By almost every measure, the Tar Heels didn't meet the mark in 2025. And there is no sport that this was more evident than with the football program.

UNC made the splashiest hire in modern college football history by hiring NFL coaching legend Bill Belichick. The school agreed to compensate him $10 million per year, plus provided him an NIL war chest and even made his right-hand man Mike Lombardi the highest-paid general manager in the country.

The offseason media surge reached unprecedented levels — most of it driven by Belichick's personal life rather than for football reasons — for the UNC program. But for how much the Tar Heels were discussed, nobody could have imagined how badly the season was going to go.

The team finished 4-8, which was the program's worst record since 2018. Half of the losses were by margins that exceeded 20 points. UNC also went 0-3 against its in-state, ACC rivals to close the year.

Unless Belichick stuns the football world with a late-cycle leap to the NFL, he will return for a second season in Chapel Hill. The four-win season prompted the firing of coordinators Mike Priefer (special teams) and Freddie Kitchens (offensive), who was just replaced by the notoriously-nomadic Bobby Petrino.

The Tar Heels' standard in basketball wasn't met either. More specifically, the men's team was aggressively mediocre.

UNC lost at home to Stanford. It was routed by 20 points at Clemson. The Heels went 0-3 against Duke, culminating with Jae-Lyn Withers' lane-violation in the ACC Tournament semifinal erasing what would have been a tying free throw attempt in the final seconds. 

Since they didn't have any Quad 1 wins, it was polarizing when the NCAA Tournament selection committee — chaired by UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham — was selected as the final at-large team in the field. After one win in the First Four, the Tar Heels lost to Ole Miss in the Round of 64.

But it wasn't just football and men's basketball that disappointed.

Scott Forbes' baseball program entered the postseason with a lot of hype. However, despite taking Game 1 of the best-of-three Chapel Hill Super Regional, the Tar Heels saw their season end with two straight losses to Arizona.

Courtney Banghart's women's basketball team also endured heartbreak in the NCAA Tournament. It was to 38 points — against Duke of all teams — in a Sweet 16 loss. 

So as we count down the days until 2026 arrives, here's to hoping it's much better than what the last 12 months have brought.