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North Carolina to open 2025 season on Labor Day in primetime ESPN time slot
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North Carolina will start the much-anticipated Bill Belichick era on national TV and in primetime, as the Tar Heels will host TCU on Labor Day night on ESPN to kick off the 2025 season, the ACC announced on Thursday.
UNC and TCU will kick things off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 1 in the coveted Labor Day night stand-alone window. All eyes will be on the legendary NFL head coach as he begins his first collegiate coaching job.
Belichick was hired last month as the 35th head coach in Tar Heels history, and the buzz around the program since has been predictably through the roof. Now, to nobody’s shock, Belichick’s North Carolina debut will be staged under the primetime spotlight with the college football world watching.
Belichick has a big challenge in front of him in 2025, as he inherits a Tar Heels program that finished just 6-7 in 2024, capped by a 27-14 loss to UConn in the Fenway Bowl.
The 6-time Super Bowl champion as a head coach is replacing one of the big names in college football coaching history in Mack Brown, who had 2 separate stints as Tar Heels head coach, going a combined 113-79-1. Brown also won a national championship at Texas in 2005, something Belichick will hope to compete for during his time in Chapel Hill. That new challenge will begin on Labor Day night.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
