How do you make a college football team that’s just okay great? What about a $20 million war chest and one of the best NFL coaches of all time?
Last week, the University of North Carolina hired Bill Belichick, the former coach of the New England Patriots, to try to take its football program to the next level. The team hasn’t won an Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1980. In 2024, UNC’s football team went 6-6. The school is better known for its basketball teams.
After the news came out, it was said that UNC’s name, image, and likeness (NIL) budget for football player payments would go from $4 million to $20 million. This is according to Matt Hayes, senior college football writer for USA Today.
That would be one of the biggest budgets in college football for a NIL team.
Belichick, who is 72 years old, coached the Patriots for 24 years and won a record six Super Bowls, which is the second-most wins in NFL history. He said he was going to run his team in Chapel Hill like a pro football team.
At his first press conference, Belichick said, “When I say a pro program, I would say from my own experience what we did to train, develop players, run pro systems, and use pro techniques.” “So the general manager/head coach model is a lot like how high school kids and college transfer-portal players are evaluated.” College players and free agent NFL players are being looked at by NFL teams. “Again, there are some similarities,” he said.
It’s always been my dream to be a college football coach. It never really went well. Had some good years in the NFL, so it was fine. “But this is really like a dream come true,” Belichick said.
How will Belichick do as a recruiter of teen players now that he has been in charge of a locker room full of grown men for 25 years? One sports expert says he did better than he would have before the NIL.
‘Quintupling your athlete budget is likely to lead to some significant improvements on the field.’
Victor Matheson of the College of the Holy Cross
Victor Matheson, a sports-focused economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross, told MarketWatch, “Belichick has a better chance to succeed now than it was five years ago, before NIL and before the fast move toward professionalization.”
College athletes historically were not able to capitalize on their elevated campus profiles — to say nothing of their frequent appearances on national TV — but in 2021 the NCAA relaxed its posture on amateurism, saying student-athletes could make money from their names, images and likenesses.
“Some people are trying to put together teams with no money at all,” Matheson said. “Obviously, Belichick was very good at putting together a winning team with no money at all.” “We know that the amount of money spent and the level of success on the field are related.” If you spend five times as much on athletes, you’ll probably see big changes on the field.
The college game has changed a lot in the last few years, and some coaches, like Nick Saban, who used to coach at the University of Alabama, have spoken out against it.
While Saban was coaching at Alabama, he said that other schools were “buying” players. Some football veterans think that the NIL played a part in Saban’s choice to quit the sport. Saban quit suddenly in 2023, with six years and $71.8 million left on his deal.
In 2023, NFL great and University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders said that changes to the college game had “chased” Saban away.
Belichick is already recruiting. This week, four-star quarterback Bryce Baker, four-star defensive lineman Austin Alexander, and Holy Cross offensive line transfer Christo Kelly all made their pledges to play for UNC.
The Athletic says that Belichick agreed to coach football at UNC for five years and $50 million. And all the excitement about him coming to Chapel Hill is probably one reason why NIL is planning to spend $20 million on football players.
For college football, that would be one of the biggest budgets ever. The Tar Heels haven’t been known all over the country very often in football.
The NCAA says these are the biggest NIL budgets that college football teams are expected to have for the 2024–25 season:
University of Texas, $22.2 million
The Longhorns boast famous-surname backup quarterback Arch Manning on the roster and are competing in the 2024 College Football Playoff.
Ohio State University, $20.2 million
OSU’s NIL collective, called the 1870 Society, was the top spender last season and projects that it will be one of the top spenders again. The collective’s co-founder, Brian Schottenstein, has said that about 10 players on this year’s roster are making over $1 million.
Louisiana State University, $20.1 million
Under coach Brian Kelly, poached from Notre Dame in 2021, LSU finished 8-4 this season and missed the College Football Playoff.
University of Georgia, $18.3 million
The Bulldogs are a mainstay atop both the football and NIL spending rankings. They are once again competing in the College Football Playoff and have a chance to win their third title in the CFP format.
$17.2 million to Texas A&M
The Aggies had a bad year, going 8-4 in the tough Southeastern Conference, just like their rivals LSU. A&M is one of many schools in the SEC that uses NIL deals to pay football stars tens of millions of dollars.
Craig Brown, managing principal at the Galway Family Office and business manager for a number of professional athletes, including NFL stars Jonathan Taylor and Amon-Ra St. Brown, said it was important to remember that schools don’t give those millions directly to their student-athletes.
Instead, that money comes from outside groups or companies made up of boosters, alumni, and other fans who can use the players’ NIL for marketing or other reasons.
One former NFL player who worked with Belichick before has given his view on how well his old coach will do at the college level.
During a Fox Sports show on Sunday, future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady said, “Those guys are going to play very hard, and he’s going to coach them well.” Brady had been in that locker room with Brady for many years. “That program is great for the players that go there because they get the best coach the NFL has ever seen, plus he’s now at the college level.”
When asked how Belichick’s well-known irritability might effect players wanting to join UNC, Brady admitted that his longtime coach was “not the warmest and fuzzy of all time.”
