Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - The ACC's LAUGHING STOCK | Bill Belichick is FAILING at North Carolina

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

ACC football recruiting faces a shock as North Carolina stalls under Bill Belichick—no four-star recruits and uncertainty swirling around the program’s direction. Is Belichick’s NFL pedigree enough, or are systemic issues holding the Tar Heels back from their “sleeping giant” potential? Analysts debate UNC’s future, the impact of key administrative missteps, and whether a coaching change is the answer to beat perennial ACC and SEC recruiting powerhouses. Elsewhere, the crew highlights Clemson’s stagnant strategies under Dabo Swinney, with rival coaches questioning their offensive evolution and player development. SMU garners surprising praise for its recruiting consistency and the leadership of Rhett Lashlee, raising the question of whether they can keep their coach as big programs circle. Plus, playoff expansion drama heats up as SEC coaches split over a 24-team format, hinting at major ripple effects across college football. Who wins the battle for playoff power, and how will this shape the ACC’s future? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're entering a really important period for football recruiting, and one of our hosts is about to say something scandalous about Bill Belichick. 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. It's the ACC squad. We got Brian Smith from Locked on Seminoles and the Portal podcast. We got JJ Jackson from Locked on Blue Devils, Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack and Locked on ACC. We got Isaac Shade from Locked on Tar Heels and Locked on College Basketball. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains and Locked on ACC. So I know we've all been tracking our team's recruiting, Isaac included, but I'm not going to let Isaac buy the first round

because we mentioned Brian Smith who hosts the portal pod. He specializes in national recruiting. And Brian, you were telling us before the show that things are apparently pretty ugly for North Carolina and the legendary Bill Belichick. Before we let Isaac have his rebuttal, Brian, tell us how bad is it? There won't be one. It's okay. It's so bad that Brian didn't even unmute his mic.

I was just about to say. And you notice Isaac picked up a baseball too. He said, you see how good the Diamond Hills are doing? They're doing great. Yeah. To baseball school. They are great in baseball. No.

All the men's across school. Field hockey school. North Carolina has always been the sleeping giant info. It's a massive state university. It's got all this NIL, allegedly. They hired Bill Belichick. They go through year one, which was pretty much a disaster. I thought they would turn it up this year and recruit it.

They've got no four-star recruits, no offensive linemen, no defensive linemen, no quarterback, no in-state recruit commitments. Isaac, what have you done to the North Carolina football recruiting effort? I mean, are you holding Bill back? Like, seriously, this is embarrassing. There's no excuse. The problem was I've been, I've been, I was trying to think of some Jordan Hudson joke, nothing's coming to mind.

So I'll just digress on. Oh, man. Like seriously, like, I know like Kenton doesn't like you once he's an NC state guy, but like, aren't you a little surprised by this guy? Like nothing? Like, I just went to do with this. I wholeheartedly agree because even under Mac Brown,

the problem was player development. It was never recruited. Mac Brown could get some of the top guys. They just left four years later as the same guy they came in as. Or transfer somewhere else. I was just about saying, or they transfer it, like Storm Duck and all those guys. As soon as they transferred, they turned into the Uberman shot of nowhere. So, you know, there is definitely a myriad of problems over there,

but the inability to recruit anybody decent. You know, Dave Dorr just got his second four-star recruiter to the class. You know what I mean? 20-27. Gunther Rivers, get some help in case they call it. The reality of what we're looking at with Bill Belichick, is this a surprise to anybody? When we talked about Bill Belichick,

and I said that his biggest problem would be winning in the living room. I had no doubt about as a tactician, as a defensive mind, Bill Belichick has always been elite to at worst pretty good defensively. But the offensive side of the ball and the recruiting average, aspect of it were the two biggest question marks. And we saw last year from the just crap show that Gio Lopez and company put on whenever you could would have called that in offense. That was that.

But now the recruiting trail is taking a massive hit, the likes of which UNC would not be expecting. Because even before, even before Mac Brown, the last coach before him, I believe it was Fodora was a heck of a recruiter as well. But again, guys were just leaving as the same guy or there was poor. game day management. So to see UNC recruiting take this fall, as an ACC guy, it's like, damn,

get up, do something. But as an NC State guy, eight out of the last 10, five straight, I love it. Keep it going. Give him a lifetime contract. Yeah, I'd say I'm kind of in the same boat that Kenton is. Like, I just would have expected at some point it to get

into rhythm. Like, if you're committed to doing this, if you're coach Bill Belichick, you'd figure it out. Like you have your entire football career, you figure your things out. You figure your ways to put competitive rosters on a field and that sort of thing. Now it just looks like there's no care whatsoever, which is a shame for, you know, such a high profile job, a good program and a high profile head coach that's been hired. Same token as Kenton, right? ACC guy, I want North Carolina to be super competitive. Let's get them and it'd be awesome to get more

eyeballs because Bill Belichick's going to bring that type of exposure to the sport. As a Duke guy, It's funny to laugh at, though. Like, it's really enjoyable to see them struggle so much to get guys to want to come be a part of that program. So let me ask you this, Mitty. Do you think that it's possible for them to turn it around? Like, not necessarily under Belichette, but do you see this like being one coaching regime away?

Because you mentioned them as a sleeping giant. And here's the thing. Despite my personal feelings about UNC, I think that NC State and UNC are about neck and neck as far as that goes, but neither one can seem to get out of their own way to either become consistently good or NC State, which is consistently good, can't break through to get to that next level. Do you think that either one of these teams, or specifically UNC, can do enough in recruiting to win those battles against the Georgia coming into your state, Bama coming into your state, Clemson coming into your state, and so on and so forth?

If they hire the right coach, like my buddy told me once, he goes, you watch they'll hire Urban Meyer after Macweaves. I was like, now if that happens, that would, it's all about the coach at every program. It's amazing. Look at Dono's Keynes. Like, we were covering him when he first got there and we were looking at the roster. We're like, eh, we'll see how it goes. And then after the season, even Mario, who's very tight-lipped is like, yeah, this isn't a normal Miami roster.

It's going to say it now. Things have changed. And Miami is back to being that way. If Carolina ever commits to hiring the right coach, no offense, Bill Belichick is not that coach. There you go. And in this day and age, it's not just the head coach. It's the GM. And everything with Lombardi is bad in and out.

Like people are struggling with that. And it all frustrates me because the, the, had the, I don't know how many times I've said this over the past year and a half or whatever, but had Bobbac Not being given the run around by the board of trustees, many of whom strong handed the Belichick thing. You could be sitting at North Carolina looking at John Sumerall as your head coach or Matt Campbell as your head coach, either of which I think would have gone better. But because of all the mess, both of those guys and others were like, I didn't want nothing to do with this whole mess with this board of trustees versus Bubba.

And so, I mean, it's Bill Belichick, but I think it goes even higher than that. And there's a whole systemic issue that they've since put some other protections in place to stop the board from being dumb. But I think it even goes higher than Bill Belichick, if we're being honest. Yeah, just for perspective, Brian, I was looking at the rankings. I'm going by the On 3 industry rankings, which they average out, you know, all the other different recruiting services. And when you mentioned things weren't that good for Carolina, I'm like, okay, where are they in the top 50? Oh, I don't see them. It's not a good sign when you have to click a button that says show more schools.

That's not a good sign when you're not at the top 50. They're currently at number 58 with, like you mentioned, 0, 5 stars, 0, 4 stars, and 5, 3 stars so far. So, listen, it's still early. They can rally. But I have noticed, though, Brian, a lot of schools, like, you know, Miami, for example, has 15 verbal commits right now, which is, you know, about triple. what Bill Belichick has at the moment. So yeah, there still is time.

National signing days until early December. But to only have five right now, a lot of schools are landing players already. You'd think they'd land more than five. Well, and what's funny is they went pretty hard in the 26 class where, you know, they're ranked 22nd in this incoming class, headlined by Travis Burgess, the quarterback.

And so it's like, are you just putting a bunch of eggs in this basket and hoping you can make some moves in the portal? Like, it's just, it doesn't make a ton of sense because you did pretty well. I mean, it's not elite level 22nd, but pretty well in this incoming class. So it's tough to know. Tell me this, Isaac, because I know that you've been in conversations with a lot of UNC people about this. Bill Belichick, not focusing right now on the roster, but then doing something like the part of my take interview and getting so many different ways to bring a new set of eyeballs into the North Carolina

football program, I never, ever, ever would have expected that pivot. from him and yet here we are how did that kind of land with the tar heels i i think at first like maybe this time last year before um the second drive of the season because the first drive of the season went very well again uh before that second drive i think people were were like cautiously pleased with that because it was bringing eyeballs you know he's on maccalfe all the time and doing all these other things but there was like but are you being distracted you But are is the Jordan Hudson of it all? Is it drawing you away?

Like for all of the annoyance of talking about that so much, it's a thing because it's a thing. And I think as the season wore on, because the on-field success was so poor, then I think frustration started to pretty precipitously grow with all the extracurricular activities that he had going on. JJ and basketball, for example, we'd compare it to Doug Gottlie, continuing on his radio show while still coaching at Milwaukee. And it was like, they were terrible. So he finally was like, all right, I got to quit the radio show. And it's that same kind of thing. Green Bay, yeah. Oh, yeah, great, Green Bay. Well, we got a lot more still to come on this episode of the squad.

We will talk a little bit more recruiting, but also is there some SEC in fighting right now? And listen, the SEC is really important because when it comes to deciding how big the playoff is going to be, we know this is not the ACC's decision to make. It's not the big 12's decision to make. It's going to come down to the SEC and the Big 10 coming to an agreement and the rest of us will fall in line. You want to keep it locked right here. We also want to talk about some anonymous ACC coaches. They weren't nearly as nasty as the SEC, but you want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of the ACC squad. Workplace chaos. Deadlines are stacking up. Your inbox is overflowing. And the one position you have

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it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about it on the ACC squad. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for sponsored jobs. Thank you so much for making Locked on ACC your first listen here on this squad episode. We got Isaac Shade from locked on tar heels, Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack, JJ Jackson from Locked on Blue Devils, Brian Smith from Lockedon Seminoles.

I am Alex Dono from Locked on Caines. All right. So, Isaac, we had recently, and I love these every year, these Athlon Sports comments from anonymous ACC coaches. I guess we might as well start the theme with North Carolina. Can you give some of these on Bill Belichick? Because we might as well let the good times roll here. Yeah, let me scroll down. Oh, and it's a great picture of when he had his red eye situation going on.

That's right there. So gross. Thanks for making me look at that. There are three quotes about North Carolina. Quote, schematically, it felt like a Bill Belichick defense. They do a really good job of using the people they have, mixing up who the rushers are, looking at who you are, and how they want to match up to you.

week to week they actually make better adjustments than a lot of people they just don't have the players that goes back to what we said in segment one and they were better on defense than on offense the other two are shorter second one quote they were pretty bad on offense but the guy they hired bobby petrino is phenomenal he's as good of a coach as there is with offense in college football i can't imagine how that dynamic with belichick is going to go though and the third one is just one sentence quote i don't think there's a sense that they've improved their evaluation abilities for this day and age of college football to bring in the right guys, end quote. Letting them have it.

I mean, it's one thing for us to be putting comments out there about the state of North Carolina football, but to receive something like this from your peers. Yeah. And I think they hit it right on. I watched it last year, you know, up close and personal. I wouldn't disagree with any of that. Based on what we saw last year,

if you had to give an anonymous quote about this team, what would you say, right? Like that everybody would know it's me that gave the anonymous quote because I'd say I'm smiling from ear to ear couldn't happen to a better team. You know, they seem like they're serious about winning and I'm sure Bill Belichick would do it eventually.

That's how they would know it was me. But if I was being a serious adult about this, I would say something similar, you know? What is UNC's problem in all seriousness, right? You look at what Isaac was talking about, this goes beyond the head, coach, but at the end of the day, one guy can turn it around and mask a myriad of problems immediately. Drake May did that, for example. Drake May did it. Sam How did it? How many guys,

you could have one guy, and let's be honest, to an extent, now that we see what the hell is going on with Bill Belichick, Mac Brown to an extent, he is the problems with the administration overall there to some extent, not to say that Mac Brown was a goat, but he had him in the New Year's six bow for crying out loud. So that is something as opposed to you got all these stars out on the sideline to get you whooped on. What else would an ACC coach say about this team? You know, I would say, hey, it's a deeply unsurious program.

You know, they don't seem like there's much of a commitment to winning there. And Bill Belichick seems to be hurting for money or something to be doing this to his legacy for no reason because this is just nonsensical. I don't understand it. Well, and that's the thing. How do you commit that much money to winning, but not commit enough recruiting or capability or other stuff? It doesn't match up, you guys.

They don't have any matchup at all. Their portal's okay. Their recruiting's okay. Their coaching's not okay. And their effort is not okay. Like there's nothing above average anywhere along that, despite this alleged N I owe money. I don't know if Isaac wants to comment on that. I kind of wonder if the basketball people went in there and beat Bill up and took the

I.L money for the offseason portal because it's easier and cheaper to win at basketball. It's not even close. That's my only question. You know what? I like to hear, though, Isaac, give me Clemson because you talk about a team that's at a crossroads right now. And like a part of me, a part of me feels like, all right, Dabo just had a down year. The year prior, he won the ACC, he got to the playoff. Maybe we're overreacting, but with, you know, sort of the, the de-evolution of how they recruit and the way he doesn't embrace NIL, and it's just not the same quality of roster that Dabo had during the glory days. What were the anonymous coaches saying about Clemson?

We got three again here, you guys. Quote, it's almost like they overcoach their defensive players instead of letting them cut it loose and play. There were some schematic things where you felt like you could get them out of position, usually teams that are really talented do a little less and try to just let those guys cut it loose. end quote. Number two, quote,

their backup QBs didn't play much last year and I didn't think they were very good. I'd be shocked if they were better on offense, even if they're coached better. When Clemson is good, their QB is really good, end quote. And the final one, quote, the same concepts that they ran in 2025.

You can go back to the beginning when Dabo got there and see the same thing. I don't think it was Garrett Riley's offense. It was essentially Chad Morris's offense being called by Garrett Riley, end quote. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, the Clemson success that we're used to seeing under Davo's watch, it feels like if these coaches aren't seeing much evolution on either side of the ball, that's really telling.

And it starts to add up as to why we haven't really seen them as one of the true contenders, not even in the ACC, but with the sport as a whole the last few years. Yeah, and I agree that they're overcoaching that defense. Those guys don't need to be out there thinking. You got ball players. You got ball play. You got some of the best there is. Why was Peter Woods ever lined up at defensive end on a third down?

What are you doing? What are you doing? He's a dancing elephant. He needs to be on the inside to work a move against those slew-footed guards. They're a little heavy-handed, a little slow, like the lean, like the lunch. Why are you putting him against guys their domain and their specialty is that 45 set? Is that I'm going to kick back two, three, three, steps and I will see what he's got going on and where he's going. That's foolish. It's foolish.

They outsmarted themselves defensively last year. And this is one of those moments where if Oklahoma wasn't having success, if I was DaBosweeney, I'd be down there in Norman singing, we belong together outside of Brent Venable's window because they were a match made in heaven. And now all of a sudden, it's like defensively, again, they're just, it's paralysis by analysis. They just, you can see the wheels turning in the Sammy Brown's head before he makes the move and pulls the trigger. You're one of the best there is, brother. Go, go, go play, go be free. I need to see Clemson do something without the help of all that D-line talent they used to have and not have a big time quarterback. When they won their titles, they had two first round picks at quarterback. Now, one, they had

two back to back. It just doesn't get any better than that. I mean, I know he's a good football coach, but they won based on NFL talent behind center, and then they're D-Line town. Like that 218 D-Line they had, oh, for the love of mankind. That was insane.

Those guys were gone. It's just not the same, and they're not recruiting on the same level. They do have 31 recruits coming in this weekend, by the way. That's a lot. Yeah. But. Isn't there something?

So a lot of schools have their official visits kind of spread out over a month, but Clemson likes to have, like, all the big guys at one time. Is that how they do it? June 12th, they've got like six or seven kids, but the other 31 are this weekend. Wow. 31. I mean, they got dudes. Don't get me wrong.

It's a great list. But it's still not what it used to be. They're not recruiting against Georgia as much as they used to. There's more, and I'm just going to take a shot. There's more NC State in it than they used to be. But they just don't have that same kill factor. and recruiting. I don't know what it is. I mean, that's, that's a terrible way to recruit.

Why would you have 31 guys on an official visit? I'm saying this as a player who's taking official visits, who's been the recruiting all the job of the team make the player feel special. How do you feel special amongst 30 other guys? Because Dabo is going for Kumbaya. That's what he's trying to do. I'm not saying I agree with that. I'm saying, what's in his head.

Is it like a survival of the fittest thing? Is it like Dabba wants to have like so many guys, so many top guys who play the same position where it's like, hey, if you don't commit this week, somebody else might take your spot. Is that what they do? Some schools do that. I'm sure Kenton's seen that before too,

but you're not in a position to do that anymore. What did they win, six games, seven games last year? Yeah. It's not the same. And you're looking at a different profile of player. From the days of when I played, from the days before that, when some of y'all were in college, not you, JJ. We know you still got Simulak on your breath.

But everybody else, when y'all were in college, players were cut from a different cloth. There wasn't as much, you know, there weren't social media trends of players making TikToks to them clowning other players. That wasn't on MySpace and Black Planet and Bebo and all that good stuff. JJ, those were social media outlets well before Twitter. No, my, we ain't got to go there.

Long story short, this is. a different generation of player. And I don't think that you're going to win on a recruiting trail by bringing in 30 guys and say, hey, everybody, you've got to compete against these guys. You don't come. This guy will come. Because let me ask you this, and I'm going to leave it right here. Smitty, how is Clemson's recruiting trending? Is it up and to the right getting better by the day, or is it down into the right? Each year, it gets a little bit worse and a little bit lower and a little bit worse. at the top it's the same but there's not the same depth and there's too many kids they're bringing in that are more three starish they're 15 to 20 in the rankings which matches kind of where they ended up especially when their quarterback didn't live up to expectations last year they're a seven eight win kind of team the way they're recruiting ladies and gentlemen of the jury ladies and gentlemen of the jury i rest my case you cannot use archaic methods in a new world the world is evolving you have to evolve with it or you you're It will be left in the past.

Yeah. So I want to hear another one, Isaac, in terms of these anonymous coaches, SMU. So they, you know, the sports books have them second behind Miami to win the ACC this coming season. They got to the ACC championship two seasons ago. Almost got there this past year. You know, they could have, sorry, JJ, but they could have saved us from having that weird 17 tiebreaker that Duke was in. had they just won that game against Cal at the end. But, you know, a lot of respect, certainly for that team, SMU,

heading into this upcoming season. What are the anonymous coach is saying? Here's the first one, quote, man, Coach Lashley does a great job. He's done such a great job the last several years, and the football world knows it too. Anytime one of these big jobs opens up, you're probably going to hear Rhett's name, end quote. Not much there, but that's interesting for SMU. Number two, quote, they do a great job.

with recruiting and the true evaluation of players. Just being able to get those guys in at that university, it's one of those high academic schools that you have to be able to get in and stay in, end quote, and the last one. Quote, I know a lot of the guys on SMU staff, and I think Coach Lashley's coaches are some of the best that I've been around. He just knows how to evaluate people, end quote. That's it.

That makes sense. That makes sense. I mean, you don't have the level of sustained success that they've had if those things are not true, right? You go from the AAC to the ACC, and what are you doing that time? Conference Championship, Conference Championship appearance, conference championship appearance, one game shot.

Really, not even one game, one drive shot. If they stop De Jesus on that last drive against Kyle, if they simply say, hey, that 22 guys pretty good, he's been tearing us a new one all day. We might want to put two guys on him. They would have been in the ACC championship, but lo and behold, they did not do so. And JKS said, hey, I'm going to start my 26 Hizman campaign a little early here. So the reality of what we've seen with SMU, that is a model of consistency.

That, with all due respect, when you look at where they were, this was basically them coming back from the death penalty into the national landscape. I know that the death penalty was 30-some-odd years ago, but seriously, y'all tell me, what has it? SMU done since the death penalty before Lashley got there. Who said anything about, man, those stangs, they're just, they're a group to watch out for before he came in the picture. They hadn't done anything. I remember when they first came off the death penalty, their FCS teams that would have bounced them.

But they've had some teams that could go to a bowl game. But correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think they've had anybody put them in, like at the end of the end of the November. they haven't been in any hunt other than since Flashley was there. I don't think so. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. What Rett's done is commendable. He's a really good football coach.

Still would like to see him recruit a little better. You know, he needs to recruit better than me and Kenton and Alex Roe Hare. But he's done okay with the evaluations. And he's pretty good with the portal. Still needs to take another step with a high school. I have the opportunity to fill in last year for our buddy Drake Toll on college football kickoff for Fire TV. And we entered one of those two, we interviewed Coach Lashley.

And so I had the chance to talk with him some, but heard Coach Gary Patterson talking about him. And it was clear and obvious from one of the best defensive minds in the world that's now at USC, how much respect Coach Patterson has for what Coach Lashley's doing. Them both being in the Dallas area over the past couple years, you know, they've, it sounds like they've visited together a lot. And like, I'm always curious, who are coaches, coaches, you know, the guys that they respect. And it seemed clear and obvious that coach Patterson has a ton of respect for Coach Lashley and what he's doing. And I think these quotes bear that out as well.

The big concern for me was that first one, though, is he, is SMU going to be able to keep him? Obviously, they got a crap ton of money. But when bigger schools, with all due respect to SMU, if a bigger school comes calling, can they retain him? I don't know. but they just read up. But they just read up. They just made that buyout very, very large. That's a great point. That's a great point.

Great point. Some people would say, do you not see what happened with Brian Smith's team down there in Florida State where you give this really big buyout? And now it's a double-ed sword because you say, oh, I kept him from going to Bama, but you also kept him from going to Bama. You see what I'm saying? You kept them. You kept them. You know what I mean? Just that's it.

But JJ, go ahead. No, what I was just going to add, the last thing I wanted to say was that, you know, you look at SMU and we're talking about success that they had prior to Rhett Lashley and not, you know, thinking of them as one of the true contenders in the sport. The timing also goes hand in hand, guys, with when they came over to the ACC. So, you know, pat on the back for all of us, the exposure that has helped be brought back to a program like SMU. So definitely wanted to give the ACC some love. Yeah, I mean, it's a good point by both Isaac and Kenton that, hey, it's not going to be easy to keep him. But at the same time, he did re-up and he's got a bigger buyout now. So yeah, go ahead, Kenton.

Oh, I was just going to say that was a hell of a job by the ACC. And when everybody else, when I was sitting in the boat by myself, said, I think bringing in SMU is a good thing. And everybody called me a fool and everything but a child of God. Look at us now. Look at cousin SMU now, bringing stuff to the cookout. You know, you got those cousins that come to the cookout and leave with about five to go plates before anybody else eat. That's not SMU.

They coming with the good sides. They coming with the mac and cheese. Exactly. Can we send the cows back to the reformed back to up? Hold on now, brother. Hold on, hold on. You ain't sending the algorithm away from me. Stanford, they under review.

They're a little suspicious, but you ain't sending the algorithm. You can go. They bring us up in the Olympic sport, so we'll take it. Exactly. For sure. Well, when we come back, meanwhile, with the SEC, they cannot decide how big they want the college football playoff to be. And there's an obvious domino effect for the ACC.

You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of the ACC squad. Thank you for making the ACC squad the first listen for the everydayers. Make sure for your next listen, you check out all of our other shows. Check out Locked on Seminels and the Portal with Brian Smith. Check out J.J. Jackson on Locked on Blue Devils. Isaac Shade on Locked on Tar Heels. Kenton Gibbs on Locked on Wolfpack and on Locked on ACC. Check me out on Locked on Caines and Locked on ACC. All right. So Brian, was it eight out of 16 SEC coaches want the playoff to get bigger up to 24?

The others are not so sure. The commissioner Greg Sankey is very much against. against a 24-team playoff, which has a lot to do with the SEC championship game, which has about $80 million of revenue per season. The Big 10 wants 24 teams. Most of the ACC wants 24 teams. The Big 12 wants 24 teams. But ultimately, I think the SEC could veto it, but it seems like most coaches or at least half the coaches want it to be at 24. Yeah, Brittany Murphy from On 3 talked about it. And he got, of course, these are all anonymous. he'll sign their name publicly, which welcome to the world we live in. But out of the 14 coaches, most of them wanted to go to 24. One guy wanted 20. One guy wanted to still stay at 12 and a handful of greed with Sankey,

staying at his number of 16. But the majority was 24. Just think about this overall. Whatever the issue is, the SEC is generally lockstep with any kind of rule or whatever. If Greg wants it, so does an insert name of coach. For some reason, I honestly don't know what it is. I don't anybody opine on this. They're not.

I've got a few ideas, but I can't figure out for sure. A bunch of people don't agree with him. And he doesn't like, I'm sure, being told no publicly, even if it's anonymous. I bet he's making some phone calls after that article came. I bet it didn't make him very happy. Well, I mean, this is a simple equation, Smitty. You're the recruiting guy nationally, so you do stuff outside of the ACC. Quick question, do you think that South Carolina has a good chance

to make the SEC championship next year? Hell no. Do you think they got a chance of finishing in the top 24 next year? Oh, yeah. I bet you they were one of those eight would be my guess. And I was on the same boat. Mississippi State, Arkansas, some of those teams. Hey, these coaches, I don't.

ain't dumb. They're not dumb. They know what protects their money. The problem is a lot of coaches in the SEC, they know it still doesn't protect their money, right? Lane Kiffin being at LSU, all the money that they gave him, all of the resources they gave him, if he sneaks in, if he just barely by the hairs on his chinny, chin, gets in the playoff, everybody in Baton Roo's saying, what the hell is going on around here? This is not what we bought you in for. Kaelan DeBoer has to live in the shadow of Nick Sabin. Nick Saban, you think that Bama fans are going to be happy with, yeah, we got to the playoff, but then Indiana took us out back.

They did something to us that this is child abuse. They almost about to call Law & Order SVU. We're not going to get into it. But there is not a world where a lot of these SEC teams are meaningfully, like your coach is safe by making a playoff. Kentucky, yeah, your coach is safe. you're going to get a lifetime extension if you make the playoff. Sure. Mississippi State, your coach is saved.

He's going to have his job if he makes a playoff. Lee, down at Vanderbilt, your job is safe, brother. You had a Heisman finalist. Even if everybody hates them, you did that at Vanderbilt. Your job is safe for as long as you want. That doesn't apply to Florida. That doesn't apply to LSU. That doesn't apply to Bama.

That doesn't apply to Georgia. Kirby Smart, they don't care. Brother, if you finish that 24, if they see a 24, All they're going to think is, is that the amount of players that got speeding tickets this year? Because that bet not be our final ranking. That better not be our final ranking. So, you know, it's just that situation where these SEC coaches know where their bread is buttered. Some of these guys know making this playoff, people are going to say, oh, the game talks in the playoffs.

Oh, you can't fire Beamer now. But some schools, it won't matter. I kind of lean that way, too, but I just wonder what Sanky's going to think about it. The ironic part, I believe a lot of the ACC coaches, look at it the same way that South Carolina, Mississippi State, Kentucky. Look, not trying to be mean, but you can guarantee it that of like Virginia Tech, Virginia, Pittsburgh, any of those schools ever make it in, even if it's the number 23 seed, they're putting that first thing on their resume.

100%. And that's what they're doing. If Dormade, then I'll put it on my resume. I dropped that on my resume. NC State got to the playoff while I was the guy. Former member of a college football playoff team, not the year that they made it, but former member of a team that made the college football playoff.

Exactly. There you go, Dono. There you go. Oh, man, it's rough. Oh, man. I was reading a quote from Mike Elko of Texas A&M, and of course they did make the playoff last year, the top 12. But Elko was fully honest.

He's like, yeah, listen, it's not necessarily what's best for the sport, but a lot of coaches are selfishly going to want a bigger playoff because job security, right? I mean, there are certain schools where if you miss the playoffs too many times, eventually you're going to get fired because playoffs are the standard. But if you're the 22nd, 23rd seed, then that may be enough to keep you employed. My Gilco, I remember that guy. I remember that guy. Yeah, you do. Yeah. And I'd certainly love ACC champs, as we said, for Duke this past football season outside of the college football playoff picture. So we'll see what it takes for them to get there. Well, you can't lose to Tulane and get

thumped by Illinois at home and still think you're getting into playoff. I'm so sorry, JJ. A man can dream, K.G. Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. You know, Walker Eaget may be the guy to get it done this year. But in all seriousness, you know, these, these playoff talks and all that, it's very interesting to see not only the way that the different conferences, are reacting to this. But like Smitty said, even the conferences that normally fall in line in a way that they're like soldiers,

whatever that, whatever gets sent in that group chat to the coaches saying, hey, this is our message. Everybody's normally on lockstep. Even in that moment, even in this moment, rather, those groups of people are saying, I don't give a damn about what you want, brother.

I don't care about that 80 million that we get for our conference championship. I don't get it. So why do I care? I'm going to want to expand this playoff. Well, listen, We appreciate everybody making the Locked-on ACC Squad your first listen. And again, make sure you check out all of our shows.

I host Locked on Cains and Locked on ACC, Kenton Gibbs, Locked on ACC and Locked on Wolfpack, Isaac Shade, Locked on Tar Heels, and Locked on College Basketball, J.J. Jackson, Locked on Blue Devils, Brian Smith, Locked on Seminels, and the Portal podcast. We'll see how big that playoff ends up being. We'll talk to everyone next time on the ACC Squad. We are part of the number one sports podcast network. the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.