Armando Bacot Jr. is sitting in the Dean Smith Center at the University of North Carolina, explaining that he stayed in school, in part, for the money.
He whips out his phone and pulls up some financial charts. From March 1 through June 8, in the months after he led North Carolina to the national championship game, he made a $21,000 profit selling T-shirts capitalizing on his name, image and likeness. His first endorsement deal, which he signed with Jimmy’s Famous Seafood last summer, was worth five figures. He has since signed with a thoroughbred farm in Kentucky called Town and Country Farms and a technology consulting firm called CapTech, in addition to a card deal with Topps. He does promotional work for Me Fine, a social-services charity, and he took a paid acting role on the Netflix show Outer Banks.
He has delivered more than 100 videos through Cameo, charging $95 for individuals and $350 for businesses. He has a burger named after him as part of an endorsement deal with Town Hall Burger and Beer in Chapel Hill—though, to his embarrassment, the exact toppings elude him at the moment. Told that it’s O.K., he probably didn’t come up with the recipe himself, he says: “I did. That’s why it’s bad that I don’t remember.”
