Pat McAfee shares wild Bill Belichick, UNC prediction

Media personality Pat McAfee. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Pat McAfee shares wild Bill Belichick, UNC prediction

By Ernesto Cova | Last updated Sep 5, 2026 5:01 PM ET

For lack of a better word, it's safe to say that Bill Belichick's tenure with the UNC Tar Heels has gotten off to a "complicated" beginning.

He failed to turn the program around in his first year at Chapel Hill and has been plagued by off-the-field controversy, unnecessary distractions and now an investigation into Michael Lombardi and Bill's son, Steve.

The Tar Heels managed to shut down the outside noise to beat TCU in Ireland in Week 0, and that may have been enough to make Pat McAfee believe.

In the latest edition of ESPN's "College GameDay," the punter turned show host, anchor, analyst, country music "singer" and what have you, predicted that Belichick's Tar Heels would win the ACC.

Pat McAfee believes UNC will win the ACC

Everyone on @CollegeGameDay picked Miami to win the ACC except for Pat McAfee, who picked #UNC to win the conference.
— Noah Weiskopf (@NoahWeiskopf) September 5, 2026

Unsurprisingly, and for understandable reasons, McAfee was the only one who made such a bold prediction.

Everyone else in the panel backed Mario Cristobal's Miami (FL) to go the distance again this season and win the conference.

Led by transfer quarterback Darian Mensah, the Hurricanes took down the Stanford Cardinal in the first game of the season, so, like the Tar Heels, they're also sitting on a perfect 1-0 record.

Given all the outside noise, distractions, and how strong other programs look, McAfee's prediction is certainly one that might age like milk left out of the fridge.

That said, we're still talking about one of the greatest defensive minds in football history, and it has rarely paid off to bet against the great Bill Belichick.

Ernesto Cova

Ernesto is a bilingual (English-Spanish) sports writer with over eight years of experience covering major leagues such as the NBA, NFL, and MLB. Ernesto’s work focuses on providing insightful, up-to-date coverage of sports, blending his expertise in sports psychology with a passion for analyzing player performance, team dynamics, and trade developments across various sports leagues

More must-reads: