A new lawsuit alleges that the University of North Carolina and its board of trustees illegally hired football coach Bill Belichick behind closed doors.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by former UNC administrator Chris Clemens and lawyer David McKenzie, also accuses the public institution of hiding discussions about potential conference realignment — highlighting a “pattern and practice” by UNC to conceal “matters of grave public concern behind closed doors.”
Clemens’ suit extends beyond Belichick’s hiring and realignment conversations. The former provost alleges he was punished for “‘leaking closed-session information” to faculty about a meeting regarding tenure deferral.
He was supposedly asked to resign — and whether or not by his own accord — ultimately did so, effective May 16.
Three occurrences regarding the UNC athletic department were alleged in the lawsuit, conversations that Clemens believes reflect a “systematic misuse of closed sessions to hide policy debates from public view.”
The marquee accusation details an “emergency meeting” called by the board on Dec. 24, 2024, in which they signed off on Belichick’s hiring in a closed session. The suit contends that there was no proper subject to discuss in a closed session, as the “compensation package and entire hiring was already public.”
The lawsuit also purports a closed-door conversation in November 2023 surrounding the university’s ACC commitment and the comparison between “potential financial outcomes with SEC or Big Ten membership.”
UNC’s board revisited the subject in a closed session in May 2024, according to the suit, where they debated “conference realignment strategy and athletics department finances.”
“Each episode follows the same pattern,” the complaint reads, “the Board invokes a statutory exemption, enters closed session, then discusses broad policy or budget matters that must be debated publicly. The Board compounds these violations by maintaining inadequate general accounts that prevent public understanding of what transpired.”
UNC board of trustees chairman Malcolm Turner vehemently denied Clemens’ allegations, telling Front Office Sports that the former administrator’s claims are “disappointing and inaccurate, not to mention a waste of taxpayer dollars, for which this former officer of the University shows no regard.”