Bill Belichick is giving UNC football exactly what boosters wanted

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Whenever we get past the end of spring practice—with the exception of transfers both in and out of the program—football tends to sink down in terms of clickable news until the summer practices rev up. Normally it’s a quiet four months as players enjoy the final days of class and prepare for some time away from school.

This year, however, the week after the spring football event has seen Carolina appear in the national media one way or another each day. There’s one singular reason for this: Bill Belichick.

When you step back and actually look at this it’s remarkable. Coming off what would be considered a rough season by Carolina’s basketball standards, the period of the spring transfer portal with new general manager Jim Tanner should be at the top of the mind. It’s pretty clear at this point that Hubert Davis is at a make-it-or-break-it point, and the Tar Heels have completely remade their team with the departure of some familiar faces and several new arrivals that appear to show the new process is working.

The thing is that you’d never know it. With his hiring back in December, UNC has brought in the Bill Belichick Show, and thus for the past week there have been stories about UNC Football by prominent national media. You had The Athletic checking into UNC emails to see what the power structure is like, The Washington Post building a column about one of those emails, ESPN talking about Belichick’s new book, and NBC Sports’ Mike Florio offering an opinion about a video that was making the rounds on Monday thanks to a prominent Boston radio station, among others.

It’s exactly what the UNC boosters that pushed for Belichick wanted.

Playing the long game, the success and failure of the Belichick decision will be determined by one thing: wins and losses at the end of the season. The schedule lends itself to be one that will provide Carolina ample opportunity for wins, and the more the national media can’t give over the sideshow that is Bill Belichick, the more UNC continues to be discussed, and the bigger the eyeballs will be for when he coaches those first games.

Those eyeballs mean money.

You may remember that last month, the ACC settled their lawsuit with Florida State and Clemson and revealed a new model that should keep the league alive until the 2030 season. As part of it, instead of an even share, television ratings will factor into a part of the formula for how the money is divided out. Yes, the number is based on a five year table, but when you look at the other teams in the ACC, what better way to help goose your numbers than having a coach that people will want to watch. If it succeeds? Even better.

It doesn’t hurt that there’s a whole city that is going to act as if they care about college football for the first time in decades. It’s nearly impossible to turn on a Boston sports talk station during this slow period and avoid at least a segment where the hosts are talking about Belichick. Derisively, of course, but try as they might they can’t quit him. It’s almost a virtual lock that a city that has two cable sports stations, five local news stations plus a regional news network, and two sports talk radio stations will have some representation in Chapel Hill on Labor Day.

Like it or not, you just weren’t going to get this if you had selected one of the other names that had been bandied about for the UNC job. You almost assuredly were not going to get the investment in football to the point where they were paying a two year, four million dollar contract to a transfer QB. The money at UNC is stepping up, and the more people can’t stop talking about Belichick, the more excited they get.

You may have your doubts about if this is going to work—trust me I do. This much is for certain, for the first time in a long, long time there seems to be a broader interest in UNC football than basketball. There are a lot folks at UNC happy about that.

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Bill Belichick is giving UNC football exactly what boosters wanted

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