RALEIGH, N.C. — UNC graduate Delbert Jenkins is trying to gather support for UNC football coach Mack Brown and his team, raising money for the Tar Heels 4 Life NIL Collective.

What You Need To Know

  • A UNC graduate ate ramen noodles for dinner for days to garner support for the Tar Heels 4 Life NIL Collective

  • He dedicated each ramen meal to different UNC football players at the same time

  • The Heels 4 Life Collective needs more funds to provide NIL opportunities to keep current players at UNC, while bringing new talent to Chapel Hill

How does a packet of ramen, beef-flavored to be exact, which costs 89 cents, add on a two-cent tax, give or take a cent or two, somehow go into a pot of boiling water and come out equalling about a million dollars? Well, Jenkins has the answer, and he says it’s going to help UNC athletes tremendously.

"To compete at a high level, (with) the Alabamas, the Ohio States, the Texases of the world, they need to have an efficient operation around NIL, and I think UNC has been a little behind on that, and so that's the goal of this campaign, to sort of catch up on those types of programs, but obviously, you gotta fight the fight," Jenkins said.

He had ramen noodles for dinner more than 11 days in a row. He’s donated more than $100 to the Tar Heels 4 Life Collective, dedicating each ramen meal to different UNC football players at the same time. Tar Heels fans everywhere have joined Jenkins in supporting UNC.

"I'm down to take it however long it takes to a million. I've told people close to me, I'm prepared for April. To go to April, eating only ramen for dinner,” he said prior to hitting his goal.

Jenkins is a lifelong UNC fan. Before moving to Austin, Texas, he would go to games not just as a student, but even with his father when he was a kid. To him, supporting the players on the field who have provided him with so many memories is a no-brainer.

"Like first two nights, I was like, I kind of missed this stuff because ramen noodles are awesome. But night four or five, I started to get pretty tired of it. I think when the campaign is over, that will be the last ramen noodle I have until like 2050,” he said.

The Tar Heels 4 Life Collective needs more funds to provide name, image and likeness opportunities to keep current players at UNC, while bringing new talent to Chapel Hill. The world of NIL isn’t what the NCAA likes, but it’s certainly the reality of what college sports is for now and in the future.

"Theoretically, someone could come in with a bomb of like $300,000, and the campaign is over, but I'm buying three ramen packs at a time, and taking it a day at a time, and hopefully it ends soon, but I'm ready to go though."