Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ALERT: Big 12 and Brett Yormark STRIKE UNPRECEDENTED Private Capital Deal—Will ACC Follow Suit??

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

Private equity shakes up college sports as the Big 12 inks a groundbreaking $12.5 million partnership with Redbird Capital Partners, igniting debate about the future financial landscape of NCAA conferences. Can schools like Houston and Kansas State shoulder a $30 million credit line, or will the arms race backfire? Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs tackle whether the ACC will (or should) follow suit, highlighting Commissioner Jim Phillips' cautious approach amid intensifying revenue gaps with the SEC and Big Ten. Meanwhile, Duke basketball pioneers a first-of-its-kind deal, securing three marquee non-conference matchups—against UConn, Michigan, and Gonzaga—exclusively on Amazon Prime. With lucrative NIL opportunities and over $1.5 million in extra revenue on the line, could this be the new blueprint for ACC schools seeking fresh capital? Streaming’s rise, NCAA media rights loopholes, and the relentless pursuit of competitive advantage are all on the table. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   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.

It's a brave new world in college sports because private capital has officially arrived. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. He's Kent and Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains. And on this episode of Locked on ACC, underrated transfers. The guys you're not talking about, a few of those. are in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Couple of them left the ACC to go elsewhere. How about this? Duke Basketball is going to be playing three really big non-conference games on Amazon Prime Video. I hope your streaming game is up because if you don't have all the various streaming services, pretty soon sports will leave you behind. But how about this? Now, Kenton, this is not directly an ACC story, at least not yet. but the time may come for the ACC to explore this.

You knew it would be the Big 12 to do this first, though, because this is kind of their M.O. with Brett Yormark as their commissioner. The Big 12 has just made college sports history by finalizing what is being referred to as a groundbreaking private capital agreement with Redbird Capital Partners. An agreement like this has never happened in college sports before.

So Redbird is going to, to inject at least $12.5 million into the league office to drive commercial development. They're also offering a one-time capital credit line of up to $30 million for each university. They can choose to opt in or not. Now, obviously, you opt in, you get $30 million in credit. You can play around in. You do have to pay that money back, though, at some point. So maybe not everyone will opt in.

I think the strategic partnership with Redbird is advantageous to the Big 12 because Redbird holds significant investments in Paramount Global, which is the parent company of CBS and Paramount Plus streaming and all that. So this alignment could give the Big 12 strategic leverage when their media rights deal is up, I think in 2031 with Fox and ESPN. So, you know, Kenton, we've been wondering for months who was going to be the first conference or the first team. to strike that deal with private equity, I think we all knew the Big 12 would be first, but here we are. Dono, remember when I said the fictitious company

that teams were going to get in bed with was red herring private equity? Yeah, you were close. Hmm, this is so interesting. You know, we're going to talk about Amazon Prime later, but one of the Amazon Prime's biggest shows right now, I was the boys. It's a show about superheroes. I've seen that. And the writer of that show said,

it's really hard when I'm trying to write a show that satirizes the real world, but the real world keeps getting so satirical. This is that moment. You and I warned, hey, there's going to be a moment where private equity gets involved. And everybody's going to say, yay, in the front. Because everybody does, when private equity first comes in, yay, it's great, it's wonderful. Hey, where's everything going? Hey, what's happening in my stuff? Hey, stop taking a shirt off my back.

What's going on? This is just, I wonder, you take out that $30 million line of credit. And I love that you said credit, Donald. I appreciate you being very intentional around the language. Because you know what credit implies? Not only that it has to be paid back, but what else happens with credit, Donno? If you take a dollar in credit, do you pay a dollar back in that? No, no, you've got it.

And supposedly, like, the interest rate would be a little bit better than what you and I have on our Discover cards. But I think it's somewhere a little less than 10%, which is not nothing. Like, I mean, it may not be like the 18 and a half percent that's on your credit card. But like, if it's 8, 9 percent, that's not nothing. That's not nothing. It's not nothing to universities that are already. There's a reason that you're taking out this private equity line. There's a reason nobody's like, oh, yeah, the Big Ten and the SEC are for sure next.

You know why? Because the cash is cashing. And then the words of Wu-Tang-Cash rules everything around me. Cream, get the money. Dollar-dollar bills, y'all. Cash is keen. You don't want to have to go into a line of credit because some of these schools, and this is not to be facetious or nasty these schools,

how the hell is Houston going to make up for $30 million if they opt? Little Manhattan, the little apple. What is Kansas State going to do? And I love the wildcats. Anybody knows me knows? I think the wildcats are like the identical, or not twin, but the cousin that looks a lot like you. I think that that's what they are to the Big 12

in terms of the NC state of the Big 12. I like, I can see that. I like them a lot. I like their fan base, good people, passionate people. If they were to opt in, not saying that they would, how would they pay that 30 million? Yeah, it's going to be tough. Really tough.

And Lord forbid, one of your schools that is prominent right now takes a hit. Texas Christian, already a small school, already not the biggest brand in the world. Sure, you're in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but I haven't heard of a grand, contingent of horn frogs fans and that's no disrespect to them. I'm sure there are plenty of horned fog fans out there. They're just not that big of a contingent where, you know, their support is going to get us over that 30 million. I don't know.

I just don't like anything about this, and I hope the ACC doesn't follow suit. Well, and that's what I wanted to ask you. Like, is this something, would you say it's inevitable for the ACC? Because, I mean, obviously the motivation for the Big 12 to do this is clear. They're doing whatever they can to try and shorten the gap between them and the SEC and the Big 10. And the Big 12 has also been a little bit behind the ACC as well. So they're trying to maybe bridge that gap with the ACC and close that gap with the SEC and the Big 10. So, you know, I mean, Ketton, I will say this.

I don't think going after private capital would ever happen with Jim Phillips. as commissioner that just doesn't seem like something he would spearhead for better or for worse, because, like, we've criticized Jim Phillips for not being very aggressive and not having much showmanship, but I would actually praise him for being a little more conservative than your mark on this matter. So I don't see the ACC doing this in the Jim Phillips era, but, I mean, none of us can answer how much longer Phillips is going to be commissioner. Is this another two years, another 20 years?

I don't think either of us can answer that question, but I don't think it's happening while Jimmy P is the commission. And I think that that's a good on Jim Phillips. I will call the thing is whether I like a guy or not, whether I think like, hey, you're doing a great job or not. Our job on this show is to call balls and strikes. Now, we can tell you, hey, that slider was nasty. Nobody could hit that thing.

Sure, we could do that. But it's also to call balls and strikes. We're going to say, hey, he painted the blacker. He was way off. And you've got a terrible up behind the place. the reality is Jim Phillips is not the type to make this type of deal. And if he does, it would to me be the ultimate death nail in his tenure. Because at that point, it's like you didn't get aggressive about anything but the thing that everybody is warning you, hey, this is not good.

Everybody who knows me knows I watch way too many comic book movies. And one thing that happened at the end of Dr. Strange is his soon-to-be adversary, Moreland, said, hey, the bill. always comes due. And the way people keep playing with private equity, we've seen it ruined almost everything in our lives. We've seen it. We talked about the red lobster thing.

Yeah. Yeah. I used to love red lobster. I can't find a location anymore. Who didn't love red lobster? Dono? That was good eating of my family. Birthdays, holidays, after the wedding, after the party. Any occasion. We were red lobster now.

Give me those cheddar baked biscuits with the apple. sauce for the little ones, right? That's what we did. But we're sitting here and we're sitting in this moment where you know, for your mark and all that he's done, I think he's rolled. He's taking some dice rolls and they've all

worked out for him extremely well. Well, except for that LED court they had for the big 12th tournament. Yes, I agree. I agree. The LED okay, so he went bad that time. But I think this is where he finally craps out. I think this is the moment where your mark craps out in a major

way because before that's it you didn't hit the point on the side of bet you know you'll hit tenfold little joe you're trying to hit that if you know you know but you didn't hit the side bet on the little court not working out this one he craps out this one don't touch that money it's burnt bread this one is the one it's over with because again i don't see a way that you feasibly stop some of these teams that know they have no way of paying it back from saying like hey we need the money to compete because if we don't take it The big brands in the conference are still going to take it. And when they take it, they know they can pay it back.

So now I got to take it to compete because I got to get my receivers to get open on their dbs. If they got an extra 30 million to buy DBs, then I need extra 30 million to my receivers. And the arms race goes on and on and on in perpetuity. So I think that this is a, you know, a death spiral, a debt spiral waiting to happen. I see what you did there. And yeah, and listen, again, this is the first deal of its confidence. I'm kind of hoping it's the last because we don't want to see the ACC go this route. But I want to take a look at this Redbird deal with the Big 12.

The pros and the cons examined. Plus, here's a deal that I don't think there's any downside for except maybe people might complain if they don't currently subscribe to Amazon Prime. But this deal that Duke just cut is really interesting. Like you want to look at ways at making new revenue. I think Duke is showing you the blueprint right now. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on locked on ACC. Workplace chaos.

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slash everydayer. And when you join the Everydayer club, you get ad-free versions of these episodes, exclusive Discord, chat access with hosts and other listeners like yourself where you could talk sports all day long. So many other great benefits, go to locked on podcast.com slash everydayer to become an everydayer club member today. Thank you for making Lockdown ACC your first listen. So if I look at Kenton, the pros and cons for this Big 12 deal with Redbird, I think the most important thing here for the Big 12, which they have a accomplished is no loss of equity. So why we call this a private capital deal and not a private equity deal is that Redbird is not taking any ownership stake in the Big 12. So they're investing,

but they're not taking a stake here, which was obviously important in that deal for Your Mark to cut. There are zero governance changes like Brett Yourmark is not, you know, having to appoint a board full of Redbird members and stuff. The structure doesn't change there, which is good. you get the financial flexibility that comes with that $12.5 million to the league office. Now, of course, you get that as we talked about the $30 million credit limit that they can opt in or opt out of, which is, you know, it's a potential reward that comes with great risk. So I don't know if that's either a pro or a con. I guess it can be a pro if you can pay it back. I mentioned the media rights leverage that Redbird can help them negotiate their next TV deal.

And also there's an exclusive alliance. So the deal includes a non-compete clause which prevents Redbird from partnering with any other Power 4 conference. So the Big 12 knows they have them locked up. But then Kenton, you take a look at the cons, right? We talked about the new debt that schools can be taking on if they opt in here. The conference office does have to pay an annual retainer fee to Redbird of $1.25 million. 12.5 million dollar league infusion is looked at as something, but it's not. It's not enough to bridge that gap from the SEC and the Big Ten.

So it's like it's kind of significant, not all that significant. And then something you were hinting at, Kenton, and I've seen people bantering about this today. So, you know, you offer this $30 million credit limit that schools can opt in or opt out of. You assume the ones who are for sure going to opt in. I mean, Texas Tech is you can count them in, right? You could probably count in BYU, probably count in Utah, probably count in TCU and a few others. But it's like anyone who doesn't feel like they can opt in, Kenton, what this is going to do is it's probably going to widen the gap. Like if your goal was to make your conference more competitive from top to bottom, if only a handful of schools can really afford to opt into this in the first place, then you're actually creating a wider competitive gap, not a narrower one.

But that's the thing, Donno. Nobody is going to stay on the opt-out side of this. One thing about me, being in the locker rooms for 17 years as a player and then covering it on the other side, one thing that I knew from the age of four that I still recognize now at the age of 30, nobody's going to let themselves fall behind. They're just not. They're just not. Again, going back to Amazon Prime and the boys, the way that people get all their superpowers, it's a thing.

It's a serum that they have there called Compound V, right? Now, Compound V is unstable. It hurts some people. Some people come out of it, superheroes. Some people, boom, they get scratched off the census. You understand? Such a great analogy. That type of deal, right?

This money is the same thing. if you had, if you injected a bunch of players with this, and one team said, wait a minute, their players, that kid just lifted my entire defensive line with one arm. Get me whatever he's on. They're not going to have the concern for, can my players take it? Now, I know that's an extreme example,

but think of that financially. Don't think of it in terms of like actual players hurting the harmony. Think of it financially. Who's going to watch while they say, say, hey, man, come on to UCF. We got $1.5 million for you to be our starting nickel. You know, hey, no nickel in America is getting paid like this, okay? And then you're sitting there at Baylor saying, wait a damn minute.

That's our nickel. He's our guy. I think I'm going to pay the $1.5 to keep him. Well, well, it's $1.5 and $1.5. Somebody's got to edge it out. Oh, wait, one team took the extra $30. One team didn't. Well, no, I'm going to take the extra $30.

Now, we both took the extra $30. Maybe one of us can't pay it back, but it does not matter because today I've solved today's problem of I have a nickel and you don't. Ha, ha, ha, ha. In the words of little rascals, I got a nickel. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. That's what's going to happen. Right? Man, you're on fire today.

I mean, it's the truth, Dono. You've really got to look at this thing from the broader perspective of, yes, it is the potential of stratification. But you know football coaches and football players like. I know football coaches and football players. These guys are not going to say, hey, we just can't afford to keep up. So we're going to let these teams that are in our conference. Texas Tech is already so much better than everybody else. They lost their starting quarterback.

Their second stream quarterbacks are recovering from an ACL. And they're still going to be favored to win the conference. They're going to be bringing fans out of the stands to play quarterback. And they're still, they have so much else that it's not even going to match. Just learn how to hand it off, kid. And watch this. Watch the Dar River effect. You don't think BYU going to say the crumble cookie money isn't enough.

We need another 30. Oh, yeah. And then who's behind BYU? You don't think they're going to say, well, hey, I need another 30. Well, you know, Utah has already struck their own private capital deal, like just school-wide. So they're already dabbling in this. And I'm sure, like, you know, BYU is going to get in on that. I mean, obviously they got the great booster money from crumble cookies,

but I'm sure they're going to find other ways to inject capital. You can either not take the 30 million And not only will you get left behind But your fan base is going to abandon you Because who wants to root for Not only a loser, but a loser You feel like ain't trying Do you know how many kids I grew up with

That are Patriots fans That are, I even have one of my cousins Is a Packers fan From the trick for crying out loud Oh yeah, you can't do that You know what he said? I want to root out. four winner. The Lions aren't trying.

What do you think happens to these teams in their fan bases when they say, I don't want to opt in for the 30 because it's not fiscally responsible? What does the fan base say when you go four and eight after doing that? You should have taken the 30 mil is what they're going to say. Exactly. And now you're a loser that's also not trying. That's when people

abandoned shit. Nobody would not nobody, but most people don't abandon a loser. Everybody abanded a loser that they think is okay and continue with loser. Well, when we come back, I think this is more responsible money that Duke is going to be earning big time non-conference games on Amazon Prime. And I know, listen, a lot of fans don't like this for obvious reasons, but we'll tell you why for Duke. This seems like a real bonus.

You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of LockdowneACC. Thank you so much for making Lockdown ACC your first listen. For your next listen, check out our other shows. Kenton Gibbs and Grayson Boone do an incredible job covering all things NC State on Locked on Wolfpack. I cover all things Miami on Locked on Cains. Shout out to JJ Jackson on Locked on Blue Devils. He's got something to talk about this week.

So I don't know if this was rumored. I found out about it when this was announced today, Kenton, that Duke is entering a first of its kind enterprise partnership per ESPN.com with Amazon, that also includes the retail giant and streaming service televising three marquee men's college basketball games next season. So that's only part of it. The other part of it, Kenton, is NIL deals available for their athletes now with Amazon Prime, which is kind of a big deal. I think we all use it. We all use Amazon at some point in our lives.

But that deal also includes three really big non-conference basketball games for the Blue Devils. They're going to face Yukon. in Las Vegas on November 25th, which is obviously a huge game. They're going to face reigning champion Michigan at Madison Square Garden, December 21st. And they're going to face Gonzaga, February 20th in Detroit. And those games will all be broadcast on Amazon Prime. And I always kind of chuckle, Kenton, because whenever these stories about games streaming come up,

I see like a lot of like elderly folks, like really upset. It's like, wait, I can't get that with my rabbit ears. Like, why is the game not on NBC or CBS? Like, I got to tell you, I know the streaming thing was like a real novelty for a while. At this point, like, I have a hard time telling the difference on like what's streaming versus what's not. Because I use streaming services to get all my channels to begin with. And I am an Amazon Prime subscriber. So maybe this is a bad thing that streaming has become so normalized.

because I remember, you know, three or four years ago, when the NFL playoffs started to put games exclusively on Peacock. And I was like really upset. Like, what is this not? Like now, I mean, it's just so normal. You're going to have some games on Netflix. You're going to have Thursday night football on Prime video. It's like whether it's a good or a bad thing, this is normalized now. But here's the thing for Duke.

Not only do they have big NIL opportunities now through Amazon Prime, which is a big deal. but Duke is also going to be getting north of a half a mill per game an extra revenue from Amazon to have these games. So if you're looking at how do you make additional revenue outside of the ACC's TV deal with ESPN, deals like this are how you do it? Like you're talking an extra one and a half million just for playing basketball like you normally would but on a different platform. I think that's a big deal. It's absolutely a big deal. And Dono, here's the thing. You talk about elderly people complaining.

Technically, me and you are in the same generation, Dono. You're the oldest of the millennials. I'm the youngest of the millennials, right? Gen Z is now moving into their time to be independent and buy stuff and have credit cards and all that good stuff. Right? The boomers, the way time works, it's time. Silent generation, even older, it's time. You know, it's that time where you go to more slow singing and flower bringing events

than birthday parties. It's that time. It's that time, right? So they can complain. They can say, oh, this is terrible. This is so odd. But let's harken it back to their generation and their parents say, what's all this TV nonsense? Just turn on the radio like we all did.

I would imagine, Kenton, when cable became a thing. I grew up with cable. So cable was already. there when I was a kid, but I would imagine like for the people a little older than me, the parents were like, wait, I can't get this on one of the four networks that come through my TV. What is this garbage?

Exactly. It's the exact same thing. So it's the way of the future. It's the way of the world. And yes, yes, objectively speaking, streaming services are just cable repackaged. Yes. Yeah, sure. It is. Nobody can deny that, right? You know what? I actually miss cable. Cable was so easy.

It was subscribed to one thing. And now I have to send like eight different companies a monthly payment. Not only do you got to send eight different companies monthly payment, but you know what just happened to me, Dono? One of my cards got shut down. You know what happened because that one card got shut down? I had to go to eight different places and reenter the new card information. Yeah, that's the worst. As opposed to cable, I'm just like, oh, hey, Comcast, here you go.

Oh, hey, DirecTV, here you go. Take the information. One place. You know, if a data breach happens at that one place, I'm in trouble. Now I got to worry about eight different places. Oh, God, don't let HBO Max get got. Don't let Disney Plus get got. Don't let Amazon get got.

Don't let Hulu get got. Don't let none of these folks get got or I'm got. But I digress. I digress. Enough of me being the old guy today. The reality is that's the new way of the world. And Duke is moving on the cutting edge of things, right? And this isn't me giving Duke props just because I'm like some super Duke fan.

If they did something terrible, I'd say it. Right? I'd say, hey, this is a bad idea. This doesn't make sense. They're not really. But this here, this is what we like to call a free lunch. Okay. They're going out, branching out, doing their own thing here, and making a cool 1.5 to do it.

I think that that's easy. That's easy free eats. That, you know, if every team could do it, they would do it. However, Duke is the only team that has that type of cachet for the most part, because Duke is the empire, right? When we watch Star Wars, Darth Vader and them, they come through, and, you know, the Death Star is the new five-star player that they got and all that good stuff.

That's who Duke is. Everybody watches them to say, oh, my God, I hope they lose this game. But guess what? Your eyes are still glued to the TV. They still get paid. Shire still go sit there with that well-cofted head of hair, saying, oh, thank you for watching us. You wanted to see us lose.

Too bad it didn't happen. So, you know, I think that this deal with prime is a great thing for Duke. And again, people are just changing. Their viewing habits. Yeah. I think like the next thing I want to, I want to research on this is like, how is this actually possible? And is it possible, which I don't think it would be for football? Because I guess this is like a loophole in, you know, the TV deal that the ACC has in the grant of rights with ESPN, that you're able to do some individual.

basketball games on a completely different platform. Because if this was on Hulu or Disney Plus, which is owned by the same company, Z-SPN, I would understand that a little bit more. So I need to do more research on how Amazon is able to do this for an ACC member. Obviously, they're non-conference games. But still, even though they're non-conference, I don't think, you know, NC State versus Tennessee could suddenly just go to Amazon Prime, right? Like, I don't think it works the same way in football.

So yeah, not only that, but both of those teams that you mentioned are in fact, you know, ESP and control teams, ACC and SEC. So that's something to keep in mind there. So you're right. There is a lot of legalities and legalese around this that's pretty interesting. But I'd be interesting to see how this all shakes out. Yeah. Hold on. I'm asking AI.

Oh, no, hold on. Well, I'm going to tell you something, Dono. That's another thing that the old folks are going to complain about. First they go, the old folks are not. If I was five years younger, I'd have the answer already. The old folks in our comments are going to scream at us already talking about, what do you mean our parents were talking about the radio as opposed to TV? We're not that old.

Yes, you are. You are that old. It's okay. It's all right. All right. You know what oncology means at a very high level. You're old. All right?

You know, okay? But in all seriousness, this is, you know, this is a thing where it'd be very interesting to see if other teams try to get involved with this. because Dono, who do you think has the cachet to pull something like this off the sides of do? Could the Tar Hills possibly do it? As much as I don't like them, I got to admit, big national brand. I think that they could do it. Florida State maybe perhaps, who knows? Not in basketball side, but in football.

And that's what I'm saying. On the basketball side, maybe not, but football side, football is king in America anyway. Is this a thing where it's like, hey, we're not going to play Bama anymore, but you know what we are going to do? Let's go play Michigan. Hey, Michigan, y'all are Fox. We're ESPN. Let's go to prime. Let's do it for the world. Put on the show.

Both of us split the proceeds down the middle or down the third. How about it? By the way, it only took me eight minutes because I'm old to get the answer from AI, but I have it. So here's why Duke playing these three games on Amazon does not violate the ACC's grant of rights. There are three factors. The first factor is neutral site designations. The ACC grant of rights only covers home games. played on a member schools campus.

Okay, so that's one. Number two, promoters and buy games, BUI. In college basketball, the entity that organizes and hosts a neutral site event holds the media rights. Number three, focus on NIL and retail rather than pure media rights. So they say to safely circumvent conference media restrictions, the deal is heavily framed around name, image, and likeness, and retail brand partnerships, rather than a traditional broadcast rights purchase. So all I will say is bravo to the people who organize this deal because it sounds like they did a great job crossing all their eyes,

crossing their teas and dotting their eyes and making sure they find a way to do this without violating anything. Remember when I said a long time ago that the conferences and the NCAA are doing themselves a disservice by not just making these young men student workers instead of student athletes. Caboom. Yeah, kabum.

If you would have just said, hey, we're paying you to play. We're paying you to play. I said it is what it is. We wouldn't have to go through all this nonsense of, well, we're paying for name, image, and likeness, and we're not paying for,

and you know, the payment goes directly to the players as part of their NIL deal, because now your NIL payments are coming from Amazon. Look at that. Would you look at that? ESPN, if you're sitting up there salty, you're bottomed on yourself. NCAA, if you're sitting up there salty, you're bought it on yourself. ACC, Jim Phillips and company, if you're sitting up there salty, you're damn sure. Barton on yourself.

Yeah, amen to that. Great stuff, as always by Kenton. Gives, follow him on X at TGIF underscore Kenton. Check him out on Lockdown Wolfpack. Check me out on Locked on Cains and at Alex Dono. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. By the way, we will get into underrated transfers. I know we didn't get into that today because we got so caught up in Amazon Prime, private capital.

We'll get into that tomorrow on Lockdown ACCC. We are part of the number one Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.