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The five starting players on the UNC Tar Heels' national championship basketball team this year came from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri and California.

Carolina's outstanding basketball program always attracts top players from across the country. The same is true of classroom stars. Half the university's Morehead-Cain scholars are residents of other states. Overall, the average SAT score for out-of-state students in last year's freshman class in Chapel Hill was 1341, compared to 1293 for North Carolina residents.

When it comes to athletics and academics, the university can draw from a larger talent pool beyond the borders of North Carolina. But state policies set a limit on that: No more than 18 percent of freshmen throughout the University of North Carolina system should be out-of-state residents.

Two exceptions were made when the policy was set in 1998, one for the School of the Arts and the other for the engineering program at N.C. A&T.

Pushed by athletics boosters at UNC-CH and N.C. State, however, the legislature allowed another exception in 2005. Out-of-state recipients of athletic and academic scholarships are counted as in-state students for enrollment and tuition purposes. This exception costs taxpayers more than $10 million a year, which is bad enough. It also cuts enrollment opportunities for residents. In Chapel Hill alone, a few dozen each year lose places to the additional out-of-state students admitted.

UNC-CH's official out-of-state enrollment last year was 17.2 percent of the freshman class. The true number, counting 94 scholarship students classified as in-state under the exception, was 19.6 percent. That should have been considered a violation of the cap.

Out-of-state enrollment generally has held steady throughout the UNC system at about 14 percent over the last decade. During that time, thousands more places have been created for North Carolina residents as demand has increased. The state must provide higher education for more of its people. While it's good to include out-of-state students in the mix, particularly those with exceptional abilities, the university's primary mission is to serve the people of North Carolina.

The UNC Board of Governors has discussed raising the 18 percent cap in the past. An inducement to do that, besides drawing from a wider talent pool, is to collect higher out-of-state tuition rates from more students. That benefit is lost, however, when out-of-state students are counted as residents.

Just as regrettable is the backdoor means of awarding coveted classroom space, that ought to belong to residents, to out-of-state students instead.

The legislature this year failed to approve a remedy, but the Board of Governors should police enrollment more strictly anyway. As proven by such examples as former homegrown basketball stars Phil Ford, James Worthy and Michael Jordan -- and chemistry whiz-turned-chancellor Holden Thorp -- North Carolina isn't lacking in talent.