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Scandals New & Old: University of North Carolina Football

Writer: Morgan McBride
Morgan McBride
Sep 21
5 min read

American college football has a long history of scandal, crime, and misconduct. The University of North Carolina team is starting the season off with investigations and resignations.




Modern North American football has been a staple of American culture since 1869. Intense rivalries, televised spectacles, and controversial drama continue to be key components of the college football ecosystem. Penn State, Baylor University, the University of Michigan, and many other universities have faced internal scandals and larger criminal schemes over the years. However, this article dives deeper into the controversies surrounding the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).



Current Misconduct at UNC


This past summer, UNC’s football program has been linked to rumors and conversations surrounding a brewing scandal happening off the field. According to a report from WRAL, a local news station in North Carolina, “Lawyers hired to conduct the investigation are also questioning people about whether defensive coordinator Steve Belichek used drugs on the job or provided drugs to at least one player — and, separately, about whether a member of UNC’s recruiting staff had a sexual relationship with a player, people familiar with the investigation told WRAL. The lawyers also asked about possible sexual relationships between assistant coaches and recruiting staff, the people said.” Information released in WRAL’s report indicates that improper sexual relationships within the program are being investigated, and improper relations between a female recruiting staff member and a player might be pertinent.


What is going on in UNC’s football program?



The team’s general manager Michael Lombardi and defensive coordinator Steve Belichick (head coach Bill Belichick’s son) have been at the center of investigations since the middle of the summer. As general manager, Lombardi is responsible for establishing the team’s culture, overseeing recruiting, and maintaining compliance, among other things. 38 days after the University of Chapel Hill placed Michael Lombardi on paid administrative leave, Lombardi resigned. As the highest-paid general manager in college football, earning 1.5 million dollars a year, Lombardi’s link to the investigation sparked a lot of attention.


Conversations surrounding UNC’s investigation suggested that the misdeeds tied to the program reflect poorly on Lombardi’s leadership. Although the specifics of Michael Lombardi’s position and contract remain unclear, many believe his resignation stems from his failure to maintain the program and stop scandals within the organization. However, according to Tom Mars, Michael Lombardi’s attorney, in his statement to The Athletic, “If UNC had grounds to fire Michael for cause, they wouldn’t need to conduct such a far-ranging, lengthy witch hunt. They would have done so by now. I think the motive behind the investigation goes further than a $1.5 million buyout. After all, UNC could fire Michael (or the athletic director of any head coach) for no reason at all just by paying their buyout. In today’s world, $1.5 million is just a drop in the bucket, so there must be other reasons behind this multimillion-dollar investigation.”



Similarly, since August 6th, Steve Belichick has been on ‘medical leave’ for an unnamed reason. The University hired Steve Belichick for a two-year, $2.7 million deal as the team’s defensive coordinator at the beginning of the 2025 season. Steve Belichick resigned on September 17th after an internal UNC investigation into the football program. This investigation illustrated that, in their words, Steve Belichick had “a disregard for Carolina’s values and standards of conduct.” Although UNC’s statement did not explicitly detail the reasons for Steve Belichick’s resignation, the discourse surrounding the investigation linked Steve Belichick to personal drug use concerns and allegations that he provided drugs to a student-athlete.



On top of this, WRAL also reported that UNC head coach Bill Belichick’s contract includes clear language holding him directly responsible for the behavior of his staff, players, and the broader activities surrounding UNC’s football program. So, one could surmise that these investigations into individuals connected to the program directly impact Belichick’s longevity with UNC.


On Monday, September 7th, 2026, coach Bill Belichick held a news conference expressing that, “Obviously everyone’s responsible, including me, for doing things properly and we intend to do that.” Coach Belichick is now in his second season with the team on a five-year, $50 million contract. Coming off a losing season in 2025, with a 4-win, 8-loss record, Bill Belichick’s tenure with UNC has been mired in numerous off-the-field scandals.


The investigation has conducted about 60 interviews since late July, during which lead investigator Nate Huff had access to the entire football program and facility. In the culmination of the investigation, UNC’s September 17th statement declared that “The investigation also found that these actions were isolated in scope and not a systemic failure.” Whether or not that accurately reflects the current state of UNC’s football program, the team has a longer history of scandal and misconduct that colors its legacy.



UNC's Academic Scandal


Reporting in 2014 revealed that thousands of students at UNC Chapel Hill took fake “paper classes” in the school’s Department of African and Afro-American Studies to remain eligible to compete in collegiate athletics for 18 years. Academic advisers at the university were intimately involved in executing this scheme and framed it as aid to student-athletes. A report produced by former US Justice Department official, Kenneth Wainstein, uncovered that at least 3,100 students took the “paper classes”, but many more were likely involved. Investigations launched by UNC and the NCAA revealed that students in “paper classes” did not have to attend class and only had to submit a research paper for the course, which often received an A or a B regardless of the work submitted.


Wainstein stated that “the students never had a single interaction with a faculty member; their only interaction was with Crowder, the student services manager who was not a member of the University faculty.” His reporting further presents that Debby Crowder and Julius Nyang’oro managed the entire ecosystem of the “paper classes” from start to finish. Data from Wainstein’s report showed that “of the identifiable enrollments in the lecture paper classes, 47.4% were student-athletes, even though student-athletes make up just over 4% of the Chapel Hill undergraduate student body. Of those student-athlete enrollments, 50.9% were football players, 12.2% were men’s basketball players, 6.1% were women’s basketball players, and 30.6% were Olympic and other sport athletes.”



UNC’s Learning Specialist, Mary Willingham, went public at the time with extensive allegations about these “paper classes” and the university’s athletic department’s knowledge of the scheme. Furthermore, former head football coach John Bunting (2001-2006) confessed to knowing about the “paper classes,” and that former Director of Football Cynthia Reynolds used them as part of her strategy to keep players eligible. Kenneth Wainstein’s report also illustrated an uptick in enrollment of football players in the “paper classes” during Bunting’s tenure at UNC.


However, after all of this, the NCAA governing body determined that no academic violations were committed at UNC, so no penalties would impact UNC as of October 2017.



The Scandal of American College Football


From the University of Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal to a University of Miami booster club member’s conviction for a Ponzi scheme, American college football has weathered and overcome numerous scandals throughout its history. Although some individuals faced punishments, monetary fines, and criminal proceedings, the sport has survived largely unscathed.



A 2025 Sports Illustrated article details some of the primary college football scandals of the 21st century, yet many escaped that list. With nearly half a century worth of college football under our belt, it is easy to believe that the lengthy history of college football scandals will continue in the years to come.



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