CHAPEL HILL (December 12, 2024) – It’s an understatement to say these are uncertain times in college sports.

Conferences stretch from coast to coast. A transfer portal makes every athlete a free agent. NIL payments to athletes – does it stand for “name, image and likeness” or “Now It’s Legal”?

“No one’s seen a situation like this in terms of the level of upheaval and uncertainty that we face right now,” UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts says in the accompanying video.

(To be clear, this interview was recorded before the firing of UNC football coach Mack Brown and UNC’s search for a new coach.)

“Even folks who’ve been at this for decades have never seen anything like this,” Roberts says. “It’s unprecedented in the modern era.”

Next year, the university will have to directly make NIL payments to athletes, he notes.

But Roberts voices confidence in UNC’s position.

“I wouldn’t trade Carolina’s strategic positioning for that of any other school,” he says.