The sports world was sent into a frenzy after North Carolina hired Bill Belichick to be their next head football coach just weeks from the new year.
None had to have been surprised by the hiring more than Tar Heel basketball fans.
UNC basketball is widely considered one of the sport's blue bloods and regularly dominates on the court and in recruiting. Carolina boasts the third most national championships in college hoops (six) and is the only team to appear in the big game in nine straight decades.
So why would the Tar Heels invest heavily in their football program? Football hasn't brought a conference title home since 1980, and has just one 10-win season in the last 25 years.
The new era of college sports being a pay-to-play system, along with the explosion of the transfer portal, means more cash is being injected into college football than ever before.
And as football is the most profitable college sport, with revenue and media deals reaching into the billions, an increasing amount of athletics budgets are expanding to fund football.
North Carolina is the latest Power Five program to join this trend, paying Belichick and his staff close to $20 million annually in salary and potential bonuses, according to a report from Inside Carolina.
Some in Chapel Hill may have been nervous about funding and attention being taken from the legendary basketball team, but it seems as though the program will benefit immensely from any football success.
The university already raised it's basketball budget by 25% this year and will put an estimated $20.5 million aside for all Carolina student-athletes.
And when the football team does well, so does everyone else.
Take Alabama, for example.
The Crimson Tide have been the kings of college football since the late 2010's, winning six national titles under legendary coach Nick Saban.
In the NIL era, Alabama basketball has gone from mid-level SEC team that hadn't seen much success since the 80's, to a top-5 program in the country, thanks in some part to it's football success bringing in massive media deals and endorsements.
Alabama isn't the only one.
Clemson, Ole Miss and many others are translating their success on the gridiron into better funded and more talented basketball squads.
Maybe the new path to the top of college basketball is through football. If so, inking Belichick could be UNC's best hire since bringing Roy Williams back home in 2003.
Belichick is all but a football god, winning six super bowl with the Patriots to become arguably the sport's greatest coach ever. His football knowledge and pedigree stretches back 50 years.
It remains to be seen how his expertise will translate to the college game, although Belichick has already bolstered the team's recruiting.
At the end of the day, North Carolina will always be a pure-blooded basketball school and no amount of football achievement will change that.
Carolina basketball has struggled at times to adjust to the NIL-era, but has been in the championship (2022) and Sweet 16 (2024) in the last five years and continues to recruit at a high level.
But with Belichick controlling the gridiron, there is a very real chance that UNC could become perennial powerhouses in the two most important (financially and traditionally speaking) college sports.
Only time will tell.