North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick is used to change. After all, he coached the New England Patriots for over 20 years and dealt with new rosters and rule updates every season. But college football? That’s a whole different game.
Now leading the Tar Heels, Belichick sat down with Clemson coach Dabo Swinney and ESPN’s Rece Davis to talk about the state of college football—and he didn’t hold back.
Bill Belichick Weighs In On College Football’s Ever-Changing Landscape
When asked about the challenges of building a roster in the age of NIL and the transfer portal, North Carolina HC Bill Belichick kept it simple.
“For me, it’s really pretty simple. I would just say, ‘Tell me what the rules are, and then we’ll put it by him,'” Belichick said. “Right now, a lot of it’s up in the air, and once the House settlement’s done and once some rules are solidified — and honestly, it’ll probably take a year for this to settle in and see how things go — there will be some adjustments made.
Belichick continued, “It sounds like the judge is already committed to that, too, to take a look at things later on. So whatever it is, however the money’s distributed, and however the contracts are written and whatever the lengths of the contract are, and so forth, you know, then we’ll figure it out.”
The House vs. NCAA lawsuit and its settlement signal a seismic shift for college athletics, which has adopted a more professional model in the past five years. The settlement will have financial repercussions for the NCAA and member institutions, but it likely won’t resolve all of the headaches that come with paying college athletes.
Belichick has stepped right into the current environment and is working with what he knows to build and maintain his program, which will be watched closely as it gets on the field this season.
“Right now, it’s a lot of, ‘We’re not sure. We’ll have to wait and see,” Belichick said. “Some people view it one way, some people view it another way, and, you know, you just have to come to an agreement on that. But I think things will settle eventually.”
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney also chimed in, saying he feels there aren’t any rules at the moment and that the current period has been “complete chaos.” However, Belichick is used to annual roster turnover, having coached the NFL’s New England Patriots for over two decades.
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The professional level, of course, deals with player contracts, free agency, and trades. While college football teams don’t swap players, there are instances, such as Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar’s, in which players leave their current spot to fill one left by another who joined their team.
“Well, it’s just the reality. I mean, I don’t really know any other way,” Belichick said. “I don’t know really how it was five, 10, 15 years ago in college football. I wasn’t in that cycle then. What we’re seeing now is very similar to what we saw in the NFL. It’s different, but there are a lot of similarities.
Belichick knows how pro football teams operate. In addition to leading the Patriots for over 20 years, he also served as the organization’s general manager.
“We’ll start the season with about the same number of new players who haven’t been with our team at the start of training camp that we would normally start with in the NFL. Call it 30-some guys that’ll be with us in, let’s call it August, that weren’t with us in the spring. It’s just what it is.”
As the college football season nears, all eyes will be on Belichick and how he navigates this brave new world. UNC will kick off its 2025 campaign on Monday, September 1, against TCU. Also on the schedule, the Tar Heels have dates scheduled against UCF, Clemson, California, Syracuse, and NC State.
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