Bill Belichick outlines where North Carolina's scholarship totals stand entering season

New rules pertaining to roster size and scholarship limits have been implemented this summer as a part of the fallout from June’s history NCAA-House settlement. Each Division I FBS program who chooses to participate will increase their rosters to 105 players and have no limits on sport-specific scholarships.

North Carolina‘s Bill Belichick is having to navigate this for the first time as a college head coach. He outlined where the Tar Heels stand with their scholarship totals are at heading into fall camp.

“It’s still a little bit of a work in progress,” Belichick said. “Our scholarships will be under 105 – we do have a grandfather clause or rule in where the players that were walk ons last year get grandfathered in. So us, probably, like most every other college team will be actually over the 105 with those grandfathered players.

“We have some players who are not on scholarship, who are the under the 105 and obviously most of them will be on scholarship, but there are some guys that are kind of in that gray area. Maybe they can earn a scholarship, depending on what their role is.”

As schools adapt to these new regulations, grandfathered players will have to earn their keep next season. As Belichick noted — the door is open for any walk-on to receive a scholarship if he thinks they’ve earned it. For the time being, Belichick assured that none of his players have to worry about losing their roster spot due to the new rules.

“From a numbers standpoint, we’re in good shape,” Belichick continued. “We’re not going to have to release players to get to the 105. We already kind of did that in the spring, which was a difficult decision to make, but I think most of those players ended up at other schools and will be playing this fall. We’re not really going to be restricted on the roster size this year.”

With North Carolina’s roster set in stone — only weeks separate Belichick from his first-ever game as the head coach of a college football program. The Tar Heels will host the TCU Horned Frogs on Sept. 1 inside Kenan Stadium. If one thing’s for sure, all eyes will be on the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach live on ESPN to see what the UNC program looks in his image.

North Carolina is a three-point betting favorite heading into the matchup, according to BetMGM. The over/under is set at 58.5 points.