College sports have changed. Before you could pay the players, at least legally, recruiting was all-out facilities, coaching, and maybe most of all, prestige. Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky; it meant something different to play at one of those schools, and from their early dominance, the success of those brands became a self-fulfilling prophecy because winning begets more winning.
Now that you can pay the players, for most recruits or potential transfers, all that matters is how much you can pay the players. In some ways, that is further separating the haves from the have-nots and solidifying the place of blue-bloods, who nearly all have massive financial backing. In others, it makes the job of a blue-blood head coach even tougher because the logo doesn’t carry the same weight.
Nobody understands the new landscape better than the man who has won back-to-back national championships in it. Dan Hurley, who is preparing to coach in an East Regional that is loaded with major brands, shared his thoughts on what that means.
Dan Hurley: "You can't get by on your brand anymore... none of these kids care about that anymore. None of the people close to them care about it because the majority of the people that are advising the kids now are agents who are looking at it from a business perspective."
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) March 26, 2026
In the new college landscape, North Carolina can’t win on its brand alone
Hurley wasn’t talking about the North Carolina opening, but his perspective is very applicable to the situation. Roy Williams handed the program to Hubert Davis, and in the past, maybe it would have kept churning off great seasons in the same way. Now, it takes more than just being North Carolina.
Now, Davis’s issue wasn’t attracting talent. This year’s team spent big in the Transfer Portal to build about Caleb Wilson, its blue-chip freshman recruit. Whoever takes over next will have the same resources to spend. The key will be to spend it better than Davis and his staff did most years.
It's also crucial to maintain enthusiam in the donor base to continually outspend the rest of college basketball, and as that waned for Davis, it was the final nail in the coffin. Without a motivated donor base, North Carolina had no choice but to move on.
Hurley’s comments are also a warning to the decision-making brass in Chapel Hill, Bubba Cunningham, and Steve Newmark. They need to hire a head coach prepared to handle the new age of college basketball, and preferably one with experience in it. That mindset would rule out the last coach to win back-to-back titles before Hurley, Billy Donovan, who has reportedly risen to the top of UNC’s wishlist.
Donovan has spent the last 11 seasons in the NBA, but appears prepared to step down from the Chicago Bulls to make his return to college basketball. Donovan is an elite coach, but he won in the old era.