By R.L. Bynum

Mack Brown says college sports decision-makers make big moves with an eye on money, with little consideration of the other effects of the changes.

The veteran North Carolina coach says that one of those times was Friday, when the ACC college presidents voted to add Stanford, Cal and SMU to the league over the objections of his school’s leadership.

Brown laments that he didn’t get a vote and wasn’t asked if he favored the move, and called some of the realignment moves crazy.

“I’ve always said my thoughts on realignment are probably not what is real out there right now,” Brown said at his weekly press conference on Monday. “My thought is, is it best for our players? Is it best for our players’ parents, and is it best for our fans? That’s what I’ve always thought because we’re thinking more about money right now than we’re thinking about our fans. And that’s a tough deal.”

While the money drives all these decisions, expansion will also stretch the budgets for the fans and the families of players. They might get priced out of attending some games because of the increased cost of traveling across the country.

Brown says he tells his staff to coach every player as they would coach their son or daughter. He’s happy that he can control that dynamic. He wants the best for his players and their families and suggests that regular games in Texas and California will create too many challenges.

“Not all those players have NIL money,” Brown said. “Can parents get to see as many games if you’re playing out of your area? And I love the fact that our fans can get in the car and drive and [families] get to see their sons play.”

Brown wants the best for his players, their families and the fans and he doesn’t think the league made the latest expansion with that in mind. At least he’s lucky that his sport only has one game a week, unlike many others that play twice weekly.

“Without our fans, without them buying tickets, and without them paying money for facilities and coaches and in NIL, we don’t have a game, so we can’t forget our fans,” Brown said. “And without the players and their parents, we don’t have a game. So I think that’s where we need to put more emphasis and common sense into it, instead of just being about money.”

Since the ACC added the former three Big East schools in the mid-2000s and four others in the mid-2010s, football games with traditional rival Wake Forest have been far rarer than meetings with Pittsburgh. The new scheduling model was expected to allow the Heels and Deacs to play more often, but that may change once Stanford, Cal and SMU join the league starting next season.

“I know we’ve got to have money, but I’m worried that we’re losing some rival games,” Brown said. “We’re losing who we are. We’re becoming national as leagues across the country, and that’s going to be a whole lot of travel on young people. It’s going to take them out of class.”

Brown didn’t get home until 3 a.m. Sunday, even though the game was in Charlotte, since ABC dictated that the game wouldn’t start until prime time on Saturday night.

It’s bound to be worse after a game in the Bay Area.

“They start playing all over the country, those flights are gonna get you back at daybreak,” Brown said. “And you’re gonna have to go right back to work, and I just worry about the health and mental health of student-athletes.”

Like it or not, Brown is along for that expansion ride.

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UNC schedule

Month/ date	Opponent/event	2023 record	UNC record in series
April
20	Spring game, 3 p.m.	—	—
August
29 (Thurs.)	at Minnesota	6–7	1–0
September
7	Charlotte	3–9	0–0
14	N.C. Central	9–3	0–0
21	James Madison	11–2	3–0
28	at Duke	8–5	65–40–4
October
5	Pittsburgh	3–9	12–5
12	Georgia Tech	7–6	22–33–3
26	at Virginia	3–9	66–58–4
November
2	at Florida State	13–1	3–17–1
16	Wake Forest	4–8	72–36–2
23	at Boston College	7–6	6–2
30	N.C. State	9–4	68–39–6