athletes this year because of roster caps, but we’re going to have more scholarships. So thankfully, with tuition remission that the state provides us, we can provide more scholarships to our Olympic sport programs than ever before, and that’s going to help sustain them. So the commercial activity goes to those that generate it. The educational benefits are going to go to the sports that have been previously subsidized. So I think that was the fair way for Carolina to do it and remain competitive nationally.”

UNC offered full or partial scholarships to 530 student-athletes in the 2024-25 athletic season, with the total dollar value maxing out at the equivalent of 330 full scholarships. UNC chancellor Lee Roberts told Inside Carolina’s Greg Barnes that UNC intends to fully fund the now-735 total scholarship pool as part of the school’s mission to stay as competitive as possible. Roberts spoke about the House Settlement implications for North Carolina athletics moving forward.

“It’s as big a change in the structure of college sports as anybody has ever seen,” Roberts told Inside Carolina in a recent interview. “We are doing our best to stay on offense and make sure that we are adapting as effectively as possible. We’re fortunate that we have so many terrific supporters of Tar Heel athletics, so many alums and boosters who want to support our teams across the board. That’s made a huge difference to our ability to stay competitive. And we’re going to fully fund the revenue share, as I think most schools in our conference and all of the schools with whom we compare ourselves are also planning to do.”