UNC football expected to be featured on ESPN a lot this season
The countdown to the 2025 college football season rolls on as the month of July wraps up and for the North Carolina Tar Heels, they will usher in a new era under head coach Bill Belichick.
After moving on from Mack Brown, the Tar Heels made a big splash and hired Belichick to be the next head coach in hopes of turning this program around. Belichick's hiring also put North Carolina in the national spotlight all offseason but that hype has to translate to the field.
However, the Tar Heels will continue to be a hot topic as long as Belichick is in charge. And now, ESPN is looking to take advantage of that with its broadcast schedule.
Per Front Office Sports, ESPN networks are 'poised' to show 8 to 10 UNC games this season, showcasing the Tar Heels on their networks with the hope of catching a Deion Sanders-like impact:
ESPN networks are poised to show 8, if not 10, of Belichick's first games as UNC coach, sources tell Front Office Sports.
'We have to wait and see. The potential is there,' ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions Kurt Dargis told FOS. 'There's definitely interest in him outside the typical college football fan. Deion was such a phenomenon. I still can't believe some of the numbers we got that first year he was there. It's too early to say.'
Like Sanders, Belichick will make his debut at home against TCU. However, this is in primetime as a standalone game on Labor Day in Chapel Hill. That game is set to be broadcast on ESPN. UNC will also be on an ESPN channel for at least two Friday games when they face off against Cal and Syracuse in October.
Whether you like it or not, the nation will get a lot of Belichick and the Tar Heels on their TVs.
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.
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