Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC Won't Need NEW GOR In 2027? | That's Not How Florida State Gets Out | Don't Sleep On Cal In 2024

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Are the reports true that with the ESPN multimedia agreement with the ACC running up in 2027, every member of the conference will need to sign a new Grant of Rights? If true, Florida State, Clemson, and whoever else wants to leave the conference can simply refrain from signing a new GOR and go along their merry way. Attorney Doug Rohan noted that the multimedia agreement and GOR separate. As long as there is a TV deal with ESPN, even an altered one, the Grant of Rights is valid until 2036. Valid, unless Florida State or Clemson are able to win other arguments in court to invalidate the agreement. Hosts Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs discuss these new reports and what it means for the future of the Seminoles and Tigers in the ACC. Meanwhile, are the east coasters sleeping on Cal? The Golden Bears are about to have their first season in the ACC. Cal alumnus and author Lawrence Ross joins the show to make the case for why Cal can have an excellent debut season in the conference. Ross makes a strong case that Cal is about to peak in football and they are entering the conference at the right time. For your next listen, check out the Locked On College Football podcast! From NIL deals to never ending conference realignment rumors, Spencer McLaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron!  Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Factor MealsHead to Factormeals.com/lockedoncollege50 and use code lockedoncollege50 to get 50% off your first box PLUS 20% off your next month while your subscription is active! eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM and add a big win to your summer bucket list!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If the Florida State Seminoles and Clemson Tigers find a way out of the ACC, this 2027 cheat code won't be the reason why. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Shout out to the everydayers and thank you so much for making Locked on ACC your first listen and your first watch today. We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube.

part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create an account and use code Locked on College for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. On this episode, we will talk to the Cal fan who said he's not worried about anyone else in the ACC. I cannot wait to talk to Lawrence Ross about why the Cal Golden Bears are going to shock the world in their debut season in the ACC this year. I do want to talk about the coaches poll that has come out.

And if the ACC should feel a little bit snubbed, it's a preseason poll, but I don't know, not a whole lot of respect there, right? Kenton Gibbs, of course, from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockdowne Keynes. Now, Kenton, if and when Florida State and Clemson are able to get out of the ACC, it looks like this 2027 TV deal loophole may not be the loophole that some thought after all. Wow. What a shocker.

Dono, what a shock. I'm so, I am perplexed by this, Dono. I am perplexed because the 2027 loophole not being all this cracked up to be is, it's, it's, who could have predicted this? Who could have seen this coming? You know, it's, it must be an ability of clairvoyance or something for somebody to know, hey, the, the reality is that this contract, you know, if you're looking at it from a somewhat objective standpoint, you see that it last.

a little bit longer than that 2027 date, which is why the price tag is so high, which granted, you can argue that the price tag is a little bit arbitrary. Not mad at that argument. I get that. But the idea behind it is there's all these years in addition to. And on top of that, this whole 2036 thing is kind of, it's, we can all say ESPN has the option to now renew. But again, it's like telling somebody, hey,

Do you want this job giving candy to small babies? You don't have to worry about if they throw up or whatever they do afterwards. That's your whole job. Entice children with candy. Are you sure you want it? Everybody would say, if you want to pay me millions to do it, for sure. That's what ESPN has. They're not going to go away from that.

So, you know, I'm not very surprised to hear that that 2027 loophole, per se, doesn't hold water in terms of contract renewal. So here's some clarity on the situation provided by Doug Rohan, of Rohan Law. He's an attorney who is not directly involved in this case. He's a Florida state fan who covers the extremely closely. And he sends the following out on his ex account. Rohan puts out, your post, he's commenting on a post from Genetics 56, who tweets 25 hours a day about conference realignment and the big two. He says, your post was wonderful and lovely and perfect right until the wheels fell off at the end. He said, you success.

showed that the multimedia agreement with ESPN does not have any language regarding the grant of rights and therefore exists independently of the grant of rights. The converse is similarly true, he says. The grants of rights between the schools and the conference have nothing to do with the multimedia agreement. I disagree that any extension as contemplated in the language of the originally approved 2016 agreement requires a new grant of rights. The 2016 grant of rights ran through 2036. So as long as there is an ESPN deal that runs through 2036, an absent FSU being successful on their other claims, they are bound to the ACC through 2036. There is no need for a new grant of rights. So what he's responding to there, Kenton, is this idea that's gotten very popular, probably among a lot of people who aren't lawyers, who had been looking at the language and saying, well, hey, if they extend that ESPN deal from 2027, that constitutes.

as a new agreement or if they alter that deal in any way, which is their right, they have a look-in provision that a different TV deal is going to require a brand-new grant of rights, which every ACC school would have to sign. And oh, Florida State and Clemson can just conveniently not sign that new grant of rights. And they can just waltz out the door in 2027. So again, as Rohan points out at the end of his post, like this doesn't necessarily mean Florida state and Clemson are stuck in the ACC until 2036. It just means if they're going to get out, they're not going to get out based on this particular idea that a new grant of rights is

required in 2027 and they just don't have to sign it. That's not how they get out, Kenyon. Yeah. And that's, I mean, again, that's, it's, it's basically the very simple principle of, hey, the two are very closely related. They're not one and the same. That's, that's the whole argument here that the TV deal and the grant of rights they're very close they're not one for one in that hey if this happens then this happens automatically it doesn't work in that way so again you know it's it's not really the surprise it's not really a surprise to most of us who look at this and we're like i mean this is not really any groundbreaking news here because at the end of the day you know not only is the extension almost a virtual lock to happen but even beyond that um

even if you weren't looking at that, you're still looking at a situation where, again, the grant of rights is a separate document from the TV deals. They just run together in ways, but they're not overlapping in that one directly means that the other exists or vice versa. Yeah, and if it was just so easy that, hey, in 2027, they need a new grant of rights and Florida State and Clemson's just leave, then why are they hiring these lawyers and paying them so much money? Like, why are they even bothering to fight if in three years from now, they're just out for free. Obviously, it's not that he, they're going to have to, as Rohan says, they're going to have to win on one of their, their other claims here, which they very well might, right? I mean, again, you would have both agree that at some point Florida State and Clemson will see who's got the better lawyers. If one or the other finds a way out, that might be the way out for both.

But it's not just going to be, hey, we tear up the grant of rights in 2027. We all sign a new one. Yeah, it was very informative. And you know that it's not looking good when Rohan is appearing to have a pro-ACC stance or a stance that appears to be like, hey, this isn't going to be as easy for FSU as one would imagine. Because, you know, again, when we look at these things, we consider the source. And Rohan law has been very much so on the side of, well, this could be good for Florida State because. Well, this thing is good for Florida State because.

And so you're looking at this moment and saying to yourself, hey, if Rohan can't spend this, thing. That's tough. That's a real tough. Well, can we spin the preseason coaches poll, which was just revealed? Is the ACC representation? Does this match truth? We'll talk about that and so much more when we come back.

You know what you want to do, my friends? We're only getting started. You want to keep it locked on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. And guys, I'm only getting started with game time. This is the only ticket app that Kenton's on the game time. app right now looking up tickets for the next game, the next concert, the next comedy show. The prices actually go down the closer you get to the event, which is amazing. I'm still looking to lock in my tickets for the Miami Hurricanes at the Florida Gators and

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Create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code locked on college for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets. Lowest price guarantee. Thank you so much for making this episode of Locked on ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. For your second listen, make sure you check out Kenton on Locked on Wolfpack. Check me out on Locked on Cains. Bring you all the North Carolina State and Miami information you can possibly get. By the way, later in this episode, we will be getting the info on Cal. Newcomers into the ACC, are they ready to shock the conference with all those travel miles? First year in the conference, we're going to get into that. But Kenton, speaking on the ACC, the coaches,

poll is out. And the first ACC team you see is Florida State at number 10. Then you've got Clemson at 14, Miami at 19, and NC State at 22. So you look at that top 12. And obviously, the coach's poll is not necessarily a representation of what the college football playoff top 12 is going to look like. Because you're going to have, you're going to have at least one team outside the group of or the power four in the group of five who's going to get into the playoff based on the conference winners clause and all that. But Georgia at number one in the SEC, Ohio State and Oregon, two and three in the big 10. Texas at number four, Alabama at five, Ole Miss at six, SEC, SEC, SEC, Notre Dame Independent at number seven. Michigan, if they're still cheating,

they're at number eight, Penn State, number nine, that he got Florida State at number 10, SEC at 11, LSU at number 12. So this whole power two thing, I mean, Kenton, outside of an independent in Notre Dame and Florida state of the, you don't have anyone from the Big 12 in there. This thing is dominated by the SEC in the Big 10. Man, put the ball down. Put the ball down. I'm sorry. I'm just one of these guys.

I don't care about preseason polls. I have long stated that there should be no preseason polls. Poll should not come out to week four, in my opinion. because before then you're reaching and guessing this like that old commercial for the dog food, you're wishing and hoping and hoping and wishing because you don't know what these teams are going to be. You are saying to yourself, based off last year, this team should be this or that and the third, but you don't know who got worse, which players did develop, which schemes are going to get very stale because they run the same gimmicks, the same tricks.

There's only so many ways that you can run that wide receiver touchpads before teams start to figure you out if you're certain teams and that's your bread and butter. So ultimately, I'm looking at this saying, disrespect the ACCC all you want, disrespect the Big 12 while you want, disrespect the group of, disrespect anybody you want. That's fine.

At a certain point in time, you're going to have to put that ball down. And big angry men are going to have to move other big angry men. And I don't think it's going to work out in the way that most people think it do, think it will rather, in that the SEC will have all of these teams across the board. That it's like, hey, If the playoff was just the best 12, it'd be eight of our teams.

And I guess for you Scraglers, I strongly disagree. I mean, let's talk about why preseason polls actually exist. I mean, it's to sell newspapers. I don't know if anyone actually buys. Yeah, I don't know if anyone actually buys physical magazines and newspapers, but they exist for that reason. They exist for people to click on websites. They also exist to create conversation, right?

I mean, look, we're doing it right now. Like, we're falling into this trap that the coach's poll came out and we're talking about it. But I do think it's actually, it's a disservice, like preseason rankings are not only a bit pointless outside of being fun to talk about, but it's kind of a disservice because they can cause, you know, voters for polls that actually matter. I mean, the coach's poll doesn't matter as much as the AP poll. Then obviously the college football playoff poll matters more than all of them at the end. But it causes us all to form preseason opinions that may not be based on reality. And it may make teams. And it may make teams,

who are outside of that, even if they win all their games, it may give them a tougher time of getting into the polls that matter. But Donno, it just means more in the SEC. You know, we learned that last year. You know, the SEC dominated the ACC. What was their record against ACC? Wasn't it like 11 and 0 or something like that? Wasn't that one of one?

Not like, maybe in another universe. Oh, they had a losing record against ACC last year. You said, oh, okay. 5.7, I think. Well, well, it's because, you know, the perception part of this thing should matter because, well, it should. It objectively shouldn't. We should be smart enough as adults to watch the games and form our own opinions. We should be smart enough to say, you know, and I'll give you an example of how perception ruins some of these things, right?

We talk about, oh, Florida State last year after Jordan Travis went down, they barely beat a bad Florida team. Oh, they barely beat Louisville. Louisville was one of the top teams in the nation all year. They were never outside the top 20 past, I want to say like week five or six. Beating that team in the ACC championship, same as you want about Jack Plummer. I didn't believe in them either. I didn't think it was very good either. That is still one of the better teams in the nation, let alone the conference.

But barely beating them was bad, right? And yet somehow Alabama barely beating Auburn, who just got the wheels whooped off him in Jordan here by the New Mexico State Aggies. And Auburn almost lost to Cal last year. And that's my point. That's my point. I'm talking about this from the standpoint

of that almost win by Bama had their, you know, I believe Milroy was walking around the field talking about give me that MF and Hizman. Brother, you were binked earlier this year. But that's the thing. These SEC folks get it in their head.

that a certain reality exists where he was a Heisman guy. It's in his head. So it exists in a way. It doesn't. It doesn't work like that. And it shouldn't work like that. And that's why I challenge all of the members of the media. I challenge all of the people who do what we do to take your job serious.

Watch the games. Watch the film because you do not come away with. This is one of the best teams in the nation, despite them losing three to four games. Based on what? This is one of the best teams in the nation besides them losing two or two or two. three games. Based on what? Is it based on recruiting stars? Because if that's the point, let's just cut the games all together and let's just have the Under Armour All-American game transition directly into the college football club. Hey, whichever team gets the most guys from

Under Armored All-American, y'all go ahead. Y'all go, hey, do your thing, you know. Even better. Let's just simulate all the games on the new EA sports video game. We'll just send the whole thing. And you know what? That's worked out so well in the past because Texas A&M's recruiting classes have led to so much success down there in Aggie land. And, you know, we don't even got to leave the ACC. With all due respect, Donno, I hate to do it. Miami's success in recruiting has led to championship after championship because they've consistently. I mean, Donald, it can't be argued.

Consistently, Miami's been one of the best recruiting teams in the ACC by class. And where is there to show for it? All season champs. So I think at some point in time, you've got to put that ball down. You've got to kick that ball off. And like I said, big angry men got to move some other big angry men. And that's how this thing should be decided out. But I think that it's ridiculous that the perception is in that way.

And this is what you and me were talking about with Sanky needs, or I'm not, I'm sorry, not Sanky. Phillips needs to be more of a showman. He needs to be more of that braggadocious. This is what we're doing kind of guy. We've got the toughest strength of schedule out of all the power five or power for conferences. Nobody's coming like we're coming out of conference. We want the best because we are the best. that needs to be talked about more widely

so that way the perception stops being different from reality a lot like with the money where people think the Big 12 is making more and they're more stable than ACZ when in all reality they are. Speaking of perception, I think we're going to find out this year if East Coast bias

is a real thing. A lot of us over here on the Atlantic coast, I mean, in Kentons, in Raleigh, I'm down in Miami. A lot of us over here on the East Coast, we may not stay up for pack 12 after dark every single Saturday, right?

And so we're going to, and by the way, I can't wait to bring this man on because this ex post has become a thing of legend here on on ACC, you know, the swag coming out of Cal Berkeley. Lawrence Ross says, I've watched every ACC team and not

one, including FSU, scares me as a Cal fan. It feels like a league of Arizona and Arizona states. So, We're going to talk about this post with the man himself. You want to keep it locked right here on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. And the man is nice enough to join us now. We have him with us, Lawrence Ross, who he's, and Lawrence, by the way, your ex post,

it inadvertently kind of bullied me into raising Cal up a little bit on my rankings. That's what our influence is. We're brand new. It didn't know. Now you know that's the biggest thing about it. about going to Berkeley. All right. So tell me, Lawrence,

first of all, before we talk about Cal, because I do want to get your insight, because admittedly, like Kenton and I, we host locked on ACCC, but Cal has not been a part of this conference, so we are very uneducated on Cal,

on Stanford. I know a little bit about SMU, because half of their players are former Miami players, but with Cal, with Cal, I know a little bit less. Let's start with the rest of the conference. Like when you talked about examining,

you know, a bunch of Arizona and Arizona states, why is it that teams like Florida State, Clemson, Miami, NC State don't really concern you? So I think when you look at it, you have to look at it from like a Pac-12 perspective. When I said Arizona and Arizona State, you know, folks jumped on and said, oh, this is your record against Arizona and Arizona State. That wasn't the point. You didn't have to remind me about the Hill Mary horror that I watched under the Sunny Dice era or any of, for example, even going way back where it was Deshaun Jackson stepping out at Arizona. right before he scored a touchdown for prevented us for going to the Rose Bowl.

But the Pac-12 and the ACC are slightly different. What I met with about Arizona and Arizona State are kind of like the schools that are typically 5-7-75 with a sometime eight game every so, like fourth year of a new coach coming in, eighth or ninth game, and then they go back to a 5-7-75. And so when I was looking at it, the reason why I was saying it was different than, for example for Cal is that Cal played a nine game schedule. And not only did we play a nine game schedule, we always had to play USC and UCLA.

So if you notice, if you think about it just objectively, you didn't pay attention to Cal, right? But have you notice all the NFL players that Cal produces, right? You know, we have a ton of players and you go, well, wait a second, you got Kenan Allen, you got Jared Goffs, you got Aaron Rogers before Marchant. And you think to yourself, well, why wasn't Cal, you know, like up there? Well, it's because in essence, what we actually have to do is play two schools every single year that always out-recruited us.

And then if you tie that in with kind of how Cal's administration was, which was more of a, hey, it's all great, it's all fine. You know, if we win, great, if we lose, it doesn't really move the needle. Well, then Cal was always basically in that mid-5-7-75 era. Remember, we also were in the north. So we also have to play Oregon and in Washington every single thing. year. And that is just throwing out the regular kind of like Utah's and Oregon states when they're up. So one of the problems was when I looked at like the ACC, I wasn't denigrating the fact that FSU is really great, but I was looking at it from a standpoint, okay, the 13 and one FSU, yes, horrifically

better than Cal. But then I started thinking, well, how many of them are back? And that's, you know, I just didn't see a whole bunch of them back where, you know, it would be a little bit like me looking at Washington. If the PAC 12 was still going, still going, I would say, yeah, Washington killed us. Pennick killed us, but they don't have anybody coming back. So in terms of being scared, no, FSU is always going to have a talent, Cal is always going to have a talent deficit to FSU. But is it the same talent deficit than, say, for example, when Cal would always play Oregon? Not really. Clemson, I think, you know, the team that Cal traditionally loses to, and Ken, you're going to like this. North Carolina states of the world. We, I promise you, I promise you,

if you, I walked on the Cow's campus 40 years ago. I know I look young, but 40 years ago in 1984. Cal out of the, for example, the three big schools that we have to play, Auburn, Florida State, and Miami. We're going to win one of them. I couldn't tell you which one. The reasons for them could be a myriad. Auburn because we should have beat him last year. Florida State because it's the first ACC game, so we're going to be a heck of height. Or Miami, because we've got to buy right before we play Miami.

And Miami probably in terms of the talent and Cristobal, because we, Wilcox played Cristobo when he was at Oregon and did what Wilcox does. Squeeze them to death, right? I think it was like 1410 or something like that. So Cal will win those games and then lose the pit, you know, or lose to North Carolina.

And that's what life is like as a Cal fan. But you also have to recognize that Cal is really an eight-win team. We, there's, if you could not have actually staged something, in terms of like cow beating USC by like 14 in the fourth quarter, and then I think we fumbled like three times and still were in the game. And then for Auburn, that was just a case of our current quarterback was nowhere to be seen. Sam Jackson is now at Auburn as a wide receiver.

Ben Finley, I think he's at Akron, you know, before he was at, he was at your boys, North Carolina State. Yeah, he beat U and he beat USC. So he's NC State legend, little Ben Finley, you. He's not remembered at Cal. So one of the things was that it took a long time.

We got a third string quarterback who's out there. Now, why are we so hyped, right? First of all we're hyped about because apparently, once we were like out there in the in the wilderness we we figured out that most people's perception of cow football includes hippies the grateful dead liberal politics and a bunch of other things that had nothing to do with cow football it's a nerd school it's a nerd school for sure yeah i mean but even that they just basically they keep like they'll show you know the cow have fans and they show a hour before the kickoff as being cows you know fan and it's the funny part is that we know this

and then we also know how Cal actually reacts. And if you think about this, this is not a conference game this year. Okay, this is basically a glorified out-of-conference schedule. Conference games, for example, in the Pac-12, are kids who played each other since Pop Warner, right? They played in the same high school. They played in Pop Warner.

They know each other. Even when they get on different schools, they know these kids, right? They know if that kid across the cross-room, no matter how well they've improved, they know them for a long period of time. Cal actually happens to do pretty damn well out of conference, including Wilcox. I think Wilcox is like 15 and 5-ish around there. And we're, the Auburn game is like the first game in 10 years where we didn't win, you know,

the initial game. I think we'd be home and away. We'd be North Carolina home and away. Old Miss, home and away. Texas, home and away. We've, you know, we've had a pretty good schedule. But you guys didn't see it. One of the things that we've, you know, we're just like amazed at the ACC network, having done the deepest dive on Cal in a decade.

Like I can see Cal games on the Pac-12 network because it just didn't play on our, on our, on our, on the spectrum, you know, on one of the cable networks. So, but there's the most critical part of this about Cal, and this has nothing to do with the field. When Cal was basically, you know, set a drift with Stanford, that was the first time Cal had an existential threat to football since the 1950s. And, you know, you look at Cal, you think Cal UCLA, the same system. Why does one emphasize football? Not as good. And why does the other one not?

It's because Cal Stanford, I think, I know, Cal UCLA, USC back in the 50s got caught up in a big, gigantic, like, pay-for-play scandal. And Cal basically decided an administration, we're never going to be, in that position again. We're never going to emphasize football again. Well, the essential threat was you have no conference. So now you have to actually emphasize football. And the way you can tell is based upon Cal brought in like 50 so, 54 transfer in a portal, transfer portal, that never occurred. Usually the administration would have this or that to say that they couldn't be, you know, come to Cal or whatever. Cal has to be good at football. It has to be football.

So now it actually matches kind of what other people don't know and you're going to soon find out is that they're going to basically stoppile and have a new beginning in the ACC versus what we were in the PAC 12. And in the PAC 12, it's just very difficult. I mean, I think if you're going to say what we're going to be in the ACC, the closest I would say in terms of kind of like what I think Wilcox would want would be Utah. Tough as held on, tough as held on defense. Because last year, I said it was eight-year, you know, eight-game season. It's the only season that is uncharacteristically Wilcox, meaning that the defense didn't play well. The defense, usually for Cal is usually like, you know, the back-in is, you know,

back in a couple of years, a few years back. There was the takers. A lot of them are NFL. I think Cam Biden is in the NFL, a bunch of them. And they really pride themselves on not really D-line play, but linebacker play. and in the defensive backfield. To stop, Pact 12, you know, what's called?

But we were playing, geez. We played DJ, Caleb, Pinnix, Bo Nix, and that's just the, you know, the guys who were, like, in the middle of our schedule. You know, I don't know every ACC team. I can't tell you, I know some of them in terms of, like, the guy who's coming to NC State, Graham, You're thinking of Grayson McCall.

So I've followed him for a while because he had been rumored to come to Cal and was on a list for a period of time. And it's not, I'm not trying to denigrate the ACC. I'm just trying to say, for example, the nine-game schedule, this is how perception can change. We were talking about rankings. The nine-game schedule gives an automatic 50% one team, another loss in the PAC-12 versus the ACC, right?

So ACC, I think, for example, if I remember the last, if I just remember the standing, it's just like ACC had about six or so teams that had eight or more wins out of a 14, 15 team league. I can't remember 14. 14. It was 14. Yeah. The Pac 12 had like seven teams with eight wins in a nine game series. So if I'm looking at it from a Cal perspective, I got an extra win, okay, somewhere in there, whether I was non-conference or, you know, ACC, I could expect, I think to me, Cal's, Cal's floor is a six-six win, and I think the ceiling, depending on travel, which is, we can't,

that's a variable no one is really knows until we do it, is a eight to nine win. And that would mean, obviously, beating one of the three, Miami, Florida State, and, or Auburn. and then beating somebody who we probably shouldn't beat. And the scary people, I'm looking at the schedule. The scary ones to me are North Carolina State, because that's the team that we typically lose to, and Wake Forest because it's a Friday game. And that Friday game is, you know, going to be hell on the players to, you know,

you play the game before, you got a short week, you got to fly out. I think it's going to, I think that might have a chance to be kind of like the worst scenario for Cal. But other than that, no. I mean, I didn't see anything. I mean, we don't play Clemson. So I'm not saying anything. If we play Clemson, I would be like, okay, Clemson and FHU. But everybody else, I mean, am I wrong about Boston College?

Are they not a five and seven, seven and five type of team? They should, that would probably be their ceiling would be. I was about seven and five. I was about them. Virginia? Virginia? I mean, I don't mean, I don't mean to throw shade at, you know, Miami. Hey, listen.

But Miami's going to seven to six, five and seven. seven and six i mean it has a great plan but i mean and honestly when you just look at what the you know you are what your record is if i got to own a six and seven cow miami got to own a seven and six you know record that's kind of other other than your i still scratched my head at your georgia i uh do what amnesia would have come in very handy that night the funny part is that that's not the first time that happened for christopher he lost that the exact same way in the Stanford. Stanford.

Wait, wait, wait, was it Stanford or August 8? I didn't know. Yeah, it was Stanford. It was Stanford. Yeah. And that was one I watched it. Yeah, it was like 50 seconds left.

And they ran the ball. And my buddy, but my, literally my fri brother, by the way, Keith, hey, hey, man. Again, I have much of respect for you. Even as a member of Campa Alpha Psi, you know, as the author of the Divine Nine

History of African American Frateries and sororities. So, you know, I love everybody, but you're wrong. And also, I wanted to get it. I originally, when I became aware of Lawrence, it was for the tweet. But then I realized, oh, Lawrence Ross is an author. Tell us about your work. So I am the author of the book called The Divine Nine,

the history of African American fraternities and sororities, which is the fraternities that Kenton and I belong to. I saw your, I saw your, Keyes in the background. Literally when I first, somebody sent me over here, I looked in it, you moved your head. I was like, wait a second. And so I've had the fortune of lecturing at college campuses around the country, including everywhere in the ACC, I've been to Clemson like multiple times, but never been to North Carolina State, never been to North Carolina State, been to Miami, Florida State, all the rest of

the school. But no, but anything in the world I love to talk about. in particular is college football and in particular Cal football because it's one of the things where people in the Bay Area really love Cal football. A lot of it in terms of how people's perception is that the Pacti was so badly run. I mean, it's just so badly run. And it was kind of an almost an eternal war between the academic presidents who were really just concerned about the prestige and academics versus the reality of what was happening in football, right? And so, So it became very difficult to tell the Pact 12 things like, for example, every time you have Cal for a night game, you destroy the tailgating tradition for regular games, right? So there's going to be a natural, you know, fall off in terms of how people actually, you know, whether or not they support versus go to the game versus watching that beautiful 70, you know, inch flat screen that they have in their house.

And but I think this is a chance for Cal to kind of re, uh, recenter themselves. And I think the reason why Wilcox has been there for so long is that I think Cal became realized that the whole ditching coaches every four years wasn't really working. And I think it's more of the nature that Wilcox understands now what he has to do. And I think he's been last year was kind of a first year experiment. This year, I think, is where it all come together for him. You know, I'll tell you this much.

I believe in J. Knot. I believe in that secondary and all that. I struggle with guys, big guys who can't stop the run. That's why I'm hesitant to pick Virginia Tech to win the conference. And Cal has a very similar problem over there. I love that defense. But your big guys concern me a little bit. You're not wrong.

You're not wrong. And it reminds me of like way back, okay, when USC was running, running everything in the early 2000s. And I can't remember the guy, the linebacker from USC. But in the national championship game, what his taunt was, all you big mugs can't stop all those little bugs, right, in order to get to the quarterback. And every time, yeah, it's like a concern.

It's a general concern. I remember when we played Texas. I remember when we played Old Miss. It was the concern was like, wait a second. That's when old miss at D.K. Metcalf, right? We were sitting in and Shay, the quarterback, not Shea Carpenter, but I can't remember. Patterson, Sheraton. Patterson, right?

And we were like, oh, well, Jesus, you know, there's no way in the world our D-Line is going to be a hold up to this, right? And funny enough, the Pac-12 had actually started getting bigger on the lines. And also what happened, so Oregon kind of has been like the, for Dan Lannning, when he basically started bringing kind of Well, actually, Chrysillball started. Yeah, Chris Ball started. Yeah. Fisdness to the recruiting. And everybody else started getting bigger.

Cal basically started getting other de-linement from other Big Ten schools or SEC schools to kind of pack it in. You can't find it in California. You're just not going to find big Ohio or, you know, Alabama or Texas linemen in California. You're just not. But here's the problem. Here's the thing. Now that we can recruit on the East Coast where we've recruited sometimes. like New Jersey, we would recruit out there, you're going to start seeing that.

And I think Wilcox is willingness to, well, let me give you the other things in terms of you want to say Cal's, like advantages that people don't know about. Cowell's running back room goes beyond odd. You got Callaway, you came in for Old Dominion, who, you know, the dude, I mean, I know was just Marshall, but the dude ran for like 200 yards on like five legs, right? but he is no joke. Byron Cardwell, who used to be over at Oregon, he was hurt all last year,

but he's, again, kind of like that running, you know, kind of like spread offense type of a running back. And we have a dude named Javian Thomas, the Jet, who's absolutely, he was a freshman last year, he's absolutely fast as hell. Wilcox has absolutely increased the speed and depth for Cal. We have, like, one of the most, I think are most people coming back?

Like, I think like seven, on the offense and six on the defense side. And some of them are going to start because what was brought in. And they were good. I'm not talking about they were like, okay, easy replacement. No, they were bringing, like we brought in Dykes from Maryland, who's for a tight end. And our tight end was, I think, like, second or 13 pack 12. I don't think our second 13 pack 12 guy is actually going to start a tight end.

But our depth level has definitely increased. And the other thing I look for is what's your experience in the back? Can you stop, you know, can you stop opposing receivers? Everybody in Cal's back in is a fifth or six year. That's great. It's nothing but so you're not getting a whole bunch of, you know, folks who are just, you know, finding their way through. Yeah, that experience is definitely going to be crucial in terms of dealing with

all the complexity that comes to traveling all that for sure. Right, right. How many games do you guys think, Cal, going to win. I'll say six. I'll give me six. I think I'm, I was going to say six, but I think Lawrence talked me into seven or maybe it's not. As long as Miami's not one of those, but I am nervous about the road trip, Lawrence. And obviously Cal is going to experience it going in the other direction. But Miami hasn't gone that far west in 24 years. Like the last time they went out to the West Coast for a regular season game.

Against Cal. It was actually against Washington in 2000. And that was the year where had they won that Washington game, they would have been in the national championship game. A loss to Washington kept them out of it. So I know it's no picnic for a college team to go out there. And I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this.

You talked about NC State being the team that Cal normally loses to. NC State loves to step on that rake and smack ourselves in the face with a team. that we should. We look out on paper and you say NC State's the better team here. You just came off beating Miami or you just came off beating Florida State. You just came off beating Clemson.

You should win this game. And all of a sudden, we find a way. So, you know, I'm going to that game. And that game is my trap game for the year. I'm very serious. That Cal game going to Cal, that's my trap game for the year for NC State.

I have three words for you, cheese it bowl. Okay? So Cal can do those things at the exact same time. But really, the season will turn for Cal in the first four games. It will like, how will Cal go through those first four games? If we go three and one, okay, because five out of the last eight games are at home.

So we go three and one, that's where everybody will start looking up. One last thing I know you've got to wrap. I am really big on rankings reform because the thing that it does, it sets up non-brand schools, non-big brand schools to be further away, even if they're really good and when they lose, their losses mean more than the bigger brand schools, meaning that a loss from, you know, if you're number three and you go down to number 12,

you still have the full season to get back in the top 12. If you start outside of the outside of it, well, then you may get to number 18, but then start hitting some of your harder in-conference games, you lose and then you get kicked out of the, out of the rankings. We've got to reform that if we're going to reform, you know, the college football playoff.

Well, we appreciate Lawrence's time. And, of course, I always appreciate Kenton, and I appreciate everyone who takes time to watch and listen to Locked on ACC. Get us for free. Apple podcast, Spotify, Odyssey app, YouTube, wherever you get your pods. Awesome job. But it's great meeting Lawrence, Ross. We'll have to, you know, every big game, Cal wins.

We'll have to bring Lawrence back. In the words of the former governor of California, I'll be back. out of the dog. We will talk to. Y'all got to learn this one thing? Go bears. All right. All right.

We'll talk to everyone next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the awesome Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day.