Bill Belichick's interesting decision to become North Carolina State football's head coach is a windfall for ESPN.
It remains to be seen whether Belichick, arguably the greatest coach in NFL history, won six Super Bowl championships as the Patriots' head coach and two more as the Giants' defensive coordinator, whether he will succeed at the college level.
But either way, it's sure to be interesting.
This scenario would be a huge win for ESPN, which operates the conference network and is the sole rights holder of the ACC.
North Carolina State will play conference games against Cal State, NC State, Clemson, Duke, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia and Wake Forest in 2025, as well as a non-conference home game against TCU.
None of these games would have been regular fan television before the Belichick news, and it would have been absolutely surprising news just a few days ago.
Now, fans are intrigued by the matchup and will choose it over others.
The job is not yet open, but it would have been interesting if Belichick went to a blue blood program like Texas or Alabama.
But in such a scenario, it's a program that's already expected to be a big draw for those schools and ESPN, which has exclusive rights to the SEC.
For ESPN, Belichick's arrival in North Carolina is like finding a wad of cash on the ground.
Even if ESPN loses Belichick to “The Manning Cast'' and “The Pat McAfee Show,'' both of which have been great this season, the benefits of having exclusive live rights to his games in North Carolina are: It will far outweigh your losses.
