Dec 14, 2024; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head football coach Bill Belichick during half time at Dean E. Smith Center. Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images
By Sam Neumann on

ESPN is officially diving headfirst into the Bill Belichick era at Chapel Hill.

While sports media insiders like Puck’s John Ourand anticipated the Worldwide Leader would turn the North Carolina head coach into its version of Deion Sanders, that hadn’t yet borne fruit. Not for any reason other than his just arriving on campus, but Belichick had yet to put pen to paper until Thursday, January 23.

It’s probably just a coincidence, but Thursday also marked the official announcement of Belichick’s debut as a collegiate head coach. His Tar Heels will kick off their season in primetime, with the UNC vs. TCU game now set for a standalone slot: Monday, September 1, at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The move shifts the UNC -TCU matchup to a prime spot ahead of Labor Day and a week before Monday Night Football, bumping it past a Saturday slate that includes Syracuse-Tennessee (Aflac Kickoff), LSU-Clemson, Alabama-Florida State and Notre Dame-Miami.

And if it wasn’t already clear, ESPN is giving this game full primetime treatment — cementing its place in a coveted Monday night slot.

Both Fox and ESPN/ABC have spotlighted Colorado under Coach Prime. Fox has been particularly aggressive, frequently showcasing the Buffs for Big Noon Kickoff. While some saw this as overkill, the strategy paid off with strong ratings, and Colorado and Sanders proved worthy of attention in Year 2.

Now, Ourand expects ESPN, which controls most ACC games, to “run this same playbook, albeit on steroids.” This will effectively turn Belichick’s debut into a media spectacle, which they hope can deliver the same ratings success.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann