North Carolina To See Massive NIL Expansion After Shocking Bill Belichick Hire

The North Carolina Tar Heels are going to massively expand their NIL budget for football upon hiring Bill Belichick.
Bob Breidenbach / USA TODAY NETWORK

The North Carolina Tar Heels rocked the college football news cycle on Wednesday afternoon was news broke that they were finalizing an agreement to make legendary former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick the successor to Mack Brown.

Belichick - who was never coached college football in his near 50-year coaching career - was relieved of his duties in New England following the 2023 season after 24 years, 296 wins, and six Super Bowl titles after multiple seasons of immense struggle for the Patriots. Ultimately blamed for the demise of the franchise coming out of the Tom Brady era, Belichick's roster building was questionable at best over the last several seasons and culminated in the end of the greatest run in the history of the NFL.

Earlier this week, news emerged that Belichick was in discussions with North Carolina officials about the job and had interviewed, a headline that was mostly dismissed as a joke by fans and media. But things gained steam quickly and Belichick is going to take over as the next head coach at UNC. How exactly the Tar Heels program will be structured in terms of recruiting and talent acquisition remains to be seen, but according to a report from Matt Hayes of USA Today, an absolutely massive increase of the NIL budget for football is a part of the deal.

Hayes tweeted that North Carolina is preparing to stretch the budget from just $4 million to a staggering $20 million, a number that if true would place UNC into the upper echelon of the elite college football programs at least in terms of resources. During his exit press conference, Brown expressed to media the fact that recruiting through NIL was an issue during his tenure and that they couldn't afford to pay recruits, saying that those who chose to come to North Carolina came because they wanted to be here.

By the sounds of it, a lack of resources is not going to be a problem for Bill Belichick and his staff.

Belichick will not be underpaid by any means either with his reported contract reaching $30 million over three years which instantly makes him one of the highest-paid coaches in the sport despite never having coached a snap at the college level.

Belichick, a notorious curmudgeon throughout his time in the NFL, has shown a different side of himself this season during media appearances on various shows and podcasts with the likes of the Mannings, Pat McAfee, draft coverage on ESPN, and much more.

As one of the most relentless workers the coaching industry has ever seen, Belichick is going to do absolutely everything he can to win in Chapel Hill.

It's entirely possible that things don't work out simply due to an inability of an NFL coach to fit in the college game. But if Belichick does not win, it won't be for lack of trying and it certainly won't be for a lack of resources.


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