Bill Belichick is coming to college football as North Carolina’s head coach. Not only is he entering a world he’s never been a part of in an official capacity, but his contract is unlike most others in the sport. North Carolina is committing to spending top-10 money on its coaching staff, but other details in the deal could have an impact on Belichick’s ability to do the job.
The basics for Belichick: It’s a five-year deal worth $10 million annually, but only the first three years are guaranteed, which sort of makes it only a three-year contract in coaching terms. The buyout to leave UNC is $10 million … until June 1, 2025, when it drops to $1 million.
The contract length and buyout bring immediate questions, but the level of investment is undeniable. UNC football hasn’t won a conference championship since 1980 and has one 10-win season since 1998. Now it heads into college sports’ new world with revenue sharing for players with unprecedented support for its program.
First off, guaranteeing just three years for a new coach is unheard-of in major college football. Most new coaches have contracts that range from four to six years. Some of the best coaches have even longer deals — Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney signed 10-year deals recently — but three guaranteed years is notably short. (It’s not clear if one or both sides need to agree to trigger the guarantee for the final two.)
Those long contracts almost always are built with public perception in mind. Coaches are constantly recruiting new players, and those players want to know whether their head coach will be around for the entirety of their college career (even if, statistically speaking, they probably won’t). Even coaches on the hot seat sometimes get one- or two-year extensions that are just for show and don’t add to the buyout to fire them, all so the coach can point to something on the recruiting trail.
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Perhaps that’s the same idea here because Belichick’s three guaranteed years will immediately be used against him in recruiting, where rival coaches will say Belichick won’t be there very long. How will he respond to those questions, both from the media and recruits? He said at his introductory news conference on Thursday that he didn’t come here to leave.
Then again, in the transfer portal era where players move freely every year, will that contract length matter as much?
It’s extremely rare for a coach to play out his entire deal in college football anyway, either because the coach was fired or he took another job. In the NFL, coaches under contract can’t just leave for another team. It has to come in the form of a trade. But college coaching contracts have generally low buyout. Therefore, if a school wants to hire a sitting head coach they only need to pay that buyout, which is usually a few million dollars.
Belichick’s paltry $1 million buyout beginning in June 2025 means it will be easy for him to leave for an NFL job after one season, if the opportunity presents itself. You can be sure that will also be used against him in recruiting.
Does Belichick plan to be around for three years? More? Less? He’ll be 73 years old when the 2025 season kicks off, and it’s no secret he’d like to get back to the NFL to break the all-time wins record. It’s led many in the coaching industry to wonder if this is all just a plan to leave his son Steve as the next head coach. But Belichick will have to succeed enough at UNC that NFL teams would want him, because they don’t seem to right now.
His $10 million annual salary is a top-10 salary in college football. Belichick was believed to earn around $20 million annually in the NFL, while his UNC predecessor Mack Brown earned $5 million, which was on the lower end for a Power 4 conference coach. Smart at Georgia has the highest known salary in college football at $13 million.
An investment like that indicates UNC is finally willing to spend big to win big. While the Tar Heels are third in the ACC in football spending, there has been a gap between them and Florida State and Clemson at the top.
The staff salary pool is also a gigantic step up, with $10 million for the assistant coaches. That would’ve ranked third nationally this year behind just Ohio State and Georgia and is double what UNC paid this season. Belichick’s contract also includes $5.3 million for a support staff and $1 million for a strength staff, also among the highest in the country.
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If UNC was willing to double its head coaching salary and its staff salary pool, did it have to take away from the money pool that can go to players next year with the upcoming House v. NCAA settlement, which will allow schools to pay athletes up to around $20 million?
That answer is also a no. Belichick’s contract says UNC will pay $13 million to football athletes, with a presumption the rest will go to other sports. That is in line with what most Power 4 schools are expected to spend.
No other school is doubling its coaching salaries heading into player revenue sharing. Part of the reason this has been a less active Power 4 coaching carousel is that schools are trying to save every last dollar for revenue sharing and don’t want to eat a large buyout to fire a coach.
If UNC could spend this kind of money, why didn’t it use it to hire a proven college coach? On the other hand, was it Belichick’s stature and success that finally convinced UNC’s stakeholders to invest at a level they had never before?
Belichick’s contract illustrates a massive increase in investment for North Carolina football, which should bode well for its future, no matter how long or short he plans to be there.
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(Photo of Bill Belichick and Bubba Cunningham: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
