Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - The ACC HATES Notre Dame | Why the conference is UPSET

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Notre Dame's favorable ACC deal ignites backlash across the conference. Are the Fighting Irish taking advantage of the system, or are envious ACC rivals just unwilling to take accountability? The ACC Squad break down explosive anonymous quotes from league insiders, spotlighting growing resentment over Notre Dame’s bowl privileges and football independence, and dissecting the fallout from recent ACC spring meetings at Amelia Island. The conversation also exposes how figures like Pete Bevacqua have handled criticism, and whether coaches and administrators are willing to put their name behind their frustration. The debate heats up over the 76-team NCAA basketball tournament expansion and imminent changes to the College Football Playoff. The ACC Squad analyzes financial motives, the impact on program legacies, and how expansion could shake up the postseason landscape—while calling out AD Michael Alford’s bold championship standard at Florida State. Will these dramatic shifts reshape the ACC’s power structure, or simply reward mediocrity? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

ACC administrators are speaking anonymously about Notre Dame and their sweetheart deal, and the quotes are harsh. 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. on, it could get loud, it could get heated, and it will definitely be fun. Squad up, you're part of

the ACCC squad. On this loaded, locked on ACC squad, Florida State's athletic director said something that might as well have a 90 sitcom laugh track playing behind it. We'll let Brian Smith break it down. It looks like not only the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, but also the college football playoff will be expanding. I hate it. We'll see who else hates it or maybe who loves it. Now, apparently the other 17

members, the full-time members of the ACC, they all hate Notre Dame right now. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains. We got Isaac Shade from Locked on Tar Heels, Brian Smith from Locked on Seminels, Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. So

kudos to Brett McMurphy from On3 Sports.com, who's out at the ACC spring meetings, a beautiful Amelia Island near Jacksonville, Florida. And he's getting some pretty powerful quotes from anonymous media sources and ACC administrators about that sweetheart deal that Notre Dame has, which allows them to be a member in every sport but football, keep their entire football revenue generated by NBC. They're part of the ACC's bowl rotation and they can opt out of bowls without getting fined, which none of the other schools can do. But listen to this quote that McMurphy got.

I'm kind of worried that I'm going to lose our clean rating for even saying this. So we censor it a little bit. So Notre Dame, an industry source told on three sports, is the guy that walks in the house, opens the fridge, eats all the food, then screws the wife, kicks the dog, doesn't pay the mortgage and walks out with any skin in the game. Brian Smith, I'll let you buy the first round on that. Two things. Number one, they are happy to take Notre Dame's money and they don't want to be named in Brett's

article. I think they're frauds. I'm just going to call it out. The ACC is terrible in football right now outside of your games in SMU. And they're happy to cash those checks, but they're not happy to have them. their name in the article. Shut up. They'll beat Notre Dame.

Louisville and Miami, the only two ACC teams to beat Notre Dame this decade. That's what they're really mad at. I didn't realize that. Wow. Yeah. That's it.

Everybody else has got this many wins against the Irish. Well, hold on now. If you're saying in this decade, you mean since 2020, not in the last 10 years because when there was a hurricane and Notre Dame came on down to Raleigh,

you know what I mean? The Warpack had it on my L2. You know what I'm saying? Bradley Chalby. company head of my own too. But you are right in the 2020s. You're right. I get that.

How did the NC state game go last year for them. Hey, hey, man. Hey, what are we doing here? Hey, hey, look, I'm saying everybody doesn't want to put their name on it. Then shut your pile. I'm tired of ACC teams taking the low road. Win games. Beat somebody on the recruiting trail.

go to decent bowl games and then you can't just use this as a distraction. By the way, how many people here think that the people that didn't get their name mentioned, if Notre Dame called and offered some of these coaches jobs, they'd turn it down.

Probably very few would turn that opportunity down. You know what that is? Fraud. You're a fraud if you won't put your name on it, but you would go work there. Anybody want to dispute that fire away? I very much so want to dispute that because those are two totally different things. As much as I hate the dirty foot club,

if somebody told me, Ken, we're going to pay you a million dollars a year to replace Isaac Shade as the host of Locked on Hill. Okay. Money talks, baby, money talks. Let's go. Listen, I hate the Packers, too. If they told me go replace Peter,

go pack, go. Where's my cheese head, baby? Because that's how it goes. It would probably take me eight figures, But if Brian Smith decided to retire from Locked on Seminoles and they want to pay me 10 mil to do that show, I'll. Stop it, Dono. Stop it. KG, what is the number? What would it take to get you to host Locked on Heels?

Oh, no joke. No joke. I have an exact number of mine. I have an exact number for like how much it would take for me to compromise, like, my morals and not hurting people. $325,000. $325, $3.30. that's like the exact number where like I wouldn't have to work any other jobs. I wouldn't have to do anything else and I live a super comfortable life.

But that's neither here nor there. Smitty, they have every right to be as upset as they want to be. And don't get me wrong. I hate people doing a nameless thing as much as anybody else. But, but everything else, I mean, objectively, Notre Dame is that guy right now. He is that guy. Now, as you said, the rest you see needs to look around and ask yourself, why is your wife? letting this man in the house.

Why is everybody not complaining about the dog being kicked publicly? Why are you doing all these things? That is absolutely a conversation to be had. But these schools are very right to be upset about one team getting special treatment. If the Keynes would have sat out of a bowl game because they were the ones left out instead of Notre Dame, would the Cains have had to pay for that, Donnell? Yeah, we would have been fined. Okay, they would have been fined.

Right, but Notre Dame. is they are exempt from the fining system because they're not a football member. So which is kind of funny because this whole thing about being able to kick the dog and eat the food out of the fridge. So Notre Dame is part of the ACC's bowl rotation. They get ACC bowl invites, but they don't get fined if they don't play in the bowl game. Is that Notre Dame's fault? Why didn't they put that in? Notre Dame's right. It's John Swofford's fault.

The same guy that got us in this ACC movie. Why is everybody bitching at Notre Dame? Because John Swaffer's no longer in the position of power. So it's like, well, we can scream at John Swofford all we want. Everybody, hold on, wait. Does anybody on this show think Swaffer was a good commissioner? Does anybody sit here and say Swofford push the ACC forward? For the audio listeners, I'll say no hands are up, just so you know.

And in fact, I'm putting my hand further down. My hand is touching a board now. As much as I like the joke about UNC Ruud in the conference, literally former UNC quarterback Swofford really did ruin the conference. conference. That Raycom deal set us on this course that would forever relegate us to second class citizenship in the power four. That's just what happened. But that doesn't mean that these teams are frauds for pointing out, hey, we're second class citizens and one of the first class guys gets to come in, do what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, no repercussions, and leave. I think that that's a fair

assessment, even if I would take their money to go coach there. I said that they got a bunch of Loserville stuff going on when they signed the program last year. Again, if I got the call from Bovanka, hey, man, come on over. We don't want you to coach. We don't want you to do anything like that. We just want you to do your podcast just for Notre Dame, and we're going to pay you seven figures. You know, I've always liked the Irish, you know.

I've always considered the O'Malley's, the O'Shaunas, all of it. I've considered all of it great. Let's talk about my touchdown, Jesus. If they're going to complain about them, they should get back all the Notre Dame money that they get when they fill up their stadiums and they get that TV revenue too. Here's what I will complain about because I agree with a lot of what Brian is saying

that like the ACC is to blame for this and they also do benefit from the Notre Dame money. But the thing that really annoyed me was because Notre Dame feels so entitled because of this sweetheart deal, you enable them when they didn't get into the college football playoff and then they took their ball, they went home, they opted out of the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

And then Pete Bavakwa, the AD of Notre Dame, who looks like a James Bond villain. He goes on that press tour where he's crying, like he does multiple press conferences and interviews to cry about the ACC having the audacity to promote Miami's win over them on social media, which was a really important data point to help Miami get into the playoff

because that was Miami's best win in the regular season. Notre Dame's not a football member. So the ACC was publicly promoting Miami's best win. And then Notre Dame was like, well, we're part of your ACC family. You're denigrating us to promote Miami. It's like, okay, if you're not a football member, you don't enjoy that benefit. They're going to pump that up to try to get Miami in. And that's my point.

It's not that Notre Dame exists, period. It's not that this deal exists, period. It's the attitude that goes along with this deal that is so frustrating that it makes sense even though coaches are taking the money. If you can't opt out of the deal, what else are you going to do? Also, I can't opt out of the deal, but I'm also going to send back the money. So I'm going to be forced to play this team. I'm going to be forced to do all the things, but I'm going to send back the money so that I have a right to complain. There's not a single complaint in the world that is worth hundreds of thousands, if not more money.

That just isn't in terms of verbally stating it. It just isn't. So again, I do think, yes, ACC teams are participating. ACC teams are getting a slight benefit from it, but it's not outlandish to think this deal was in place before I got here. I'm going to complain about it because, again, somebody gets to move with impunity, cancel games when they want, have a documentary about canceling the game and say,

we were treated so poorly. Those ACC guys were so many. I just couldn't believe that they, They push their full-time member over us. Stop. Like the inability, the lack of self-awareness from Notre Dame and that whole thing last year ahead of the playoff was wild to me. Like, I get that you, you as the AD of Notre Dame have to say those things.

And I understand it. But the way it was framed was wild to me. Like, do you, let's remember the COVID season when you needed somebody to bring you in and shelter you and give you some. football games. Who was there for you? The ACC. We're not going to do that every time. We got to take care of our membership. That's just part of it. And yes, I don't, I know Clemson and FSU and trying to get out and all that, but as long as it's still a conference, the conference, the conference is going to look out for the conference, not the team that is not in the

conference. My word, what are we doing? Here's the dates. Isaac, you guys are at first. October 3rd. You know what October 3rd is? No, it's an L on the schedule. I know what day it is. Oh, no, no, that's not an L. That is going to be a throttle. Everybody that they play, they're going to run it up now. 100%.

Oh, oh boy. Notre Dame was going to be generous before this. Didn't they just say before? Oh, we're on a revenge tour next season. Oh, Rice is going to get it. Ooh, them Rice Isles better prepare like they never prepare. I'm saying before because we come. We're coming.

If you want to laugh, you can. But it's not going to help your bottom line when you get fired. If you're a coach, if it's sitting behind anonymity, just remember that. If you say it out loud in my name, I wouldn't say a word. If you want to go anonymity, kiss my behind. I have no interest. And not one coach. Do you at least wax it?

What's that? I'm not trying to kiss a hairy behind you. at least whacked it? Unbelievable. I mean, again, I don't disagree, Smitty. I hate the anonymity as much as anybody else, but I do think that there's a legitimate right to be had here. And I think it's ridiculous of Notre Dame to sit here and continually pretend.

Why does the ACC mean to us? What are they saying about these things about us? We're going to destroy everybody in front. front of us. Yes, I'm sure that Michigan State is even more scared than they were before. It's wetting the bed. They were expecting a close game and a win, but now that you're mad, oh, boy, they're worried. Like, I just, yeah. I'm just saying the coaches that are talking, you're just setting yourself up for defeat. Why would you do that? Speaking of setting yourself up for defeat, you know, later, we're going to get into the comments from Michael

all for the 80 of Florida State. But before that, another thing that's coming out of these ACC spring meetings is apparently sweeping support among ACC administrators for the 2014 college football playoff. And of course, we're also getting a 76 team NCAA men's and women's basketball tournament. I know Isaac Shade, who also hosts Locked on College basketball, doesn't seem too happy about that. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of the ACC squad. Oh my friends, we are only getting started with Rocket Money. If you've ever opened your bank account and thought, where did all my money go? Believe me, you're not alone. Keeping track of subscriptions, spending, and bills, it can get

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Brian Smith of Lockdown Seminels, Kenton Gibbs of Lockdown Wolfpack. So, Isaac, I'll let you buy the first round on this one as we're getting an expansion of the men's and women's basketball tournaments from 68, which already felt like enough or more than enough to now 76. We get a lot more basketball in Dayton, which I don't know if anybody wanted that, but we're getting it. What have your conversation's been like on Lockdown College basketball about that? I just, here we go. You know, like, here's the thing for me. All the NCAA had to do, Dono, was nothing. They just had to do nothing.

And the NCAA, which we constantly dump on for making bad decisions, all they had to do to get a win in their biggest moneymaker, the one thing that they have solvency with because the CFP they don't even own, their greatest asset, you just do nothing. Just don't touch it and it's in great shape. And what did they do? They touched it. Why did they touch it?

Because there was a groundswell of, hey, we need change. No. They touched it because I got to quit saying they touched it. That sounds really bad out of context. KG's shaking his head on that one. Look, because here's why this happened. It's a financial decision because they're getting beat up in court. Why are they getting beat up in court?

Because they didn't get out ahead of NIL and transfer portal. And so now they're having to pay for that. How are they going to pay for that? By taking the one thing that they've got right. The one thing that's not messed up and they're going to go and try to make some short-term money to, and it's going to be a bad long-term solution. And so, you know, if they could have gotten out of their own way, they wouldn't need this money and they wouldn't be doing this complete undesirable thing.

that no sports fan once. What do you look at a 64 team bracket? It's beautiful. It's simple. It makes sense. Now you got all this rigmarole and this whole thing. And we're going to have 12 games on Tuesday and 12 games on Wednesday. And it's going to be a mess.

I just freaking hate it. The people that did that, Isaac, are also many of the same ones that will retire soon. They're going to take some of that money and they're going to walk. And they're going to leave somebody else with the mess. Go ahead, Kent, jump on that. because I know you're thinking to say, we know this is a money grab beginning to end. Go ahead.

As I have said a million times, and as I'll say a million times more, anytime you are forcing more people to go to Dayton, Ohio, you are the bad guy. You're the bad guy. There's no way around that. You got to go. These young men got a reward for a hard-fought season

is go to see them big old burly women in Dayton, Ohio. Half of them anyway. There's going to be a second site. Half the games will be in Dayton. Half the games will be somewhere further west. Either way, you're still sending extra people out there. Shame on you, NCAA. Shame on you.

Has anybody here ever been to Dayton, Ohio, except me? Has anybody ever been? How was it, Smitty? Did you enjoy it? One to ten. What would you rate? Five. Yeah, yeah.

Exactly. As we all know, as we all know, an Ohio 10 isn't anywhere else five. But that's neither here nor there. Now, the reality of the expanding of this one, let me tell you why this one is particularly nasty in terms of the NCAA tournament. With the college football playoff, at least these coaches are begging for it to be expanded

because it keeps your job longer. While we all know that last year for Virginia was very likely a flash in the pan, guess what would have happened if the playoff was 2014 last year? Virginia's in. Virginia has a playoff appearance. For all of the mess that Virginia Tech Tech can talk to them. Oh, y'all never beat us. Oh, y'all had to get us with a coachman for had to beat us and did it out. Oh, we went to a national championship. More recently,

you know what they can say to them? Yeah, well, you have a playoff appearance. Playoff appearance on my arm. No playoff appearance on yours. Playoff banner in our stadium. No playoff banner in Blacksburg. This is the reality of why the CFP wants to, or why coaches are came into CFP expanding, but the NCAA tournament, I did. You've got to have college basketball. The three years before, Cala Perry went from Kentucky to Arkansas, did Kentucky make the tournament?

Yeah. Were the Kentucky fans happy with them? Oh, no. Oh, no. Shove on out of here, Coach Cal. We don't want you anymore. So now, let's think about that from a football standpoint. If Norval made the playoff this year,

would Florida State fans be happy with him? As much as people first ever coached to be number one on the way too early hot seat list in back-to-back seasons. But guess what? If the nose are in the playoffs, even if they get embarrassed out there, we made it. We got, we got close. We got close and you keep your job. It's a very embarrassing thing for the NCAA to not only go against the wheel of the fans, but the will of the coaches, the will of the player.

Nobody wants this. There are approximately 365, somewhere between 361 and 365. That's exactly right. 365. That's the number. That's the number. 365. Okay.

So now we're expanding it to 76. Now, maybe somebody tell me if my math is off here, but does that not mean that about 20% of all teams are now in the tournament? The tournament used to reward excellence. It used to reward. I had a damn good. season. I'm a really good team. Now it's like I didn't have a bad season. I'm in a good conference. It's the same thing of like terrible. Yeah 20 wins used to matter. 20 wins

doesn't hold much weight anymore. Now similarly, neither will making the tournament. It's just not something that's going to matter at the same level. KG I'm right with you there. Now, the one place where this will matter for some coaches is though. So so what a lot of people might not realize is that If you get an NCAA tournament win, you get an NCAA tournament unit, which is millions of dollars for both you and your conference. The interesting thing is those playing games count toward that. So for those 15 and 16 seeds that are going to get those play in opportunities, those games count too. Much better opportunity there than the 2 16 seats that have ever beaten a 1 seed. So in that regard, I understand that there will be some of those coaches who will say,

I like this because it gets us a chance at a win. But I think for the most part, coaches, like my thing always has been, I think automatic qualifiers deserve to be in the main bracket. And the whole reason this started a decade plus ago is when the Mountain West Conference started instead of reducing by one the number of at-large teams we got. They said, let's just add in one more AQ,

and we'll just have a play in games. So we'll have 65 teams. It'll be fine and we'll just stop there. Well, baby, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. And here we are 13 more or 11 more teams later. It's ridiculous. 24, 24 playing games we're going to have. All right.

So here's where we're at with football. Football has not officially expanded. And obviously, like Isaac mentioned, this one, the CFP is a separate entity from the NCAA. But apparently they're all about expansion as well. So Ross Dellinger of Yahoo Sports sent out an ex post on Tuesday that said, In a joint meeting at ACC Spring meetings, athletic directors and head football coaches discussed at length the future of the college football playoff, swinging support behind a 24 team field. Quote, consent. There is consensus, said one. Another quote, the room isn't split, said another.

Now, the funny thing about all this, Kenton, I'll let you buy the first round on this one, is to me, it's kind of trivial that ACC administrators are even debating this because the ACC is not going to have any say on whether they stay at 12, expand at 24, expand at 16. It's all about the agreement that eventually will be reached between the Big 10 and the SEC, where apparently the Big 10 wants 24, the SEC. I don't think anything the ACC or the Big 12 says about it is going to sway that decision one way or another. How many does the SEC want? Just to be clear, do we know that answer? In terms of, I don't, I'm not sure like what it would look like. Because with 16, they were talking about four auto bids for 24. I don't know what that would look like.

You know, the old saying goes, I wear the pants in this relationship. My wife just picks out the style, the cut, the color, and all those things, right? And that's what the ACC and these administrators are doing. Yeah, we all want 24. Yeah, for sure. We want 24, just perfectly in line with what everyone else wants. That's what we want, and we want it now. But in all seriousness, it does make more sense that football coaches and football

administrators or administrators when discussing football want expansion. Because, again, it brings a different cachet to your program. It's one thing to say, Drake May was the best quarterback in our program's history, and he did great things over there. It's a different thing to say, Drake May took us to the playoffs. Yeah, NC State. I might got beating us about six, seven years in a row, whatever the case is right now, but you know what we got?

Playoff appearance. It means something to be able to say that we did that. It really and truly does mean something. And so the ultimate moment that we're looking at right now, yes, the ACC is doing a little bit of go along to get along. But this goal along to get along is incentivized by coaches who know if I go to the playoffs, you have to extend me. Now, granted, there are a couple schools where that doesn't necessarily happen, right? If you're at Miami and you barely get in, maybe not. You're at Florida State and barely get in.

Maybe not. But my school and the school of the guy above me, you'll get a lifetime contract, though. You mess around and go to a playoff at any school in the state of North Carolina. Wake Forest gave Dave Claus in a lifetime contract off one ACC championship win, way back one, or one ACC championship appearance, rather. I don't know if he won one, way back win. So that's just what we're looking at. These coaches want to line their pockets, these administrators want to line their pockets,

because if the coach is line their pockets, who's next in line? Well, who hired that coach? You see, I hired a playoff coach at NC State. That's what I did. Yeah, I think I deserve a raise, don't I? The whole time, that team was 22nd in the nation. That's not better than Doran's best finish ever. But that would equal a playoff appearance.

Therefore, everybody gets paid. It's a win, win, win, except for the people who are like, hey, can we bring bowls back? Hey, can we like make this look like college football again instead of professional? That ship has unfortunately sailed. By the way, if they go to 24, they're taking away conference championship games. Those won't exist anymore. That's what I'm saying. The ship has sailed.

The ship has sailed. The college football ship has sailed. Isaac, when you grew up, could you imagine a guy going from UNC to NC State or vice versa? No, dude. Not at all. We've seen a handful of times in the last three years alone. Don Trell styles. I believe Josh Harris, the nose tackle.

There was a safety as well. I believe Jekine Harris. Matt Abel, Van Allen Lubin. And in the last three years, all those things happened. So college sports is in a different place. And this expansion for college football playoff is just another example of that. That's a good word. What he said.

I think we're all in agreement on that one. Now, I need Brian Smith to explain to us what Florida State's athletic director is saying, what he's thinking, why he would put himself in this position. You want to keep it right here? We're not done yet on this brand new ACC squad. Thank you for making the locked on ACC squad your first listen. For your next listen, check out our other shows. We got actually a room full of multi-show hosts.

Isaac Shade hosts locked on Tar Heels and Locked on College Basketball. Kenton Gibbs, locked on Wolfpack and locked on ACC with me. Brian Smith hosts Locked on Seminoles and The Portal. I host Locked on ACC with Kenton and Locked on Caines. I'm Alex Dono, by the way. So make sure you check out all of our other show. That's like a full day of listening right there if you check out our new episodes every single day. And I'm sure this is going to be a topic for Brian on Locked-on Seminoles.

So Florida State Athletic Director Michael Alford, he said a lot of things about, you know, how great that football roster is for next year. But the quote that really hits home for me, Brian, is why would the Florida State Athletic Director put himself on record saying, Florida State's standard is always to compete for championships. I feel like that quote could backfire at the end of the season coming up. Do you? Do you? You know why?

Because it will. He went through and had the ACC meetings at Amelia Island just outside of Jacksonville, Florida, beautiful place. And I'll give him credit. He did the interview. He didn't have to. But he was asked some very poignant questions by Chris Needs. of Noel's 24-7, who's diehard FSU guy,

has been forever. And he didn't hold back on asking tough questions. And he answered him, but he said, like, basically why he's, like how well they did in the portal. He wouldn't name how many wins they needed

for Norville or anything like that. God, I hope it's like seven, because I want him to stick around a little longer there. Okay, well, seven right now would be the grace of God. Okay.

I don't think that's, if he needs seven, we're going to see a new coach because I don't think there's a chance of that. But at that same point, he went on and on about how they do all this stuff in the offseason. And everybody in the media, national and especially Florida State media, knows that the portal class was shortchanged with NIL. They know that Norval has bombed the last two years with his additions to the portal. Now, he hit in 23, 24, or 22, 23, excuse me.

But it's not close. They don't have a good roster. Bud Elliott of the Noel cast, a diehard Florida State fan is so angry at the administration. He quit his podcast. He's putting it off until Norval is fired. No way.

Oh, yeah. Dude, that's wild. Yeah, he said it on here. Bring your families back together. I mean, he literally dropped the podcast until they're gone. He doesn't understand content. Bro, this is not at all.

Like, what are we doing? Anyway, Bud's a good guy, but he's just like done. with it. He's a grad, and he's just tired of talking about negativity. I get it. I do the show five days a week. To that end, at the end that Donno was talking about, another guy jumped in, right when that interview was ending with Chris Knee, and then he gives that standard line. Like, are we stupid? No, but you still said we've got this great roster. We're competing for championships. Donno, what's the fan duel over under for FSU? Is it six and a half?

Ooh, I think it's around that. I think it's around that, yeah. Does that sound like championship? football to you six and a half seven and a half well with enough playoff expansion six games will get you into the playoffs soon they got to get that thing to like 75 teams and then mike norbell would have a shot that's incredible no seriously like does he really take us for granted that we don't know what we're doing here i do this for a living i follow the portal on a date they had to know the first show they're going to go to after those comments is mine because they know they're going to get roasted check it out wednesday morning locked on simitles it will be on fire

It's ridiculous. They don't have a top third of the league in the ACC roster. They have no shot at the playoffs. Six and a half days. The question, here's the thing. What was he supposed to say? Like what? I get it.

I get that it looks bad. I get that you can't say championships are our standard when Norville is still your coach after what we saw these past two seasons. I understand that. But we also got to understand a little bit, right? Like, you know, Ole Miss and LSU are having a good old-fashioned clan off right now about, oh, whose history is worse, whose history is work, does it not. That's the whole other thing.

But here's the deal. This is what I'm saying and saying that. What is the coach supposed to say while he's there? Hold on. Listen, man, not to not toot the horn of the guy that I covered, but I think Mario Cristobal handles questions like that very well because he refuses. to talk about anything more than the next game. So maybe Michael Alford should have hit him with,

we're going to try to go 1 and 0. Like, we're going to try to win every game we play, mic drop, get out of there. Dono, that is coach speak. We got to understand. Okay, all right. Let's do this paragraph or not paragraph. Let's do this graph the old-fashioned way, okay?

Coaches cannot do players speak. Players cannot do coach speak. Administrators cannot do players speak, right? It just doesn't work that way. When you get to going to a different bracket, players can say, that guy can't guard me. That quarterback is soft. You hit him and he'll quit.

Players can say that. A coach cannot. An administrator, an AD coming out saying years ago when I play Fencing State, Hakeem Jones said, Marquist Williams will quit. You hit him hard enough. He'll quit. Can you imagine what would have happened if our athletic director would have said that? If Debbie Yao would have got out there and said,

That quarterback over there is acquitted. You hit him hard enough, he'll quit. Like, it just doesn't. So he's an AD giving AD speech. What's an AD speech? AD speech is always big picture. They were going to be the best. That's always what it is.

Yeah, thanks. In the long run, we'll be great. We'll win championships. That's our standard. That's where we've been. Dionne Sanders, they walk through that door. God rest of soul, Bowdoin, they're walking through that door. Jimbo ain't walking through that door.

It's just not happening at this point. But you have to say, out of lip service, is we're going to be great. We're going to be wonderful. Same way that the coach comes to a player's house. Mr. Shea, you've got some great kids over there, man. Hey, listen, we're going to make your son a better player, better man, better person. When he leaves here, he's going to be much better for having come to our school.

That's what they got to say. That's how coaches have to say. That's just what they got to say. So, again, Brian Smith, I understand you're going to be a little. And I'm going to watch. You know I'm going to be there front row. See it. Let's see what you got to say.

I'm already in the waiting room for the next episode of Locked on Sentinel. You know, part of it. What did you, T-vote it already? So as soon as they come on, you got it on replay. Yeah, got it on loop. You know, here's the thing with what Kenton's saying, let me ride on these coattails a little bit. I recently heard North Carolina's both outgoing and incoming ADs talk about the championship standard.

But you know what it was in the context of hiring and. firing Hubert Davis and hiring Michael Malone for North Carolina's basketball coach. It's not while we've got Mike Norvell and things are just okay, you know, that's not when you say championship is the expectation. You say championships are the expectation, therefore we are firing Mike Norville to get somebody in here who will uphold that expectation. So when Hubert Davis was there, y'all AD said, we have no expectations right now. Our expectation is to win the next game.

That's what the AD was saying. Come on, come on, Isaac. When Huber was there, despite what we had seen, despite what we knew about the Huber Davis Coast team, when he talked about Hubert, what was it? The standard at North Carolina is championships. No, he stayed away from it. He talked about how great a person, Hubert was, because he knew what he couldn't say that. Oh, that's what you should do.

Mike Norville is a great person. But that's even worse. That's even worse. That's even worse. But that's the AD speaker talking about, though. That's what he's got to say if he's not willing to fire him yet. And did that not add to everybody's knowing, oh, Huber's going to get fired? Oh, the fan base was incensed by it.

Absolutely. When the AD is not talking about big picture, we're going to win championships. Oh, this is the greatest coach. Hey, let me tell you guys something. We believe in Alex Donald to lead our program to the promised land. We know he will. That's the type of coach. Honestly.

The minute they start, the minute they start talking about, Dono's a great man. He's a great father. He raises his key. kids the right way. Immediately, everybody needs to start looking around. Oh, David Locke going to get a new host. He's going to get a new. This is a what we

thought it was. So, again, I'm not saying that Alpha was right. I'm not saying that it wasn't goofy and it wasn't laughable and we're not all going to have a good time. Popcorn ready for Brian Smith tomorrow morning. But he got to say it. He got to say it.

All I know is that it's going to be a lot of fun on my show. When your wife asked you do these jeans make me big. Do you say, no, your bigness makes you look big? No, because you know, you know that that's going to cause for a long day. You go, baby, you look at me. You're looking at me because that's husband's speak. You let, you let your wife come in and eat all the things out the fridge and, and do all the stuff like Notre Dame. Tushay. Oh, man, well, listen, I've had a great time with you, lads, as always. A huge thank you and shout out to Isaac Shade. Check him out,

Locked on Tar Heels, locked on college basketball. Check Kenton out, locked on ACC and locked on Wolfpack. Brian Smith, locked on Seminoles. You know that Wednesday episode is going to be hotter than fish grease and the portal podcast as well. Check me out on Locked on Cains and Locked on ACC. We'll talk to you next time on another episode of the ACC squad. We are part of the number one sports podcast network, the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.