Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BOMBSHELL: NCAA Surrenders Enforcement Power | Power 4 Conferences SEIZE CONTROL of College Sports

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

Is the NCAA's reign over college sports nearing its end? With the Miami Hurricanes and other teams navigating a shifting landscape, the NCAA's potential power shift to the new College Sports Commission is a hot topic. This episode features hosts Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs as they explore the implications of this change, including its impact on revenue sharing and the NIL landscape.The conversation also covers Joel Klatt's top 10 quarterback rankings, spotlighting players like Carson Beck, Cade Clubnik, and Arch Manning. The hosts debate the merits of these quarterbacks, considering factors like team context and preseason hype. With insights from Gibbs, the discussion offers a fresh perspective on the evolving college sports scene.Tune in for an engaging analysis of college athletics' future and quarterback talent evaluations.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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.

They've been running the show for 150 years, but the NCAA is about to make a historic move that could cause the beginning of their end. You are locked on ACCC, 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. 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 Locked on Wolfpack.

I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cain's. On this episode of Lockdown ACC, we'll talk about updated ACC rankings from CBS Sports, if they got it right. Updated top 10 quarterback rankings from Joel Clatt of Fox Sports is the ACC getting enough respect. but Kenton, college sports is about to change, I think, in more ways than people realize, because every time we peel another layer from this House v. NCAA settlement onion,

a new revelation comes out. And we're expecting this settlement to pass. The lawyers have put way too much time and money in this House versus NCAA, this settlement that's going to create revenue sharing. It's going to change the NIL landscape completely. And it's also going to change enforcement. I was downright shocked when I saw this, Kenton, but NCAA president, Charlie Baker, who might be putting himself out of a job here, revealed that the power conference's response to the lawsuit is to create an entity, the college sports commission, he said.

The point behind that was to have an entity that would see the cap management system and the third party NIL system have rules associated. with both, create enforcement parameters for violating those rules under the rubric that would be the theoretical injunction. So that's a lot of legalese to say that Kenton, the NCAA, is taking their own enforcement power away. All that stuff they've been doing for the last 150 years of supposedly enforcing the rules of amateurism, they're going to punt that football over to the power for commissioners who are going to appoint their own CEO. And then I'm not sure what the NCAA has left to do because if the NCAA gives up their own enforcement power, I think that's the beginning of the end for that organization.

The beginning of the end was when it began, if we're being quite honest here. The inception of the NCAA and the phrase student athlete came to deny a young man workers cop because he had a severe traumatic brain injury while on the field. Like, let's stop with all this grandstanding about the NCAA and amateurism is the right side of history. and they're the people who are who should be, you know, propped up as, as players who are fighting for their worth are admonished. With all due respect, NC State did not come and sit on my mom's couch. Coach Falk didn't come sit on my mom's couch and say,

hey, your son has an intelligent mind. We think that he'll do great things for our, you know, College of Humanities and Social Sciences. That's not why NC State was, that's not why Coach Doran called me up. It was, hey, we think that he's going to be a hell of a football player for us one day. We'd like to, you know, have your son down here, whoop-do-woo, so-and-so-forth. That is what we are looking at here, okay? With what we're talking about now, bringing it to present day in terms of what we're talking about with the power for getting their CEO situation, the president of the NCAA is realizing I'm fighting a losing battle.

I'm fighting, I'm, I'm sysfuss pushing a boulder uphill eternally. At this point in time, he realizes, hey, I've got nothing left to do. I can enforce rules. even if the NCAA tried to keep enforcing, guess what would happen? You keep getting handicapped. And at that point, why would member universities keep paying your money? Why would the racket keep going of, well, we're paying them because what? Because they keep you all in line?

No, they don't. Because they keep things uniform. Do they really? The minute somebody wants to break from uniformity, all they have to do is file a suit and they can win. So I don't think that this is the NCAA destroying themselves, as much as realizing the facade is over. The curtain has been pulled back. The wizard has been exposed as a fraud.

Let's go home. It's done. Yeah, because, like, I mean, the NCAA, I guess can still serve a purpose because there's probably a lot of stuff in terms of the non-revenue sports that the power for and the new CEO of that commission are not going to want to deal with. So they'll let the NCAA handle the stuff that doesn't involve billions of dollars, right? the stuff that involves thousands of dollars, but stuff that doesn't involve billions.

And honestly, I think that this move towards this commission that's going to be, again, created by the Power Four conferences, it could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on which side of the fence you're on. For those who were college sports traditionalists who wanted to be like it was in the 70s and 80s

and you don't like the adaptations, we're moving farther from that. Like we are moving farther away from amateurism, Kenton, because in a lot of ways, the NCAA has been an obstacle to the power conferences, right? It's been, hey, we got to deal with this at NCAA enforcement. So now that you basically let the inmates run the asylum, I think we're going to move a little bit more towards the capitalistic model and the money making without the NCAA standing in the way of that, right?

Now, here's the thing. Anybody who has written about this, like I was, we are going to. talk about on the squad episode tomorrow and ESPN article about selecting the new CEO of college sports. I was just reading a Sports Illustrated article about it on their NIL daily section.

Nobody can give a good answer as to how the new college sports commission is going to have an easier time enforcing rules than the NCAA did because you're still going to have the same roadblocks when it comes to antitrust

lawsuits. And every state law being different from all the other states. And so I don't really think anything changes, except like you mentioned, the NCAA is basically just passing off the stuff that they couldn't accomplish. They're passing it off to another entity now. Absolutely. They're waving a white flag. And when you talk about what is going to come out of this or what's going to happen as a result

of this, you know, at the end of the day, this is very clearly the, like you said, amateurism's going, we're not going back, and there will now be somebody that hopefully because it's appointed by these four in conjunction with one another, there will be more acceptance of those rulings. The only problem is they're not even all of the FBS conferences, right? Like, these are not even, this isn't even half. You think of it, you've got the power for group of six. Hmm. You know, like you're less than half of all the teams, and yet because you make the money,

you're making their decisions, obviously people are going to be unhappy about that. You know, there's going to be something talked about there. And at the end of the day, this is like that and randian thing of like, hey, where big bureaucracy has held down the special for too long. And now the people who are super special are going to be free to do as they please. So I don't look at it so much as the inmates running asylum as it is. It's much more a situation where there's much more. much less tethers on everybody in terms of what you can do.

The problem is removing those tethers and removing those guidelines benefits certain programs exponentially more than others. So I'm intrigued to see how this is going to shake out. But at this point, it's too late. It's too late to stop it. This ball is already, it's a bowling ball of butcher knobs rolling downhill already. Nobody wants to stop it. And so the NCA is clearly saying, hey, we can't stop it.

We're going to get out of the way of it. Good luck. Y'all have for. And what you said got me thinking, these changes are potentially a threat to non-power-for schools because they're not going to have any say in how this enforcement happens. They're not going to have any say in who the CEO of this college sports commission is going to be. So they get left out of the negotiating table.

And I would also imagine going back to something I was saying earlier that this could be, may be a detriment to the amount of attention that non-revenue sports get. Because again, like when you hand over, you know, the power to, you know, if the power comes from within, from the power four, I would think the decisions that they make are going to be in the best interest of the sports that make them the most money. So I, you know, I'm not saying that the non-revenue sports are necessarily going to get cut, even though Kirby Smart did hint that that could happen. Maybe he knows something about that. I'm not necessarily saying they get cut. but I think they're going to get a lot more attention

and they're going to have a lot more weight in the decisions that get made moving forward. I mean, you're not wrong at all. And I think another thing that we should look at here, as much as people pretend that we don't have the biases that we do, if you're selected by the power four, what does your seat look like? Do you get to keep that seat?

Is it permanent? Does it have five-year terms? They have two-year terms. What does that look like? And if there is terms and the power four are the only ones that are saying, hey, we approve or we disapprove, you're only one or two decisions that hurt the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, or Big 12 away from no longer being in that seat.

So if you really like that seat, that could make you pretty impartial on some rulings and some decisions. And again, we're saying this as ACC guys. We're saying this as guys who are technically on the winning side of this. You're going to run into some problems with the CEO situation. It just seems like to me, the NCAA said it's more trouble than it's worth. We're going to throw our hands up. Y'all have it.

You know, they claim, in like I was reading an ESPN report about this, that the CEO, they may already know who this person is going to be. They claim it's going to be someone like from outside of sports. Sports fans are not necessarily familiar with this person, which probably means it's not going to be Nick Sabin, which is someone a lot of people are speculating on, or Tommy Tuberville, who's a senator, and he's very involved. So it's probably not going to be Nick Saban or Tommy Tuberville.

It's going to be maybe some bean counter, some accountant type or CEO from another part of the world that's not in sports. We'll have to find that out. All right. So let's talk a little ACC football. Joel Clatt, who is probably a bit of a Big Ten homer. It covers the Big Ten for Fox Sports, has released his top ten. list of quarterbacks for the upcoming season. Two from the ACC made the cut. Was anyone snubbed? You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new

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For your next listen, check out our other shows. Kenton Gibbs and Grayson Boone host Locked on Wolfpack, taking you do everything, NC State. I host Locked on Cains talking all things, Miami. Kenton, Miami's quarterback did make the cut in Joel Clatt's top 10, much to your dismay, I'm sure. He ranks Carson Beck at number 10 in the country, Clat does. Despite the fact that Beck was ranked number one by Clat heading into last year, you know, Beck didn't have the best of seasons. his receivers also led the nation and drops last year at Georgia.

But to you, is Carson Beck a top 10 quarterback in the country? No, in terms of in the entire nation, no, I don't think he's a top 10 quarterback. But when I say that, I do also want to put this caveat on. I do think he's on the Cups. I do think he's right outside of team. It's not like this is an exclusive club and he's in the wrong city. No, no, no. He's in line for the club.

He just ain't been let in yet. You know, the bouncer's got to check his ID out, make sure it's good. He's there. He's right there. But to me, again, as much as everybody says, factually, I know is speaking facts when he says, receiving court had the most jobs in the country, that's a fact. That's not what anybody wants it to be. That's not what anybody thinks it is.

That's a fact. But there also are a lot more opinions floating about his supporting cast that are not backed up by other facts. offensive line's terrible. Three of them were going in the top of hundred picks last year. Like, what are we doing here with, oh, the offensive line can't block us all. They seem to be blocking well enough for NFL teams. But let me give us some facts. Like you just gave, it is factual that they just had three offensive linemen drafted,

but it is also factual that they were 57th in America in Sacks giving up, which is bang average. And also factual that they were 100 second in America in rushing, which is way below average. The offensive line doesn't have everything to do with that, but they have a lot to do with team rushing. So those were some areas where the offensive line wasn't that good? I agree. I agree.

But you know what also, and this is where certain facts, now we get into how the interpretation of the facts leads us to opinions. Because we can say, hey, for a hundred second because they just weren't good at running the ball, I would argue with the receiving court that had that many drops. and a quarterback that is, what else do teams have to worry about? Hey, they've got a quarterback that is very average

and they've got a really good offensive line. Load the damn box. However many they have, we're going to put one more in the box and make them beat us through the air at all time. You know, it's interpretation at that point. Again, I'm not saying Carson Beck is terrible. I'm not saying that,

and I know that it sounds like it, because a lot of people see the clips, You see the little bit of me talking about Carson Beck. I am telling you the totality of this is he is a good quarterback. Top 10 in the nation to me is a very special class that honestly a lot of these guys on the list do not belong in. A lot of these guys on the list, I will put behind Carson back. So let's go through the rest here. Let me go through all of these, Kenton, and then we can comment.

Number nine, Luke Altmeier from Illinois. Number eight, Lenora Sellers, South Carolina. number seven DJ Lagway at Florida number six Garrett Nussmeyer LSU Drew Aller at Penn State our dude sarcastic a little bit number five Sam Levitt Arizona State number four John Mateer now at Oklahoma number three Arch Manning at Texas number two and I'll give I'll give clats some credit well you know people call us ACC home or you and me so someone referred to us as a propaganda show the other day I mean okay Cade

club, Nick, and Clemson comes in number one. K-K-Nover-1, but Arch Manning number two, I know you've got a hot take on Arch. I wouldn't know this about Archmanning. Dono, let's talk facts one more time, can we? When was Quinn you was drafted? Oh, seventh round by my Miami Dolphins. He was drafted in the seventh round, and yet Arch Manning took his spot from him via injury, correct?

Yes. but the spot was given back when he was back healthy. If he could not start over a guy who was a seventh rounder, where is this idea that he is this new greatness coming from? I don't understand it for a multitude of reasons. The biggest one being, if he was as good as people believe he is, we would have seen a Wally Pipp situation. For those of you who don't know,

Wally Pipp was the player before Lou Gehr. He had a head of, that many people believe was a hangover, Lou Gehrig starts, he never starts again. Nobody ever hears from Wallybip again. This would have been the reality if Arch was who people think he is.

If Arch's last name was Jackson, if it was Donnell, if it was Gibbs, if it was Herbert, if it was anything else, nobody would care. Nobody would care. But because it's Archmanning, we got to sit here and pretend

that he's this new hotness. And I'll tell you this, either I'm wrong about either I'm right about Archmany or Steve Starchis don't know what the hell he's doing and in Texas need to get him out of it. Either I'm right about Archmany and he's then or or a team that was said to have one of the best roster of football and I was held back by a bad quarterback left a good quarterback on the bench just because for kicks and games.

Now, okay, so with Cade Clubnick at number one, I, to me, I feel that it's a combat of who Kade Klubnik is, who his coaches are, and who his receiving court is. I think that the powers, all of those factors unite to give Clemson arguably the best quarterback situation in the country. But who do you think out of that list is actually the most talented quarterback in America? Because I really have a soft spot for Sam Levitt at Arizona State. I think that there's a couple in there that I think are probably individually better than Clubnik is in I don't think Cade Clubnick is number one overall pick this coming year I think that there are other quarterbacks that are better I just don't know if

there's another quarterback who has the combined situation also clubnik goes up against ACC defenses a lot of those other quarterbacks on that list go up against SEC and big 10 defenses oh stop it Sam levitt is going up against big 12 defenses his defenses aren't that crazy different from from what Cade is going up again if I'm I'm talking about talent one for one in terms of who I could throw in any situation and I think they'd be good. I hate to say it because people are going to call me a homer. But based on what I've seen from Kay K.K.K. Klobman, he is the most universal in terms of all the different systems he can fit in, all the different things he can do because he's figured it out as of late. Now, if you're asking me best passer, like, hey, we're going to be Bill O'Brien and we're going to force you to throw the ball regardless of how athletic you are.

we're going to force you to stand right here and throw the ball. I'd probably say Garrett Nussmeier is the guy for that. He doesn't have the movement ability, but in terms of his ability to process and let it fly, very high-level stuff. Great arm. He can make every throw, as they say, and he processed the game.

Well, he's just a statue, you know? He's just a guy that if he rushed for 40 yards on my team, heads would roll, positions would be lost. Yeah. Well, and honestly, do you think, you know, this is not locked on SEC, hypothetical, though, for a second. When LSU fans see that list and that Nussmeyer is number six, they probably feel like he's criminally ranked way too low.

I think he's ranked a little too low at number six. I'm sure that they're raging about that. Oh, absolutely. Let me tell you something. Anytime you put my quarterback behind Drew Allen, it didn't fight words. Those are fighting words. If I got a top-tier guy and you're putting him behind a quarterback,

that was literally his team's detriment last year. Literally his team's downfall, despite having a first round tied-in, despite having two backs that had they going into the draft this year, they might not have been first-rounders, but they wouldn't have had to wait very long. Despite having a left tackle, that was a first-round. Despite having all of these pieces that were great around you,

you were the limiting factor, and people keep believing in you every year. It's like Brownhog's day, oh, this is his year. He's going to get it together. Oh, this is his year. He's going to be great. Oh, this is his year. This is his year to beat up on Minnesota like it was last year and like it was

the year before that. It is not his year to be an elite quarterback. So, yeah, I could absolutely see LSU fans. Coming up next, is there at least one ACC quarterback that should get more consideration? You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new locked on ACC. Kenton, I'm kind of wondering what has changed, you know, over the past five months without any new games being played because I took myself, I put myself in a time capsule. And I was looking at an article that was written right after last year's Heisman trophy ceremony, you know, December of 2024.

So like five months ago. And it was like a way too early preview of next year's Heisman. and one of the first names that popped on that list was Kevin Jennings from SMU. You know, five months later, no new games had been played. I mean, maybe that was written before SMU, you know, played in their playoff game. So maybe one more game has been played. But, you know, Kevin Jennings, like, coming off that 2024 season was getting some hype. You know, this is a guy who didn't even start the entire year last year,

but threw for 3,245 yards, 23 touchdowns to 11 interceptions. He's also a threat to run the football, had 354 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns. So 28 total touchdowns to 11 turnovers. And again, didn't even start the entire season. And, you know, this is like five months later with no new games being played, Kevin Jennings isn't getting any love. Why? And do you think he deserves more?

He absolutely deserves more. tell you something very interesting here. Even if you thought, oh, they were dominated by Penn State in such a way you can include them. Why not? Penn State had this guy, some edge rusher of sorts. I can't remember the young man's name right now. I think he was pretty good. I think he was all right. I think he was Abdul something or another. I don't know. He was pretty good. They had a bunch of guys get drafted up that defense as well. Yeah, some. Some of the law knows where I don't know. Paul Abdul, Carter, Abdul, I have to do. There's something along those. No, but seriously, Abdul Carter was fantastic. He is who he is.

Kobe King, fantastic. How many players did they have that got drafted this year from that defense? So if that game was your proof, oh, he's a bad quarterback. Well, I have bad news for you about almost every quarterback that saw Penn State's defense last year. I have heart-wrenching news for you. I have very heart-wrenching news. So with that being said, Kevin Jennings, to me, he's in the club. He's in the club with that top 10 quarterback to me.

He don't got to wait for the bouncer to let him in. He's in there. I wouldn't say he's in a VIP grabbing drinks with all the baddies and all that. But he's in the club. He's getting his two-step on in that top 10 quarterback club, in my opinion. Because, again, he has been fantastic. And he'll have an opportunity this year that a lot of these quarterbacks won't. This team will be a team that wins or loses by him.

Either he will show up and carry this team, wins or he won't and they will need him to carry him carry them to some wins because again they're losing a ton of production yes lashley always does well in the Portland all that but still you you got to acknowledge you got to bend the knee and say hey every knee must bow and every time must confess he's the guy if he shows up and gets it done again this year well something uh we'll get to this on our next episode uh our next full episode on friday uh because i want to devote enough time to this sports updated their ACC football rankings heading into next year. So I want to get into that.

By the way, Kenton, when you were talking a little earlier about being the ACC homer before you brought up Clubnik, I thought you were going to put CJ Bailey into the top 10. I was like, oh, when you said you were going to go full Homer and we'll see, because you know I'm high on CJ. And if CJ is auditioning this year to me, the next Miami quarterback in 2026, I'm all for it. Oh, hold. See, this is the problem.

This is the problem down there in Temple Gables. I mean, uh, Coral Gables. They, they always messing with our players. CJ, don't you listen to him. Don't you listen to him. Don't you listen to. We love you and Riley. Nobody loves you like Riley loves you. You know what I mean?

They ain't think he was good enough to off you early, okay? But no, no, no. See, Jay's another one of those guys. I would say he's waiting in line to just further back behind, uh, Carson Beck. Because he has so much to prove. He has so much to prove. and he's going into his first season with a full offseason as the guy. Last year, that man was slow dancing that problem and was thrust in to be the guy out of nowhere.

So, you know, it's a very tough situation. And for him to still lead that offensive show promise at the end of the year, that's victim. No doubt. Huge shout out and thank you to Kenton Gibbs. Always a good time and make sure you check him out at TGIF underscore Kenton and check out his show locked on Wolfpack. You can check me out at Alex Dono and on Lockdown Canes. And we'll talk to everybody next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC.

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