Michael Lombardi is gone. But the cloud around UNC-Chapel Hill’s investigation of the former general manager of its football program — and his resulting resignation — remains.

We now know, at least, how much Carolina spent on the probe, thanks to contracts and itemized invoices obtained by the News & Observer.

The school spent at least $914,463 earlier this year on its investigation into Lombardi, hiring three law firms between July 9 and Sept. 30.

According to multiple reports in the aftermath of Lombardi’s resignation on Sept. 3, the university probe led to questions surrounding Steve Belichick’s medical leave, and the reasons behind it. Allegations within those reports included investigators asking questions about providing illicit substances to a player, and possible inappropriate relationships between staff and players and upper-level employees and their subordinates.

UNC did not address any specific allegations when announcing the investigation had concluded.

The core legal team — Nate Huff and McNair Nichols — were at times working for more than $1,100/hour each, and occasionally pulling 13-hour work days. The pair worked for two different law firms throughout the investigation: K&L Gates and Barnes & Thornburg, which recruited the lawyers from K&L Gates in August.

The school was billed $86,500 by K&L Gates, $821,300 by Barnes & Thornburg, and $6,700 by Williams Mullen, a firm tasked with handling litigation and employment issues. The first set of invoices from K&L Gates are for services provided from July 9-31, which is four days after Lombardi was placed on administrative leave.

A third-party vendor was brought in on Aug. 19 to provide “imaging work” for the school. Heavy evidence review then ramped up in late August. Barnes & Thornburg was given access to student education records because UNC deemed the firm “a school official,” circumventing the federal education privacy law known as FERPA.

In less than 12 weeks, 22 people worked for more than 1,100 hours on the investigation.

On the day of Lombardi’s resignation, Huff worked for 13 hours and Nichols worked for more than 10.

The N&O reached out to UNC for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

The independent, internal investigation was finalized on Sept. 17. UNC announced in a release signaling the conclusion of the investigation that former UNC defensive coordinator and Bill Belichick’s son, Steve Belichick, would resign at the conclusion of his scheduled medical leave on Oct. 27. Williams Mullen summarized the investigation on its invoices as “Lombardi Investigation.” Steve Belichick’s name was not mentioned.

Addressing media at a break in the UNC Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 23, UNC athletic director Steve Newark alluded to those changes in leadership positions as the first of two “significant outcomes” as a result of the investigation. The second was a “corrective action plan” to sustain a culture of accountability for the program.

“We are putting in place a training program, we will have reporting mechanisms, we will have policy enforcement that we will continue to constantly monitor as we go through the year,” Newmark expanded. “That will involve more than just the football program. That will involve myself, the athletic department, and the office of University Council.”

Newmark said over 60 interviews were conducted over the course of the investigation, which provided “unfettered access” to the football program. The university’s release said in its release that the investigation found certain actions showed a disregard for UNC’s values, but were “isolated in scope and not a systematic failure.”

UNC will pay at least another additional $100,000 to Turnkey ZRG, which it retained to lead the search for its next football general manager as well as provide football consulting services, according to additional documents obtained by the News & Observer.

Former University of Michigan football general manager Sean Magee is leading the football consulting efforts. Turnkey ZRG pitched him as the program’s “interim GM,” according to emails obtained by the News & Observer, and some of his duties include the introduction of a professionalized scouting and evaluation system, developing structured player valuation models and other key player personnel tasks as UNC builds for future seasons.

This story was originally published November 4, 2026 at 8:38 PM with the headline "See how much it cost UNC to investigate former football GM Michael Lombardi."