ESPN has given Bill Belichick a prime spot to kick off his new college football job next season.
The University of North Carolina sent shock waves through the sport when they hired the eight-time Super Bowl champion coach.
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And Belichick’s debut in Chapel Hill will receive top billing on ESPN.
The school announced a new kickoff time and broadcaster for their season opener on their X page on Thursday.
Their Week 1 game against TCU has been moved to Monday 1 September and will kick off at 7.30 pm ET on ESPN on Labor Day weekend.
Most of the games in Week 1 will take place on Saturday 30 August.
Full schedules for the 2025 college football season have yet to be announced.
But it will likely kickoff in Dublin, Ireland again as was the case in 2024.
K-State against Iowa State will take place across the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday 23 August.
The weekend before the traditional Week 1 of the season has become known as Week Zero.
And games will likely take place on most nights of the week between August 23 and August 30.
The NFL season will begin a few days later on Thursday 4 September.
ESPN’s first Monday Night Football broadcast of the 2025 campaign will be on September 8.
But they’ve gained a bonus Monday football clash by adding Belichick’s UNC Tar Heels to the slate.
Belichick is already moving the needle in college football like Deion Sanders has at the Colorado Buffaloes.
But ratings for this year’s CFP playoff on ESPN drew disappointing numbers.
Semifinal viewership was down from 2023 and partly due to the new 12-team formate.
Last year they were played on New Year’s Day and holidays tend to attract large audiences.
But this year they took place on a Thursday and Friday night in the first week of January.
Ohio State beat Notre Dame in the National Championship Game on Monday night.
The game averaged 22.1 million viewers on ESPN.
That was down 12 per cent from the 25 million who tuned in for last year’s Michigan vs Washington showdown.
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