North Carolina pulling off Bill Belichick hire comes with game-changing NIL figure

It turns out if you want a massive NIL package for the transfer portal and recruiting, you just have to hire a coach with a name everyone would want to play for. 

North Carolina football is finalizing a deal to bring Bill Belichick to Chapel Hill, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. It’s a move that comes with a hefty price. Not just in Belichick’s contract, but the resources it will allocate for NIL.

According to Matt Hayes, who covers college football for USA Today, UNC is planning on beefing up their NIL pool from $4 million to $20 million as part of the deal to sway Belichick to the college ranks. It’s a move that not only helps Belichick have way more leeway in recruiting, but helps North Carolina compete in the same tier as their ACC counterparts in the recruiting game. 

Belichick coaching at North Carolina feels more like an experiment than anything. Can an aging coach that spent his entire career in the NFL succeed in this modern age of recruiting? And if so, does that shift how schools will look to hire head coaches moving forward?

Bill Belichick’s move to North Carolina could either be the start of a trend or a disaster waiting to happen

The budget Belichick will be working with at North Carolina is truly remarkable. For context, Ryan Day was able to have a spending frenzy with Ohio State’s roster last transfer portal cycle, spending around $20 million to build the best team he could. 

Not many schools have the freedom to spend like that. And Belichick will have that day one. That also means, the expectations are going to be sky high. Belichick is playing a dangerous game with UNC. 

Because he’ll have what feels like unlimited resources to craft a College Football Playoff worth team, anything less than an ACC championship is inexcusable. It means when he comes in, he’ll have no excuses. 

The other caveat is how he will truly look at the collegiate level. We’ve seen how college coaches struggle to have success in the NFL because it’s a very different environment. But does that same problem occur for uber-successful NFL coaches dropping to the college level?

It took Jim Harbaugh several years to finally build sustainable success at Michigan. He got disrespected by Ohio State for the first five years of his tenure at Michigan. He didn’t make the College Football Playoff until 2021. Then he went three-straight years before finally getting a playoff win and eventually winning a national championship.

Success is hard at any level. And UNC is banking on Belichick to deliver immediately. If he doesn’t it’s a sign to any other school that going over a successful, but aging coach might not work. If it does, it could be a new trend and a new reason for boosters to cough up the NIL money needed to be competitive.