Bill Belichick is on to Chapel Hill. 

The legendary NFL coach will be the next head coach at North Carolina, the school announced Wednesday. The former Patriots coach is expected to sign a five-year deal pending approval by the university’s board of trustees.

Why North Carolina?

Belichick, who has never coached at the college level but said that he has “always wanted to,” took multiple meetings with school officials over the past couple of weeks before accepting the job. Skeptics pointed to Belichick’s disciplinarian style and lack of college experience, especially in the modern era of NIL (name, image, and likeness) payments and the transfer portal. 

But those two elements have also bridged the gap between the college and professional landscapes, which could be a plus for Belichick, who also served as the Patriots’ GM while coaching. 

The 72-year-old will replace Mack Brown, who had two stints at UNC that totaled 16 seasons. Belichick is just a year younger than Brown. Belichick’s father, Steve, was an assistant coach at the school from 1953 to 1955 before embarking on a 33-year stint at Navy. 

As far as Belichick’s competition, other candidates the Tar Heels were reportedly considering during their search included Tulane coach Jon Sumrall, Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, Army head coach Jeff Monken, Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, and former NFL coach Steve Wilks. Perhaps the biggest contrast, however, came down to the other finalist: Adam Schefter reports 32-year-old Browns assistant Tommy Rees was considered the favorite had the Belichick deal not been finalized. 

Can Belichick Win in the NIL Era?

On Pat McAfee’s show Monday, Belichick elaborated on his vision for a college program, should he be given the chance to run one. He’s also been brushing up on the ins and outs of NIL as well as the transfer portal, according to ESPN. 

“If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL,” Belichick said, emphasizing if. “It would be a professional program with training, nutrition, scheme, and coaching techniques that would transfer to the NFL. … I feel very confident that I have the contacts in the NFL to pave the way for those players who would have the ability to compete in the NFL. They would be ready for it. It would be an NFL program, but not at the NFL level.

“It would be geared toward developing time management, discipline, structure, and life skills, regardless of whether it’s for the NFL or somewhere in business.”

Michael Lombardi, a longtime NFL executive and more recently a media personality and podcast host, will join Belichick in Chapel Hill and serve as the general manager of the Tar Heels football program. It’s worth noting that UNC, in its push to land Belichick, is increasing its NIL budget for football from $4 million to as much as $20 million, according to USA Today.

Will Age Be a Factor?

Belichick’s deal, as noted above, is for five years— which means he’ll be 77 at the end of the term. USA Today compiled a list of the oldest coaches in FBS as of Wednesday, and at 72, Belichick will be the oldest. 

• Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz: 69
• Temple’s K.C. Keeler: 65
• Utah’s Kyle Whittingham: 65
• Houston’s Willie Fritz: 64
• Indiana’s Curt Cignetti: 63
• LSU’s Brian Kelly: 63 
• UConn’s Jim Mora: 63
• Arkansas’ Sam Pittman: 63
• Colorado State’s Jay Norvell: 61

During one of his weekly radio interviews this week, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he doesn’t think age will be a factor with Belichick.

“He’s got a lot of gas left in his tank—a lot,” Jones said. “Bill Belichick could run a major company very effectively, and he’s just got that leadership ability. … No one knows more football or how to execute and use that to win a ball game than Bill Belichick.”

Former Tar Heel great and NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor shared a similar sentiment. 

“UNC stock has just gone up!!!” Taylor wrote in a text exchange with longtime NFL beat writer Gary Myers, noting that he and Belichick had been talking about the job “the last couple of days.”

Belichick has spent the 2024 season working in various football media roles after a 24-year run in New England, where he won six Super Bowls alongside Tom Brady.

It’s not In-N-Out, but the NFL is serving up a big double-double this weekend, with its Week 15 schedule highlighted by a particularly rare confluence of top-flight matchups.

The upcoming weekend’s games are highlighted by the 10–3 Steelers, currently the No. 3 team in the AFC, playing at the 11–2 Eagles, the NFC’s No. 2 team, and another clash between the 10–3 Bills, the AFC’s second-ranked team, at the 12–1 Lions, the NFC’s top squad. 

The Steelers-Eagles game will be at 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox on Sunday, while the Bills-Lions will be at exactly the same time on CBS. According to the NFL, this will be just the second weekend since the NFL-AFL merger completion in 1970 in which there are two separate games, each involving teams with at least 10 wins, by Week 15 of the season or sooner. The other time occurred in Week 15 in 1985, and such matchups are more common at the end of the regular-season schedule. But this type of clustering is exceedingly unusual for this point of the season. 

Beyond the major seeding implications in each game on Sunday, the two contests will additionally help further refine the NFL’s MVP race, broadly thought at this point to be led by Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Eagles running back Saquon Barkley. 

The two games will feature each network’s top broadcast teams, with CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz and Tony Romo calling the Bills-Lions clash, and Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady doing the same for Fox Sports with the Steelers-Eagles matchup.

Schedule Shifting

There’s a particular reason that this pairing of games has come together: the NFL this year moved a double national broadcast window from Week 1, where it’s been the last three seasons, to Week 15 this year. That means that on Sunday, both Fox and CBS will have broadcast doubleheaders, and every domestic media market will have four total games available to them across the 1 p.m. and 4:25 p.m. windows. 

Normally, Fox and CBS alternate the late national broadcast window, and only one of them has that featured slot on a given Sunday. The NFL, however, shifted that double-doubleheader—as it’s referred to internally at the league—to the much later timing to have a better sense of who the top teams are, and in turn, potentially drive higher viewership. 

The networks will again have joint doubleheaders on Jan. 5 to close out the regular season. 

ESPN, meanwhile, will also have a Monday Night Football doubleheader to close out Week 15, though those occurrences have been more common, the efficacy of that strategy is somewhat unclear, and three of the four teams involved have losing records. 

The Heat’s Jimmy Butler is the first star whose name has been floated in trade rumors this NBA season after ESPN reported Tuesday that Miami is “open” to hearing offers for the six-time All-Star.

While trade rumors don’t guarantee a player will be moved, they come with the follow-up question asking where that player may go. In this case, ESPN reported Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, said his client prefers three teams: the Rockets, Mavericks, and Warriors.

It’s no surprise Butler would select three teams in the West playoff hunt. At 35, Butler is one of the oldest players in the NBA. He’s also from Texas, so Houston and Dallas would be a homecoming of sorts—and it doesn’t hurt that he can continue to avoid paying state income taxes, similar to his situation in Miami.

But a potential Butler trade highlights one of the biggest dilemmas the NBA is facing today: the lack of flexibility teams are afforded under the latest collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed in 2023. The CBA added two payroll thresholds above the NBA’s soft salary cap called the first and second apron, and violators face penalties that limit roster construction.

The penalties are so severe that before this season started, NBA GMs voted the “restrictive” aprons as the No. 1 rule the league needs to change. 

A Financial Puzzle

The second apron comes with the harshest punishments, but the first apron—which has been breached by the Heat—includes a key penalty: A violator cannot take back more salary than it is trading away. 

While the Warriors, Rockets, and Mavericks are not in violation of the first apron, all three teams are “hard-capped” by the first apron, per Spotrac. This means they cannot exceed the $178.1 million first apron threshold during the season.

Both the Mavericks and Warriors have $177.6 million on the books already, so they only have about $500,000 in extra space to take back. The Rockets have more space since their payroll is only at $162.9 million this year, but they are facing other long-term financial challenges.

In summary, the Mavericks and Warriors have to create a trade package that satisfies both teams, does not exceed Butler’s $48.8 million contract, but is still within about $500,000 of his deal. If it sounds complicated, that’s because it is—and that’s the issue facing most of the league right now.

There are nine teams over the first apron threshold, four of which are also over the second apron. But an additional 14 non-violators are hard-capped to one of the aprons, meaning 23 of the 30 NBA teams are hampered in some capacity.

That’s not to say that a trade can’t happen, and there are three- or four-for-one trades where the math works. But the margin of error is razor thin, which could indicate the NBA trade market may wind up fairly quiet this season.