As Belichick navigates Year 2 at UNC, the program's next GM will help shape roster strategy, leadership structure and long-term direction
Oct 28, 2026 at 12:44 pm ET • 4 min read
On July 27, North Carolina suspended college football's highest-paid general manager, Michael Lombardi, from his post, citing an HR investigation. He was head coach Bill Belichick's handpicked GM and his initial hire.
The GM role has been handled effectively by Belichick, according to sources with knowledge of the program's management structure since then (Lombardi officially resigned in early September). But that will change soon, as the search for a general manager eventually comes to a close.
The Tar Heels sit at 4-3 with two close losses. Those around the program acknowledge that the team has improved. A bowl game is highly likely but not guaranteed; however, the Tar Heels did not hire an eight-time Super Bowl champion to scrape by to .500, as the program has been almost exactly that since 2000 (165-167).
UNC's 2027 recruiting class currently has 16 commitments, which is not an abnormal number at this point in the cycle, and a new GM is expected to be tasked with navigating the transfer portal, which officially opens in January, and retaining the current roster.
Former Michigan GM Sean Magee is consulting with the football program as his firm, TurnkeyZRG, leads the search for a permanent GM. That GM is not expected to be in place before the end of the regular season, according to a source with knowledge of the search process.
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How will UNC structure the new GM's role?
There is a chance that UNC will adopt a model in which the GM reports to athletic director Steve Newmark and to Belichick. Lombardi reported solely to Belichick, according to a copy of his original employment letter obtained by CBS Sports.
The model is en vogue in college football as a wave of professionalization sweeps across the sport. It is notably different from how Belichick handled business for years in the NFL when he served as what the league defined as the "primary football executive" for the New England Patriots, essentially meaning he was the de facto general manager, although he did not formally hold the title with the team.
In 2024, when Belichick was in the mix for the Atlanta Falcons job, team owner Arthur Blank squashed the notion that Belichick would want to be the team's GM, saying that in a text, Belichick had conveyed he was willing to work with then-GM Terry Fontenot. The NFL had long since moved away from the model of the head coach as the primary roster decision-maker, and Belichick was among the last of that dying breed with New England.
As the amount of money on college football rosters increases (Belichick's contract guarantees at least $20 million in roster spending), the need for a GM to have some autonomy becomes more important.
UNC has an opportunity to continue a growing trend. Florida, Oklahoma, Stanford and California have varying versions of an empowered GM. Whoever is atop UNC football will also always have to contend with the fact that UNC men's basketball is a massive priority at the school, and new head coach Mike Malone's roster is in the $20 million club, according to CBS Sports' Matt Norlander, which puts it near the top of the sport. Football is the primary economic driver of an athletic department, however, even at a place like UNC.
An industry source wondered whether Belichick preferred to go with someone with NFL experience. NFL personnel executives have increasingly turned their eyes toward college jobs mainly for the pay (Lombardi was making a nation-leading $1.5 million annually in base pay). But no matter how much college football looks more and more like the NFL each year, there are still elements that retain the way things used to be, mainly in the sales and hospitality roles that remain tied to the recruiting world.
There is also the unavoidable nature of university-side politics, especially at a place like UNC that led to a fractured search to get Belichick in the first place, with trustees lobbying for Belichick and athletic department administrators working with conventional names.
In the NFL, roster negotiations are formulaic. If a defender has X sacks, Y tackles, and Z interceptions, there are comparisons teams and agents use, then negotiate from there because everyone knows what everybody else makes. While topline roster estimates exist and individual player salaries are reported, the numbers can vary widely across athletic departments regarding how much money is actually on a team's books. There is no real salary cap (the highest-paid rosters are around $50 million in college football, although the revenue-sharing cap is around $21 million), and the extent of teeth CSC enforcement has remains to be seen.
It's not clear who is in the mix for the general manager job, but that person's profile will be a bellwether for the short-term future. Mainly Belichick's, whose contract is no longer guaranteed after the 2027 season.
Not reporting directly to Belichick alone could signal someone who will be around after he is out of the job. But Belichick is renowned for working with guys he's always been with. He and Lombardi went back to the Browns in the 1990s. His son Steve was on staff (and resigned in the wake of the same investigation that involved Lombardi), and his other son, Brian, remains on staff.
Saturday, UNC puts its middle-of-the-pack ACC roster on the field against one of the nation's highest-powered teams in Miami. The future of UNC's roster will be one of the most intriguing storylines in the world of college football personnel heading into this offseason.
