Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - Are Clemson and Florida State leaving the ACC?

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

ACC's future hangs in the balance as Florida State and Clemson shake up the conference with a groundbreaking settlement. Could this be the beginning of the end for the ACC as we know it? With Florida State securing a larger share of TV revenue, the financial landscape of college sports is shifting dramatically.Explore the implications of this deal with insights from Alex Dono, Morgan Thomas, and Jackson Holzer. They dissect the potential fallout for smaller schools and the looming threat of a "super league." Meanwhile, Isaac Shade examines the dwindling prospects for ACC basketball, questioning if the conference can maintain its competitive edge in the NCAA tournament.Join the conversation to uncover how these developments might redefine college sports. Listen now for expert analysis and insider perspectives. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What an eventful week. The ACC has settled with Florida State and Clemson. Lawsuits are over. Here's who won and who lost. Let's bring in the squad. You're talking ball with the ACC squad. From Florida State to North Carolina, from Syracuse to Miami, and from NC State to California,

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We're part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by the all-new 2025 Nissan Armada. Stay with us for the Armada team of the week later on in this episode. So gentlemen, for the last year and a half, there's, you know, this black cloud has been over the ACC with these lawsuits. They have reached a settlement. It's been approved by all of the schools, including, of course, Florida State and Clemson. I think that there are bigger winners here on a certain side of it. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Caines.

We got Morgan Thomas from Locked on Clemson, Jackson Holzer from Locked on Syracuse, Kenton Gibbs, and Grayson Boone from Lockdown, Wolfpack. We got Brian Smith from Lockdown Semitles. We got JJ Jackson from Locked on Blue Devils. We have Isaac Shade from Locked on Tar Heels and Locked on College basketball. Now, I'm going to let Ryan Smith by the first round because Florida State has been the most vocal with their lawsuits. I'll let Morgan Thomas from Clemson by the second round. But Brian, from the Florida state perspective, how do you look at this settlement and talk about the wins here from the FSU side? Well, they get roughly 15% of the viewership and TV.

So the second part of it, if you haven't read it, 60% of the revenue is going to be based on viewership on television. So Florida State financially will take a big jump up. So that part is great, just that part. The 40% is kind of the traditional model on the other back half. But over half the money is based on viewership. So Forte states, I was shocked they got this much this quickly. And I'm sure Florida State's very happy. Now, if you want to talk about the fan base, they're still not happy because the ACCC,

still a part of the daily deal. But that's all another. The Florida State fan base is still angry. That's not going to be fixed. It's not fixable. But the money part changes your program. I'm going to guess $20 more million a year, give or take. You're going to have more boosters involved.

You're going to have people happier. You're going to be able to sign more agreements. It's a win. Helps you with coaching. Helps you with recruiting. Helps you with facilities. There's nothing not to like about that. And for me, I'm just glad that I'll have to read a bunch of legal jargon

all the time on the newspaper scene. So it's a win in that regard as well. I just am shocked that they got it done this quickly. I thought it was going to be two, three more years. Same. And Morgan, talk about Clemson, which is obviously there were the other school suing the ACC. It never felt like Clemson or Clemson fans were quite as rabid anti-ACC as Florida State was. That's why I let Brian buy the first round.

But this is obviously a big dub for the Tigers as well. I think Florida State could be defined by aggressive, but also necessarily aggressive for sure. They started the conversation. They came to the table first. Clemson followed that, and I think I would label Clemson as smart. They didn't burn any bridges. They didn't cause any too much of a ruckus, but they made sure that their hand was known, that their demands were known as well. And the biggest thing was clarity. I don't know what the grant of rights was before this. I think none of us really talked about it. And when we talked about what the buyout would be, there was numbers in the ballpark of $500, $700, $700,000. Well, that's not realistic when you're making less than

your rivals that you're trying to and beat not only in the recruiting trail, but on the basketball court, the baseball diamond, and the football field. So now the one thing we have is clarity. We know, hey, if you want to get out of the ACC, you can do so. We know what the certain price is, about $75 million. We know that it goes down as you keep going instead of just being this number that's just over your head for the next 11 years. And we also know, know that Clemson has opportunities to still stay because they put on the table that there's that revenue sharing part of it that, to be honest with you, I think is the best model that's out there. Yeah, anyone care to jump in? Because listen, I agree that it makes sense that, you know,

brands, when you perform, bring TV ratings and you also win on the field. Like, to me, there's no reason why, like, coming off of last season, why Clemson and Wake Forest should have a completely equal revenue split. I think earning it, there's something to be said for that. I partially agree with that, but there's also a fact of the matter here. The conferences are set up in that way for a reason. Everybody got paid the same amount for a reason when this thing first started. Don't get me wrong. Florida State and Clemson won. Nobody can deny that. This is outright one of the most one-sided wins that we've ever seen in terms of a litigation thing in college. But with that being said, I'm looking at this and I'm saying to myself,

what happens to those lower-ranked schools? Because if you're talking about a Wake Forest, a Boston College or whoever, that just objectively, they're one of the bottom teams on a total poll in terms of viewership, you take $7 million away from what they're already making. That almost puts you on pace with G5 schools in terms of what they're getting. So it really gets to a point where it's like, how much is too much to give them? Yes, you carry the viewership because you have a larger brand. Absolutely.

No doubt about that. But at what point do you stop to say, okay, we've given enough. We've got success initiative. We've got the brand initiative. Is there anything else that you can give? I've joked about having a Sector and Crown initiative for these two schools next. But, I mean, in all seriousness, what else can you give? because if it is something else to give, I'm sure the ACC tried to give it away in this settlement,

which makes me think, what the hell is in the granted rights? That everybody's like, we don't want this to get out at any cost. This thing, we can't let not a lick of discovery happen. But I digress. Again, if you are part of the Clemsler-State-Fand-Bet, I don't know what the hell you'd be mad about because you want. You won massively, but that's just what I think. I guess I'll just throw in on top of Kenton. He's right.

My concern is it will become such a disparity, financial. that like, Lake Forest has had a nice run. I mean, it's still Wake Forest, but we never thought they'd be consistent and shout out to all the guys that coached there and played there.

But with even more of a disparity financially, they could be back to three and nine football and really hard to get out of it. So it makes me think that the more you look at the financial change, that it's almost inevitable that the ACC is going to split somewhere down the road. And that's why I was so shocked that they, signed with Florida State and Clemson. Because like, is there any chance after 2030 that they

stick around? Like the league is, I mean, it's not the greatest week football wise. It's solid. But with this, I mean, it's going to be really top hit. Even more than it's ever been. Miami, Florida State and Clemson are the three biggest brands. There's a few others that are kind of mixed in. But with the money change, how are these schools going to compete in recruiting and stuff? They never like Duke's not going to out recruit for a state in football, like just as vice versa in basketball. But this is going to make it really. That, JJ. Bummer.

But also let me add in, though, like one of the reasons why I think this is a good thing is, like, in today's college sports landscape, especially football and basketball, more than ever, spending more gets rewarded, investing in your programs, right? When you add, I mean, NIL has changed the game. I mean, it used to be the arms race was facilities, which will help you in recruiting. Like now you are directly paying athletes. And so now you have more incentive to invest in your football programs and your basketball programs. If not, and listen, obviously, not everybody's on a level playing field. It's going to be, you know, harder for Boston College and Wake Forest to have the success that the, you know, that the Clemsons and Florida states have doing this.

But it still gives everybody incentive to invest more in your football and basketball programs. And that to me, that's one of the few dubs I think the ACC gets in this. That theoretically, you're encouraging all of your schools to invest more and try and be more competitive. But how is a school? So I'm in favor of giving more money to teams that A, win and B, get more viewership. It makes more, it makes a lot of sense. But having said that, you're saying, all right, let's invest in our program. Well, if you're getting less money, then it makes it harder to.

invest in said program. So I don't know. It just it feels like the ACC just kind of just kind of rolled over here and said what do you want? Like and I feel I go back to over a year ago. I spoke to Kenton about it. It felt like the other schools involved here. So basically every school not named Clemson and Florida State, they had all the leverage because they couldn't leave. If they could leave, they already would have left. So I just. want to know why now? Why did they just want to get it over with? I think so. Yeah. But they have leverage and they just said that's for it. My, my biggest concern here is not only that you have done a disservice in terms of, hey, you rolled over and you can see it all this

good stuff. I don't think people realize this is not good for the conference overall in the short term or long term. You say you have the stability of getting together. but let's think about this just for a quick second, okay? Three years down the road. Now, the number that's being floated out is that Clemson and Florida State are set to make an additional $20 million without even discussing national championship, conference championship, any of that, right? We are talking about $20 million more out of the same pie.

I could understand if there were more pines being put at the table and say, hey, Florida State, Clemson, go ahead and get you a bigger slice. Maybe we got more. No, when their piece of pie grows, What happens to everybody else's piece? It shrinks. Now, here's the problem with that outside of the ACC. If those teams, like Donald talked about,

if those teams are relegated to perpetual three and nine status, how the hell can they compete out of conference? Oh, that's fair. What are they going to do when you have, sorry, Jackson, Syracuse going to play Minnesota. What are you going to do when you see? Sorry, JJ, Duke going to play Northwestern. What do you do?

Because again, the Big Ten has this radical idea. Hey, everybody gets paid the same. Hey, we know Michigan and Ohio State in the game draw way more odds in Northwestern ever with, ever in a month of Sunday. But everybody gets paid the same. So naturally, that team that was already ahead of you, even if y'all were neck and neck and being paid to same, those teams are dragging down more.

Because again, if you do 20 mil more for Florida State Clemson, That means that at least if it's $7 million less for East team, every time they get 20 more, three teams get seven less. Your bottom six just got seven less. That's tough. I mean, I want to go from the other angle of it as well, and I can understand that. I think that there's a lot of people out there that say,

well, you know, this is just delating the inevitable, and now you've got an actual number out there. You've got something that's going to decrease year over year. Clemson is just going to be looking at 2030. And now Clemson and Florida State have basically shown that their brand matters this much. Okay. And so when 2030 comes around and the other big conferences go into their renegotiations with, you know, the big four-letter networks or the three-letter network, they're going to go out there and they're going to say, hey, don't forget about us over here in the ACC. We're so powerful.

See what we did in 2025? Well, you want us to be a part of your group because that's going to give you even more leverage for your. for your renegotiation. So I can see it working out that way down the line. They're not going to be waiting for 2036. They're going to be waiting for 2030 and see if they can get in and jump ship to one of those renegotiations. I wouldn't, I would not say that that could not happen. That's a very high chance. But I also feel like what happens when other teams say, well, how come I'm Alabama and I'm making exactly the same as what the worst team in the SEC is doing? How come I'm Ohio state and I'm making exactly the same as the worst team, not just the worst team, the worst eight

teams in the Big Ten. So I honestly think like maybe they could look at this and say, why don't we do it this way? I mean, why are we going to sit around and let Clemson and Florida State now compete with us and keep the ACC around with some contenders? Why don't we renegotiate ours so that we can be top dogs even more so. So I mean, if I'm if I'm one of those top teams over there, I don't want to share exactly the same amount, especially when I'm, I'm bringing fans to my stadium. I'm bringing fans, butts in seats watching on television. And I've got a bunch of clicks on social media and everything. I want more piece of the pie. If you're, if you're a big player and not just someone that's pretending, I've always said this. If you ever get to a super league,

you're going to want to buy in. You're going to want the best teams in there. These teams that we're talking about, the environment is changing. And I hate to say that. I would love to go back to like the 17 ACC when I was a kid. But we're not going back to that. Well, I think that's a great. Hold on. I want to expand on that when we come back and also talk about the ACC's point of view

because I think we've outlined the wins for Clemson and Florida State. But what about the ACC? Did they give up too much and why? You want to keep it locked right here, my friends. we're only getting started on this brand new episode of the squad. The Armada team of the week is brought to you by our friends at Nissan and the all-new 2025 Nissan Armada. Each week, our Lockdown Kane's basketball experts are picking one team that stands apart from top-seated stars to the unexpected upsets. These guys showcase the strength and sheer power needed to push their team forward.

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We got Morgan Thomas from Lockdown Clemson, Jackson Holzer, locked on Syracuse, Kenton Gibbs, and Grayson Boone from Lockdown Wolfpack, JJ Jackson from Lockdown Blue Devils, Isaac Shade from Locked on Tar Heels. So, guys, here are the details. was right to bring out the low-key biggest dub here for Florida State and Clemson are the defined terms of buyout because we never had those defined before. And now we know exactly how much money Florida State Clemson or anybody else who wants to leave would have to spend and take their media rights with them. So according to Pete Thamel of ESPN, new exit fee formula for the ACC

per the Clemson Public Board meeting. It's $165 million in fiscal year 2020. That would be the buyout to leave next year. But then he says the fee descends by $18 million per year until it's $75 million in 2030, 2031, and then levels off. The member would leave with their media rights after paying the feet. So what are you talking about, $75 million in a few years? That's a lot more manageable if the Big Ten or the SEC want you. And so I want Kenton to buy the first round on this one.

then everybody else can jump back in on this one. Even though ESPN a few weeks ago exercised that option to lock in the ACC TV rights until 2036, the ACC still agreed to severely reduce the buyouts when it comes to schools wanting to leave. And we're not exactly sure why they would do that. Donald, this buyout is so terribly low. this guarantee of retaining media rights, solid number, number below 100 million in a couple of years, is so embarrassingly low.

I just know that the Board of Trustees at Clemson and Florida State, they've been playing no Vaseline by Ice Cube all day. They've been enjoying themselves having a great time all day because I'm telling you, again, this buyout number is not only incredibly low, the media rights portion was a very big portion of that. And again, I'm wondering what under God's green earth was in this contract? What under God green earth? What I joke a lot about, hey, UNC will be this conference's downfall because of Swofford and his son and the Raycom deal.

Was it really that? Was it really that bad to whatever? Like, hey, if this gets out in court, if like my boy becoming the VP of that company comes out in court, we're going to lose this case by a mile. We're going to get smoke because I don't get it. I legitimately don't get it. The buyout was already. The lowest figures that Donno and I had heard for a buyout period at this point right now was $200 million or so. How that got down to $165?

What happened? What is going on here? And then it continues to get along after that. This is embarrassing. I never took Jim Phillips as a showman, as a grandiose, as the guy that's like, hey, I'm going to beat my chest. I'm going to make up. But I did take him to be somebody who's very cerebral, very thoughtful, very much so. chess instead of checkers kind of guy.

I don't know what the hell this is. He thinks he's playing backgammon on a chess board or something. Because this just ain't working. You can't play spade by everybody else is playing too, brother. You're getting lost. You're getting lost. That's what I'm seeing. I think it just means that the ACC is done in 2030.

That's exactly awesome. It's done because Florida State, Clemson, and Miami, they're gone. Like, they're going to leave. And someone's going to take them. And North Carolina, too, I think. Yeah. Well, that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's those three.

Because you know for a fact that someone is going to take those schools. The reason why it didn't make sense before the settlement for any of those guys to leave is not necessarily because nobody would want them. It was because leaving was so obscenely high. It was over $600 million. It doesn't make sense. And also the timing was bad because in 2031, that's when all those other conferences negotiate new media contracts.

So the timing to leave in 24, 25, it's not so good. 2031, it's just right. Correct. So Florida State, Clemson, Miami, gone. Who else has probably gone? North Carolina's probably gone. Does Louisville say goodbye? Maybe.

That's five teams. I just listed out right there. Does Duke basketball say we don't want to play ACC ball anymore? Like, we'll stay in the ACC for football, but we'd like to go. to a different conference, or maybe we'll just go independent Duke basketball. You'll kind of be like the Notre Dame of football, right? That could easily happen.

I don't see how the ACC stays together beyond 2030. I don't. Yeah, I think Jackson hit the nail on the head there. He basically beat me to it. It kind of gave you a little bit of a look behind the curtain in that I don't think the ACC is that confident that they could even survive beyond 2030. And a lot of the hubbub between Clemson and Florida State was trying to make financial sense of getting out of it, even with the grant of rights.

You get to 2030 and you're talking less than $100 million, they're going to make it make sense. So I agree with Jackson. I think 2030 is basically a hard deadline for the ACC. You're looking at it basically a doomsday clock from now and until then. I think you start to see the college football playoff expand with more teams coming in in these next few years, which is only going to add to the financial piece of all of this. It's just a, yeah, it's a sad reality to think about, you know, hey, it's green.

Like college sports are greedy. People want to find the money that can, you know, from the Duke side of this, obviously basketball is so important. But to think about these other programs in the ACC, the downfall that they'll see from the football perspective is going to be so drastic that what's the point of supporting a conference if all of these schools do just finally decide that, you know, football's our king. Let's follow where the money is and we'll head off.

It's been real all. It's been real everyone. We get five years. We got five more years. God will be done in 2030. We're going to be with Spencer McLaughlins. Not only is that going to be a problem, but I also have a very interesting thing about the ACC shutting down.

Which schools do y'all think are going to be Icarus and flying way too close to the sun? Which schools do y'all think are going to be like, oh, we know we could go find a landing spot somewhere else? And then they end up, really? I think the SMU is going to be happy in the ACCC. because they took a gamble and said, we're not going to take any money

and ended up in the playoff their first year. So I think everything right now. I mean, they're on the bubble. Yeah, they're on the bubble. I see a few schools here that I'm like, you may be overestimating your hand here. You may be over leveraging how much everybody else likes you and values your brand,

but we shall see. We shall see. Absolutely. Pitt is one of those schools I'm watching out for. Pit's going to be like, we want the big 10? Well, you let in Maryland. Give us us. The Virginia schools?

What's next for those guys? Oh, yeah. Not tech, probably Virginia, but not tech. I mean, tech is on the low end of the middle three schools, and UVA is way, way down there with way force and Boston. I'll tell you what one that interests me is Georgia Tech. I mean, big market, Atlanta, you know, an unusually big market. compared to the rest of the ACC,

and they've had some good TV ratings in that chart, Kenton, that we were talking about off the air. I mean, Georgia Tech actually had the highest total football team rating last year because they had some big games, including seven or eight overtimes against Georgia, which with everybody in America was tuned into that thing at some point. That's going to be an interesting to watch because you don't think of... But the thing is with Georgia Tech, you kind of hit the nail on the head here.

How much of that is because of the opponents they played? Yeah. A lot. Georgia and Georgia. I mean, they're going to play Georgia every year. But they're also in Atlanta and they're seeing. And they play Notre Dame. One, too, to start this season. Like, not just the opponent, but the location and the standaloneness of it.

Yeah, they play Florida State, Georgia, and Notre Dame all in one year. So, I mean, they did get three, you know, three big boost. However, the average viewership on this graph I'm seeing is from 2019 through 2024. True. That is also, yes, they had a great year. I'm sure that year helped them out. But, you know, they've been doing well enough for themselves. I'm just concerned because a lot of these schools, don't get me wrong,

every school's fans have been saying, oh, we're going to leave and go to the Big Team. We're going to leave and go to the SEC. Okay. All right. I think we might go to the Big East and just play basketball again. I'll join you there. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it.

Actually, you don't need to do it. I think you guys should just go independent. I do like that independent idea. That's a fun thought. I think it just makes a lot of... What network wouldn't want to do it, it would be Duke? What network wouldn't want Duke basketball? Exactly.

Yep. For just the cost of three Willie Taggart contracts, you can get out of the ACC. Well, since you're bringing up hoops, perfect segue, because we got to talk about how the bubble situation in the ACC has evolved a little bit since last week. You guys want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on the ACC. squad. Thank you for making the squad your first listen and your first watch today. This episode available not only on locked on ACC, but on all of the ACC team feeds, including

the ones represented here, locked on Keynes, locked on Clemson, locked on Syracuse, locked on Wolfpack, locked on Blue Devils, locked on Tar Heels. Isaac Shade, are the North Carolina Tar Heels, are they going to sneak into this NCAA tournament? Looks like that, we were feeling pretty good about Wake Forest a while ago, but their bubble may be bright. first thing, not so sure about SMU, although I think SMU has the highest percentage right now to be the fourth team in. How do you view this? Yeah, I mean, Wake is done. They, they were in good shape about four weeks ago, and then three of their last five games have been a quad two loss and two quad three losses. Stick a fork in them. They're done. The fight

and JJ Jackson's absolutely embarrassed them on Big Monday the other night. SMU kind of Holden Strong. We are recording this, as we always got to say, before Tuesday and Wednesday night's action. SMU is in action tonight, Tuesday. North Carolina is in action tonight, Tuesday at Virginia Tech, which ironically enough is a more important resume game for the Tar Heels than the Duke game. Why? There is a potential path for North Carolina without the Duke win, but there is not a potential path if they lose another quad three game at Virginia Tech. All that said, Grayson Boone's eye roll as you introduce that segment tells us everything we need to know about where all those teams are at, right? Here, here's some research I did boys earlier this

week. The ACC right now, let's say none of these three bubble teams get in, meaning Wake Forest, SMU, and North Carolina. Would anyone like to venture a guess the last time our conference had three or fewer teams in the NCAA tournament? How long ago it was? I'll throw out a I'll throw out a year. I wouldn't even be a year. I'd do it. 1982. Not that long ago.

2000 is the last time. In 2000, we had three ACC teams in. Let's remember that was when that was exactly a third of the conference. There were only nine teams. Those three teams, anyone want to venture a guess who they were? I'm against. It's UNC Duke and Louisville. Louisville is not correct.

The other two are. Syracuse was still in the Big East at that time. New Yorkers was still in the Big East. It was not Wakeford. Maryland, Maryland Terps. Maryland. Like SBPs, you guys. We got to go so long ago in this thing that Maryland was still in our conference.

That's what we're looking at right now. And that is the issue that we're facing with all this, y'all. We have to figure out how to do better for our conference. And this is a bold version of why that's going to matter. massive weight. Need a big tournament week next week from somebody to steal a bit. That's right. Somebody's got to take that.

The Orange are coming for that for that. NC State's done it before. I can't even. I can't say it's going to be Miami because Miami is going to be sitting home. Lord, have mercy. Do you realize how bad this is that all of us were squabbling to tell you how bad our teams were? He's just got in this thinking you couldn't hear a word and not because it was like, I win that one.

Go, we're going to win it. My team ain't doing it. We ain't got nothing to do with this this year. This is a tough year for ACC basketball. But again, I really and truly do believe two things. Number one, I don't know why I put up two figures. Number one, we will all perform what we are looked at as nationally in the tournament like we always do. And number two, this is a down year.

They happen. We will be back. This is not a, we are in perpetuity stuck here. especially as a basketball conference for a vast multitude of reasons. There will be a resurgence of the ACC, at least in basketball. That much I can guarantee you this year's a same. So what do you make of all the coaches coming back, apparently? They're all coming.

I mean, did you see the report from Jeff Goodman that a lot of these coaches that are on the hot seat apparently are coming back or expected to come back? I thought you had to retire college. I thought you were coming out of retirement. Steve Forbes. Was Kevin Keith on that one? Long is coming back to for Virginia Tech. I have the report right here from Jeff Goodman.

Yeah. Okay. It's still, it's coming back now. That's not permanent. That's not, we know in college basketball, the only thing that is permanent is impermanent. The only thing that you can guarantee is no guarantees. Changes will happen.

We can bring this full circle with this episode today. Like, great, these guys are coming back? Are you going to give them the resources for their basketball programs to benefit and be competitive in the transfer portal? That's what I'm worried about. Like, awesome. Mike Young's a great coach. getting any help with Virginia Tech out there on the recruiting trail?

It doesn't appear so. North Carolina was a preseason top 10 team. Now we're on a bubble. About time they have a general manager. They didn't have a general manager the year before and they were a one seat. So the GM is all of a sudden going to do all the heavy lifting now. Here's another nugget. Part of the Transfer Portal era, I just did this research yesterday.

In the history of the AP poll, at least going back to when the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The AP preseason number one team has fallen out of the AP top 25 at some point in that in that season four times. All of them have happened since the 2013-14 season. Two of those in the past three years, North Carolina, two years ago in Kansas this year, right? So it's it's like this whole state of college basketball. As Kenton said, it's another way to look at that impermanence is you got to figure out year to year, how do we do this thing. Duke, who knows what can happen, like all these teams like, but, but look, we could be in the same boat. I said all the way back to 2000 last time we only had three teams in. We keep overperforming.

The Big Ten, the last time they won a national championship was Michigan State in 2000, y'all. So we, there's a silver lining for you. The Pac-12 is even longer ago and they're defunct until two years from now, right? So like, at least we've got that silver lining. We all got a root for JJ and Duke to bring it home. And look, Clemson is wildly underrated right now. They were a phenomenal basketball team made the elite eight last year. Y'all, Clemson going make some noise again. I'm telling you right now. And can I ask for something? I know this is the day of asking for things for Clemson and receiving presents. It's almost like Christmas all over again for Clemson fans. But can I

ask for just one more thing from you, ACC guys? Just one more thing. Well, like Kenton said, two more things. Can I ask for two more things? March 8th. Circle it on your calendars. Isaac, can I get a dub? And Louisville, can I get a dub? Please, I want the ACC regular season title. Can anyone hear me? Well, if Jim Phillips is watching this, he's been in the habit of giving Clemson and Florida State pretty much anything they want this week. So you can count on that. That's true. Well, listen, I appreciate everybody for tuning in. Huge. Thank you. you and shout out to Morgan from Lockdown Clemson, Jackson from Locked on Syracuse, Kenton, Grayson from Locked on Wolfpack, JJ from Lockdown Blue Devils, Isaac Shade from Lockedon

Tar Heels and Locked on College Basketball. I am Alex Dono from Lockdowne Canes. We'll talk to everyone next time on another episode of the ACC Squad right here on the awesome podcast, the awesome Locked On podcast network, your team every day.