The Expected Benchmarks - Today's Take

Inside Carolina senior reporter Greg Barnes on the benchmarks North Carolina football and basketball should expect with the recent heavy investment made in both sports.

“We’ve seen in recent years, primarily with the Bill Belichick hire, there has been a dedication from North Carolina, from the boosters, from the community, to really dive in with football. Because of that, you see a lot more money being spent on football. And when you do that, the expectations change. And instead of being happy with just getting to a bowl game and maybe occasionally competing for an ACC championship game appearance, you also want to maximize your potential successfully on the field.

“They didn’t bring Bill Belichick in to go 6-6 and so I don’t think you can say eight wins is pretty good around here. Now, next year, eight wins may be a high bar. But beyond that, expectations ramp up because the significant amount of money pushed into football is to keep them, not just relevant but nationally relevant.  North Carolina is paying its coaching staff top 10 money — well, then the expectations have to be commensurate. They are clearly not there yet, and has never really resided in that stratosphere, but I think that’s where we’re kind of getting to, whether that’s under Belichick or the next coach. That’s the goal of elevating the football program, and that’s a massive step forward from where it’s been for a long time.

“In basketball, Dean Smith built his legacy on consistency and Roy Williams probably had more highs than Dean, but had more lows as well. That said, North Carolina is paying Michael Malone what we believe to be the second highest salary in college basketball behind Bill Self. And we also believe that general manager Jim Tanner is likely the highest paid GM in the country. Expectations are part of that. And it’s not just expectations that make an NCAA tournament. That’s an every single year thing at a minimum.

“Sweet 16 every year is maybe too high a bar in the current landscape, but with the resources on hand, the brand, the coaching ability, and all those type things, you should be able to field a team every few years that is capable of winning a national championship. And have a coach capable of making the sum better than the parts that can overachieve even when you don’t have the best roster. 

“Everybody has a unique opinion on that, but certainly with North Carolina’s investment in the program, I don’t think there’s any reason not to set a standard of competing for the ACC title. You don’t have to win it every year. You compete for a Final Four, you don’t have to get there every year. That top 10 threshold should be the goal most years, not every year, because you never know with injuries and how the roster accumulation aspect of things comes into play but I think that’s a pretty good benchmark.”