CHAPEL HILL, N.C. –– North Carolina has never been a bona fide football program. But under the direction of newly-hired Head Coach Bill Belichick, the university has a chance to strengthen its national footing and bring championships to Carolina.
Often referred to as the best public university in the country and the University of National Championships, UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts and Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham went out and got the best man in the history of the sport to lead the Tar Heels towards a more competitive edge in the college football landscape.
The UNC program has yet to win a national championship in its history and hasn’t won a conference title since 1980. Mediocrity has defined the past 40+ years, and the constant need for more money simply won’t allow for continued subpar play.
With changing dynamics looming—namely the House vs. NCAA settlement that will allow for revenue-sharing towards athletes—it was time for the university to put large investment into its football future. And hiring the 8-time Super Bowl champion certainly wasn’t a bad idea.
“In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, ‘the future ain’t what it used to be,’ and we are embarking on an entirely new football operation, and we can’t wait to have Coach Belichick leading the charge for us,”
Cunningham said during Belichick’s introductory press conference. “The future of college athletics is changing, and we want to be in the forefront of that.”
The No. 1 money-maker in the college landscape has always been football and if UNC can make the leap from a bottom of the barrel program to a national contender, they will have enough money to grapple with the incoming revenue-sharing with athletes and even provide more resources for the university’s other
28 varsity sports.
It’s simple really. The better the team is, the more games it plays in. The more games it plays in, the more money they can earn. Bill Belichick is the starting point to all of that.
“The more successful we are in football, the more successful we are in basketball, the more opportunities we’re going to be able to provide for everyone else here,” Cunningham said.
Belichick, who already has his signature cut-off sleeve UNC hoodie, can elevate the Tar Heels to the elite level of football the program so desperately needs. His contract is further proof of the long-term and detailed commitment the university has made to its football success.
The first three years of his contract are guaranteed, totaling an annual salary of $10 million per year. It also includes up to $3.5 million in bonuses, including a $1.75 million bonus if the Tar Heels win a national championship.
The pool of money also includes $10 million to pay assistant coaches, $1 million for the strength and conditioning staff and $5.3 million for support staff. Belichick’s contract further stipulates that the school will put $13 million towards revenue sharing with players.
In the interviews since his hiring, Belichick has made it clear that he hopes to establish a sort of NFL factory at UNC and doing that means he’ll have a strong presence of NFL personnel within the program.
One of those NFL people is Freddie Kitchens, UNC’s former tight ends coach and run game coordinator. Kitchens was made interim coach after the firing of Mack Brown and will coach the Tar Heels during their Fenway Bowl game versus UConn on Dec. 28.
On the Pat McAfee show, prior to finalizing the job, Belichick emphasized that if he were to coach at the college level, it would be an NFL program at the collegiate level.
“If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL,” he said. “It would be a professional program: training: nutrition, scheme, coaching and techniques that would transfer to the NFL.”
With the increased pool of money that includes increased NIL opportunities, Belichick is committed to making these sweeping changes and he’s done so without even coaching a practice yet.
His hiring sets the university up well as the college game moves towards the pros, and now it’s a matter of what tallying wins and waking the sleeping giant of UNC football.
