Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BOMBSHELL: Clemson Tigers POISED for National Championship Run | Can Dabo SILENCE the Doubters?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Clemson Tigers should be considered favorites to win the national championship this year. Overreaction? You are Locked-on ACCC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-On Podcast Network, your team every day. Because we haven't been thinking big enough. We've talked about Clemson why they're favored to win the ACC. We hadn't expanded that conversation. Thank you so much to the everydayers for making Locked on ACC.

Starting point is 00:00:35 your first listen and your first watch. We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. He is Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I'm Alex Dono from Lockdown Canes. Today's episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money.

Starting point is 00:00:53 Use code Lockedon College at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. It's a loaded episode of Lockdown ACC. the ACC spring meetings start today. What's number one on the agenda? It's a lot different than the agenda from last year. We'll tell you why. Take a look at the way too early post-spring rankings in college football where the ACC sits in that.

Starting point is 00:01:18 But first and foremost, KG, so CBS Sports, they published their own batch of overreactions for ACC football coming out of spring practices. Am I overreacting to say? that the Clemson Tigers, and let me give you a stat to back this up, all right? Tied for the most returning starters in the entire country with 16. Won the ACC last year. They fell short against Texas in the college football playoff, but they reinforced their defense, bringing in Tom Allen is the new DC.

Starting point is 00:01:52 Davos-Sweeney brought in a handful of transfers. What? And Cade Clubnik is back and a ton of offensive and defensive talent are back. I think Clemson can go all the way this year. that is not inaccurate at all. To think that they can go all the way this year, I think is going to be one of the more bland vanilla takes when everybody starts to actually get serious about next season

Starting point is 00:02:16 is going to be one of the most bland takes that there is. I have talked about, hey, I was wrong about Kay Klutnik. He has developed in a way that is flatly amazing coming down the stretch of last season. You combine that with a receiver room that is immensely talented and only getting older, only getting more experience, only going to know the playbook better. I remember the freshman, I believe it was Westcoe. They said, oh, yeah, he's supremely talented.

Starting point is 00:02:42 But once he learns the playbook, I'm like, wait, what do y'all mean once he learns the playbook? Alignment and assignment are the first two things that you need to get you on the field. Do you know, I play football for NC State at the ACC level. Do you know how good you have to be to skip those kids? two fundamentals knowing alignment and assignment? Do you know how talented you have to be where it's like, you know what? You may not know the two fundamentals, but damn it,

Starting point is 00:03:11 we'll throw them out there anyway. So you throw guys like that in, and you're saying they get a year older. You throw in one of the most coveted D.Cs in all of America in terms of Tom Allen with a defensive line that is returning a ton of talent, multiple guys who are projected to be at worst mid first round picks. and you think that this team is not primed to, at minimum, I'll tell you this much.

Starting point is 00:03:39 This team is so good, if they went to the playoff and lost first round, people would look at them and say that's a disappointing season. Even though for even if you keep it strictly to the power four only, even amongst the power of four, 95% of teams would take that. There's a vast majority of teams. If you say,

Starting point is 00:03:58 I guarantee you, you will go to the playoff, you'll just losing the first round. how you feel about it. Clemson is one of the few teams that is so good going in the next season. They would gladly say, no deal. Close the briefcase. Send it back. So it's not an overreaction. It's like a lukewarm reaction. And Clemson, their odds on fanduel.com to win the national title are eighth in the country, which is, I mean, you're telling me there's a chance. That's not bad. So in terms of betting odds, Texas and Ohio State are tied at the top plus 600. Penn State. plus 700, Georgia plus 750, Oregon plus 900, Notre Dame plus 1,200, Bama at plus 1,400. So actually you would say Clemson is tied for 7th because they have the same odds as Alabama

Starting point is 00:04:44 at plus 1,400. So they're certainly in that conversation. I'm looking over, Kent and some other what CBS considered to be like quote unquote over reactions coming out of spring ball. And some of them, it's like, we got to come up with something, like not really that bold. Others, though, interest me. How do you like this for the Duke Blue Devils? The best team in the state is flying under the radar. Talking about Duke as the best team in North Carolina, better than your Wolfpack, better than Jordan Hudson. I mean, Bill Belichick's

Starting point is 00:05:20 tar heels. Duke Blue Devils to be the best team in the state this year. And they, you know, what did they win nine games last year? I don't think that that's it. And, Again, this is another one. Why is this a hot take? Why is this a hot take? Wake Forest, brand new coach. They have a lot going on over there in terms of how their transfer rules in terms of students who can transfer in, period, have handicapped them in terms of the portal, because there's never any rules for who's leaving. There's only restrictions on who can come in.

Starting point is 00:05:52 So you're starting to fight with one hand tied behind your back in Winston-Salem. UNC, like you said, the fighting Jordan Hudson's have got a catastrophe on their. hands and we haven't even played a snapple football yet. And at NC State, I mean, as much as you would like to say, you're returning C.J. Bailey, you're returning, you're leading rush, you're returning all of this talent offensively. Offense is only 50% of the game, 33 if you include special teams. So you're looking at this thing and saying there was a mass exodus out of NC State's defensive backroom at the 11th hour in the winter portal. UNC, every player that thinks they're worth a darn has gotten up out of there.

Starting point is 00:06:34 And again, you're having a coach that's not just a first-time coach at your school, first-time coach in college. Never coached a lick of college football. Not as an assistant, not as a G8, not as a nothing. I don't think that's a hot take at all. These are only hot takes if you haven't been paying attention as far as these first two. Right. Well, their hot take or their overreaction for North Carolina, I thought was really weak.

Starting point is 00:06:58 It's like, this doesn't mean anything. They say their overreactions, Bill Belichick does seem to have a type. No, we're not talking about that. This is a football type, they say. And they talk about how 37 players in the transfer portal who committed to UNC, 15 of them are 6 foot 4 or taller, and 9 of them are at least 300 pounds. So that's like that. That's their overreactions.

Starting point is 00:07:24 Bill Belichick likes big young men to play on his football. Like that, let me give you an overreaction on Belichick, Kent. and I don't know, you might tell me this is not an overreaction, but my overreaction is despite the fact that North Carolina has one of the easier schedules in the ACC this year. And despite the fact that they hired the most decorated NFL head coach of all time, I don't think that team's going to be bowl eligible this year. I think they're going to win five games or fewer.

Starting point is 00:07:53 That's my overreaction. That's an overreaction right there. That's good ball. And why the heck not? because it seems like since Bill Belichick took the job, he's more concerned with trying to sell his book and put out all the fires surrounding his girlfriend. And he was at a beauty pageant.

Starting point is 00:08:11 Like she was, she, she was the second runner up in the Miss Maine beauty pageant and he was in it. That might have even been a fake store. I don't know if that was like the onion or something, but I saw something about that. And how can you focus on football if you're there in UNC? We talked about that last week. You know, they won six games last year.

Starting point is 00:08:29 I don't think they'll win five this year. I keep asking, and nobody seems to have an answer for me. The Patriot Way has not been successfully replicated anywhere. Not a single one of Bill Belichick's disciples has successfully duplicated. And by successfully duplicated, I don't mean won a Super Bowl. Here's a very interesting fact about all of his protegees and whatnot, and everybody that's from his direct coaching tree. they have the worst record of any head coach coaching tree in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:09:06 And you're telling me that you're going to replicate that at a lower level and it's just going to work out when the whole thing about the Patriot Way was everybody's going to come here and be a pro. We're going to get discounts because people know they can come here and win. To a university that has never done a high volume win, that is, that is an overall. a reaction. That's no reaction. Saying, hey, people like big football players. I would think that that's the norm.

Starting point is 00:09:36 I would think a lot of people, they like the belt loops on their players to be pretty far apart in the trenches. They don't, what does that mean? I don't, in other news, Dono and Kenton, both like air. Coincidence, I think not. I love air more than the average human, preferably oxygen, if I'm going to be very specific. civic on the type that I enjoy. There you go. You know, so it's a overreaction to say,

Starting point is 00:10:04 but they bought us together a locked on ACC because we share a bond over air. Yeah, I mean, and water. We also enjoy H2O and various. Well, love it. Overreactions coming back on Miami, Florida State, and what ESPN's way too early rankings say about the ACC, you want to keep it locked right here.

Starting point is 00:10:26 By the way, Kent, Do you have to change your smoke detector battery or something? Like what is that that's beeping? That's my stove. That's my stole. There's something going off there. I thought I turned it off. It just,

Starting point is 00:10:37 it clicked back on. Don't worry about it. The beeping will be gone when y'all come back, folks. The beeping will be gone. Stay tuned right here on Lockdown ACCC. Do you ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, entertainment,

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Starting point is 00:12:02 Make sure for your next listen, you check out our other shows. Kent and Gibbs and Grace and Boone hosts Locked on Wolfpack. They do a fantastic job. I host Locked on Cain's taking you everything. Talking everything, Miami. We're available free wherever you get your podcast and we're available free on YouTube. So how about this one, Kent? This is another one of the CBS sports overreactions.

Starting point is 00:12:22 They say the Seminoles, the Florida State Seminals, have a path back to ACC title contention. They say wholesale changes to the depth chart and coaching staff have taken Mike Norvell back to a rebuilding status for the second time in Tallahassee, but the success of 2023 and the lessons learned from 2024 should make the climb a bit easier as he looks to guide Florida state back to ACC title contention. So, I mean, how, I mean, obviously we, Mike Norvell addressed a lot of stuff on both sides of the football, new offensive coordinator, new defensive coordinator. In fact, he seems to be giving an unprecedented amount of offensive control to Gus Malzahn

Starting point is 00:13:05 to run his offense because Norville has been historically a play caller. Go out and you grab Thomas Costellanos from Boston College. They bring in other talented players of top 10, top eight transfer portal class. But, I mean, how quickly can you turn two and 10 into, you know, enough wins, probably nine at least to contend for an ACC championship. Can that happen in one year? No, it cannot happen in one year. Two to three, yes. After this year, I think that they could be if they build in the right way and they build for a long-term sustainable plan, they can be. My problem is it feels like there's a shock to the system without long-term infrastructural planning going on there. Don't get me wrong. Yes, you kind of need to combine the two. You need to kind of combine, yes, this. is supposed to work long term with, we're taking a big swing right now, right? Look at how Ohio State did it last year.

Starting point is 00:14:00 They built in a way where everybody talks about $20 million roster. A vast majority of that $20 million was spent on guys that were already there. So they built in a way that it's like, hey, we want the guys who are here to stay here and to be good here. But going forward right now, we need to take a big swing for guys who are going to make us, put us over that edge, give us the ability to win those big games and whatnot. And so Florida State is at that moment where they're like, all right, we've done all of the rebuilding. We've done all of the stripping down to the studs.

Starting point is 00:14:35 But after you're done stripping it down to the studs, you've got to build back up or else you're just stuck with a foundation and a bunch of wood. No, you've got to put a house around that thing, and that's not done overnight. So I think they're two years away. I don't think they're back in ACC championship contention this year. But next year, if they play their cards right, they can do that. How about this for an overreaction? And I know Seminole fans will be all over my comments. In one year's time, Dion Sanders will be head coach of the Florida State Seminoles.

Starting point is 00:15:06 Ooh, now, now, now that's an overreaction. That's CBS, call up Alex Donald. Y'all hear the man, these are real overreactions. This is real life overreaction, okay? I will say this. It does make a lot of sense from a lot of angles. It does make a lot of sense from a lot of angles. So I could definitely see it happening.

Starting point is 00:15:33 You know, Dion's proven himself to be a hell of five recruiter. And at the end of the day, with Florida State's resources, it's tough to argue, oh, Dion's going to have a tough time, you know, winning there. It would be a really, really tough ask. When you remember, the Colorado Buffalo's, had to sell fish plates or whatnot, had to sell buffalo nuggets to get the money for his contract, which Florida State would not have a problem. Right.

Starting point is 00:16:01 Well, I mean, think about it. I mean, played at Florida State, like you mentioned, he's got great recruiting chops, and he's done what he's done in recruiting at Jackson State and at Colorado. Like, you put that man, as a Miami guy, I would not want to have Dion Sanders recruiting all of the same players that I'm recruiting. He's from Florida, Fort Myers, played in Florida State. Kids raised in Texas. He's got all the connections to the major, like, it's going to, you're going to have a real tough time.

Starting point is 00:16:36 And again, what coach brings more name recognition? What coach? None. What coach can you say, if you say this coach's name, as many people from as many generations, from granny on down, He said, oh, yeah, I remember him. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I know who that guy is.

Starting point is 00:16:53 So, see, this is why Lockhart pays us to Big Bucks because these are the types of overreactions that we should be getting. Not college coach likes big players. Yes. Yeah. They saw Willie Lank and balling out at 5'10 and said, oh, you and see only wants 510 linemen from now on. That's not how this works.

Starting point is 00:17:17 That's not how to do. He was one-on-one. ladies and gentlemen. Now, I thought their overreaction, quote, I'm doing air quotes for Miami was also pretty weak. So this is what they have for Miami. No ACC team will be better in the trenches. That's an overreaction?

Starting point is 00:17:34 You got former offensive linemen is the head coach who tirelessly recruits the O line. No, you're overreaction. No ACC team is going to be better in the trenches. A former offensive line coach that has two guys that are currently being mocked as going anywhere from like top five to back of the first round in terms of Ruben Hurricane Bain and Maui Noah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:17:59 What are we? You know, Dono, I, while we're doing all of these overreactions, I really and truly do wish for these people who wrote this that I hope that they don't overreact to random facts about their life in this same way. really and truly know because this is of course they're going to be good in the trenches but what are we looking at here what are we talking about a former offensive lineman who's a former offensive line coach who has built and cut it teeth on i want big backs i want physical running i want down here that's who i want to be yeah of course they're going to be good in the trenches this is just oh what's next

Starting point is 00:18:42 uh Georgia tech is going to be in a major metropolitan area playing football next year Well, let me give you a couple just to help them out here. I'll give you a good and a bad, a positive and a negative overreaction. If you wanted to go positive overreaction, you could say, hey, Carson Beck is going to throw for over 4,000 yards, and he's going to follow in Cam Ward's footsteps to become a number one overall pick. Because guess what? A year ago, Kenton, a year ago at this time, if you were to pull 100 NFL general

Starting point is 00:19:15 managers and say, hey, who's more likely to be the number one overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft? Cam Ward or Carson Beck? Probably, I don't know, 75 or more, would have said, more would have said Carson Beck would be more likely, right? So, I mean, absolutely. And that's a bit of a down to say, oh, Miami's now going to be transfer a quarterback factory and they're going to pump out double, uh, back to back number one picks like Lincoln Riley back in day. That's an overreaction. That's what I like. Let me give you, let me give you a negative one, okay? And like, I haven't, I haven't heard, I haven't heard the clip yet, but I was told today that Danny Cannell, who doesn't exactly love Miami, a former Florida state.

Starting point is 00:20:02 I'm a quarterback from South Florida. I don't think Miami offered him. So he's been bitter to this day. I heard he said on the cover three podcasts that Miami won't be bowl eligible this year, that they're going to lose, they're going to lose more than said. that that's an overreaction. And that's an overreaction. Shout out to Danny. And you know what? That's why I like Danny Connell because whether or not he's right or wrong,

Starting point is 00:20:23 at least he takes the big swing. At least he takes the big swing. I think that he's, you know, he's a guy that puts out some big opinions, oftentimes wrong. But you know what? At least it's a big opinion, not this tip torn around. You're missing the calling of this year challenge. But I will say, I can see a world where the five and seven thing happened.

Starting point is 00:20:44 before I see a world where Carson Beck goes number one overall. I think that this draft is too talented. I think this draft is too talented. Only because this draft is too talented, I do not see a world where Carson Beck works his way up to number one with his injury history and with his physical limitations. It's not even about like, hey, who is he as a human being and all? I'm sure he's a fine enough young man, but not.

Starting point is 00:21:07 But just physically, when you think about number one overall picks, they have to have something where you're like, that kid's a freakazoid because of this. I don't think he has that. Now, I want to get into a couple things here on, so ESPN released their post-spring practice way too early top 25, right? I think we talked about their pre-spring one a couple months back, all right? Now, here's where they have ACC teams ranked. They've got Clemson at number two.

Starting point is 00:21:34 There's a lot to unpack with that. They have SMU at number 15. and I think the only other one that they have in there is, oh, no, two more at least. They have Miami at 21, Louisville at 22, and that's it for the ACC. But how about this one? And, you know, Kenton, this falls into the overreaction thing.

Starting point is 00:21:57 Let's do it. Number one in the country. I thought their number one would be, oh, maybe Ohio State to repeat. Because they still have Jeremiah Smith, after all, who would probably be the best receiver in the NFL if you're in the NFL right now. their number one in the country are the Penn State Nittany Lions. Drew Aller and company.

Starting point is 00:22:16 Why do we do this every year? Why do we keep playing this game? Drew Aller is the if man. He's the Justin Herbert of college football where everybody's like, oh, if this happened and if this happened, he'd be great. Oh, if if we're fifth, Donald and I would both be drunk. But here we are, Stone Cold Sover on this show right now. I truly don't understand it.

Starting point is 00:22:38 And don't get me wrong. I get it. Two backs that are like extremely good. A defense that is deep. Hey, those boys roll deep defensively. I absolutely understand. I get it. I look at that the same way I look at the championship odds,

Starting point is 00:22:54 which I would have loved to dig into a little bit more, but we'll do that because we got plenty of time for the season starts. I don't understand how all these teams with unproven quarterbacks or quarterbacks that we have seen be mid, quarterbacks that we have seen, oh, the lights are too bright. all of a sudden those guys are good. For reference, Kay Klubnick played against a Texas second.

Starting point is 00:23:16 Do you know how many touchdowns in Texas secondary allowed last year before playing clubs? I don't know. All season. Give a guess. I don't know, 15? Four. They're starting secondary.

Starting point is 00:23:31 They're starting secondary. As I was told it, their starting secondary allegedly only allowed four touchdowns to eat through three against them. And the three, I'm not saying four in total. I'm saying four going into that game. So you have four going into that game and he threw three against them.

Starting point is 00:23:47 And we're sitting up here saying, oh, man, Drew Aller's still a guy. He's still a guy. Stop it. Stop it. Knock it off, man. Knock it off. There's not a world where you can convince me that Drew Aller, who I told everybody, hey, Riley Lender's going out play him.

Starting point is 00:24:05 By the way, Riley Lennar win the draft. Where did Riley Lennar going to draft? What was it, fifth, six, six? round something like that. Yeah, late round. Yeah. Okay. And now I'm being told, well, Drew Aller would have been number one if you would

Starting point is 00:24:17 have came out this year. So why didn't he? Why didn't he? If you're going to be the number one overall pick, yeah, let me stay in school another year. Yeah, let me stay in school another year. We all know you go to college to get a good job. You get a good job to make the money.

Starting point is 00:24:32 Now, what if you had the opportunity to make exponentially more money and get the best job there is? Because this is number one overall pick quarterback. Guess what that team is now saying. We have to build around you. We have to invest in you. Unless something catastrophic happens, we have to put at least three to four years of trying to build around you into this thing.

Starting point is 00:24:53 If you are a decently smart franchise. It's just how it works. So why did he come back? Oh, because he knew. He knew. He knows. Again, more power to the kid, but I don't see how that team is ranked above him.

Starting point is 00:25:07 Now, they have, it's hard to take their ranking seriously with Penn State at number one, but they have Clemson at number two, which is a lot of respect. And then I saw Josh Pate from 24-7 sports and CBS sports. You know, different, he's not the one who wrote this list. This was the ESPN way too early. But Josh Pate actually said if he had to put out a top 20 right now, he's got Clemson at number one. So, again, like that's not an overreaction to say that Clemson could. be a national championship.

Starting point is 00:25:38 It's not like Dabo hasn't won it before. Exactly. Josh Pate knows ball. He knows ball. You got a team that has won it before. A quarterback that's shown to rise in the big moment. Outside of the Georgia game, which as much as we want to talk about that as a, a, like, oh, this was a clearly K.

Starting point is 00:25:58 Klupnik doesn't have a moment. Let's really put that in perspective. Early season, neutral sight in Atlanta. Interesting there. Very, very, and neutral is doing a lot of lifting there. But neutral site game, non-conference, and it does not have any serious effect on whether or not you make the playoff.

Starting point is 00:26:24 Because, again, you know if you win your conference, you're virtually guaranteed to be in. That game, as poorly as he played, was not the big game. It was a big game. Don't get me wrong. Top 10 matchup, all that good stuff, sure. That was not the only. only big game that he played. Look at all the rest of them. Look at the ACC Championship this year.

Starting point is 00:26:42 Look at the playoff game that he played against Texas this year. That or last year, rather, those are the things that you look at and say, who is he in these big games? Look at him for Drale. You could say, oh, yeah, he played great against Oregon. He made a really, that one really nice pass as he was being tackled against Oregon. Sure, we can make that argument. But let's look at all the other big games. What do against Ohio State? What he did? What he doing the playoffs? Did anybody see him play spectacular ball?

Starting point is 00:27:12 They were dominating. Every possible interception. Every possible, and there were a couple that were dropped, dropped interceptions, and he still threw every possible eye. And that's my point. Penn State was dominating teams in spite of him, not because of him. They were dominating teams just like, hey, hey, Drew, you don't need to do nothing special, despite the fact that you had a first round tight end.

Starting point is 00:27:33 And two, running backs that, again, I think the worst of the two is probably going third, fourth round in a league where Aston Genti just became the sixth highest paid running back in the league or top 10 highest paid by being drafted where he was drafted. So again, you're, you can't convince me about Durala. You just can't do it. Well, the ACC spring meetings kicking off today in Amelia Island in Florida, what's going to be top of the agenda?

Starting point is 00:27:59 You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet unlocked on ACC. You know, Kenton, I was, I was reminiscing. through headlines from the ACC spring meetings from a year ago and the only thing anybody was talking about and the meetings were super awkward because, you know,

Starting point is 00:28:17 legally there was only so much that they could say publicly about the lawsuits, right? A year ago at this time, I mean, a couple months ago, Florida State and Clemson were suing the ACC. The ACC was suing them back. Neither of us like the settlement, but those

Starting point is 00:28:33 are settled now. So we put that behind us. There's more harmony this year. but what would you put at the top of the agenda? What do you think it's going to be the big buzz topics at the spring meetings this year? Well, I think that this year, you just talk about innovation and how you're trying to drum up revenue and viewership.

Starting point is 00:28:53 And again, Jim Phillips, we're giving you the idea, turn the last week of the season, going into Army Navy, ACC tournament week. You know, you cut out a game and put it at the end. But they're going to talk about innovation. to try to keep everybody happy.

Starting point is 00:29:09 I think that's what it's going to be. Because we know Florida State, Clemson, they're gone. There's nothing you can do about that, right? So at this point, I mean, you don't even really try to say, hey, how do we appease them? At this point, if I was the ACC, my goal would be keeping the next big dogs up in line. So the Miami's of the world, the dirty foot clubs, I'm sorry, the UNCs of the world, and all that type of stuff.

Starting point is 00:29:32 You keep them happy and say, hey, here's what I'm going to give you. Here's what we're going to do. here's how we're going to make this thing work out in an equitable way. And here's what we're, you know, looking at potentially doing even with the absence of certain teams. You don't have to call those teams out by name. They know who they are and rock out from there. Yeah. I think another big topic, and I don't really know what they can actually do about this because, again, the ACC doesn't have much leverage here.

Starting point is 00:29:59 But if I were, you know, a conference, athletic director, university chancellor, president. I'm going to want to know, like, hey, is this proposed new playoff deal? Is this set in stone that it's going to be 16 teams, but we only get two auto bids and the SEC and the big 10 get four apiece? Like, is there any more room for negotiation here? And Charlie Baker, the NCAA president, is actually scheduled to be on hand. And I know that that's going to be a big time question for him as well. So, I mean, I would love to know. But again, at the end of the day, Kent, and I think what's being reported is probably pretty similar to what we're going to get. I think we're going to get 16, which, you know, I mean, between 14 and 16, it's splitting hairs,

Starting point is 00:30:44 in my opinion. I think the sticking point are the auto bids that you are locked in with two auto bids. Is there any way to, any way to bring that to the negotiating table? Absolutely. I mean, that's, to me, the argument should be, well, can we do everybody gets three and then kind of go from there? Because, I mean, it's not. even an argument about, oh, who deserves to be there who doesn't. It's simply an argument for fairness. If we talk about every, every league getting, excuse me, if we talk about every league

Starting point is 00:31:15 getting three, last year that would have meant that Clemson was in, SMU was in, and guess who else gets in, down? You're Miami Hurricanes. Miami. Third team in. So, you know, it'd be a very worthwhile argument to say, hey, I think that we should be doing three apiece here. Because with all due respect, if they want to take their ball and go home, let them, let them. But like there's, I think that there's a lot of value and a lot of credus to say, hey, why don't y'all want to play real ball?

Starting point is 00:31:46 If y'all teams, if we give everybody three, if we give everybody three and keep the same amount of at-large bids, that means that we can have a world where if your teams earn it, you could have six bids. six. If your teams are, if your teams go out there and dominate, you're looking at up to six biz. What's the problem? What's, what, what more do you really need? Why are we guaranteeing anything? To me, it's, I can already, I can already tell you. Yeah, I can already tell you what Lane Kiffin would complain about that, hey, we, we have all, so much tougher our schedules. The way you're, you're going to let, you're going to let, you're going to let the ACC sneak a couple of extra teams in when they're, they're playing

Starting point is 00:32:29 against Wake Forest and, you know, we're playing against LSU and we can't get a spot. That's what's going to be the complaint. That's why they think they need the four auto bids. How'd that work out for South Carolina? Oh, not so well. What about them? Had to work out well for them, right? No, did not work out so well.

Starting point is 00:32:51 Well, no, you know what I'm looking at this wrong. What about the team to be Bamp, Oklahoma? It worked out well for them. Yeah, no, that didn't work out well for them. Oh, but I thought they played. in different leagues. I thought, and we obviously know when you say different leagues, the SEC is the top league.

Starting point is 00:33:04 So, you know, what are we doing here, man? What are we doing? Again, I am all for splitting this more evenly because, again, this does not strip your conference of the ability to have more bids. It doesn't. This doesn't strip your conference of the ability to have four bids. But again, when we get to adding fifth, sixth, and seventh teams from a conference, what are we doing? What are we doing? You cannot, I don't care what year you're

Starting point is 00:33:37 looking at. You would be hard pressed to find a year where you're telling me that the fifth best team from one conference, the sixth best team from one coverage is that much better than the third best from another powerful conference. You, you're really going to struggle to get me on board with you. Yeah, I agree. Well, we'll end it on that note. Huge shout out and thank you to everyone for making Locked on ACC your first listen. Make sure you smash that like button, subscribe. Make sure you also check out Kenton on Lockedon Wolfpack talking to all things NC State.

Starting point is 00:34:08 Check me out, Locked on Cain's talking to all things, Miami. And we'll talk to you again tomorrow on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.

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