North Carolina Opens Season in Dublin as Courts Fight Over NFL Players Returning to College Football

A Second Chance in Dublin

Bill Belichick's second season at North Carolina kicks off today, Saturday, August 29, 2026, at noon ET against TCU, played at a neutral site in Dublin, Ireland. It's the same opponent that opened last year's disaster of a debut season, according to NBC Sports.

The numbers from 2025 were rough. North Carolina finished 4-8 overall and 2-6 in conference play without producing a single NFL Draft pick, according to saturdayblitz. Belichick, the 74-year-old, should-be Hall of Fame NFL coach, is now two years into a five-year, $50 million contract, but only the first three years are guaranteed, per NBC Sports. If UNC fires him after this season, the school would owe him just one year of pay.

The roster looks different this time. UNC leaned into high school recruiting rather than the transfer portal that defined Belichick's chaotic first offseason, though the smaller portal class still landed three tight ends and a pass-catcher from a Patriot League program, according to the New York Post. Offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino takes over play-calling with veteran quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. under center. Defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, Bill's son, remains on medical leave and will not be in Dublin, per NBC Sports. UNC general manager Michael Lombardi has also been on paid administrative leave for the past month while the school conducts an internal investigation, and no further details on that investigation have been made public.

TCU enters with its own turnover. Starting quarterback Josh Hoover transferred to Indiana, three of the team's four top pass-catchers from 2025 are gone, and coach Sonny Dykes is turning to Jaden Craig, a graduate transfer from Harvard, to run the offense, according to the New York Post. Bettor Michael Leboff of the Post is backing North Carolina to cover a 9.5-point spread, arguing last year's bandwagon collapse has made the line too generous for what he considers a more sensible UNC roster.

Two States, Two Rulings

The game in Dublin pales beside what's happening in courtrooms in Texas and Louisiana, according to Front Office Sports. The fight traces back to June, when the NCAA passed a new age-based eligibility policy giving players five years to complete five seasons, starting either when they enter college or turn 19, whichever comes first. That triggered a wave of lawsuits from players seeking a fifth year of eligibility.

A Texas judge issued a temporary restraining order against the NCAA, the SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey, clearing the way for 40 players to gain that fifth year and, under the ruling, allowing multiple NFL rookies to return to college and play this season, according to The Athletic's Pulse newsletter.

Separately, a Baton Rouge judge issued a temporary ruling roughly a week and a half ago allowing a specific group of players who had already participated in NFL preseason activities to return to college football, according to Front Office Sports. Two of the plaintiffs, tight end Dae'Quan Wright, formerly of the Cleveland Browns, and Zxavian Harris, signed with LSU under coach Lane Kiffin. A third plaintiff, Jack Pyburn, is currently on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roster and would join LSU as well if he's released, according to court documents cited by Front Office Sports.

Power conferences didn't wait around. The SEC and Big Ten passed new policies this past week explicitly barring players with NFL experience from returning to college, even though the court rulings said the NCAA couldn't stop them, according to Front Office Sports. Players have now sued to strike down the SEC's new policy, and LSU is expected to back its own players against its own conference in that fight, per Front Office Sports.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has publicly sided with Kiffin and LSU against the SEC, saying "don't hate the player, hate the game," according to WFMD's report on the dispute. Fox News also flagged growing unease among coaches over the financial side of this fight, referencing warnings from coach Matt Rhule about NFL returnees and what he called college football's payroll problem tied to rosters now running into the tens of millions of dollars.

On Friday, August 28, attorneys for the athletes amended their Louisiana lawsuit to add the SEC itself as a defendant, a move that could force conference counsel to explain in court why the league isn't complying with the judge's order, according to Fox News and WFMD.

What Happens Next

A fuller hearing on the SEC's inclusion in the Baton Rouge case is expected as soon as next week, according to Fox News, but the same report raises an immediate question: whether the judge grants an emergency injunction that lets the affected players suit up before that hearing even happens.

Nobody expects Sankey to personally show up in a Baton Rouge courtroom. But if a judge orders players onto the field against SEC policy this weekend, the conference will have to decide in real time whether to enforce a rule a court has already told it not to enforce. That decision, not anything that happens in Dublin, is what the rest of the sport is watching for.