Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - North Carolina remains a TRAIN WRECK | What this means for the ACC

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

North Carolina Tar Heels spiral as Bill Belichick era faces fresh scandal—can the football program recover before another disastrous season? The ACC Squad dissects the fallout from Michael Lombardi���s HR-related suspension, looming NCAA compliance issues, and questionable staff hires that have fans bracing for more on-field losses. ACC preseason poll surprises spark debate over Clemson Tigers’ reputation, Cal’s underwhelming ranking and Wake Forest’s spot after last year’s success. The team debates Miami Hurricanes’ status as preseason favorites, the impact of $20M+ jersey patch deals at Ohio State and Notre Dame, and whether ACC football’s lower national profile hurts its market value. Will Duke or Georgia Tech score the next major sponsorship—and is basketball’s dominance dragging ACC football behind? Squad up for hot takes and bold predictions heading into the new ACC season. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Bill Belichick tenure at North Carolina just gets even more of a tire fire because, man, what the hell is going on now? Jeez, man. 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. Happy Thursday, everybody. Welcome to the ACC Squad this week here on the Locked-on Podcast Network.

Grayson Singleton here, Locked-on, SMU, Jarvis Davis, Kinti Gibbs, JJ Jackson, and Brian Smith, all in the house with me. Before we get going, our episode is brought to you by Kaushi. For a limited time, download the Kaushi app and use code locked on to get up to $500 in bonus credits when you trade $25. Fellas, what's happening today, y'all? What's going on, man? I'm just waiting on kidding.

Oh, I don't want to say too much because, like, Stevie Wonder, I'm overwhelmed, overjoyed, overloved with how life is going right now. You know, I don't want to take up everybody's time. I'm excited. I'm excited about some of our topics today. JJ, you good? Yeah, I'm great. I mean, you know, nothing's wrong in Durham when you look down the road.

compared to what's happening in Chapel Hill. Everything is, I couldn't complain. ACC champs and football and basketball. I'm great. Well, let's go ahead and go down the road to Chapel Hill because, Ken, I'm going to throw this one. I'm going to lob this one up for you, bro. Michael Lombardi's on paid administrative leave for something

that has to do with an HR complaint, allow your mind to go wherever you want to go there. But KG, man, what's going on in North Carolina? I'm devastated, honestly. I'm devastated. And let me tell you why. You know, Kalshi was our first ad of the day, and I'm not a bet man, but I placed a little something down on who would be the first person to have an HR complaint on him.

You know, I placed, I thought I'm going to hedge my bets. I'm going to do some on Belichick because he's dating the girl, one-third is age, the age of some of the people walking around on that campus. And then I put some on Petrino, because, you know, although he may be an offensive guru, we remember him. We remember what happened out there in Louisville, you know. So I hedge my bet. I said, it's got to be one of those two.

It won't be the field. And Mike Lombardi said, the house always wins. Look at them. This is insane. And you want to know the funniest part about all this. It's one thing for the HR violation to happen. And like, okay, that's whatever happens. They're probably going to have to get rid of them, whatever the case would be cool.

They also have the college football commissioner, something along those lines coming down, which is for NIL and compliance issues. y'all cheated and the best you could do was four and eight and billy damn edwards you cheated for billy edwards i cannot believe this it's like lying on your resume to become a janitor my god have some shame but you know i hate it for them more importantly that little ball up there is from one of the times that we beat unc while i was on campus it happened three times and more importantly and more importantly it all. I love it for them because it feels like we're going to get another one. It feels like C.J. Bailey's going to get one more. Feels like Duke Scott's going to get one more. Feels like all of my guys on that defense, Mr. Harvey, Mr. Nelson, Popo and Gere and company are going to get one of us.

I'm excited. I'm excited about it. Shout out to those janitors, man. All the janitors that are out there, shout out to you. Absolutely. We love the sanitation engineers. Just don't lie on your resume to do it. And I think what makes this even worse. with Michael Lombardi.

Like Bill Belichick, I can understand the arrogance, right? You know, you damn to invent it the defense, you know what I'm saying? That, you know, that L team was a part of and just an amazing football player. You coach some really good football players in your time. Tom Brady, one of the best quarterbacks, if not the best quarterback, they ever play the game. But oh my gosh, why is Michael Lombardi arrogant? Somebody please tell me why he's arrogant.

Coming in talking about, yeah, we're the 33rd NFL team. That's the kind of thing we're going to be running. Everybody got professional football experience and all this stuff like that. But this is just, it's just an absolute joke because at the end of the day, the only reason why this man has had any type of job in recent memory is because of Bill Belichick. Because he's a homie. That's the homie. I looked out for my homie.

He was literally Bill Belichick's first hype. He didn't hire Bill Belich didn't even hire his son. You know, he waited around for that one. It took a little time for him to get around to that one. This man hired Michael Lombardi. That's the first phone call you make is Michael Lombardi. When you're trying to turn around an organization, you're trying to live up to that $10 million year contract.

My goodness, my man. Like the Eric is just oozing out of Chapel Hill. And I just don't understand it. I don't get it. Well, I hate to have all this silence in the air, and I just want to remind everybody that, again, this is allegedly they're cheating to produce not one. They did that job.

They did that jump. We're going on two. Actually, I'm sorry. We already have two. They're producing potentially a third class of students at UNC from their freshman year all the way up through their senior year that have not beaten, not just NC State. Congratulations, JJ Jackson.

Your boys are included in there, too. They ain't beat Duke since 2023. So it's been quite some time. It's been in the words of Sam Cook, it's been a long time coming. But I know, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Chains ain't going to come to UNC as long as they keep making hires like this. You know, the Matt Brown hire was a, I think it was an abject failure because you think, oh, we're bringing back the guy that bought us

to national relevance, you know, national championship head coach, all those good things. He's super old. he's basically 80 he's over the hill and so what do you do you go get the only coach in america that's older than him that acts older than him in bill belichick i mean this was doomed from the start this was doomed from the start and anybody who doesn't believe me go back and see what i said when the fire first happened it's just like when the viking's drafted j jay mccarthy i said as a lion's fan what a great pick for them what a great pick what a great guy i said the same thing

when Belichick got this job. I said, oh man, how great it must be to be a Tar Hill fan right now. You got the goat coach who the game looked like it passed by the last time he was coaching. When he was a GM, his talent evaluation had him drafting Cole Strange and had Sean McVeigh literally laughing at him saying, didn't we have a fourth round raid on that guy that they took in the first round? And all of a sudden, we believe that he was going to figure it out at a level he's never coached that before. Hey, you know, I'm super excited that UNC is doing all this extra spending. And, you know, I have a couple ideas myself since they're just throwing away money and burning it. I got a few ideas myself for some money.

I'm going to stop by the campus a little later. Don't worry, that's what I got the Black Hoodie on for. I don't have to rob them. Bill Belichick's already doing a robbery. I'm just going to be a sycophent for him and hopefully to be the new GM. It's kind of wild to say because the wins aren't going to come. But in so many ways, it's like, you know, North Carolina just desperately needs football season to get here so that maybe you can be

distracted again by how poor of a football team they actually are, as opposed to thinking about everything else, the circus, if you will, that is that program. Isn't that strange, though, that they're better off playing games and losing them each week so that you're focused on the disaster on the field rather than having all this time on our hands to talk about and everything else. Could they fire him if they get smoked a couple of times by 30 plus? Yes, absolutely. There's a game early October that it's going to be very interesting in Chappalo,

though. Some gold helmets are coming down. That game could be 60-something to 10. I mean, speaking of trying to fire him early, I mean, they might be praying for more of these HR type of instances so they can have cause to find. That's cut. You hire these idiots.

Here's the funny thing of money. Exactly. Bill Belichick and all his arrogance, which Jarvis was talking about, took his buyout down to $1 million. His buyout is super low. So if they were to decide to get rid of him, the only big holdup is the timing and finding a new coach. Obviously, you can't fire him right now.

You're right before the season. Who would want to do it? Okay. Hey, they got Bobby P, baby. Bobby Pee can still right. But you know what? But you know what? I will.

He can sit right on in that thing. I'm going to tell Bob Petrino this. On the coaching trail, a lot like when he's going through dorm rooms, he's got vision. He's got vision. Let me explain to you why, okay? He saw when he went to Arkansas. This coach is probably going to get fired. I'm going to be an interim coach over here, and I'm going to make them look good for these last couple of games.

We're not going to win, but I'm going to have them looking good. We're going to score a lot of points. Then he did the same. thing of USC. He said, hold on, this another coach is about to get fired. His girlfriend is doing FOIA requests, you know, and all that good stuff. We got the GM over here who ain't never pissed to drop anywhere now talking about HR problems and all that. I think we got another firing on our hands, boys. Maybe I could sneak in there and win a couple ball games. Maybe I'll be the first coach to beat NC State in six years, be the first coach to beat Duke in three. And I

made become the full-time head coach. How about it? I see what you're doing, Bobby P. You're not slick. You know, and to the earlier point that you made to JJ, if this is two years in a row where you need the football season to make up for your own department's clown show and shenanigans, that's all, to me, that's all it takes for me to say, you know what, let's move on. When we need the football season, which by the way is going to bring us more negative publicity to cover up for the shenanigans that the adults in the room cannot stop finding themselves in. We got a problem. But I will say this too. The reason why this was destined to fail from the start is because this was cobbled together by a bunch of people who should never have been there in the first place.

Bill Belichick should have never been in the college game ever. Michael Lombardi has no business being the general manager of literally anything right now. And then you just ran down the Bobby Patrino situation there. This was a bunch of people who should have never been there. It was going to be a tire fire from the start. And I will say this one thing as pertains to Bill Belichick hiring Michael Lombardi. It ain't always a bad day when a form of good old fashioned nepotism goes horribly wrong. I will say that.

I'm with you 100% Grayson. And, you know, there is a lady on TikTok who talks about coats often. And she said, coats have to function in an eye. odd way because they're by nature self-destructive because you've got to hire sycophants, but sycophants aren't always competent. You have to hire, what a sycophant is is a big word for a yes man or woman. It's that person around who whatever you say, they're going to say it's right. You can say the sky is pink and they're going to be like, yeah, yeah, I see.

I see. You just got to put on the right color context. And when you hire those people to work around you, it's not necessarily a level of competence. It's not necessarily a level of understanding and seriousness. and let's really get into it. Professionalism that goes with, hey, I worked my way up. I grounded and scrapped and clawed.

I did four rounds of interviews. I wasn't sure if I was going to get this job, but I'm here now. So I'm going to be on my P's and Q's. Listen, when I signed up for locked on, I had to do a couple interviews all of them years ago. You understand? And the trial episode.

So to see that you just got this job for being his home boy, of course you don't take it serious because things, easily gained are lightly esteemed. And that's exactly how he took this job with very light esteem. Grayson, we got to take a break, man. The world does not need to be thinking about Kent and Gibbs' TikTok habits and what his for you page might look like as he's scrolling, man. Preach, brother. I don't even want to know what type of work that is. Going up and down his

timeline on TikTok. Hey, hey, hey, we're talking about his age-arch place. Not mine. I work from home, okay? I work from home, and my view button is very good. We all good over here. We've good over here. New button right on the top. Ken Geh's algorithm, baby. I would love to see that one. Unmuted, you see?

My mute button works, baby. They do what it's supposed to do. Coming up next before we get an HR complaint, the ACC preseason poll is out. Which teams do we think got positioned horribly wrong? We'll answer that question on the other side. Locked on ACC squad show continues. Support for today's episode comes from Indeed's podcast.

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Grayson Singleton here at Locked on SMU, hosting this bad boy, Jarvis Davis, locked on Georgia Tech, Kitten Gibbs, locked on Wolfpack, JJ Jackson, locked on Blue Devils, and locked on Seminoles, Brian Smith joining me today. All right, fellas, so the ACC preseason poll got released today.

Miami's a runaway favorite. Brian Smith's already shaking his head, so we're going to go to him first, but Miami's a runaway favorite. Clemson got some first place votes. SMU got some first place votes. Question I want to ask you guys, which team was either way overrated or way underrated or what other takeaways you guys got?

Brian, go first, man. Okay, I admit that I cover Florida State, but overall they're 11th in the poll, which probably isn't all that far off, but who are the buffoons that place them first? There are three first place votes for Florida State. Who are these fools? Warchant 247? Shout out to the boys that plant the spear. I know those guys, like, highly not they're the one.

Somebody did it probably out of the Miami media somewhere just to be funny, would be my guess. But, I mean, the hate is real there. Stanford actually got a vote for first place, Brian. Stanford. I'm not got a comment on that. That's not a football. Kentucky got a first place voting in the SEC preseason poll.

Will Stein said he's going to be the reason they do well this year, man. Confidence, bro. He did say that. Confidence. or arrogance, but that's another story. I also think Wake Forest is probably a little low. They won nine games last year. Well, if you say whatever you want, they ain't recruiting well, that is my home.

That got coach. Does anybody want to play Wake Forest on the road, especially because nobody's going to be motivated to play them? Who wants to go there? I bet you if they play North Carolina this year, Wake Forest wins, that's an easy one right there. I'll go ahead and put that prediction out there. They'll win it.

They'll win in North Carolina. They've got a head coach that's still breathing. So they probably should be ranked a little higher. I don't know about y'all, man. I'm not sold on Clemson. Like, they feel like they've been getting the benefit of the doubt for a very long time. Christopher Vazina, who's the three-year backup to Kay Klubnick. Like, what are we really talking about here?

So, yeah, they've been getting a benefit of doubt. And based off of what I saw last year, I don't think Clemson deserves to be in the top five of the conference. Like, they, they're in the, they're in the. a space now where you have to doubt them, but you don't put them out, you don't take them outside the top 10 and they surprise you. That's where Daibo is right now. He's not, he shouldn't be getting the benefit of doubt at this point because this man has been fighting the college ball landscape for the past three, four years, man, and it, and it's just been a downward spiral ever since that day. And I just don't think that he should be getting that

that type of love, so to speak, going into the season. Tate Reynolds will be the starting quarterback there by about week seven to eight. He's true freshman out of Arizona. He's a big strong kid. He can swing it. He's a true freshman. But that's not where you want to be, though. Oh, no.

Before. Let me be clear. Absolutely. I'm not saying it because he's ready, ready. It's just. Fizzina ain't that good. I'm very confused. If I had to name any of these teams that was in,

properly placed. And I'm not just saying this because we got their head coach and all of their players that were at ACC media days. Why is Kyle at 12? Why is Kyle that low? And you took mine. I mean, I'm, you know, I told people last year they were going to be able to upset the Apple cart here and there. And they did. They did. They objectively, sorry, Grayson, they kept his boys out of the ACC championship game. I would have seen that beautiful. No, that's real talk. Real talk. That's what I'm saying. I would have seen that beautiful smiling hair line down in Charlotte. I would have been there to meet my boy, get him some good eats.

But we couldn't do it because JKS had to go throw a wrench in the plans. And here's the thing. Am I a full-on Tosh Lapoy believer in terms of his on-the-field coaching ability? I have not seen it. I get that. I get that. However, when you look at the teams that are around them, I just don't think that they fit in that cohort.

Because if you're talking about which of these teams has a proof, proven quarterback and a head coach that you know can get it done. These are the three teams that are above them. Pitt, Duke, Florida State. Do all three of those teams have a head coach that you trust to get it done and the quarterback? The only one that I would say there's an argument for is Pitt. That's it.

All due respect, JJ, I'm not buying Walter Egan. You cannot sell me that stock over JKS. You can't sell me that. And the defense last year was atrocious for Duke. It was literally like, hey, Minson, you got to figure it out. Shepherd, you've got to figure it out, brother. If y'all two don't do it, we're going to give up 35. So I'm a little confused on Cal down at 12.

And again, I get the idea of first time head coach. But you've got an NFL head coach, a Super Bowl attending head coach as your GM. You've got a guy who's told you how to put a staff together like a professional. And you didn't just go in there get your homeboys. Oh, yeah, I played with this guy way back way. oh yeah, this is my son, he's going to coach with me, you know, not taking any shots of anybody. But you get the point. That's a real put-together staff.

So, you know, I know that they lost some pieces. I know that they lost Kendra-Ga-L. I know that a lot of that defensive backfields now in the NFL. I understand that. But I'm saying I would not be shocked to see them as high as five or six this year. Katie, you said it wasn't because they won you over at ACC kickoff. But you enjoyed, you know, getting to chop it up a little bit with all those. cow golden bears.

Oh, good. I mean, the one-on-ones that you were getting KG, you're a Cal-Grythum guy through and through it. Hey, hey, hey, hey, I am non-biased as they can be, okay? The Cal-Gorhythm is great for engagement, and I don't have a personal love relationship with them, and I do not look forward to going out to Memorial this fall. That is not something Cal fans that I plan on doing.

Let me jump in here with the cow love, though, because I think 12 is criminally underrated for Cal. A JKS has a real NFL potential, and he could have a real NFL future, I believe. Like that cat is wildly, wildly impressive. But let me pitch this to you guys. Number one, they have the third ranked transfer portal class in the ACC. That means something. Like Tosh Lepoy and Ron Rivera, they brought in dudes to something.

That's one thing I get him. And that is Tosh Lpoys' calling card, too, is that he is a recruiter. and then you pair that with Ron Rivera. That obviously paid dividends so far. But look at Cal's schedule in the ACCC. I mean, you're at Syracuse. I think that's a team they're better than. Clemson, we already covered that Virginia Tech with a new head coach,

Wake Forest. You get Wake Forest at home, which means they got to go across the country, literally coast to coast to play that game. Then they've got this brutal three game stretch where they're on the road at SMU at NC State at Virginia. If they come out of that two and one, in that three-game set. Then you finish with Stanford and Pitt, both at home.

So they got a pretty manageable schedule aside from a three-week stretch. So I think the schedule lines up. They brought in a bunch of talent, and they have one of the better quarterbacks in the ACC. Some people think he is the second best quarterback in the ACC behind Darien Mincer right now. So Cal being 12 with all of that as the formula, I don't see it, man. Like that, that to me was bananas. And mind you, they're starting off the season with UCLA, one of the worst Big Ten teams.

So they will get a chance to get there. First time head coach against who's UCLA's head coach these days? Bob Chesney. Yeah. Okay. And how long has Bob Chesney been coaching at the Power 4 level? This will be his first year. Oh, okay.

So we got two first time Power 4 head coaches. And although I will give Chesney the, you know, it would be disingenuous. not talk about what he did at JMU, not talk about what he did the Holy Cross. That's a whole other side of the country. That's a whole other region to talk about, hey, it's no difference to come down or come over to the West Coast. Well, I'll be damned. Ask DeBoer how it goes when you go from one place to another on the other side of the country. Ask them.

It's a whole other ballgame. There are not too many. What separates Nick Saban as the goal is he was successful, not just the LSU in Alabama. He had Michigan State up there competing with Michigan. I remember. little kid and there was many a night I spent saying why is little brother beating us like I was part of the thing so the reality is moving across country that's going to be tough for him and you got taught support who that's where he grew up that's where he lived played his high school football at

de la salle he's a cow guy through and through so ultimately I think that their schedule very manageable and like you said jk s is the type of arm he could deliver you some of these games Some of those games that are the margins are this thing, the answer will be, we have JKS, they don't for a lot of those games. Well, you mentioned the game they beat SMU in in the regular season finale. That was JKS walking down SMU because Kevin Jennings had led a go-ahead touchdown drive at the end of that game. It was JKS who won up to.

So absolutely, when you have a quarterback that can add a winner to, especially at the college level if you have a quarterback like that, you ain't a 12th place team at any conference. No, I don't know. No, no. Yeah, my last takeaway, guys, was just that seven different schools out of the 17 received first place votes.

I mean, we already talked about Stanford kind of getting that silly vote themselves and a couple of just had two or three votes. But kind of shocking to see that large of a number of different schools that someone said, you know what? I think they are the best out of all the teams in the ACC. There was a rather tall and well-built out writer by the name of

Mandrew Ayuk or something like that that was there. I never saw him before at any other ACC media days. Kind of funny looking. I think he had on a fake mustache. He might have been the one Stanford voter. We got to check that Andrews credentials. Yeah, we'll do that. Manjura. Riyuk. Coming up next, Ohio State and Notre Dame have announced Jersey partnerships. How much could ACC teams get with this kind of thing? We'll answer that question to close up the show coming up. Before season even kicks off, everyone's making predictions.

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So Ohio State and Notre Dame each got in the $20 million range for a jersey patch. Ohio State, $17 million with their agreement with J.P. Borgian Chase. 18 to 20 million dollars per year is going to be the payout for Notre Dame's partnership with SOFi. So with that in the rearview mirror, I guess we can trash on the Big 12 for whatever the hell that hilarious deal was now. But what do you guys think the ACC teams individually can get from a Jersey patch sponsorship seeing some of the figures that came out earlier this week? JJ should be the one that talks about this the most. I want to see if he says something about a certain deal that their basketball programs got going on.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's obvious that Duke and basketball has been at the forefront of so many changes within the sport and obviously thinking about prime video deals that are there. I'm like this is a setup, Brian. I'm nervous, man. It is. It is. It is a very big setup. But I wonder if they're going to try to parlay that because Duke was pretty decent football last year.

I mean, it's one of their better teams recently. They try to parlay that into something else. I don't know. I mean, they could, and they're looking to do anything they can to increase their brand because the ACC is not trending in a good direction, and I'll get to that in a second. But to Grayson's point, the Big 12 got $20 million for the whole freaking league to have a logo on the field and the patch of the whole league.

For the whole league, they got $20 million. Sold their soul. And they got horrible. Look, Monster energy drinks is about the most unhealthy thing you're going to put. We're an athlete. And yet we're putting it on our jerseys. And they didn't get no money for it either. So if you want to take anything else in this podcast,

ASTC ain't doing great, but it ain't that bad. Okay, let me be very quick. Secondarily, Duke's deal, I don't know what the, did they come out in particulars on the, okay, they're a private school. they don't have to. That's a whole other deal. But this is a sign that everybody's doing this. It's not coincidence to both Ohio State and Notre Dame basically announced together. I 100% guarantee you. They were talking to each other about what was going on because the deals are very similar. But now it puts the on us on not just the ACC, the schools like Texas, Georgia, Miami,

not only getting the deal, but getting one of these deals. I wonder if the ACC is a little nervous about it because Miami is a big brand, but it's a very local kind of deal. Florida State is, well, we'll talk about that later. Clemson is on the downside. Who in the ACC for football could get a deal? Right now, I don't know if there is one. What about the school that has an estimated media reach of $45 billion? Or the school that, you know, was second in the conference as far

eyebrows. You know what? I think it was 33 million views. Are they a national brand in football, though? They were top 20 in the nation. Top 20 and views like 10 games. I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this. Y'all got to beat out the 316 guys first. You got to beat them out. You got to beat them out.

Damn. You can't. That's a fair point. Because I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you, you know what's going on, Jarvis. are competing for Mercedes Ben's. That's what you're competing for. That's what you're, one of y'all is going to get that sponsorship. What are y'all going to get that patch?

Who's it going to be? Or Coca-Cola, you know what I'm saying? Waffle House? I hear you. I hear you. I'm going to tell you, I'm surprised that J.J. Jackson and Company didn't get those Bezos bucks going. That's what.

See, they can't get sponsored by Magic City, Jarvis. That's that. You're wild. You're wilder. We can't talk about that. We see. I don't partaking those festivities anymore. Someone else may enjoy that.

Y'all hear you said anymore? Y'all hear you said anymore? Yeah, I'm surprised. On a more wholesome note, I'm surprised that JJ and his boys ain't get in on those Bezos bucks. We move in silence, KG. You already got the Amazon deal. See, see, see, I'm worried.

I'm worried. What I'm from Diamond Jim say? This scares me. This scares me when Duke is moving in silence. Because every time they do, they pop up with another deal where the rest of the conference is like, wait, they did what? Wait, how is that? And their private school, much like Miami.

So what does that mean? If NC State makes a deal with Bojangles, we got disclosing. We got to tell everybody this is what it is. If Georgia Tech makes a deal with Coca-Cola, Georgia Tech has to say, this is how much Coca-Cola's fan of us to have it on these jerseys? If down there in Florida, finally somebody decides to do something to help out Florida State,

what happens? Yeah, well, I mean, they got some pretty good hoagies, but Florida State would have to disclose that. SMU, much on the similar vein, very private school. And I'm going to tell you, Grayson, I'm sorry because... A hole rig somewhere out there. Exactly, exactly. Grayson, I know you graduated from a Big 12 school.

And so specifically Oklahoma State, Section 231 didn't take their shirts off for that deal. They did not go full chest out to the wind. Dude. To get a one point-something million dollar deal and look up at all the other teams. Like, y'all get 20? This is like that scene from the family vacation with, with Sadekis and all them, where they were like,

they paid me $35,000. They paid you 35, they only paid me 21. You're getting paid. That's what the big 12 is saying right now, because this is just outlandish. Dude, I was doing a radio show with Dari Noca, the SEC network a couple of days ago. And he brought that up.

And I said, I have to distance myself from that because I cannot believe my school was the source of that foolishness. I cannot believe that it was my alma mater. That was the source of that, taking off the shirt and waving it around like freaking muscle, man, and acting a fool. I cannot believe that.

I have a question for all of y'all, though. I have a question for all of y'all. Do you think the ACC's value goes down a little bit when it comes to situations like this? Because football isn't really the conference is calling card. Like, we all know this. The calling card for the ACC is basketball. And Duke is a global national brand in basketball.

Carolina is a national global brand in basketball. Do you think it hurts the conference when it comes to monetary value that the two biggest brands is basketball? And even though basketball is great, basketball is my first love. That's my sport. But it ain't football, especially in the United States. It ain't football. Oh, absolutely.

Football is king. Football is king. Any holidays that basketball used to have, as soon as football come and step on their corner, boom, it's over. It's over. As soon as football says, hey,

we're going to have a game on this day. That's what everybody watches. So I do a thousand percent agree that not being a football conference hurts you in the long run. And I think when you really look at the overarching theme of how much can these teams make, Jarvis, you talk about Georgia Tech and how viewed they were.

We just talked about Wake Forest in the year they had. ACC football flies under the radar in a way that nobody else does. One of the best stories in all of college sports, and really all of sports in general, from death penalty to three straight conference conference championship appearances, including a jump up to the power four.

And yet, SMU was not revered as this is one of the greatest stories of American perseverance we'll ever see. If they were in the Big Ten, they would have been treated like that. If they jumped from the Mac to the Big Ten and go to a Big Ten championship, even if they got their backs kicked in. It would have been, oh, this is something.

And SMU was actually competitive against Clemson in that game. So, you know, it is very unfortunate that for whatever reason, we're seen as just the non-sexy pick in football. We're seen as like the, if he bring around enough flowers, I might give him a shot. Not the guy to do. They're like, oh, I got to talk. Yeah, I got to get it.

You know, we got to say something. We're not seeing that way when it comes to. I think one of the things that's going to help that when the money starts coming in because some little birdies been rumbling around here down in Atlanta and say, hey, tech might be really close to getting one of those Georgia patch deals too. So if you start seeing, I'm not saying it has to be 20. Let's just say it's 13, 14 million. You don't think that's going to open a lot of eyes and get some people to start talking

or rumbling, so to speak, if a pun intended, about, you know, what's going on down here in Atlanta. So I think it's going to take one of those type deals, not necessarily at that number, because we know the Dame is Notre Dame, Ohio State is Ohio State. We know those are the big dog. They're going to get some, they're going to get the bread. But if it's in the teens, yeah, I agree. It's going to be a lot of people start paying attention. Yeah. And I'll tell you, and I'll tell you what else, too. Keep sending a team to the national championship. And then maybe if the playoff ends up expanding to 24, get you your three, your four teams in there, cause some problems,

knock off some big 10 or SEC teams, and then you'll get your respect. And then the financial value will follow that. But you know, got to earn it, playing from behind right now. But the road is there. The path is there to get to that point. Yeah, I do agree.

But again, I just don't think it's fair in how much. Look at last year. Look at last year. The ACC in the playoff, we were three and one. And you could say, oh, that was only Miami. Okay, fine. Let's look at the SEC have five.

teams in. How did they fare against non-group of five teams and non-SEC teams? 0 and 3, 11 points per game. That's what they did. Multiple teams less than one touchdown. They had Alabama get their backs kicked in by Indiana

as soon as they stepped on the field, which Brian Smithy had a very great tweet about that. Y'all go look it up. I can't, we try to avoid HR violations here. And you saw a very similar thing from Texas A&M. So I don't think that it's necessarily just about winning, but I do agree when he goes a long way.

We also got to be. We need our Paul Feinbaum. With all due respect to the folks of ACCC Network, they're too nice. You got to start lying shamelessly for your conference. You've got to be the propagandist that Cam Newton got on there and said, it doesn't matter if the SEC is the best. You want to see the great Auburn. What the hell has been great about Auburn since Cam Newton left?

Come on. But that's what the SEC gets. That's what the SEC get. Again, with all due respect, JJ, but that's what the SEC gets. They get the love even when they're not good, even when they go to the playoffs and piss the bed against everybody except Tulane and other SEC schools. I just want to be KG's agent.

When the ACC network calls and, you know, we're setting up Paul Feinbaum, Kenton Gibbs, the takeover, I need to be a part of the steel. Hey, listen, you go ahead. Go ahead. DMs are open. David Lockhe, he's joking. If you would give me a raise, I ain't going to go nowhere.

I ain't going to go nowhere. Oh, man. Good stuff today, boys. All right, that'll do it for the squad show here today on the Locked On podcast. We appreciate you guys making us your first listen to the day. Make sure you follow all the shows pages on social media. Check in with these individual pages is where Locked on SMU, Georgia Tech, Wolfpack, Blue Devils and Seminoles as well.

Gentlemen, I appreciate it. We'll chop this up again next week. Until then, everybody, have a going. We'll see you.