Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - Is the ACC DOOMED!? How the Protect College Sports Act affects the conference

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

ACC football faces a potential turning point—could the Protect College Sports Act spark a seismic conference shakeup or preserve the league’s future? The Locked On ACC Squad dissects Senator Ashley Moody’s proposed 180-day realignment window, explore the high-stakes financial gambit around the ACC grant of rights, and debate which powerhouse programs—like Florida State, Miami, Clemson, and North Carolina—might bolt for greener pastures. The crew also spotlights crucial camp intel and position battles from Florida State, NC State, North Carolina, and Miami. Can NC State’s revamped linebacking corps and Miami’s rapidly improving offensive line lead to strong starts? Will Florida State’s tackling woes haunt early matchups? As Week 0 looms, the hosts preview high-profile openers, including TCU vs. North Carolina in Ireland, and break down the odds of a clean ACC sweep to open the season. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Protect College Sports Act, if it ever passes, is either going to save the ACC or completely destroy it. 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, 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 ACCC Squad. This episode of the ACC squad is brought to you by Fanduel.

Join all the action at Fandual.com to play daily dingers and make your free pick on who's hitting a home run this MLB season. On this loaded episode of the squad, I am Alex Dono, joined by Isaac Shade of Locked on Tar Heels. I'm from Locked on Cains, by the way, might want to say where I'm from. Brian Smith from Lockdown Seminoles, Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown, Wolfpack. And on this episode, ACC football is almost back. Later this month, four ACC teams, actually five, because one of them is ACC versus ACC.

We'll be in action in week zero. Is the ACC going to sweep week zero? We'll talk training camp intel from the Tar Heels, Seminoles, Wolfpack, and Miami Hurricanes. But fellas, let's talk about this Protect College Sports Act. Now, it was going to be voted on earlier this month, but Congress had to punt on it. And the earliest they're going to vote on that act would be mid to late September when Congress goes back in session. And Brian Smith, I'll let you buy the first round. The latest wrinkle to the Protect College Sports Act was an amendment proposed by Florida Senator Ashley Moody to kind of take some of those handcuffs and guardrails off of conference realignment by.

offering a 180-day window, which is about six months. After the act presumably passes, schools would have 180 days to actually leave one power-four conference to another before being locked into their current conference. And Ashley Moody being from Florida, Brian, means she might have had Florida state and Miami in mind when she proposed that amendment. So how do you think this is going to go down? and do you think the Seminoles and or Hurricanes could maybe be on the move after this act passes? Well, a couple of things. Number one, thank you for the opportunity here because this is something I've been working on a locked on Seminoles. And I've been waiting for somebody else to comment on this.

I hope I'm right. The way it's been interpreted to me is like this. From the 180 days, you just have to announce that you're leaving. You don't have to say I'm going to the SEC or whatever. You just have to announce you're leaving. That does not before anybody asks resolve the grant of. rights problem. Unfortunately, that bad boy is not going away. So we'll get into that. But this is my thought process, whether you're Miami, Clemson, Florida State, Virginia, or North Carolina. Those are

the five that are most likely to want to lead the ACC. That's not a newsflash. You still have to have a landing spot. You still have to have a plan. And the big part with this amendment, she also says, let's just get rid of it all together, that five-year waiting, which by the way is ridiculous. Oh, it's crazy. I was like, what is that? I remember I had to read that twice the first time it was in there. I'm like, come on. I had to read it about 18 times I couldn't make heads or tails. Yeah, it was bad. So I don't know how much that will get allowed because there are certain leagues that probably don't like that very much. And it's just going to be infighting like any other form of politics. But at worst, I would imagine you have to be

independent for like a year, which anybody can survive a year. You're never going to make it anyway. So my question is, do teams have the money to deal with the grant of rights? Let's just say you said up and it was North Carolina and they're going to leave in 2029 for the Big Ten. I'm just throwing that out there. Would they have the money to throw out to pay the grant of rights? Would the Big Ten help them? There's all these little pieces. Sometimes leagues help us school. I'm sure the Big Ten would love to have Chapel Hill a part of their party.

They'd probably like to have Charlottesville as well. But to that end, still have to have that money. So don't forget that. But at least there's a chance because hey, if she hadn't done that, this movie, like, there's no, nobody's going to go for five years as an independent. It's too far away from the TV contracts. It's too far away from opportunities to recruit. Coaches would be like, well, what am I getting into if I come to your school? It is just dead on arrival. So that's the most important part of the 180-day thing, again, just to clarify the way it's been told to me, you just have to declare that you're leaving. You don't have to say exactly where yet.

But to your point, to your point, though, if you're going to declare you're leaving, you better know where you're going. You better have at least a handshake because that is very awkward to be left in the wilderness of free agency and college football conference realignment. Well, and it would check out because it lines up with what the player transfer portal does. You don't just, you don't have to have committed by the end of the portal. You just have to have entered it. And maybe we'll have some DN, some do not contact tags with these schools. But that's been my thing with this whole amendment. I talked about this earlier this week on Locked on Tar Heels. If you think the player transfer portal is wild just wait until you get a six month long school university college

transfer portal it's going to get wild maybe they can go on a cruise together and have some drinks and figure out what's going to happen but this thing is going to be wild but dono to your point there's a big two-letter word if all of this ever comes to fruition and we'll find out what the direction of that is once we get to september the rob college athletes act has a lot of nice parts to it. It's, you know, plenty of nice and all that good stuff. And there are many good things to it. I don't think that this in particular is one of them. And I

don't think that a lot of ACC schools are quite thinking this through logistically. Hear me out here. It's not even about the nine figure payout. This is a game of musical chairs. As it currently stands, is there, is there not a cap on how many teams can go to each conference? Yep.

It's 19. Yeah, the SEC only has one. Yeah, the SEC only has one spot available, big 10, oh, sorry, the big 10 has one spot, the SEC has three. So now, right. So now, let's talk. Yeah. So let's talk about what Smitty just said.

He said that they would love to have the dirty football. I meant the University of North Carolina and UVA, right? If the Big 10 only has two spots left, what happens to the odd school that gets left out? But wait, there's more. RIP to Billy Mays, but wait, there's more if we keep going with this. And we say there were five schools who were looking like they were likely to leave the ACC. Okay, let's do the math here on how many spots are available. The Big Ten has how many spots?

One. No, two, they're getting rid of Rutgers. Don't be shocked if that eventually happens. But it's funny. Sorry to cut off Kenton again. But has that ever happened? Has a school ever been kicked out of a, like schools have left conferences? has one ever been kicked out before.

I'm sure there's language that disallowed that. But that's my point exactly. You can't just, regardless of, oh, Mississippi State doesn't generate us revenue. Oh, damn well, they're already here. Oh, Rutgers is a money pit. Oh, the hell well, you are stuck with the Scarlet Knights, friends. You can't just kick out the Scarlet Knights to say, USC's the bigger brand.

So what happens to the one school that gets left out in terms of the Big Ten? And then let's be really, let's really get in the weeds. If the SEC has three spots left and they know you're the only place they go to, what is their incentive to give you a full share? You have to understand batten the best alternative to no agreement. If the conference walks away, if the SEC was to say, okay, the big 10 gets UBA, or let's say the big 10 gets UNC and now UVA is the odd school out. And UVA is now saying, hey, we want to come to the SEC.

And the SEC says, all right, sure. but you're only going to get 15% of a share. How can UVA prevent that? What do they have as recourse to say, wait a minute, you're not going to give us that. That's much lower than we make in the ACC. What is their alternative?

They have to do it up front. And similar to SMU, would it be worth taking that lower share to eventually get to the point where you're making the SEC revenue? Is that worth it? I don't know. And again, it sounds like it's worth to squeeze until we also factor in,

Everybody keeps saying the Super League is impending. So now you're going to pay nine figures for something that may not exist in 10 years. This is the type of stuff that people have to think about before it's like, you know, Donno and I received comments last year saying Clemsons played their last football game in the ACC. Book it. North Carolina won't be around these dirty fums anymore. Book it. Florida State is going to go and be in part of the SEC.

Book it. Well, we booked it. We bookmarked it. We looked at the book. the book was empty as hell. So at the end of the day, I look at this and I say, there are still logistics here beyond having to get it through our federal government, which we know to say it moves out of snail space would be offensive to every snail out there.

So, you know, it's a situation where there's a lot of stuff happening here, and I don't think that things will be moving as quickly as people imagine. So let me go around the table on this because I said in the opening, the Protect College Sports Act could either save the ACC or destroy it. So I guess the saving part would have been, you know, not only capping all the power for conferences at 19, which would limit mobility, but before the Moody Amendment was added to it, basically like Brian talked about, the ACC would essentially be all stuck together because I don't think anyone would take the risk of having to go independent for five years to go to a new conference. So I guess that was the saving part. It's not surprising why ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips supports, or at least supported the Protect College Sports Act because it would keep his conference together. But then with this amendment, and Kenton, I'll start with you, because you brought up all the obstacles for schools to go somewhere else.

Do you think if the PCSA were to pass in this form that that could actually destroy the ACC if these teams have a 180-day window to get out? It could, and as much as it could destroy the ACC, the salary cap also helps the ACC. The facto salary cap helps the ACC in such a way that even if some of these teams leaving all that good stuff, well, what's the difference? If the rev share is what it is and it's capped at a certain amount, which is why I call this the RCAA, Robin College Athletes Act, how can you go above that? Where can you get the additional money from? And everybody keeps saying, well, NIL isn't the same as RevShare, but it's very clear by the language of this that athletes revenue is going to be meaningfully impacted, including NIL. The NIL is not going to be seen as an entirely separate entity, a part of the language of this thing.

Now, maybe I'm wrong there. Maybe the government has written this in a way that it does shake out that way, but I would like to see it. May I give you the answer to that? Oh, please interject, brother. it's called they're going to cheat. Every school is going to pay players how they want to pay players. I've been saying it from the rooftops forever. The politicians in this are trying to say,

we're saving it, and they all know people like Isaac Shade are obviously dirty and paying North Carolina players. We know that. I mean, it's obvious. He's doing it right now. The point is you're never going to get rid of that. Did you hear what LSU just had, the meeting at the 80s house?

They had 40, boosters. 40. Their top 40. Come to the 80s house to meet about how they can get more money. Do you think they care about a cap in Baton Rouge? Do you think they care about a cap in love it? But that's my point. Exactly. You do all of this to end up back at square one, which is why I say this could end up destroying ACC, but it could also end up saving it because we're talking about nine figures, which is not exactly small potatoes. And we're talking about spending nine figures

on unknown commodities and maybe I have a spot and I have a handshake agreement. I was recruited. I went through the whole process of doing all that with football and being recruited by a bunch of big 10 schools, a bunch of back schools, all that good stuff. You know how many coaches told me things and gave me handshakes that never really materialized? One specific school said, hey, we will not recruit another defensive tackle. You just promise us you're going to make an official visit. I said, of course.

And then a week before my official visit was scheduled, they said, oh, we took another defensive tackle. So this is the nature of these deals. It's not about what we get in terms of, hey, Isaac, I like you. I like your wonderful Jerry Curl. I think you should be on this show. It's about once you put pen to paper and say, Isaac, you and that Jerry Curl coming along, then him and the Jerry Curl coming. That's the only way you can get what you need here out of these things.

It's not about a verbal agreement because, again, those are, it's a weasel, it's a wiesel, it doesn't exist. Dono, my direct answer to your question is, as written, which was the key phrase you used. I think as written, this probably keeps the ACC intact. But I think the other key thing I'll say is, I don't know that as written is where this thing is going to land on. And so I don't even like any answer I would give right now would have an ellipsis after it anyway.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's right because you think about those last minute amendments that were added like right before the last session. they've got over a month because I think the earliest this could be voted on would be mid-September, if not late September. So you can imagine all the amendments that may pop up or pop out between now and the time they actually get this vote done. But we've got actual ball to talk about because football training camp is happening all over the country, including the Atlantic Coast Conference. Let's get some intel on Belichick's tar heels, on Doran's Wolfpack, on Mike Norville, Seminals, Mario Cristobals, Hurricanes. You want to keep it locked right here because we're only getting started on this brand new episode of the ACC squad.

This is such an exciting time of year to be on Fandual, because, yeah, we're a couple of weeks away from actual college football being back. We are all over Fandual all season long, but all year long, really, because baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a home run tonight, Fandual is giving you a free chance to call your shot with daily dingers. It's easy to play. Just make your free pick for who you think will hit a home run in their game. If you're right, you'll receive a profit boost to use on your next bet for a chance at extra winnings.

Best of all, you can make a free pick every day throughout the MLB season. I mean, listen, I am not as hardcore about my baseball fandom as I am for virtually every other sport, but Daily Dingers has brought me back because being able to profit directly off of these home runs, which are the most exciting part of baseball to begin with, is so much fun. And Daily Diggers, it's another fun way to get engaged, guys, with every day's games, whether you're following your favorite team. Just keeping an eye on matchup across the league. Every game has someone capable of going deep. Now you get the chance to make your prediction before first pitch. So are you ready to play your game today? Join all the action at Fandual.com. That's Fandual.com to play daily diggers and make your free pick on who's hit in Homer. Play ball and swing for the fences on Fandual, an official partner. of MLB. Thank you for making the locked-on ACC squad your first listen.

All right, so training camps are going on around the ACC and beyond. I'm going to have to let Brian Smith by the first round again on this one, Brian, because Florida State, the Seminoles have a lot of question marks heading into this year, especially the long-term future

of head coach Mike Norvell. Maybe a really strong season could save his job. Anything short of what, eight seven wins would cement his fate in the unemployment line. So what's the intel coming out of Florida State camp? First off, I want to go ahead and get the really bad news out of the way. I'm not sure six and six gets in fired based on their financial situation.

But that's another conversation. That's very unfortunate. I know you would love that, but you'd sign off on a hundred-year contract. I'm sure. I say nothing. I just listen. Okay. Sounds like Ashton Daniels is solid as the quarterback, but he's not like,

unbelievable or anything, which is pretty much what we expected. Usman Kroma is going to be a dude at running back. Here's the odd part. I don't know how many of you know this, but the NCAA only allows two full scrimmages now in fall camp, they're going the way of the NFL, whatever. Florida stayed in their last scrimmage. And Kenton, I want your opinion on this, didn't allow the running backs to be tackled. Have you ever heard of that?

As a D. Lyman, what would you say to that, brother? That's not a scrimmage. That's what I said. You're only getting two. You're muted, Kenton. I think you're me. The Mike Norvelle Lobby, they've been coming from me ever since ACCC Media Days. If you know, you know.

But now, you know, the reality is, I would say, not only is that not a scrimmage, but they had their scrimmages back to back, too. They were so close. They were like five days apart. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Five days apart. And now it's done.

I worry about their ability to tackle. Because like you said, that's not a true indication of what football is. and college is different than the pros. It's just a different, very different set of talent and all that. You need guys to be tackling somewhere close to their actual game time in college. And to see that that's not happening, that's a little bit concerned to say least. I'm worried about that. They don't have a ton of depth in the front seven.

I think the starters will be okay. But in case anybody needs a reminder, SMU is game two. And this little team in Tuscaloosa is game number three. So, Kenton, if it doesn't go well, of tackling, how do you think that's going to go against SMU and Rhett Lashley? How do you think that's going to go? Oh, it ain't going to go too well. It ain't going to go too well.

PJ Williams and company going to move some furniture around there. That's kind of where I'm at. So offensively, they've got another offensive line thrown together from the portal minus one guy, Andreado, need to see it. Skill positions, they're fine on both sides of the ball. It's state of Florida team. Don't have some NFL players. but trenches, quarterback, iffy, linebacker, iffy.

Not sure how much their depth is. They don't tackle. Besides that, it's going great. Outside of that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? How was the play? Thank you. Don't know. But yeah, but we'll go to Kenton Gibbs next.

What's been the buzz? And you got some players I care about there now in Raleigh, Kenton, because he's got a bunch of former hurricanes who I really like. I wish them nothing but success over there. What's the buzz out of Wolfpack camp? Well, let's start with a former hurricane, shall we? Popo Aguirre is the talk of the town, ladies and gentlemen. It's so good.

The lineback and core outside of Caden Fordham last year was a little bit grotesque. We had players playing out of position. We had the guys trying to fill gaps where it was just like, now what motivated you to do that, son? What opened up there to tell you go in that space? But I'm going to tell you, both Richardson and Poe Poe Poe-Ogear have looked phenomenal in the lineback and core. And apparently the early stages of the first scrimmage was dominated. by the defense, but here's where it gets really exciting if you're an NC State fan. CJ, you know, we all heard that C.J. Bailey took over.

He took it over in the second half of the scrimmage, and he was just, you know, as the kids say now, he was locked in. He found a zone and he just could not miss in the second half, which obviously plays into the receivers, Davy on Doja, the Jojo traders and companies of the world, doing a great job of pairing up with him. So I think that if you're an NC state fan, you're excited about hearing that the defense can hold their own against such a prolific offense. And the only concern that I would walk away from that I didn't have before

was where was the running game? Where was the running game to kind of even that out? But other than that, everything else that you heard out of this thing, it was very good, very competitive, all Ray Reviews so far. What's Belichick and Bobby Petrino? Does Belich have any assistant coaches left? Are they all on administrative leave, Isaac? Well, there's no coaches on administrative leave, just Lombardi on administrative leave.

But literally, as we've been talking here, it's sounding from some sources that Steve Belichick's medical leave is expected to be an extended absence. And so I'm curious to see. And still, they're being very tight-lipped on what exactly is going on. I don't know yet. But my understanding is that Bill himself, as well as Bob Diaco, have kind of taken up more of the defensive responsibilities. with that. Where I want to go with fall camp kind of competition stuff, though, was on the other side of the football, where the big conversation is who's going to be QB1 and RB1 for Carolina? Let me start in the backfield where I assume JuJune, who's kind of one of the incumbent rising

sophomore, who was, you know, I just assumed he was going to be number one. Sounds like Benjamin Hall is actually getting the majority of the first team snaps in the backfield. And so that's kind of good news. Caleb Foster was coming in from LSU. He kind of showed up out of weight. This or out of shape. There we go. Overweight and out of shape. Oh, it was both.

He was overweight and out of shape, out of weight out of all of. Well, he was a shape, but the shape was a circle. So anyway, it sounds like right now that it's going to be Benjamin Hall, RB1 with Ju-Ju-June behind him. And I think it seems like that's less about not June not taking a step forward, but more about Benjamin Hall actually taking a step forward. So that could be a good news. A lot of the quarterback competition has been seemingly between Billy Edwards and Miles O'Neill.

Billy Edwards, of course, coming in after a couple of years in the Big Ten and a couple different schools. And then Miles O'Neill coming from A&M where Petrino actually recruited him. The assumption has been that Edwards was going to be the guy, but it sounds like it's a legit competition at camp with both of them getting a lot of snaps. I wouldn't be shocked at either of them starting being QB1 in Ireland for that first game. Ultimately, who cares because it's going to be a glorious first drive and then nothing, just like what happened last year on Labor Day. The more intriguing part to me is that the best quarterback on the roster in terms of long-term ceiling is Travis Burgess, the freshman who missed most of his senior year injured,

has been in camp fully ready to go from a medical standpoint and is really progressing to the point where I didn't expect him to see much of any time this season. But now that might be a possibility as we get maybe. more toward November. So we'll keep our eyes on that. That's positive news for the young guy. In terms of Miami, now Miami timeline-wise is a little bit behind all of your teams because you guys all have week zeros and Miami doesn't play until week one. So Miami hasn't had a scrimmage yet. They've actually only had pads on for a couple practices at this point. So keep that in mind as a disclaimer. But there are certain players who have been excelling either for

their improved physical attributes, the strength and conditioning coach Irvin Young is doing a really good job or just the reps they've been getting in practice. Now, for Miami, obviously, it's mostly good with the roster they have, but the not so good is tight end. They were already thin at that position. Tight end, Luca Gilbert, who probably would have been tight end two this year, suffered a season ending injury, tore his ACL right before training camp. So the depth of tight end is shaky. Elijah Lofton is probably Miami's top dog at that position. He's someone who always practices well, hasn't really put it together consistently in games. I think part of that was he was banged up last year.

You know, during spring ball, when he was recovering from those injuries, he was a little out of shape in spring, but he's lost, I don't know, about 15 pounds or so since then, so he's looked a lot better physically in fall camp. Miami's going to have to rely on really young tight ends behind him because the next two up are probably true freshmen this year, a tight end from Miami. So they've got some good ones there, Gavin Mueller.

in Israel Briggs, but the experience is not there. So tight end is going to be positional watch for Miami. Positions that everybody had questions about were the offensive and defensive line. Offensive line has four new starters on it from last year. The buzz that I'm getting on that is they might actually be an even better run blocking unit this year than they were last year. But obviously, it's yet to be seen how the pass protection is going to be compared to last season where it was stellar. You know, Jackson Cantwell is the true freshman that gets all the headlines being the former five star. But another true freshman, Ben Congdon, who's also 6-8-330, the guy's a mountain, has been doing really well in fall camp, even compared to how he did in spring.

I think he's threatening to be a starter there on the O line. On the D-line, you know, replacing Rubin Bain and Akeem Mesidor, the big question. Miami has Damon Wilson, former Missou Tiger and Georgia Bulldog, who's been playing really well. He's trying to kind of solidify his run defense and setting the edge. He's always been an elite pass rusher. And then the others that are performing well, Armando Blunt and Marquise Lightfoot heading into their third year. Lightfoot is someone who's always been a really good pass rusher, was maybe a little slight of frame the last couple of years. He's put on some weight.

He's up to 240, which is a really good sign. Armando Blunt, the other one is already very big at 275 pounds. Miami's defensive secondary looks deep. They've been performing well in practice. Omar Thornton, who went ACC to ACC, Boston College Transfer, can play safety and nickel. He's been one of the top performers so far there. Linebacker will be kind of looking at who the third LB is going to be after the very experienced Mohamed Torre in his eighth year and Chase Smith in his sixth year.

I look at Kellyn Wiley Jr. and Cameron Bobby Pruitt is probably the next man up. Miami does have two linebackers. in their base formation, though, so the third would be a rotational guy. And receiver, Miami, of course, super deep, Malachi, Tony, and Cooper Barcate leading that charge. At running back, it's the same core from last year, which is a good thing. But a positive sign on that is Jordan Lyle, who was a breakout freshman two years ago in 2024, didn't play much of any role last year because he was banged up throughout the year. He's been practicing really well.

So, you know, obviously everybody's kind of competing with, Mark Fletcher and Marty Brown at the top of that rotation, but Jordan Lyle has looked really good coming back from injury. So, you know, Miami's going to have a scrimmage, I think, this weekend. You know, Mario Cristobal, as you guys know, keeps things very quiet on lockdown. So whatever rumors I hear about that, you know, I can tell you, but then they'd probably have to kill me for sharing any of those rumors. But, you know, hopefully, hopefully it stays on the up and up there. And, you know, when we come back, we mentioned week zero games coming up. The Tar Heels, Seminoles, Wolfpack will all be in action.

Well, let's see how the ACC is going to do. Four games involving ACC teams week zero. Are we going to sweep the week? We'll be back on the lockdown ACC squad. Right after I tell you about the game, since 1986, the game has been creating classic college hats that fans are proud to wear, whether you're an alumnus, a current student season tick and hold. or simply just someone who never misses a game.

A great hat is more than just a peril. It's a way to represent your school wherever you go. And this year, the game is celebrating its 40th anniversary by giving fans a chance to save on some of their most iconic college hats. If you've been thinking about replacing an old favorite or adding a new one to your collection right now is the perfect time. What I love about these hats from the game, I'm showing some of them from North Carolina tar heels from the game.

I'm not cool enough to wear this one, but I love the gray. I love the Navy piping and the little blue button on top. Woo! And then we got these just classic horizontal bar versions, the baby, the Carolina blue and the white as well. Great stuff. Kent Gibbs loves them especially. What I love about these hats is how timeless they are.

You can wear them year round, whether it's heading to a game or just everyday life like running errands with hundreds of officially licensed college hats to choose from. You'll find the perfect fit not only for game day, but every day. Don't miss this chance to celebrate 40 years of the game with 40% off your entire order. Visit the GameCaps.com and use promo code locked on at checkout. Again, that's gamecaps.com promo code locked on.

Celebrate 40 years of the game with 40% off, but don't wait because this anniversary offer won't last forever. Oh, Dono, you're muted. Whose lobby got me that time? The Miami Lobby. It was the Miami Lobby. They said, you want to tell secrets. We go cut to mic before we get out of field too much.

I've revealed too much about a scrimmage that hasn't even happened yet. But thank you for making the Lockdown ACC Squad your first listen. All right, so fellas, week zero, Saturday, August 29. So, like, it's happening this month. There are four games involving ACC teams. The first one is ACC versus ACC. So somebody's getting a dub there on Saturday, August 29th. UVA favored by five and a half points against NC State.

I guess actually technically the first game will be TCU versus North Carolina in Ireland with TCU favored by seven and a half. Stanford will host Hawaii. Hawaii got them last year out in Hawaii, but Stanford will host them this year favored by five and a half points at home. And Florida State will host New Mexico State as a 31.5 point favorite. I'll start with you, Isaac, because, you know, your team is an underdog for this one. Are we going to see four ACC dubs in four games opening weekend? Let me put it this way. And I apologize to the Carolina crowd listening. Whoever loses the ACC versus ACC game is more likely to win

than Carolina against TCU in this game in Ireland. Like, guys, I just don't see it happening. I joked about it earlier. There was the incredible standalone game on Labor Day, all the buildup, all the anticipation last year at Keenan with TCU coming to Chapel Hill. Carolina goes on this first drive and it's like, holy cow, the Belichick era is off to a bang. And then they didn't score another offensive touchdown against a high major opponent for like a month or something. I can't remember off the top of my head.

But the team should be better this year. Absolutely. But this schedule, and I know we're just talking about week zero, but what Carolina has in front of them. The TCU game, week off, ETSU, and then at Clemson, week off, and then hosting Notre Dame. And so this opening four game salvo is just dirty to use a word Kenton's probably thinking of right now. And so Carolina, I wouldn't be shocked at all to be sitting at one in three after playing four games, having used up both of their by weeks already. I just, I am hopeful because it is a more talented team. It's a team that's been together.

other more capability. I just don't see Carolina helping the ACC sweep week zero. Don't worry, CJ Sadler. I'm going to scoop you up from Ireland myself. If you want to come on back to Raleigh, you know, we ain't got to get into all that right now. You know, I ain't got to do any temperate for my fellow technicians. But in terms of the ACC's opportunity to sweep week zero, I would say it would be great if we did not include North Carolina. I would say it would be great. I think that Coach Pritchard is the guy for Stanford. Stanford, however, it's just devoid of talent. What benefits them is so is Hawaii. When Hawaii has good players now, people are going out to that island. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, how y'all doing? I know the weather might be a little worse

over here. We got a little bit more NIR money. How about it? So, you know, I think that Coach Pritchard and Stanford have a great opportunity. Florida State bet not lose no damn New Mexico State. Y'all better not lose. You can't lose to those Aggies. You can't do that. That just ain't, you know, ain't nobody going to be all right with you. You lose to them.

And, you know, obviously, NC State and UVA, that's ACC on ACC violence. Somebody's going to win, somebody's going to lose. Just nature of the business. But, you know, I like what they got going on over there at TCU. I think Payne is a hell of a running back. I think that he's, you know,

he's a special breedie. Only played a little bit last year, but he's expecting more carries this year. And UNC is a freshman-led team. They're going to take some, freshman lumps. And this is going to be one of those things where you're not even playing a normal game to take your freshman lumps. You're going overseas on a national slot with everybody watching and all this pomp and circumstance that wouldn't be in a normal thing. You want a more

senior-laden, more experienced team dealing with that. And that's what TCU has with Marcus Dealing company over there. They got a bunch of old dudes like Donno's lineback in court. It has 14 years of experience between two guys for crying out loud. And obviously, Josh Hoover's gone. He's off to join the reigning national champion Indiana Hoosiers. But I just, again, I just do not see it happening, especially given all the surrounding stuff, which, you know, honestly could help Carolina because TCU is going to have to deal with that as well.

But I just think they are in a better position to handle all of that circus that comes with going over and playing in Ireland more so than Carolina. Florida state's not going to lose the New Mexico. I'm more worried about how they look. Can they run them over? Yeah, but are they willing to show anything? If they play complete vanilla, I consider that to be a bad thing. That means you're truly scared.

You have to be able to be just better than teams. I get it. But schematics matter. They couldn't throw up in the pocket last year. What do we hit on the Ashton Daniels thing with that? They got a new line. They need to practice some of that stuff. And as Kent and I were talking about earlier,

can they tackle consistently? They didn't even hit to the ground for the poor running backs in scrimmage, too, so we don't know. I need to see something. But like Donald said, there are 31.5. That's a lot. So I'm just concerned about how they do it. I can tell you one thing, and Kenton knows this about me. These early season non-conference games, I usually like to bet on the big dogs to cover the spread.

So I probably will be locking in New Mexico State plus 31.5. But, yeah, Florida State's going to win that game by probably at least three. touchdowns. I see that going down. Probably. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I'm going to tell you, you're never in a bad situation when you're saying, hey, our biggest problem is we got to be too vanilla. Now, the question is, or the reality is, Florida State would not just be facing the likes of New Mexico State and other Mountain West competition for the rest of the season.

I'm sure Norville wishes that could be the case, but it's going to get a lot harder, a lot like North Carolina schedule will, in very short order. Yeah, and I think we're in agree. And Brian, do you agree? Because I'm in agreement with Kenton and Isaac. I'd say three and one the first weekend. I don't see Carolina. I don't see Carolina getting it done.

Yeah. Five teams, Donno, three and two. That's true. Three and two. Yeah, I don't like UNC. So I agree. Well, I'm glad I'm not going to have a dog, you know what I mean? Because I'm saying he had me ready to jump through the screen.

Talk about Ken Gibbs like this had in particular. Listen, I already got excommunity from Detroit because I know how to me a shuffle. Don't get me kicked out of Raleigh for saying I like that at. Okay, I only got so many places I call home. Now, I'm indifferent on UNC. The only part of UNC that I don't like is currently on administrative leave. I am a big vocal critic of Michael Lombardi. I think he's a clown, but he may not be working there for much longer.

So I'm back to, I'm back to indifference. But huge, thank you and shout out to all the everydayers. and make sure you check out all of our shows and also all the ACC shows, even the ones that were not represented here on this episode. But check out Locked on Tar Heels and Locked on College Basketball hosts, hosted by Isaac Shade. Check out Locked on Wolfpack and Locked on ACC with Kent and Gibbs. Check out Locked on Semmittles and the Portal hosted by Brian Smith.

I can't speak today. I had a red-eye flight a couple nights ago. I'm still recovering. And check out Locked on Cain's hosted by me, Alex Dono. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of the, the Lockdown ACC squad. We are part of the number one sports podcast network celebrating 10 years of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day.