Paul Finebaum outlines conditions Bill Belichick needs to meet for UNC to qualify in next year's CFP

The North Carolina Tar Heels confirmed hiring Bill Belichick as their head coach on Wednesday, replacing Mack Brown in Chapel Hill. The position is the former New England Patriots coach's first involvement in college football in his illustrious career.

On Wednesday's "Get Up," outspoken ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum outlined the conditions for Belichick to lead UNC to an unprecedented college football playoff appearance in his first season (11:20).

“North Carolina was already a good program, not a great program,” Finebaum said. “But a program that could get to a championship game as they did a couple of years ago. Now they can easily, and I mean easily, get to the CFP because this year — we just got through talking about the ACC getting two teams in the Playoff.

"All you have to do is have a good season and maybe get to the championship game and in that league, he can do that.”

It wasn't the first time Finebaum affirmed that Bill Belichick would be a good hire for the Tar Heels. During Friday's episode of "Get Up," the ESPN analyst tabbed the former Patriots coach to succeed in Chapel Hill.

"I could see him (Bill Belichick) coaching in college next year" Finebaum said. "Chapel Hill is a very unique situation: the expectations aren’t the same as Georgia, Texas, and Alabama, they have a great infrastructure.

"If they are patient, I think he can turn that place around. Mack Brown almost got over the hump, but just quite couldn’t. Bill Belichick could easily do that."

Cam Newton unsure about Bill Belichick succeeding at UNC

As the news of Belichick's talks with UNC heated up, during Thursday's segment of ESPN's "First Take," former NFL star Cam Newton reasoned that the former New England coach would not thrive as a college football coach.

"I don't think he'd fit," Newton said. "And in large part because of this era that we're living in with the entitlement kids. Now, the thing that I admired the most about Coach Belichick was that he was an astute student of the game. He was almost like an almanac right, and he would teach the sport of football to everybody. From trainers to kickers to punters."

"Everybody just had to understand the point of emphasis that he was trying to make," Newton added. "I don't know if that works for a 17-year-old, five-star recruit that feels like he's supposed to get even more money from NIL, and this type of attitude when even in the playoffs, you've seen the documentaries, you've seen former players talk about it, he believes in practice and I mean practicing hard."

Both college football and NFL fans will eye the North Carolina project under Bill Belichick to see whether the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach can transfer his pro league genius to the notoriously difficult college football landscape.