The University of North Carolina Press (UNC Press) is a nonprofit book publisher affiliated with the University of North Carolina, as its name suggests.
However, it’s important to note that it’s an entity in its own right.
“The mission of The Office of Scholarly Publishing Services (OSPS) is to serve the University of North Carolina System by providing access to a range of sustainable, mission-driven publishing models and solutions,” reads their website.
The UNC system, which encompasses 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, not just the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus.
As that might imply, they are not directly affiliated with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels football program, and they certainly have no connection to its first-year head coach, Bill Belichick.
As Grayson Weir at BroBible notes, if a journalist wanted to contact Belichick, they would have to go through UNC-Chapel Hill media relations or the UNC Athletics department. They would not, however, have anything to gain by reaching out to UNC Press, which is, again, completely unrelated to the football program.
That hasn’t stopped some intrepid reporters from trying to use this unique angle to get information about Belichick and his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. That dynamic duo has sucked up all the oxygen around the program since he got the job, thanks to various media appearances and controversies. Many in the media would love the opportunity to get more details about them.
The folks at UNC Press created a TikTok video about the challenges they’ve faced recently. Using the popular meme that turns terrible Tinder conversations into songs, they make it clear that if you contact them asking for comment about Belichick, they truly cannot help you.
@uncpress Is this too niche? #universitypressproblems #academicpublishing #BookTok #universitypress #unc @Sonya Bonczek ♬ original sound – Lewky____
“The amount of times we get mistaken for the media office is wild,” reads the caption.
So please, the next time you want a comment from UNC officials regarding something Bill Belichick (or his girlfriend) did, please direct them accordingly and let these people get back to publishing books your professor required you to read but never did.