James Snook-Imagn Images
There were 361 men’s basketball teams that competed at the DI level during the most recent season, and there was a very big divide between the haves and the have-nots. Campbell University lost its coach after he voiced his displeasure with its stingy approach to the program, and it hasn’t done itself any favors with its reaction to a basketball heist.
Major upsets were few and far between during the most recent edition of the NCAA Tournament, which seemed to suggest the divide between programs with the most money at their disposal and those that are barely scraping by has only continued to grow now that the NIL Era is in full force.
During the 2024-25 season, Indiana led the way when it came to the men’s basketball teams with the biggest operating budgets at north of $32 million, and there were dozens of other public universities that funneled at least $10 million into their programs (it’s unclear how much Michigan poured into its title-winning squad this season, but they had over $14 million to work with during the previous campaign).
There are also plenty of teams that firmly fall on the other end of the spectrum and need to stretch every single cent they can get their hands on. All signs point to Campbell being a member of that club, and we got some more evidence that’s the case thanks to a story that surfaced this week.
Campbell’s basketball team has been locked out of its own gym after most of its basketballs were stolen
The men’s basketball team at Campbell (which is located in the heart of North Carolina) has a history stretching back to 1951. They were initially an NAIA program, but they joined the NCAA as a Division I squad ahead of the 1977-78 campaign after winning a national championship at the lower level the previous season.
The Fighting Camels have not exactly fared well since then, as they’ve had a lone appearance in the NCAA Tournament since making the leap: a one-and-done showing as a 16-seed that lost to Duke in 1992.
Prior to last season, John Andrzejek became the 8th coach in the history of the program after he replaced Kevin McGeehan in the wake of an 11-year tenure where he’d posted a 184-199 record.
The former went 16-18 (and 8-10 in Coastal Athletic Association play) during what ended up being his first and only year at the helm, and he called out the school for failing to ” fund the program appropriately” when he announced he’d resigned to take a job as an assistant at Louisville (Jimmie Williams was tapped to replace him).
The school has not done itself any favors in pushing back against that reputation as a Poverty Program based on what unfolded this week, as sports agent Daniel Moldovan says members of the team were recently informed that the key cards they rely on to access the basketball facilities have been revoked after 10 of the 15 basketballs they have to work with were seemingly stolen.
Not all of college basketball is glamorous…
Whilst some players are signing multi million dollar deals today, this is a text that the Campbell University basketball players just received:
“Fellas, everyone in the program has lost key card access to the building. Out of our…
— Daniel Moldovan (@AgentMoldovan) April 9, 2026
Campbell is one of many schools that use a Wilson Evo NXT as their game ball. They retail for around $125 a pop, so while they’re not necessarily cheap to replace, that amount would be a rounding error for plenty of other college basketball teams.
However, that’s obviously not the case for a Fighting Campbells squad that seems to be down pretty bad.