How USC is discussed in the national media matters. There are legitimate aspects to point at that require improvement, as is the case for any program in the nation. To go a step further and disingenuously make statements and to pretend certain things are the case when they simply are not is where the issues begin to take place.

For years, the SEC has artificially inflated its position and perception in the sport. Particularly on the recruiting trail, it is known that schools were offering money well before NIL and that they were doing it at a significantly higher rate and in a much more organized manner compared to teams in other conferences.

So for coach Kirby Smart to be ‘warning’ about the potential effects of NIL is laughable at face value. The playing field is simply more level in that regard. In terms of an aspect that USC can offer regardless of what the rules dictate, it is that it is a top school in the nation with a tremendous alumni base and national connections.

With the rules now allowing entities such as collectives to now grant opportunities for today’s student-athletes, the SEC is only lamenting the fact that they are losing grasp of this huge advantage that they have grown accustomed to for decades.

False narrative against USC area of recruiting is baseless

Moving on to On3, in an excerpt that was shared by the Founders Edits X account, they believe that SoCal talent just is not up to par with the rest of the country. Ignoring how any site that claims to be something of an authority on the sport could legitimately believe that, it only further shows why narratives matter.

Fortunately, while preseason can be a time to create narratives and attempt to project what is about to take place, every theory is tested, and the results on the field indicate whether a claim had a basis or not.

For the current and future USC players, seeing their abilities dismissed out of hand should light a fire and further provide motivation to prove that the Trojans are back.   

The commitment of international guard Luka Bogavac this past weekend not only completed the major transfer portal work for North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis, but also highlighted a massive influx of financial support for the former Tar Heel standout entering his fifth season at the helm.

While UNC’s substantial spending in its football program with the hiring of Bill Belichick as head coach in December signified an effort to elevate its middling standing on the gridiron, the university’s financial commitment in its men’s basketball program illustrates a refusal for relegation from its elite status at the national level. This current six-year stretch ranks as the worst for the men’s basketball program in the modern era, and the university’s investment speaks to the need for an immediate course-correction.

Multiple sources have confirmed that UNC has surpassed the $14 million mark in its financial commitment to the 2025-26 roster, approximately triple what was spent on the roster a year ago. Men’s basketball executive director and general manager Jim Tanner’s $850,000 salary represents another bullet point in confirming the university’s support of its prized program.

The investment into the program removes any lingering obstacles, perceived or otherwise, that has limited consistent success in this evolving intercollegiate landscape consisting of NIL, revenue share and the transfer portal. Davis has shown an ability to win at a level that matches his predecessors, first with a surprise run to the national title game in 2021-22 and then a flashback to the Carolina standard in 2023-24 with an ACC regular season title and a Sweet Sixteen appearance.

What has separated Carolina basketball from its peers over the past 60 years is not its ceiling, but rather its floor. UNC had a run of 37 consecutive seasons with a top-3 finish in the ACC standings, 23 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths and 13 straight Sweet 16 berths in cementing its status as one of the elite programs nationally. The Tar Heels have been in the ACC for 72 years and their average finish of 2.4 in the conference standings leads league membership.

While UNC earned its 18th No. 1 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, it missed the Big Dance in 2023 while earning a No. 8 seed in 2022 and a No. 11 seed in 2025. What’s defined Carolina basketball over the years is its national relevance throughout the course of the season, year after year. UNC has been ranked for 33 of the 82 weeks under Davis in the AP poll, 22 of which came during the 2023-24 season.

A return to elite status will be a critical benchmark for Davis in 2025-26 and beyond.

Tanner, who was hired three months ago, has provided stability in the offseason portal evaluations and acquisitions. Bogavac’s commitment marks the culmination of Tanner’s first offseason haul that boasts six roster additions. Barring an unexpected change, the major pieces are in place for the 2025-26 Tar Heel roster.

Given that Tanner only had a month to prepare for the pandora’s box that is the portal, he’s earned a quality grade in helping UNC sign portal prospects that meet Davis’ offseason emphasis of improving his team’s size. Seven-footer Henri Veesar was the prized acquisition, while 6-11 forward Jarin Stevenson, 6-6 wing Jonathan Powell and 6-2 guard Kyan Evans represent a shift to significant length across the lineup. Guard Jaydon Young was acquired to provide depth, and Saturday’s signing of the 6-5 international standout shooting guard in Bogavac provided the final marquee addition.

Tanner, who founded Tandem Sports + Entertainment and has represented more than 70 NBA players in his career, is one of a handful of general manager hires at power conference programs across the country. As athletic director Bubba Cunningham said upon Tanner’s hiring, the position is new, but it is one that numerous programs “have identified as essential to continue to compete at the championship level in college basketball.”

Tanner’s initial success won’t be judged this offseason. An accurate assessment will only come next spring after Davis and his staff have had time to mesh the portal acquisitions with the returning players and the incoming freshmen to put a quality product on the court, and even then, there’s a learning curve in place. Tanner is expected to build out his personnel staff this offseason to improve scouting and evaluation processes, implement analytics databases and spearhead player development programs.

What can be judged is UNC’s elevated commitment to its men’s basketball program. Adversity has a way of spurring self-reflection and corresponding growth, and if there’s a negative to having a Hall of Fame head coach at the helm, it’s that adversity comes in short supply. The years-long NCAA investigation that plagued UNC’s basketball program in the media headlines and on the recruiting trail a decade ago would have crippled most programs. Roy Williams not only navigated those turbulent waters, but managed to win the 2017 national championship six months before the NCAA concluded that it could not find any rules violations in the case that began seven years prior.

By the end, though, Williams’ stubborn approach to a changing college basketball landscape was finally showing cracks. The Tar Heels had already been eliminated from NCAA Tournament consideration when the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled the event in March 2020. A year later, in Williams’ final season as UNC’s head coach, the Tar Heels earned a No. 8 seed and lost in a first-round blowout to Wisconsin.

Davis, having served as an assistant on Williams’ coaching staff for nine seasons, took over in April 2021, insistent upon carrying forward the Carolina basketball apparatus that Dean Smith had established and Williams had nearly perfected. It took until late in his fourth year as head coach that Davis realized his approach needed to change with the college basketball world around him.

“The old model for Carolina basketball just doesn’t work, it’s not sustainable,” Davis said in February. “It has to build out because there’s so many things in play with NIL, the transfer portal, agents, international players. You just need a bigger staff to be able to maintain things, and you need a bigger staff so I can do what I’m supposed to be doing, (which) is coaching basketball.”

The university took a significant leap forward in December with the hiring of an eight-time Super Bowl champion in Belichick to run its football program. The financial commitment alone spoke to a shifting mindset among UNC leadership as to the necessity of spending money to make money, while winning at an elite level along the way. Cunningham’s athletic department had already increased its spending for men’s basketball – program expenditures jumped 24% from $10.8 million in 2022-23 to $13.4 million in 2023-24 – but with the House settlement expected to introduce revenue sharing for the first time in 2025-26, further commitment was necessary to return UNC to its primary residence among the nation’s top-10.

While Williams often quipped about needing just enough cash to replenish his golf ball supply, money is being spent hand over fist in today’s college basketball landscape. That applies to both infrastructure and NIL spending, which are areas where UNC has focused its efforts.

There are 16 employees in the men’s basketball program, split between Davis and his five assistant coaches and 10 support staffers. UNC paid out $4.2 million in coach compensation and $1.6 million in support staff compensation in 2023-24, according to data from the university’s most recent NCAA financial report. When adding Tanner’s salary to the budget line, UNC has increased its support staff compensation by 150% since NIL legislation took effect in 2021.

Total staff compensation for the men’s basketball program will likely exceed $7 million in 2025-26. Davis, who signed a two-year contract extension in December that runs through June 2030, will make $3.3 million next season with an additional $1.25 million in bonuses available.

With the financial support in place, what is expected to come next is a return to the lofty winning standards in Chapel Hill. 

How much a player earns in NIL is paramount, but WHERE they receive that payment has massive financial implications.

[Sign up for Inside Texas TODAY and get the BEST Longhorns scoop!]

As a former resident of California, let me assure you of this.

We’ll evaluate two yearly NIL comps, $150,000 and $1,000,000, and place that player in Austin, Los Angeles, Eugene, Columbus and Athens and see if there are any meaningful tax implications.

$150,000

I bet a lot of you didn’t know that the state of Oregon taxes like North Korea and that those tax rates peak in the tables even earlier than in Trotskyite California.

Oregon pushes their lack of a state sales tax to recruits while hiding the ball on income taxes, but the idea that zero sales tax is a wash vs. a very high state income tax is counting on basic innumeracy.

A high state income tax is 3X to 10X more disadvantaged than the benefits provided by zero sales tax, depending on income and expenses.

The state income tax is with you always and starts at the EARNED DOLLAR, not the SPENT DOLLAR and a $50,000 vehicle is a one time purchase. Your income is a sheep that may always be fleeced.

Any notion of a sales tax offset is particularly spurious for a college football player that has no real expenses beyond their discretionary purchases.

Don’t ignore the sneaky local tax rate in Columbus, OH. It takes some of the shine off of a low state income tax rate.

If a 150K per year player, living the same consumption life, took the $13,183 differential that he pisses away to Oregon taxes and chose Texas or Florida and invested that amount every year for four years, he’d have 1.5 million dollars sitting in an account at age 62 assuming no other contribution made his entire life.

That’s not inconsequential or a rounding error.

Let’s look at a more highly compensated NIL player:

$1,000,000

As incomes rise, the differences are more stark as you climb the progressive tax tables.

Effectively, you’re throwing away over 100K a year to play at USC or Oregon vs Texas at this comp level.

Take the income tax differential between playing at Texas vs. USC, invest it every year for four years at a 9.5% return, and you’ll have 3.8 million dollars in the bank at age 62 having never put another dime into savings.

If you’re a truly high income NIL athlete, making in excess of 1.4 million dollars per year, California taxes every single dollar over that sum at 13.3% with an additional 1.1% on your payroll tax if you incorporate (and you should).

You’re getting hit with 14.4% state tax rates and giving away half of your money after the Feds take their cut.

Have fun with that.

For the highly compensated athlete, even modest state/local income tax states like Ohio and Georgia mean giving up 50K a season (at 1 million earnings) you’d otherwise save or enjoy.

How about $232,000 towards your (or Mom’s) new house over four years if you chose to play in Gainesville or Austin rather than Columbus?

Needless to say, schools in Texas and Florida are massively advantaged.

My question is whether those schools are adequately emphasizing the difference?

The “same offer” from USC, Oregon or Texas for a coveted five star or portal transfer is actually Oregon and USC trying to acquire that player at a steep discount.

Ultimately, athletes should choose the best overall fit, but at minimum, these considerations are a hell of a tie breaker.