New North Carolina general manager Michael Lombardi's $1.5 million salary has been known since February, but new details continue to emerge.
As first reported by WRAL, Lombardi signed his contract on July 13 in what we now know as a 3-year deal. His contract began Dec. 14, 2024 and runs through Jan. 15, 2028. He was also paid $15,000 for relocation expenses, a $10,000 signing bonus, and allowed up to $7,500 a month for a vehicle.
His bonus structure pays out one month's salary for a "non-elite" bowl game, one and a half months for an "elite" non-CFP game, and two months' salary for reaching the College Football Playoff or the ACC Championship. He can also receive a bonus worth two months' salary for a top-25 finish in an NCAA-recognize poll, plus an additional two months' salary for a national title. All told, Lombardi stands to make over $2 million in the event the Tar Heels capture their first national championship over the next three seasons. He can also earn $2,500 if UNC's APR is at or above 975. His contract includes offset language and a duty to mitigate, should UNC terminate Lombardi prior to the contract's expiration.
Lombardi's $1.5 million salary is believed to be the highest of its kind in college football. USC's Chad Bowden makes in the $1 million range, according to FootballScoop's John Brice. Mark Pantoni, among the longest-tenured in the space and the owner of the most recent national championship, signed a 3-year deal this offseason starting at $900,000. Texas Tech's James Blanchard turned down Notre Dame to sign a 3-year deal worth a total of $1.575 million. Alabama's Courtney Morgan will make a reported $825,000 in 2025, and Louisville's Vince Marrow will earn $700,000. Jim Nagy left the Senior Bowl for a $750,000 salary at Oklahoma.
What sets Lombardi apart from his colleagues on other campuses is that he's the only one to have served as an NFL general manager, a position he occupied for the Cleveland Browns in 2013, in addition to director or senior roles in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Oakland, and New England. However, Lombardi last worked full-time for a football team in 2016, spending the intervening years between New England and Chapel Hill in various media roles. While Lombardi's colleagues have dedicated their professional lives into knowing the personnel game at the college level, Lombardi's last (and only) college experience came as a recruiting coordinator at UNLV in the early 1980s.
Regardless, North Carolina wanted Bill Belichick, and Belichick wanted Lombardi. And now Lombardi has a contract that, officially, sets a new standard in the exploding market of college football general managers.