Pat McAfee went off-script in a big way on the first College GameDay broadcast of the 2026 season.
When McAfee and the rest of the crew - joined by country music star Lainey Wilson - started making their picks for the major conference winners, most of the panel landed on the same side. McAfee didn’t. Instead, the former NFL punter and ESPN analyst backed Bill Belichick and North Carolina to win the ACC.
Yes, North Carolina.
Pat McAfee picks Bill Belichick and North Carolina to win the ACC 🐏 pic.twitter.com/a8Q8V7p50l
- CFB Kings (@CFBKings) September 5, 2026
The rest of the group chose Miami, which looked like the comfortable answer, especially after Miami’s season-opening beatdown of Stanford on Friday night. McAfee, though, clearly wasn’t interested in following the crowd.
It’s a bold call considering what UNC just went through in 2025, a brutal season that left plenty of doubt around Chapel Hill. There’s also been off-the-field chaos, and even with a season-opening win in Ireland over TCU last weekend, the Tar Heels still aren’t widely viewed as a team ready to flip the script overnight.
That skepticism isn’t hard to understand. UNC was projected to finish 15th in the ACC this season, and that number alone tells you how little confidence the outside world has in the program right now.
McAfee, however, is standing firm behind Belichick and North Carolina no matter what. He’s not backing off that belief, even with all the baggage around the program.
Maybe people think he’s crazy. Maybe they’re right. But if this pick somehow hits, it would be one heck of a story.
In Other News...
UNCs New Big Could Decide How Dangerous This Offense Becomes
North Carolinas offseason makeover has put a spotlight on Sayon Keita, the former Barcelona center whose arrival could end up shaping how far this group can go. Michael Malone made clear the staff sees more than just size in Keita, pointing to his value as a defender, his ability to guard multiple positions and the potential he brings as a playmaker in a system that wants to play fast and keep pressure on opponents.
The intriguing part is how much his growth on offense could matter for the Tar Heels ceiling. If Keita becomes more than a stopper inside the paint and starts giving North Carolina another reliable threat in the flow of the game, it could open up the pace and spacing Malone wants. If he stays mostly on the defensive side of the ledger, the offense may still work, but it would look a lot different than the version this roster seems built to become. [Read more 🡒]
Bill Belichick Still Faces One Big UNC Question After Opening Win
Bill Belichicks first season in Chapel Hill ended at 4-8, so the Tar Heels badly needed a cleaner start this fall, and they got one by knocking off TCU in their opener. North Carolina had enough defensive pop to make the night feel different, with Xavier Lewis and Melkart Abou-Jaoude helping set the tone, while Billy Edwards Jr. found support from Jelani Thurman and Jaylen McGill on the other side of the ball.
The bigger question now is whether that opening performance can become something more than a good September snapshot. North Carolina gets East Tennessee State next, another chance to show the win over TCU was a sign of real progress under Belichick rather than just a promising first step in a season that still needs proof. [Read more 🡒]
Tar Heels Finally Showed The Attack Fans Have Been Waiting For
After a slow opening stretch, No. 10 Carolinas field hockey team finally found the kind of finish it has been chasing in a 7-0 home-opening rout of Penn at Karen Shelton Stadium. Five different Tar Heels scored in the victory, giving the offense a broader look than it had shown in the first two games and delivering the program its highest-scoring shutout since 2024.
The breakthrough came with the kind of balance Carolina will want to keep leaning on, especially with conference play looming and the record now sitting at 1-2. Grace Pottebaum was among the scorers, and the Tar Heels also did a lot of damage on set pieces, an encouraging sign for a group that had been waiting for a cleaner, more assertive attack to show up. [Read more 🡒]