Bill Belichick could be fired by the weekend, when the Tar Heels face Cal

Bill Belichick could be fired by the weekend, when the Tar Heels face Cal originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Bill Belichick and North Carolina clearly rushed into this whole "marriage" thing, wouldn't you say? They were supposed to date for a while, get to know one another, learn about the other's interests, hobbies, favorite movies, discipline strategies, the works.

But not even halfway into their first year as a couple, the Tar Heels and their Super Bowl-winning coach are already arranging a split, and one insider expects it could happen before Belichick's team faces Cal this weekend.

Andrew Jones of 274 Sports weighed in, stating, "I don’t think it’s a lock that Belichick coaches the Cal game."

You've likely already read from a million sources that UNC is looking for a change from their legendary -- and expensive -- head coach. It's not uncommon for coaches to struggle out of the gate when jumping to an unfamiliar level of the game. College football is an entirely different beast from the NFL, where multiple levels of recruiting and vastly different calibers of opponents and talent place a program's weaknesses under the microscope.

The weaknesses in Belichick's Tar Heel regime have been broadcast for the world to see, as his team has lost to every power four opponent they've faced, often with a brutal chasm of a score differential.

It's not just about losing football games -- new head coaches do that all the time. According to NBC Sports, a heap of rule violations behind the scenes has been a catalyst to speed the exit strategy along. 

"The fast-rolling snowball seems to be related to accounts of potential rules violations. This week, reports emerged that an assistant coach was suspended for providing extra benefits to player families and that players were selling free tickets they had received for games."

It hasn't been pretty -- heck, for UNC it's been borderline unpalatable. Considering the circumstances, the $1 million buyout the school would face seems like nothing for the opportunity to simply press the reset button.

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