Matt Johnson
Michael Malone is the new North Carolina Tar Heels men’s basketball coach, with the athletic department ushering in a new era for the storied program. Lost in all the headlines of the hiring is the potential impact this move could have on the Tar Heels’ football program and head coach Bill Belichick.
Sherrell McMillan of On3.com’s Inside Carolina previously reported that the Tar Heels’ coaching search to replace Hubert Davis likely cost upwards of $50 million. That includes plans under general manager Jim Tanner for the program to have a $15 million payroll for the men’s basketball team next season.
The historic financial commitment to effectively overhauling North Carolina’s basketball program stems from what’s happened in recent years. The Tar Heels are coming off consecutive seasons with first-round exits in the NCAA Tournament, and they haven’t reached the Final Four since 2022. For a school with six national championships and 12 NCAA Championship Game appearances in its history, the standard is no longer being met, and boosters finally made a change.
That’s reflected not only in North Carolina committing tens of millions of dollars to this overhaul, but also in the coaching search itself. For the first time ever, the Tar Heels went outside their proverbial inner circle to find a top-flight head coach who won an NBA championship in 2023. it also comes at a cost. It’s all a sign that the other shoe might soon drop on the football program and, ironically, partially because of a move that could prove to be just as risky for the Tar Heels’ basketball team as Belichick was for the football program.
Revisiting the North Carolina Tar Heels Hiring of Bill Belichick 15 Months Later
On December 11, 2024, Bill Belichick was named the 35th head coach in the history of the Tar Heels football program. He inherited a program that went 6-6 under Mack Brown just months prior. With the future Hall of Famer unable to land an NFL head-coaching job after being let go by the New England Patriots—only receiving two interviews with the Atlanta Falcons—that’s when the Tar Heels came calling.
John Preyer, then-chairman of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees and part of the search committee for a new Tar Heels’ football coach, reportedly reached out to Michael Lombardi, a long-time ally of the legendary NFL coach. Meanwhile, per ESPN, Belichick reportedly told a long-time friend, then-Senator Marco Rubio, that he had interest in taking over in Chapel Hill. Power brokers on both sides, including Lombardi, Preyer, and North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, put the wheels in motion.
Soon after hiring Belichick, North Carolina announced it brought on Lombardi as its general manager. Like Belichick, he didn’t have any experience with the NCAA, the transfer portal, recruiting, or Name, Image, and Likeness deals. However, the school signed him to a multi-year deal with a $1.5 million salary and a $3 million buyout. According to FootballScoop.com, Lombardi’s deal also guaranteed him $15,000 for relocation expenses, a $10,000 signing bonus, and up to $7,500 per month for a vehicle.
Belichick required North Carolina to invest heavily in running his football program exactly how he wanted. According to WRAL News, that resulted in the school spending $49.1 million on the football team across the entirety of the 2025 season. The early returns were there, with football tickets for Belichick’s first season selling out by July (ESPN). It’s been downhill ever since.
Why the Bill Belichick Era Could End After 2026
In January, Meyer resigned from the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees. One of the key figures involved in bringing Belichick to North Carolina was suddenly gone. It came after a four-win season by the Tar Heels’ football team and a 2-6 record in conference, the team’s worst season since 2018 under Larry Fedora. Notably, UNC athletics also ran a $15 million deficit, as reported by Shelby Swanson of The News & Observer.
All of this doesn’t even account for the national and local embarrassment the university has experienced. Belichick’s 25-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, has been the subject of several in-depth investigations by Pablo Torre Finds Out regarding her influence in the program. Likewise, Lombardi was also found to have made an “exploratory fundraising trip” to Saudi Arabia last year, with an in-depth story by Pablo Torre uncovering that part of Lombardi’s listed accomplishments in the NFL are fabricated.
“A couple times they brought in good players and ignored them on their visit. There were times that the kids would be waiting 30, 45 minutes or an hour and then all of a sudden, you’re not meeting with Coach Belichick anymore, and we’ll go back to the airport.”
Internal source to ESPN on the North Carolina Tar Heels recruiting issues in 2025 (via ESPN)
As for the football side of things, David Hale and Andrea Adelson of ESPN detailed how the ignorance and inexperience of Belichick and his staff became apparent in 2025. Belichick and his top officials “were often flying blind” regarding NCAA rules; they made hasty evaluations and high-pressure sales pitches that alienated recruits and high school coaches alike. On the field, the program suffered embarrassing losses on national television to TCU (48-14), Clemson (38-10), and NC State (42-19). Belichick also hurt his players by limiting the access NFL scouts had.
The Belichick era has been nothing short of an abject disaster for North Carolina. After just one season of more embarrassments, distractions, and bad PR than wins against one of the easiest Power 4 schedules in college football, boosters and key members of the athletic department seem to be realizing their mistake.
Resources are now rightfully being redirected back to what the Tar Heels are best at: competing for deep NCAA Tournament runs and being perennial ACC contenders in men’s basketball. This is who North Carolina is; the Carolina blue blood is on the hardwood.
Belichick’s Tar Heels, meanwhile, have an over/under of 4.5 wins this upcoming season thanks to matchups against Clemson, Notre Dame, Pitt, Miami, Louisville, Syracuse, and Duke. If this team falls short again, making an even greater mockery of the football program, don’t be surprised if North Carolina cuts its losses and admits this was a colossal mistake.
