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ESPN’s Pablo Torre says there’s an ‘absolutely real chance’ Bill Belichick never coaches a game for North Carolina
By Adam Spencer
Published:
ESPN’s Pablo Torre has done a lot of reporting on the situation at North Carolina between the administration and coach Bill Belichick. At the center of the drama is Belichick’s girlfriend, Jordon Hudson.
Last week, Torre reported that Hudson had been banned from the UNC football facilities. Shortly thereafter, UNC released a statement contradicting that report.
Were the Tar Heels pressured to reverse course by an angry Belichick? Or was Torre’s reporting wrong? We may never know, but for now at least, it seems Hudson is welcome at the North Carolina football facilities.
However, on Monday, Torre doubled down on the tension brewing in Chapel Hill. On “The Domonique Foxworth Show,” Torre said he thinks there’s “an absolutely real chance” that Belichick doesn’t make it to Week 1 of the 2025 college football season as UNC’s head coach:
“I think there’s a chance, an absolutely real chance that he doesn’t (coach North Carolina’s Week 1 game against TCU),” Torre said. “And the reason I say that is because even before the Jordon Hudson thing became as public, even before it went from messy backstage to now, obviously, messy everywhere, the date that matters the most is June 1st.”
What happens on June 1, you ask? Well, that’s when Belichick’s buyout drops from $10 million to $1 million. That means that Belichick would only have to pay $1 million to get out of his contract starting June 1. It was an odd stipulation when the contract was first reported back at the time of Belichick’s hiring, and now it takes on added importance in light of the recent strife.
Torre continued, weighing in on what may be happening behind the scenes on both sides:
“The question everybody is asking is, are things so dysfunctional behind the scenes when it comes to the power struggle, when it comes to what they are telling Bill to do: don’t have Jordon around anymore. Stop behaving in the way that you have. Basically telling him for the first time, really, that you’re an employee and not the boss of this building in the way that he may have been assuming he would be, then there is the ability for him to get out of it.
“That’s before you even consider the fact that stuff is so crazy when it comes to how his family feels, how the people around the school feel, that there’s this larger, ‘Hey, so coach met this woman when she was 19 years old on an airplane and now she’s kind of running his public image as his girlfriend.’ Is this something that’s sustainable? Is that fireable? What does he have to do to get fired? These are all active questions.”
North Carolina hosts TCU on Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in Week 1 of the season. How much more drama will we have to endure in the Bill Belichick/Jordon Hudson/UNC administration saga before then? We’ll see over the coming months.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
