How North Carolina Drama Could Affect UCLA

“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,'” he said. “Is this something that’s sustainable? Is that fireable? What does he have to do to get fired? These are all active questions.”

The question becomes why is this important, more so why is this important to UCLA?

Coaches join programs, then they become the program. Alabama wasn’t successful through the 60s and 70s because they had Bear Bryant; it’s because they were Bryant.

In the same way Nick Saban held that power at Alabama 40 years later.

Bill Belichick is on the verge of taking North Carolina football to newfound popularity, popularity that leads to changes.

If North Carolina is ever to leave the ACC, basketball won’t get them there. Basketball is a great game, but it doesn’t move financial mountains like football does, and if Belichick is no longer the face of North Carolina, they go back to being an afterthought in the grand scheme of college football.

The only thing that matters in football is results, and the Big Ten and SEC want programs that produce results, something Belichick does at an unprecedented level.

Currently, Florida State and Clemson financially benefit massively from the ACC. If North Carolina wants a bigger piece of the pie, they have the ultimate bargaining tool with Belichick. If Belichick goes, there goes North Carolina's leverage, and UCLA doesn't need to worry about a potential new conference member in Tar Heel blue.

However, in that same breath, the ACC got lucky to get two teams in the College Football Playoff. Had Miami defeated Syracuse in the season finale and then lost to SMU in the ACC title game, the conference might have only had one.

Belichick is popular enough to get North Carolina in as an at-large, a level of popularity not seen with the rest of the conference. That's a spot away from the Big Ten potentially, which leads to less conference money going to UCLA and potentially North Carolina taking a spot in the CFP from UCLA should the Bruins be in the mix.

All that goes away with Belichick if he leaves.

This is something to keep an eye out for because if the College Football Playoff expands and the ACC gets three auto bids, we could see Florida State, SMU, North Carolina, Miami and Clemson battle for those spots annually, with a fourth team getting in as an at-large, once again taking things away from UCLA.