CHAPEL HILL – Following the introductory press conference for new North Carolina Football Coach Bill Belichick, the school’s director of athletics met with a few members of the media off to the side to field questions about the process that led to the NFL legend becoming a Tar Heel.
Bubba Cunningham began his quest to replace Mack Brown with 30 people on the list. One of them was Belichick. Over time, the list shrunk, but Belichick remained on it.
Eventually, upon fully gauging the eight-time Super Bowl champion’s interest, a process began to reach an agreement for the 72-year-old to take over the stagnant program. It happened, and he discussed this new venture Thursday afternoon at the Lowdermilk Center for Excellence.
So, when did Cunningham learn about Belichick’s interest? When did he warm to the idea of having someone Belichick’s age who has never coached in college taking the program at such a critical time in college athletics?
With Cunningham so deep into the tunnel of landing a new coach, how aware was he that his football program was the number one sports story in the nation for much of the last week?
Those questions and more were posed to Carolina’s AD and below is the full transcript of what Cunningham had to say:
Q: There’s been some talk about adding staff spots to the new football operation, what can you say about the level of staffing increases in football?
CUNNINGHAM: “We are going to make a more significant investment in football. Currently, we spend about $40-45 million and obviously our coaches salaries are going up. We already have about 40 full-time people in the football building, so I think what we’ll do is take a look at the entire staff and figure out what’s the best staff for this head coach and the assistant coaches that he’s going to bring with him.
“What’s the best step. What do we need relative to revenue share and NIL? What traditionally every football program has had is a recruiting staff. So, how does a recruiting staff kind of match or mirror a scouting organization that professional franchises have? Because we’re going to have 105 on the team next year. This year we have 120.
“Maybe all of them will have scholarships, maybe they won’t. The SEC is staying at 85. Maybe you’re not going to give all scholarships to 105 but you’re probably going to have revenue share contracts with a good number of those players. So, I do think you need a front office and you need to negotiate those financial arrangements with each other.
“Now, how much all of that is going to increase? I’d be guessing right now but it’s going to be a substantial investment to get to that level.”
Q: As a follow up to that, what would be the long-term concern with the athletic department, the future of it funding different sports if you guys did not making this dramatic increase in football investment.
CUNNINGHAM: “We’re taking a risk, we’re taking a risk. We’re investing more in football with the hope and ambition that the return is gonna significantly outweigh the investment. So, tickets, television, sponsorships are our primary sources of revenue. And the other thing that we rely on heavily here is philanthropy. So, all four of those are going to be critical to our long-term success.”
Q: Considering there’s revenue sharing, NIL, portal, there’s a lot of professionalization of the college level it seems, if this is a fair assessment, that you guys looked at this and it was time for a radical re-thinking of how to approach football here. This is a departure from what we’ve seen before. Is that fair?
CUNNINGHAM: “The economic structure and the contractual relationships with the student is very, very different. I still want it to be an academically, educationally based program. So, even though there’ll be compensation associated with participation, we’re not going to lose sight of the integration to the academy. So, I know that’s a little bit nuanced, but I really feel strongly about that.
“And we want great students that can compete academically and athletically. But they are being compensated.”
Q: Do you think this is going to look like a miniature NFL pro franchise basically?
CUNNINGHAM: “It will look that way across the board. Basketball will look the same way. I think the lawsuits and the change of direction on a national basis are moving college sports into a different direction. And again, our hope is that a greater investment in the ones that return money of value to the university will allow us to continue to offer the broad-based programs and enhance that experience.”
Q: There’s lots of talk about how colleges across the country are going to have to re-evaluate their departments. You guys have one of the biggest departments and there’s naturally speculation how would you compete with 28 teams maybe in a different conference and that this is a move to partly thing long-term and get ahead of those concerns so you can continue funding at the same level of teams you have?
CUNNINGHAM: “That’s our hope, absolutely, to make sure that those experiences are as good as they’ve ever been and we can continue to compete for championships.”
Q: There was certain speculation that certain high-dollar newer donors were coming in or expanding their commitment to football specifically because they were receptive to that message that this would help, specifically Michael Jordan? Can you comment on that?
CUNNINGHAM: “I do think that people recognize that football is a primary economic driver of college sports, and we need to be really good in football to continue to remain relevant on a national basis. We’re there in basketball, we’re there in a lot of our Olympic sports, but we need to make sure that our football program is elite. And I think this demonstrates out commitment to it. Now, the performance going to demonstrate whether or not we can do it.”
Q: And does this increase the pressure on men’s basketball to remain at that top-five blue blood program level, because now it’s going to be carrying this financial load for everyone else, especially alongside the investment in football?
CUNNINGHAM: “Yeah, but we’re going to continue to invest in basketball as well.”
Q: What was Hubert’s reaction, he must have been made aware at some point?
CUNNINGHAM: “I went and talked to him a few days ago, and he said, ‘I trust what you’re doing,” and he said, ‘I know you’ll hire a great coach, and whoever it is, I’ll absolutely support him any way I can, and we’ll go out to dinner and I’ll get to know him as a person.’
“Absolutely what you would expect Hubert to say.”
Q: What is the role that Lee Roberts played in this and specifically how much more comfortable he was able to make you more comfortable going in this direction if he was able to make you feel more comfortable going in this direction?
CUNNINGHAM: “Lee’s been great. Anytime we have a search, he says, I’m going to lean on you for the recommendation and I’ll ask you a lot of questions. He doesn’t say that, but he asked a lot questions and he wants to be part of it, wants to be informed and that’s what I try to do.
“He’s really smart and takes in a lot of information from a lot of different sources. But ultimately, he said, ‘It’s your responsibility and we’re going to do this together and let me know what you think.’”
Q: He didn’t necessarily drive this hire, drive the negotiations or anything?
CUNNINGHAM: “No. But you’re investing an awful lot of money on a university basis, so we have to have broad buying to be able to do that. I did say on a podcast with Jones and Adam the other day that it’s not my hire, it’s our higher. The most visible thing we’ve done in a long time and we need university buy-in to make it happen. And I think we have it.”
Q: It has become far more visible since this began and of late. Are you aware of the national attention you guys have gotten or have you been so much in a bubble you don’t really know? And if you are aware of it, can you quantify what value that has been for the university and just for Carolina Football just in general?
CUNNINGHAM: “Yeah, I don’t know how to value it… I was having a cup of coffee and the Today Show was talking about. Okay, that’s interesting. It’s everywhere, it’s absolutely everywhere.”
Q: He mentioned in the press conference that as this stuff started to get out, the impression from the fan based seemed to be a lot more positive, was that the same rate that you became more comfortable with the idea as well?
CUNNINGHAM: “Yes sir.”
Q: How did this come to be?
CUNNINGHAM: “I did get a call before I was looking for anybody, and as I did throughout the fall season. I did take incoming calls that people were suggesting names in case we did have a transition. I did get a call from somebody that represents him and said he would be interested.”
Q: First official conversation was over zoom?
CUNNINGHAM: “I didn’t do anything until after the NC State game. All I was doing before that was collecting names and contacts. And that one particularly, mid-November.”
Q: And you were like, oh?
CUNNINGHAM: “Yeah, ‘That’s interesting.’
Note: Cunningham said Belichick was on the initial list of 30 candidates.
Q: What was the player reaction when you introduced him to the team?
CUNNINGHAM: “Good. They were locked in… Right before the press conference, we were with the team. They had finished up their practice and have the weekend off. They finished up at 12-12:30, we were there by 1.”
Q: Can you walk us through when it actually became, okay, it’s happening?
CUNNINGHAM: “That’s interesting all the way to we have an agreement. So, it’s are you interested, are we interested. Okay, we’re a little bit interested. What about budgets, what about commitment, what about – it just continued to this was actually real.”
Q: What was your most significant concern throughout the process and how did he persuade you about whatever that may have been?
CUNNINGHAM: “There’s multiple. He’s spent his entire career in the NFL. He hasn’t coached collegiately. Super high-profile. Does that translate to the college game, college kids, where is it with recruiting? And so as you’re asking those questions having that dialogue conversation, those get answered and (we) become more comfortable with it.”
Q: When was there a point where he could say “Yes” and the offer was for a yes or no?
CUNNINGHAM: “Yesterday (Wednesday).”
Q: Do you feel like you’re charting sort of a new course for college football? You’re showing that Carolina Football, which people always said was a sleeping giant if Carolina could figure it out; you guys are pushing your chips in and saying, ‘We’re going to do this now.” Does that resonate or make it different? If another school had done this it might not seemed like that big a deal, it would have seemed gimmicky or something. But Carolina seems to grab people’s attention in a unique way here.
CUNNINGHAM: “Yeah, maybe. That’s a good question. Yeah, since you know (it’s a) sleeping giant, basketball school, all those things. So why are you doing that? I just think that we do see the future of college athletics (being) very dependent on a successful football program.”
Q: Personally, when you go back to the night of 70-50, could you have ever imagined yourself sitting up there today introducing that guy as the next football coach?
CUNNINGHAM: “I wasn’t thinking of a lot that night (laughter).”
Q reply: That’s a pretty tremendous shift that you undertook. Can you connect those dots and tell us what your personal feeling is because of what you were able to achieve because I wouldn’t imagine moving on from Mack wasn’t easy because he’s Mack Brown. You move on from him and here you are, you have this guy.
CUNNINGHAM: “I don’t know how to answer that question. I have no idea how to answer that question. That was a really tough day, today’s a great day, and there were a lot of days in between.”
