Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - How Many ACC team will make March Madness Tournament?

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

ACC basketball and football fans, are you ready for a game-changing discussion? Dive into the latest NCAA tournament predictions and potential College Football Playoff expansions that could reshape the landscape for teams like Duke, Clemson, and Louisville.Hosts Isaac Shade and Jackson Holzer break down the ACC's top contenders, analyzing Duke's path to a #1 seed and the bubble status of North Carolina and Wake Forest. They also tackle the controversial proposal to expand the College Football Playoff, questioning its fairness for conferences like the ACC. With insights from Joe Lunardi's Bracketology and Ken Pom, this episode is packed with expert analysis and insider knowledge.Don't miss out on this in-depth look at the ACC's future. Tune in for exclusive insights and predictions that could redefine your understanding of college sports. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Only about two and a half weeks left in the ACC regular season. Who all's going dancing in March? You're talking ball with the ACC squad. From Florida State to North Carolina, from Syracuse to Miami, and from NC State to California, it's the local experts of the locked on podcast network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming ACC weekend. Hang on, it could get loud, it could get heated, and it will definitely be fun. Squad up, you're part of the ACC Squad.

Hey there, what's up? It's Thursday, February 20th, 20205. Welcome in to this week's ACC squad show, or really this ACC duo show. It's just myself and Jackson Holeser, the great host of Locked on Syracuse. I'm Isaac Shade, the host of Locked on Tar Heels, Mass Exodus, because everybody else just has other stuff going on. That's great. And we're going to hold this down, man, because we are dudes. For those of you checking in from other shows, we're so glad. you're here as well. You're joining us, by the way, your place to get ACC squad content

every single week. It's all part of the locked on podcast network. Special shout out to all the everydayers joining us. And man, it is good to be together. Coming up on the show today, we're going to look ahead at who else is going to make the ACC tournament because some teams don't now. We're getting ready for a weekend slate, including a big time non-con matchup at MSG, some big bubble action this weekend. And here we are again, Jackson. We've got to have some CFP expansion conversation as well. But first, I want to timestamp this thing because one thing we got to recognize, folks, is we always record these on Tuesday evenings before Tuesday's slate and Wednesday

slate. So we haven't seen those yet. And this is airing on Thursday, just for your knowledge. Jackson, here's where we want to go first, though. In this day and age, the ACC is just not pouring teams into March Madness like they typically do. This is a couple of years in the running now. And the funny thing is, though, we continue to put teams.

into the elite eight, the final four and winning national championships, the whole thing. So, Jackson, where I want to go first is having a conversation about how many ACC teams are ultimately going to make it into March. Today, as we record, Joe Lenardi's latest bracketology is out. We can utilize that. But what are you thinking right now, Jackson? So I think there are three locks. And we're all pretty aware of who the locks are, first of all. Also, this is great. Just us, too, running the squad this week. This is awesome. And who knows, maybe someone else is going to hop in later on. But it's the three obvious ones.

I mean, Duke might get in. Maybe we'll see. You know, you never know with them. Maybe they might get in. Your teeth, man. Skin of their teeth, right? They're on that bubble line. But then you also got Clemson and you got Louisville.

Good story with Louisville, of course. And then if you look at the bubble right now, it's SMU, Wake Forest, and North Carolina, maybe one. So if I'm being optimistic, I would. would say four to five, but I am not going to sit here and say like six or more are going to get in. What about you? Yeah, I'm right with you. You know, Duke in on Saturday, folks, for those of you whose head was under the sand or something, the selection committee previewed their top 16 on Saturday as it stood right then. Duke was the number three overall seed. Feels to me, Jackson,

and I'll throw it back to you really quick after I asked this and then I'll finish my answer. Feels to me like they're basically a lock for a one seed because they're not going to lose game. I mean, they might drop one more, but as long as they hold on to what they're doing, they should win the ACC tournament as well. And so I think Duke is basically locked into a one seat, yeah? I, assuming they take care of business, they are a lock for a one seed. But if they don't, see, that's the thing. They're in the ACC as well.

Exactly. So if you lose conference games in a perceived weaker conference, that's going to penalize you a little bit more. Now, losing at Clemson, not a big deal, especially close. That's not a big deal. And they got Illinois on Saturday. That's going to be a big one for Duke. If they can beat Illinois, that'll certainly increase their chances of a 1C. But, you know, strange things happen, right?

Let's say Duke is at home and I don't know. They play on March 1st against Florida State and they lose, right? That penalizes them significantly. So, yeah, if they take care of business, they're going to be a number one seat. But if they don't take care of business and they drop a couple of games down the stretch, you might see them fall to a two, three. Having said that, I think they're going to be just fine. Yeah, I'm looking at things right now.

They don't have any more quad four games. They do have two more quad threes, that Florida State game and the game at Miami. So that's good news. They literally cannot take a quad four loss and definitely wouldn't in the ACC tournament because that'll be neutral site games. And, you know, like love or hate Duke, we all need to be cheering for them this week again. Illinois because that's ultimately really good for the conference. Let me finish my answer to your question, Jackson. I'm with you on four. In Lunardi's Bracketology that came out Tuesday, Clemson

was a six. I think the Tigers are playing better now. You know, they just continue to grow. I think that's a good thing for them. Louisville, as you said, a great story. They are seven right now. And then I'm with you. I think one of Wake, SMU, and UNC gets in. Right now, Wake Forest is in the last four in, meaning they would be playing in the first four in. Dayton and then SMU and North Carolina are both in first four out. So there's opportunities to get in there. And like, you know, personally for me, I want to see our conference do well. I'm cheering for all these teams because as you said, we'd love to see five get in. But I think four is the more realistic number. I do think at least one of those gets in because, again, because of the weakness of

the ACC, all these other conferences, those teams are going to take a bunch of losses, right? Like you got Georgia and all these other teams floating around that are going to lose games. So, I'm right with you, Jackson, on that. Anything else on the NCAA tournament before we move to the conference tournament? I would just say also keep an eye on these net rankings. Right now, SMU has a decent case because they're at 40 overall in the net. Now, Carolina's at 47. The issue with Wake Forest is they're all the way down at 58 in the net.

So I need to pull up Wake Forest's schedule, but in order for really for them to increase their chances, they're going to have to do something different than these other two teams. And by that, I mean, they might have to pull off an upset here or there, unlike maybe a Carolina or an SMU. Yeah, the nice thing for them is, I mean, it's tough from a quality win standpoint. It's good from a record standpoint. They're at NC State, hosting Virginia, hosting Notre Dame at Duke,

there's your big chance, and then hosting Georgia Tech. They've got to win those four non-Dute games. And then if they could go into Cameron and do, I mean, that would obviously really, really change the math for them. that's also the thing with Carolina. And I'm not sure if SMU plays Duke again, right? Do they or not? Let me go go ahead and I'll pull up their schedule. Regardless of SMU, I mean, Carolina and Wake Forest, they do have a massive opportunity on their schedule. You get to play Duke. And at this point in the season, you want to play Duke because if you beat Duke,

you're probably going to get in. That is probably enough right there to put you into the NCAA tournament. So much so that you can go from like next four out to last four in. Yeah. It'll real or not. That's right. You go up plenty of tears if you can beat Duke. If you keep it close against Duke, right? You lose on a buzzer beater.

Cooper flag is amazing. He pulls up for three at the very end of a game and he knocks it down. He breaks your heart, right? That's a good loss. Yeah, that's a great loss. Recency bias is a real thing. and the committee, the people that decide who's going to play in the NCAA tournament, they're going to look back at that game.

They're not going to look at a game back in early December. They're going to sit here and say, well, what did you do lately? Oh, you lost at the buzzer to a team that we're going to give a one seat to. I think that Carolina team is good. I think that Wake Forest team is actually better than what we think. So Duke is a massive opportunity for both these teams. Yeah, 100%. And to be fair, the selection committee says they don't look at the last 10 anymore.

more, but the human nature of it. It's a little. Yeah, exactly. It's human nature. I mean, we're looking at how you're playing down the stretch that it shouldn't matter more, but it's just for human. You asked about SMU. They don't have Duke, but they do get Clumson at home on Saturday, which we're going to talk about here in a little bit.

That's a massive opportunity. The hard thing for SMU is they got to do both games of the California trip still. And so that that's difficult for SMU. We'll see what happens there. Jackson, really quick here. I do want to talk just a brief look at the ACC tournament because as folks may or may not be aware with the new 18 team format, they're keeping the 15 team tournament that we had had in literally leaving out the bottom three teams. Now, for me, I have a problem with the format just before we even get to who that is. Like, why not just make it a 16 team tournament?

That's a chef's kiss, beautiful bracket. Even with your buys and double buys, it still works to perfection. So I'd like to see that tweak. But anyway, Jackson, as we record again, before these Tuesday and Wednesday games, which are Syracuse at Pitt, Virginia Tech at Boston College, NC State at Carolina, SMU at Notre Dame, and Miami at Florida State. So we don't yet know the results of those games. But pending those results, the bottom three right now, NC State at 3 and 11,

and then BC and Miami at 2 and 12. Do you see any other teams dropping into that bottom three, or do you think that's ultimately who it'll be? I would say keep your eye on NC State because right now NC State is sitting at 3 and 11 at the time of this recording and Syracuse is at 5 and 10 at the time of this recording.

Now let's say we're again, we're recording this on Tuesday, but let's say the results hold true. North Carolina beats NC State. Syracuse loses at Pitt, right? If NC State goes to the dome and beats Syracuse, they will have four conference wins and the orange will be stuck at five conference wins.

Yeah. That means all NC State has to do is win one game, and they leapfrogs Syracuse because they would have the tiebreaker. Yeah. So I would keep your eye on that. Also, Cal is right there. I wouldn't say is a lock. No.

I wouldn't say Notre Dame is a lock. Micah Shrewsbury is not a very happy man right now. No, he's not. I think he's going to be tossing around a little bit more microphones here or there. Should I do it right now? for everyone. I'm not going to do that. But yeah, if they miss the conference tournament, I say there's two locks to miss it. Miami's not making it. No. Austin College is not making it. And he got like four teams that have a shot to miss.

Yeah, I agree with you. As for, and you talked about NC State. They do have to go to North Carolina, which people as they listen to this already know the result of. Then Saturday they host Wake. They've still got to go to CUS at Georgia Tech hosting Pitt and then at Miami. So a lot of could happen there. Ken Palm has them losing five of those six games, Jackson. So we will see what happens there. And obviously, we'll have more conversations about this ACC tournament as these last couple weeks unfold along with who gets those single and double buys at the tip top of the ACC. Now, Jackson, we just talked about who all is making the NCAA tournament. There's some key, key bubble games in the ACC this weekend to help determine that answer. Plus, a rare non-con

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All right, Jackson Hulzer of Locked on Syracuse, Isaac Shade, locked on heels. We are here with you. We got a really interesting slate this weekend where we got about four games that I like to call real bubbly Jackson. But where I want to start is in the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, there in Manhattan, where we get a rare non-conference game, number three, Duke playing Illinois right there at MS. 8 p.m. Saturday night on Fox. Jackson, I miss these non-con games. I'm so geeked for this.

What are your thoughts on having a non-con game here towards the end of the conference schedule? Is anyone going to say they don't like it? That's a good question. Is anyone going to say they don't? Even John Shire, the head coach of Duke, loves it. Because he said it pretty bluntly. I mean, he was pretty honest. He was like, yeah, the ACC is not very good. So we need to have this late season out of conference game against a team like Illinois in the Big Ten to get us ready for the NCAA tournament. But regardless, I absolutely love this matchup. These are two elite programs in the country. I think Duke really needs this game if they want to solidify themselves as a number one seed.

If you're Illinois, you're looking at this game saying, hey, if we can knock off Duke in MSG neutral site, then, hey, that's a lot of eyeballs on us. and that's only, they're going to make the NCAA tournament, but hey, we can bump up that seat a little bit if you can beat a team like Duke, right? So I love it and I challenge anyone to say they don't. That's a good word. That's a good word, man. Another thing I like about it is it is a matchup of some stud freshmen. For folks who haven't been paying attention to the Illini this year,

their three leading scores are all playing their first year in college basketball. The head of the snake is one of my favorite players in all at college basketball this year. That's Kasperus Yakuchonis, who was an absolute dude. Thomas Lov Avicich is the second leading score. If that last name sounds familiar, he's the brother to Zvonimir Avicic, who played at Kentucky last year and is at Arkansas now.

And then Will Riley, who came in a bit early to Illinois. So that's their three leading scores, Jackson. So I love that. I mean, there's going to be eight gazillion scouts at this game, too. But ultimately, yes, I mean, this is a massive opportunity for the ACC to just show,

hey, look, I know the Big Ten gets a lot more. love than the ACC, but on this one-off with the ACC's best against a team that I think is really good in the Big Ten, but hasn't really been showing it lately. They're kind of middling Big Ten record-wise. Duke needs to go in there and do this for all of us, right? Yeah, and also they needed to do it from themselves. Like I said, you said they were on that number three overall in the country, right? Yeah, yeah. So only four teams can get a one seat. Getting a one seat is kind of important in March Madness? Kind of, right?

Yes. And you look at their schedule. They're playing in the ACC. There's not many games left for them in terms of quality opponents. This is a quality opponent. This is Illinois late in the season. So for Duke, you want to be a one seed. Beat Illinois.

That's right. That's absolutely right. And there's this whole thing where the other. And I also should say this. Sorry. No, you agree. They should beat them. Like I have faith in that.

I'm just simply pointing it out. You want to be a one seat? Eat Illinois. That's right. We don't have the fan dual line as we record, but Ken Palm favors the Blue Devils by eight in this game, by the way. And I think part of it that we got to think about, too, going back to your,

are they a lock for a one seed conversation? The other three ones on Saturday were all SEC teams. In fact, five of the top six were SEC teams. You've got to think that if somebody from the Big 12, wins the regular season and sweeps, they're going to have a very good argument for this weather, particularly if it's Houston. For the Big Ten, right?

If you get Michigan or Michigan State or Purdue sweeping the regular and conference tournament season, that's going to say something and could potentially bump out Duke. So they've got to take care of their business. But as you said, winning this Illinois game would really, really help with those out-of-conference metrics. Jackson, let's go ahead.

You mentioned Michigan. Would you really think that Michigan, sitting on a four seed right now can climb all the way up to a one at this point. That's a steep climb. It is a very steep climb. I ultimately don't think they would, but given, like, if they won the regular season and conference tournament championships for the Big Ten, which I don't think they will, even though they're first place by themselves as we record in the Big Ten, I do think that Michigan State and Purdue are both better teams right now. Michigan's been winning a lot, but very close games. They've been eking them out.

That can't hold all the time. So I think it's ultimately a moot point because I don't think they will double dip on those. Fair enough. I just don't know if they do all those things that you said, if even then it would be enough. Maybe you can get up to a two. But that's steep going all the way from a four to a one in about a month. Definitely Houston has a better shot at that. I think a two seed might be Michigan's cap.

I think you might be very well. Yeah, Houston's sitting on the two seed line right now. So you can move up. one. Yeah, easily, easily. And so could Arizona and Iowa State, for that matter, Arizona or Iowa State, I think was the first three seed on Saturday's reveal. And I forget where Arizona was sitting in real time, but a nice win for them on Tuesday night at Baylor, by the way. Jackson, we got four, I think, important bubble games for our conference coming up on Saturday, the chief of which is number 18 Clemson at SMU, man. We just talked about

the ponies going to the California swing coming up here in a little bit. But man, a big opportunity for Clemson to solidify their standing. Again, we called them a six seed. They've been playing really well. Got to go to SMU. The other three games are Virginia at North Carolina, North Carolina being the bubble team. Wake Forest at NC State, Wake being the team that's in the bracket,

but barely they're at Dayton level right now. And then Pitt at Notre Dame. Pitt is sitting like not first four out or next four out, but the next four after that. And so they're not in good shape, but they got to win games if they have a hope of this. Jackson, I think Clemson at SMU is clearly the premier game of those four. What are you looking for there? I'm looking at SMU and I'm sitting here saying you're 0 and 4 in Quad 1 games. You're 0 and 4.

This is your chance, SMU. And if you're talking about, like, getting a resume building win, it's hard to call a game easy when it's a resume building win, but it's, how do I phrase this? This is not Duke that you have to beat. We're not asking you beat Duke or anything like that. We're saying, hey, you got a good Clemson team that should definitely be respected. That's going to be in the NCAA tournament.

That's currently a six seed right now in Bracketology. Can you beat them at home? Man, beat them at home. That's right. Non-neutral site, just, it's really simple now. Win your games. Win. Win.

You win your games? Don't put it in the hands of the committee. That's right. So you're 0 and 4 and quad one right now. That is why SMU is on the outside looking into March Madness. It's both the fact that they haven't won one and the fact that they've only played four, right? Exactly. Like both of those are.

Now, a feather in SMU's cap is that they have no losses outside Quad 1. two. They've lost no bad games, Quad 3 or 4, but again, only played four quad one games and haven't won any of them. Both of those are big dings on their resume. Jackson right now is 26th in the net. So 26 at home, that's Quad 1, correct? Right. Top 30 at home is Quad 1. And that's my point. That is about as close as you can get to a quote unquote simple quad one game right here. Right. This is a home game against number 26. And you got to hope that after, hopefully you beat Clemson if you're SMU, but you got to hope that Clemson stays in the top 30s, so that remains.

So beat them by one. Beat them by one. Maybe they fall to 28 and then you're, man, the net is so fascinating. The tournament talk. It really is, man. It's crazy. And obviously, again, we're talking about all these things not knowing Tuesday or Wednesday's results.

So just keep that in mind, folks. Yeah, talking about Pitt. I mean, Pitt's snowing a Syracuse on two, or not Pitts has Syracuse at home. If they were to somehow lose, that's a death nail for them. Right, like literally 30 minutes from now after we finish recording. Exactly. This show. So that's funny.

Obviously, it's North Carolina and Wake that have the better opportunities than Pitt. But again, we'll see what the Panthers can do for other games on the ACCC slate. And then we'll move on on Saturday. Florida State at Louisville, Virginia Tech at Boston College. Nope, that's not right. It's Virginia Tech and Miami, excuse me, Cal at Stanford. And somebody at BC. I put BT in here.

and that must be auto correct. Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech. There you go. I love it. The yellow jackets heading up to Boston College on Saturday. All right, Jackson, let's switch sports. Let's go from the hardwood to the grass.

And here's the thing. More CFP expansion is on the horizon with multiple guaranteed spots for the SEC and Big Ten as a possibility. Oh, boy, we got to talk about this. And is the ACC getting Holzerd or what's up there? We'll talk about that in just a second. Housard. Holtard, that's right. That was just in real time, I was like, it's kind of like getting hosed. We got football talk now. So we got to go to the football. Yes, you switch the back, man, for those who are listening and not watching, Jackson, Johnny on the spot here has flipped his background from what is

still known to me as the Carrier Dome to the other version of the Carrier Dome with the football field. And so great stuff there. Jackson, I just, I needed a little wordplay with your last name. That's where the Holzerd came from. It's like Hoser, but I just want people to be, I want to be very clear. I had no say in this proposal. Okay, said, and in fact, let's talk about that proposal. Ross Dellinger put an article out last Sunday discussing likely CFP changes to take place. There's a whole bunch to it, but Jackson, the nitty gritty that everybody wants to know is, what is the model going to be?

Let me just lay out a few of the tenants he believes it will be from what he's heard, and then we'll unpack how absurd it is. 14 or 16 teams is the plan with the big 10 and Sending. SEC are looking for four aqs each, meaning four guaranteed spots each. Counted up, that's eight, two each for the ACC and Big 12. That gets you to 12 teams. And then one, as is the case right now, to the highest ranked group of five teams. Jackson Holzer, that is 13 aqs, meaning that in a 14 team format, there would be just one other at large as a possibility. In a 16 team format, there would be three other at large as a possibility. But keep in mind, one of those is no

Notre Dame. So basically in a 14 team format, we're looking at 13 AQs and Notre Dame or at large, right? So the big question for me is where are you at on this thing? So first of all, I'm not thinking about 14. I'm thinking about 16 because I know how the almighty dollar works and the more playoff teams you put in there, the more money you're going to make. So they're going to go to 16 and eventually it'll be even more than that one day. Get ready for that. Get ready for that expansion. It's not going to end at 16. You nuts? I mean, come on now, but I don't like it at all. It's just too many aQs. It's, how do you determine the aQs? Okay. If you're only going to give two aqs to the ACC, right? Okay, one is your conference champion. Is your other by default the team that loses in the conference championship? Well, here's here's some of the possibilities because I've been looking into this, like one of the proposals, is like, let's say, let's say it is, and it's funny, because this is what Commissioner Phillips talked about that we kind of talked about the other day. Like, your regular season champion would be automatically in, and then you've got to play a play in game between your second and third

team. Or if Big Ten and SEC have four teams, top two get in automatically, and then like three versus six, four versus five for your play-ins. But then what you've got to do something with conference championship games, is that it? Some playing games? I don't know, but that's, that's some of the I there needs to be something and the NCAA is so flimsy so at this point like you can't count on the NCAA anymore but it's just it's really annoying how it seems like the conferences are the ones that get to determine the aqs no it literally is jackson the conferences get to determine their own tournament here that should not be how it works it should be there's a body ahead of everyone. And then the body determines this is how we're going to, we're going to determine a

conference champion and this is how we're going to determine a Q's. Imagine if we're talking about the NFL here and we just had the AFC do their own thing. And we're just like, the AFC West has the chiefs and the Broncos and the charter. They have all the good coaches and the quarterback. So you know what? We're going to guarantee three playoff teams from the AFC West before the season even starts. Yeah. But the NFL has had no control over that. We're going to let the AFC West do what they want. That is essentially what is happening in college football right now. The NCAA is just throwing their arms up in the air saying, we're going to let these conferences do what they want.

Well, they have, makes no sense. No, well, the NCAA hasn't had control of the football playoff for a long time, right? It's been all about like it's a separate governing body. with CFP itself. And with this specific thing, here's some of the language, Jackson, I don't know if you've gone through and read the article from Dellinger. He says the SEC and Big Ten holds sole discretion on future CFP format starting in 2026, which is the year that begins the new six-year TV agreement with the SPN running through the 2031 playoff. And the agreement gives those two conferences decision-making power over the format, but get this, this is so cute, but that they have to have, quote, meaningful consultation and collect, quote, input from the other conferences.

I mean, do you think they're actually, sure, by the letter of the law, they might do that. They're not, they're going to do what is ever in their best interest to make this happen for the SEC and Big Ten. So, and by the way, the rest of that governing body is the 10 FBS conferences, their commissioner in the Notre Dame AD. It's those 11 people on that board. but literally with with the seeding of control of the format to those two conferences of course they're going to ram this through and meaningful consultation isn't going to actually mean anything do you do you know what that actually means it's a fancy way of saying a handshake deal which handshake deals are are broken all the time right I just watched the movie the founder which is basically the story of McDonald's and very end of the movie, you see a handshake deal where it's like the brothers for selling the

naming rights of McDonald's are going to get royalties for the rest of their lives. And it was a handshake deal. Guess what? They didn't receive a dime. It didn't hold up. So meaningful consultation, that's just their way of saying, yeah, we ain't doing squat. We do not care. Yeah, we'll get on a 30-minute Zoom call with one of your commissioner ADs and we'll say, yeah, we'll listen to your conference. And then we're going to create a format that is totally in the best interest of ourselves, and we're not going to think about you. Well, as part of this, the ADs from the SEC and Big Ten met yesterday on Wednesday as you listened to this. Our ADs and presidents, the ACC met last week in Charlotte, and the Big 12 ADs are expected to meet this week as well. And then the whole management committee,

those 11 people are meeting in Dallas on February 25th. So I think we'll probably hear some more after we come out from that. Look, and here's another part of this, Jackson, is that. As you said, almighty dollar, right? The SEC is considering moving to nine league games like the Big Ten has already done. And why haven't they wanted to do that before now? Because if there's only so many spots for Greg Sankey's precious little conference to get in, then they don't want to play more league games. They'd rather schedule nobodies and have a better looking record when it's all said and done.

But here's all the math on this. If they expand and have guaranteed four spots, it makes it doable without worrying about nine, without playing an extra SEC game and the possibility of them and the Big Ten having a scheduling agreement when they do that. And as part of this, get this, requesting around $5 million more dollars per school to play an extra league game.

This is what happens when you can see control. And, you know, credit to the SEC and the Big Ten. Yeah, honestly. I mean, they put themselves in a position where they, who did they threaten the NCAA? Did they threaten that? Who did they threaten? Because really what happened was they were,

they were threatening to somebody, it could have been you and I for all I care, that they were going to create their own college football playoffs. They were going to do their own thing separate from the actual playoff, which we all know that if you don't have the SEC or the Big Ten represented in the college football playoff, you don't have a legitimate college football playoff. And I'm saying this is someone who wants to root for the ACC at all.

but you need other conference representation in this. So they just said, okay, they threatened it. They got the power and now they're just doing whatever they want. And we can't do anything. We're hopeless. And it sucks, but it's just I throw my arms up in the air and say, whatever. I can't. How about let's just win our games?

Let's just do that. Whatever happen to win games. Honestly, please, can we win football games? Let's make that happen. And then back to your question about how do we determine the AQs? What's interesting, you know, talking about each conference determining it their own way, that's already what happens in college basketball right now. Like each league has the opportunity to say, here's how we're going to determine our automatic qualifier.

Yeah. And so, like, that's what's going to happen in football is whether it's four or two or one out of the entire group of five. Each one is going to get together and say, here's how we're going to determine our teams that make it. And I hate that part of college basketball. I absolutely hate how there is so much inconsistency with how we determine who gets an automatic qualifying bid from each conference. Yeah. Like the ACC amended its rules, which I actually agreed with, which is they're going to take 15 of the 18 for their conference tournament and the conference winner. But for some other conferences, every team makes the conference tournament, which by the way should not be the case.

My point is that we should just be consistent. Just be consistent. How hard is that? Apparently really difficult when you got the almighty dollar on the line. Which is an argument. Please, for the love of everything, holy, don't expand the NCAA tournament. They are going to, Isaac. Oh, it's happening.

They're going to lose. They're going to lose people. They're not going to. I'll tell you, we're suckers. We are suckers, Isaac. I'm so nervous, Jack. Isaac, you host on college basketball. What are you going to do?

Not cover it if they expand it? No, I'm going to cover it. I'm just nervous that people, like it's not, we're not going to, the magic of it is going to start. They, they know that the fans don't want it. They also don't care because I see it in every single league. The more games with stakes, the more money there is to be had. So they are going to take as many players.

playoff teams or tournament teams as possible. It's going to happen. Is it going to be 72? Is it going to be 76? Get ready because in 50 years, it might be 150 teams for all I care into March Madness. You think I'm kidding. I'm not joke.

This could happen. I mean, 50 years ago, it was only like 30 teams in the tournament. We've more than we've doubled since then. Yeah. Yep. It's going to happen.

We just have to accept. The television networks want it. The ADs want it. That's all that matters. There's more money. Well, we're going to keep our eyes on all of this as we continue out through the next three weeks. Again, just a couple weeks left of ACC regular season. Then we'll have the ACC tournament and on into March Madness.

We'll keep discussing who's on the bubble, who's locks, who's in the ACC tournament, who's locks for those buys, who's out and all this. And we'll keep our eyes, obviously, on this college football playoff expansion. Again, 2026, not next year. Next year is still going to be the 12th. team playoff as it is. All right, gang, a fun little locked on ACC squad date day, a little duo. Jackson, whole duo.

The lockdown ACCC duo. Duo. Do, oh, get out of here. But no, we can't wait to have rest of the guys back with us next week, folks. Thanks so much for tuning in with us. If you've not subscribed already to Locked on ACC, both on YouTube and your favorite audio app, make sure to do that along with Locked on Syracuse, here Jackson every day. does a great job.

I'd love it if you tuned in to Locked-on Heels. And of course, as we get toward March Manus, come check us out on Lockedon College Basketball as well. All right, gang, we'll talk to you again next week on Locked on ACC squad. But until then, peace.