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As UNC football struggled to a 4-8 record last season in the program’s first season under head coach Bill Belichick, standout wide receiver Jordan Shipp’s family began fending off calls from would-be NCAA transfer suitors before the season had even ended.
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In a breakout room session at ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte on Friday, Shipp said his mom began receiving calls from other coaching staffs around Week 7.
But Shipp said he didn’t want to hear any of it.
Other schools were prepared to offer big money to pry him from Chapel Hill, he said, but he told his mother to delay any discussion of it until after the season ended. Even then, he said, talks about those programs were brief.
“She told me what schools were calling, (and) she just brought up some of the offers and stuff like that,” Shipp said. “And I was just like, it’s not about the money.”
The behavior Shipp described sounds like tampering, which is prohibited by the NCAA under Bylaw 13.1.1.4. The governing body sets penalties for staff members or other representatives of athletic programs to “communicate or make contact with the student athlete of another” Division I school or their family members if the player isn’t in the transfer portal.
“Surprisingly,” he said, head coaches, position coaches and other folks from different schools reached out to Shipp’s mom trying to find out who his agent was. But he doesn’t have an agent, because he didn’t feel the need to hire one while he wasn’t draft-eligible and didn’t plan on transferring.
“I wouldn’t say tampering,” Shipp said, “just checking on some folks. That’s all.”
As the allowance for players to profit from their name, image, and likeness, along with other rule changes, has increased player movement, conversations about tampering’s prevalence have ramped up.
Some coaches have publicly expressed their frustration, including Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who sounded off on the topic during a breakout session Thursday. In January, he accused Ole Miss coach Pete Golding and general manager Austin Thomas of “blatant tampering” in their pursuit of transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli.
Golding said in April that there were “two sides to every story.”
“There hasn’t been consequences,” Swinney said. “And I don’t know if there’s been much fear of consequences.”
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During his news conference Wednesday, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips emphasized the need for people with information about tampering to come forward.
“There has to be consequences,” he said. “Until there’s consequences, then we’ll get similar behavior.”
In choosing UNC, Shipp said he was focused on the program he believes will best prepare him for the NFL and life after football. He said he didn’t make money as a freshman, and wouldn’t have come to Chapel Hill in the first place if he wanted to rack up cash.
The Charlotte native said he wanted to be close to his family, just over two hours away from him in the Triangle. He described himself as a “big family guy,” and as his parents get older, he wants to visit them often.
He also doesn’t want to miss his nieces’ and nephews’ recitals, dances and sports games.
“Being able to come and my niece seeing me in the crowd for her dancing and her running up like that,” he said, “means so much more to me than any touchdown I’ve ever scored.”
Shipp is coming off a 60-reception, 671-yard season and projects to be UNC’s primary receiver during coach Bill Belichick’s second season at the helm. He will also be draft-eligible at the end of the year.
In class, Shipp has already finished his undergraduate degree by taking “a lot of summer credits,” he said, and he is starting on a master’s degree. As he continues setting himself up for life while at UNC, he said he doesn’t think it’s “weird” that other coaches tried to lure him away.
“I think it’s just trying to win football games,” he said. “You do whatever you can to win. It is what it is. Do what you can to win.”
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But, Shipp said, he’s already winning, just by being “home” at North Carolina.