Bill Belichick hype leads to earliest sellout in UNC football history
“Chapel Bill” has already made a lasting impact on North Carolina football and, where it counts most, brought in revenue. According to university officials, the Tar Heels’ six home games this coming season are sold out. The earliest that’s ever happened.
Why did tickets sell out so quickly?
The anticipation has been building since Belichick was hired by the school in December. The legendary coach, with 333 wins all-time, agreed to a five-year deal worth $10 million per season to replace Mack Brown.
Coaching in the college ranks for the first time after 29 seasons in the NFL, Belichick assembled his staff and started recruiting transfers immediately. He’s added over 40 new players to the roster through the portal, but there have been a few bumps along the way.
Earlier this year, he embarked on a tour to promote his book “The Art of Winning: Lessons From My Life In Football,” and things went off the rails. He made headlines for an awkward interview with CBS News that went viral, as well as for his relationship with his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. He’s been dodging questions about it ever since.
“Look, I’m really focused on doing my job here at Carolina, which is to help our football team,” Belichick said. “That’s just to get better every day to stack those days together, training days, preparation days and days out on the field, and we’ve done that. So, that’s my big focus. I mean, is there noise out there? We’ve always dealt with that.”
How is Belichick running the UNC program?
Maybe eight Super Bowl rings, six as head coach, have earned the coach a pass with the Carolina faithful. The sellouts are the first for the school since the 2021 season. After finishing with a 6-7 record in 2024 under Brown, attendance dropped 5%.
Belichick has vowed to run his program like an NFL team, and in this new era of “pay for play,” that might just work. As for the new rules brought on by the House v. NCAA settlement, he’s not counting on continuity just yet.
“I would expect that over the next year there’ll be a lot of things that will come up and probably a year from now some modifications will be made,” Belichick said. “I think that as you get all these schools, all these athletes, and so many different outside NIL-type deals, we’ll see how all that plays out and what the boundaries are or aren’t going forward.”
Will the Tar Heels have a winning season?
The university is hoping the change in leadership and the roster overhaul lead to a competitive season. Expectations are high, but the latest ACC preseason poll says Belichick won’t meet them. The Tar Heels are predicted to finish 12th in the 17-team conference. As usual, Belichick shrugged it off.
“It’ll be interesting to see how it all comes together,” Belichick said. “We got a lot of work to do, but it’s certainly trending in the right direction.”
UNC opens its season on Monday, Sept. 1, against TCU in a nationally televised game on ESPN. As of Wednesday, July 23, tickets for that game on the secondary market were priced between $150 and $1,000. The Tar Heels also host ACC favorite Clemson in early October.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
