The students have returned to the UNC campus, we have official events on the books, and in two weeks football will be running out on the field for perhaps the most closely-watched game they’ve had in close to 30 years.

All of this is the basis for Bubba Cunningham’s appearance on the Carolina Insider that fellow Tar Heel Blog writer Thomas Blackington discussed yesterday. Cunningham put actual numbers to the way that UNC has chosen to divvy up the revenue as part of the House Settlement. Thomas noted the model is different than other schools and that difference, of course, sparks discussion.

For instance, take a note of this post by fellow SB Nation writer Mitchell Northam after Cunningham talked about the women’s basketball numbers.

It’s a thought-provoking thread and worth a discussion. No one can doubt where Northam is coming from, as he’s even followed the UNC Women’s Basketball team for a full season. That said, the schools he cites as ones that are investing heavily in women’s basketball all have one big thing in common that Carolina doesn’t—bigger revenues. With South Carolina/LSU as part of the SEC and USC/UCLA as part of the Big Ten, both have more money coming in from their respective conference deals to where they can afford to take losses in women’s basketball in order to keep them on the national scene.

There’s also another huge difference—fewer sports. UNC currently has 28 varsity sports, and as Cunningham noted in the podcast they were able to take money from the state to make sure that now all of the scholarships for every sport is fully funded. The schools mentioned above? They participate in anywhere from 21-25 varsity sports. So, you have fewer sports and fewer athletes plus more revenue to be able to disperse, and very quickly you are running into a situation where you have more money to spend on other sports.

Women’s sports are absolutely worth investing in, and Cunningham realizes this. Look no further than both the volleyball and softball squads, where recent hires have raised UNC’s profiles and have them competing at the NCAA level for the first time in a while — and they are still growing.

The problem is that there is only so much to go around, and right now there are two programs on campus that are huge revenue drivers — football and men’s basketball. Even at the schools Northam cites in the thread, they aren’t able to invest that money without the emphasis on football that brought those programs to higher paying conferences. If LSU was struggling to fill Death Valley, you can bet they wouldn’t have as much to pay Kim Mulkey.

The other unfortunate part about the revenue share this year is, because the two big UNC revenue sports struggled last season, you can argue you have to spend more money to make sure they are successful and can bring in more. It’s a rising tide floats all boats situation. As someone who has gone to several events at Carolina that were not men’s basketball and football, I can in fact confirm that the main revenue drivers for the school are those two.

It’s also worth mentioning that while it’s obvious that UNC women’s coach Courtney Banghart clearly wanted a higher number, she’s using what she got. Getting Kate Harpring to commit is a sign that Banghart is getting at least some resources from UNC — to the point that the number one recruit in the 2026 class will go to Carolina. Harpring clearly committed knowing what UNC was investing in women’s basketball and was satisfied with it over the likes of Alabama, Georgia, and Iowa.

It is frustrating that the women’s sports keep getting the shorter end of the stick, and this is in no way trying to say “be happy they got anything.” This revenue disparity is the NCAA’s fault, as they still refuse to separate out the women’s tournament from the rest of the NCAA Championships. The NCAA gets over $1 billion annually for the men’s tournament and just $115 million for the women’s tournament as well as every other tournament.

Just this discussion is a microcosm of why UNC is looking to get out of the ACC. Still, there’s a chance there’ll be more money available next season. With the new revenue share model for the ACC based on ratings, and the chances that Carolina will be in some of the higher rated ACC contests of the season in both football and basketball, hopefully there’ll be some more money that’ll be available to be funneled to the women’s teams and set them up for long-term success.