Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BOMBSHELL: New Legislation Could STOP Florida State, Miami Hurricanes, Clemson from Leaving ACC?

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

Protect College Sports Act could freeze ACC football realignment and expansion, leaving Miami Hurricanes, Clemson Tigers, and Florida State Seminoles with tough choices about their future. Did late-night legislative deals just close the door on bold conference moves, putting longstanding NCAA traditions and upward mobility for rising Group of Six programs at risk? Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs break down University of Miami President Joe Echevarria’s candid comments on realignment strategy, question the repercussions for schools like NC State Wolfpack and Virginia Cavaliers, and uncover the scandal behind the canceled Brazil opener—complete with missing contracts and lost millions. Plus, On3 Sports’ ACC football coach rankings spark outrage: Why does Mario Cristobal top the list? Why is Tony Elliott’s turnaround overlooked? Tune in for sharp analysis on ACC power dynamics, football program futures, and the evolving landscape of college sports. 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!   Odoo Great organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.  RugietGet 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhlRugiet. Performance medicine for men. 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. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel.Visithttps://FANDUEL.COMto get started now.   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.

This Protect College Sports Act will now aim to keep every Power 4 conference, including the ACC, from expanding. 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 Kenton Gibbs from Locked-on Wolfpack. I'm Alex Dono from Locked-on Cains, and this episode of Locked-on ACC is brought to you by Odu. great organizations win because operations matter. And that's why you should get Odu. Try for free today at Odu.com slash locked on.

That's ODO.com slash locked on. On this loaded episode, on three sports has ranked every ACC football coach from first to last. Boy, are there going to be some ticked off fans out there when you see where your coach is ranked? the ridiculous reasons why NC State versus UVA was moved from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Charlottesville, Virginia. I know Kenton Gibbs is very angry that his vacation of Brazil has been canceled. The Miami University of Miami president opened up on his thoughts about conference realignment. We'll get to that. But I don't, Kenton, President Joe Etchevaria's thoughts might be moot if the Protect College Sports Act.

passes through Congress because, as you pointed out to me today, there's been a significant change to the anti-expansion provision of the Protect College Sports Act. They seem to try to sneak stuff in when we're not paying attention, which will lower the annual revenue threshold from $1 billion to $700 million. This critical modification expands the consolidation ban to encompass all four of college sports power conferences. So I guess some in the ACC will say, hey, this is very stabilizing because it bans larger leagues from acquiring their assets or membership.

But obviously, if you're Florida State or Clemson who sued the ACC to try to get out, or if you're Miami, who might be looking for your best option, if you're the SEC or the Big Ten, this is not good news. Jim Phillips, I know you have something to do with this. I know when treachery is a foot in that office in Charlotte, North Carolina. And don't worry, Dono, I'm going to make the three-hour trek to figure out what's going on and get to the bottom of this. Because this here provision in the Save College Sports Act, Protect College Sports Act, whatever it is going by now, is just one of those things that you seriously ask yourself. how did we get here?

Are we losing the plot of the movie? Where are we as a conference? And some people say, Ken, you should be excited about this. You should be geeked up and jazzed and, oh, yeah, the ACC gets to keep all our members of whoo-woo about this thing. I don't want nobody that don't want to be around me. Maybe that's just my personal feelings. Well, it also doesn't this keep the ACC from potentially expanding down the road as well?

So it also does that. Yeah. Yeah, and how did this get involved? How did this come into play is my question. That is the part that legitimately is just throwing me off here like, where did we go? Because to say that there was the billion dollar cap to begin with on whether or not a conference could expand,

here's the deal. I understand from the business standpoint of things, you know, more teams are going to want to go and all that good stuff, all of the member institutions have to vote on this. So as much as every team says, oh, my team can play in the SEC, my team can play in the Big Ten,

are they willing to cut their pie up for you? Are they willing to say, I'm going to make my slice of the pie a little bit smaller so that school X, Y, and Z could get in? Some of the schools I've heard mentioned, Florida State, Clemson, Miami, are all of you 100% sure? because it's as it stands right now, you have to know with no degree of uncertainty,

I bring enough value for them to say they're going to add into this conference. Now, there's still a little bit of murkiness and hearing this because they haven't released the official transcript of it, a lot like they did for the original or unlike they did for the original version, where Donnell and I could read you word by word, line by line. This is what's in it. We have not gotten the official transcript for the updated version, But there's a lot of speculation as to whether or not it freezes everybody in place, meaning you can't go anywhere or whether or not it freezes you at a certain amount of seats. Right.

So with the ACC, it will be 17.5 or whatever you would consider with the Notre Dame situation. And so you could potentially call some universities that aren't performing as well and pick up better performing teams from the group of five or whatnot, which would also have major implications for. If you could call teams out of the ACC, same thing would apply to the Big Ten in the SEC, where you would say, what the hell do we keep Purdue around for? Get them boys off our train. We got to get the Purdue Boilermakers off this thing

and get somebody else in here. Same thing goes for SEC. Oh, what's going on with Vandy? I'd much rather have Miami. I'd much rather have Florida State. Let's get rid of those guys and pick up one of the teams we like. So there's a lot of confusion right now going on.

There's a lot of wondering how this got added, but I'm telling you, with what we've heard constantly around realignment and the Super Conference, this bill would kill all of that immediately. And it, although it would be dead on arrival, in theory, we all know you're only one or two court cases away from everything being tossed upside down on what you think it is. Yeah, I mean, I guess like,

and of course, you know, having the Miami point of view, I may look at it differently than fans of like the, you know, revenue-wise, like the bottom half of the ACC. But I also think like the opportunity of, you know, continually improving your television ratings and kind of incentive to maybe play for your next deal in a different conference. If like you take that incentive away, it's a little anti-American, right? And then you talk about the G6 schools because like you always like G6 schools, have an opportunity to, hey, you know, not that long ago, Kenton, Louisville was a G6 school, and they're in the power four in the ACC, you know, UCF and my neck of the woods in Florida, they were group of six and they were added to the big 12.

So it's like if you take away that option to expand, then I don't know. I think we're cutting off our nose to spite our face here. And you asked how and why this change was made. And I just want everyone to know, the Protect College Sports Act has not passed yet. is something that's like in the process of going through Congress. It's going to be on the Senate floor probably soon for a vote and then the House. So this is not law yet. But this is legislation they're trying to push. And lawmakers, Kenton allegedly adjusted the threshold during a late night concession to secure broader institutional backing before the bill was moved out of committee.

So the way I characterized it, like they kind of snuck this in there at the last minute, I think that was spot on. That's exactly what they did in a late night session. They waited until everybody else was sleeping and said, all right, all right, we got to get something done, damn it. We need the thing that's most interesting about this is how does this gain broader support? How? I understand for certain states, it keeps your biggest schools satisfied. But your biggest schools aren't your only schools.

In the state of Arkansas, for example, yeah, you keep Arkansas satisfied. What does this do for an Arkansas state team that was on the rise for some? long that looked like they were on the precipice of getting a potential G-4 bid, not to say that they were. Please don't take these words as I thought that, you know, the ACCC was going to come knocking for the Arkansas State Red Bulls. That's not what I'm saying here. What I'm saying is how do you undermine some of your universities to keep the bigger ones happy? If you're saying, oh, I'm a legislator.

Not to say the Arkansas legislators agree with this. I just use them as example. Every state has it. In North Carolina, the state that I live in, for example, you could say, oh, this helps out NC State and UNC, but then you're handicapping, and you could definitely say it helps out Wake Forest because they're in that lower tier in terms of viewership and all that.

But you could also say it's handicapping your Western Carolina. You can say it's handicapping. You're App State. You can say it's handicapping. You're all of those teams that are like, hey, we're right here trying to knock on the door something bigger and better, but now we may be frozen in place because this bill freezes everybody in place in terms of the power four. And the highest you can go is from D2

up to D1. But once you get to that FCS, sure, you can aspire to get into G6, but that's it. You can't go any higher to G6, which I think is nonsensical. If you can make it, if you can cut the mustard, if you can pass all the things and they have interest in you, if there's mutual interest, go get your money, man. Why would we stop that? Yeah. Amen. And I've got an audio bite. I want to. want all of you to listen to from University of Miami President Joe Etchevaria, who was speaking before this provision was added. And like, and let me give you a preview here. University of Miami president is not saying we're leaving the ACC, but he is saying, like,

we want to have our options open in five years to be in the best possible situation. And, I mean, maybe there is a scenario that that would be the ACC. You know, they have the uneven and revenue distribution and everything, and you don't know necessarily what bids you get from other conferences. So maybe the best situation is the ACC, but if this Protect College Sports Act passes as planned, the ACC might be your only option. So you want to keep it locked right here.

Kenton Gibbs, former NC State defensive lineman, host of Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Cains, and we're only getting started here on the 10th year anniversary of the Lockdown Network. Folks, running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them actually talk to each other. But that's where Odu comes in.

Odo is an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform. From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, everything works in one place, helping your team move faster. Stay organized and focus on growing the business instead of managing your software. Folks, the best organizations know that success isn't just about talent. It's about having everyone working towards the same goal. That's true in sports, just like it's true in business. I mean, folks, think about just about every championship team ever. And one thing that always stands out is how that organization gets everyone pulling in the same direction. It's not just about

one great player or coach. It's about coordinated efforts across the entire organization. That's what makes it successful. That's what O-DU understands. Great organizations win because operations matter. And that's why you should get O-D-O-D-O-D-com slash locked-on. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-com slash locked on. My friends, if you consume our content every day, we call you an everydayer. And you can try now the Everydayer Club free for a week. How good is that? Join the Everydayer Club and you get exclusive benefits like add free versions of these episodes, Discord chat access, talking sports and talking life with hosts and other listeners like yourself. You can try free for a week. Go to Lockedonpodcast.com slash Everydayer find Locked on ACC or Locked on ACC or Locked on

Cains, any of the other great shows. And we'll see you at the Every Day or Club. Thank you so much for making locked on ACC your first listen. So University of Miami President Joe at Chivaria, and interestingly enough, Kenton, Miami doesn't have an athletic director right now. Like they're working on a national search for the new AD, but the university president at Miami loves sports and is very involved, and he understands the importance of athletics as a revenue driver and a revenue creator. And as we know, you know, the ACC's grant of rights officially runs out in 2036, but 2031 is kind of the year when the buyout is somewhat manageable.

And that's the same year that the SEC, the Big Ten, and the Big 12th, they all renegotiate their TV deals. So this is pretty interesting from Miami. And again, I want to stress this. They're not saying we're going to leave the ACC, but they are saying, They want to make themselves as attractive as possible for the best deal in about five years, whether it's the ACC or otherwise. Listen to this. It's the strategic part of the way we think about things at the university.

You know, we're in the ACC. We're a proud member of the ACC, and we are committed to the conference through the duration of the contract. Having said that, all the network contracts for the two, all four conferences expire somewhere between 20, 30, 31, and 2036. So what that means is you get closer to those contract expiration is when the next round of people trying to realign themselves will occur. Remember, Oklahoma and Texas announced two years ahead of time that they were going to the SEC. They didn't do it. That's right. And then they played out the rest of the Big 12, and then they moved.

Well, my suspicion is something like that's going to happen. So our strategy is quite simple. We today, as a university, are playing for the next contract. We're not playing for the one we're in. We're playing for the next contract. So however the realignments occur, whatever may occur, because we don't control that directly. We're going to be invited to be where the leading one is.

They won't leave us out. We'll be far too relevant and too big a brink. So that audio, by the way, Kenton, is courtesy of WQAM sports radio in Miami a radio station I work with, and they were nice enough to share that with me from the Joe Rose show. So your thoughts on what the University of Miami president had to say. I mean, I don't have any thoughts on it. This is very, this is one of those things where if you're in and around these things long enough, you understand that's basic AD speak.

He's saying, hey, I'm sorry, not basic AD, basic admin, admin speak. AD admin being president, chancellor, dean, all that good stuff, you know, athletic director. The folks who push the paper that get paid ridiculous amounts of money to make these decisions, that sounds like that. who wouldn't say we want to make our brand as attractive as possible. We want to make our brand too relevant to be skipped over by whatever the biggest offerings of a contract is. Who wouldn't say that? Who would look at their university and say, we're so happy here, there's nothing they

could do to ever turn us away, even with a year-by-year widening gap in terms of revenue? Like that's something you cannot deny. Now, granted, Miami more than field a lot of that gap with this most recent playoff run. However, the reality is you can't bank on having a playoff run every single year. The parody in college football has shown us. Dynasties of that are, they've gone the way to Buffalo. They're no longer with us, right? So you're looking at a situation where you're talking to a president saying,

what do you think about all this realignment and whatnot and so on and so forth? He's saying we need to be an attractive brand for when those times come up. Makes sense. Makes sense. When you go into the job market, right, do you say, I love my current job so much? I don't care. Who offers me double, triple, quadruple? I'm so loyal.

I'm going to stay around. No, no, because guess what? Or at least I hope you wouldn't be that way. You want to know why? Because if that job had the opportunity to double, triple, quadruple their revenue, just by getting rid of you, buddy, get ready to learn some unemployment. You understand? Bingo.

I had to pull the mic closer for that one, so you heard me thoroughly. You know, and I'm saying that as a recruiter, I'm saying that as the guy that goes out and searches for the people who are going to fill in that spot. So ultimately, I see this as standard admin. and talk. I don't look at this as Miami's leaving. Extra, extra, read all about it. They're going already. Cains to the SEC. I don't look at it as that. I look at it as, hey, I want my brand to be in a strong position, to be in a position of strength when the renegotiations come

around. Yeah, I think why it was significant to me is that up to this point, Miami had really never spoken publicly regarding any even possibility of leaving the ACC, that they, They had kept things so close to the best. Like the fact that the university president, like, would acknowledge that we're going to look at the best opportunity for our brand and not just saying, hey, we're in the ACC. We're going to be in the ACC forever. I just thought that that acknowledgement that, you know, there could be other situations out there. I found that significant from a Miami point of view. But now you have to wonder with this Protect College Sports Act, if there even will be any other options.

I mean, listen, Miami's goal will remain. the same as every team's goal should be to try to win a national championship regardless of what conference you're in. But of course, the revenue is not equal in every conference. So we'll see what happens there. We could be another five years away from having serious conversations about that. But I want to have a serious conversation with you about what the heck happened with NC State versus UVA. I know the game was moved because we covered that a while back.

They were supposed to open up their season in Brazil, international game. You know, initially, when they announced the game was no longer going to take place there, it was going to be in Charlottesville, Virginia again. We didn't know why. Like, I'd assumed, oh, maybe, maybe, I don't know if it's international tensions.

I don't know a whole lot of stuff about that. My life is sports. Does it have something to do with the stadium grounds, not being where they should be security or something? Kenton, you're very close to this with NC State, and you had your sunscreen already for a trip to Rio that will not be happening now. This is sounding like a bit of a scandal. Like what's going on with that game being moved?

Donald, what's not going on with this game being moved? First thing first, there were reports that the tickets weren't selling at a high enough clip. Now here's my thing, okay? UVA is a proud school with many proud traditions. You cannot deny what they have been in basketball, dating back forever, basically. You cannot deny amongst a lot of the Olympic sports,

how good UVA has been. But, Donnell, have you ever heard of the cavaliers having a reputation of being a football team that travels well in terms of fandom? Certainly not even within this country, let alone outside of it. Okay, so that's the first thing. They're talking about operational and logistical huddles or hurdles that were impossible to get over.

And I'm saying, oh, my God, that's tough. That's rough, Donno. That's hard to get over. I fully understand where you're coming from. But then post cancellation is where the salacious part comes in, Dono. Because as reporters do, many folks put in FOIA requests, okay? NC State immediately released the details. of the contract that they had with the company that was going to be doing this here event and whatnot, right?

Everything made perfect sense there. All of the Virginia reporters, however, were waiting and waiting and waiting. And then what they got back was there are no files attached to this event. Now, I know what everybody's thinking. What does no files attach to this event mean? can say it plain. NC state had a contract to play in Brazil. UVA did not.

There was no signed contract for a game that it was canceled in the middle of June. The game was scheduled for August. And there was no contract signed, Dono. This is, I'm not even saying this as like a, oh, I'm upset because I don't get go to Brazil now. If I'm a UVA fan, I'm damn near storming the AD's office, saying, what the hell is going on here? What type of frackle-knackle bull is this that I come to find that a moment in which the university was set to receive, even if they never sold a ticket, $2 million. We just missed out on $2 million. And for what?

because NC State, they're guaranteed to get their money. The buyout and all that was in the contract that was showed the folks. So they get a buyout and UVA doesn't because there's no contract? We're unsure. There's uncertainty about whether or not UVA gets a buyout, whether or not they get the funds. Because again, Dono, the same way that we talk about, I say, I want people around me who want to be around me, but I know that's not how the conference works. Why doesn't the conference work that way?

This has a personal relationship. This is a business relationship. Yeah, sure. Florida State, Clemson, Miami, UNC, NC State, Louisville, whoever cannot leave the conference, not because they just love Jim Phillips so much. Not because they love the Queen City of Charlotte and all those topsy-turvy streets they got in downtown where you can't figure out if you're going down to one way or the wrong way or the right way. That's not what it is.

Okay, so that's not just me who had that issue when I was walking around there. I'm glad that was. I just thought maybe I'm really. stupid like walking down. Okay. So it's not just me. I mean, I might be stupid. The streets of Charlotte. You may be, but the streets of Charlotte make everybody feel stupid.

Okay, you can put Albert Einstein on those streets and he might get lost at some point in time. So that's not a you thing. But that's not what keeps this conference in place. It's a damn contract. And to find out that UVA has not had a contract for a game that was quite literally

less than 60 days away, Dono, less than 60 days away, or I'm sorry, no, no, less than 90 days away. It was 70-some odd days away. But less than 90 days away, you had no contract in place for this grand international event, not even on the same continent where your university is located. It's beyond me. This is beyond embarrassing as a university. And again, I'm not saying this with wolfpack glasses off because if it was NC State,

I would be even more pissed that they didn't have a contract. I would be even more mad, said, why the hell did you just miss out on a seven-figure payday because you could not get your lawyers, which I know you got them on retainer. I know I've seen it. You got good lawyers there to say, hey, we need to make sure this contract gets signed and finalized.

We need to have everything done. The game was announced sometime in January. What the hell were y'all doing in those five months? This is a complete and total sham. and as much as people talk about the Soresby thing being a moment where teams are saying, oh, the Super Conference is really going to happen now. This is the type of moment because now you're saying, what type of clown show are we in where some of the teams that I have to share a conference with won't even sign a contract for five months

that guarantees them millions of dollars? That's crazy. This is running Kenton Hot, and I'm glad we had something scandalous to talk about because You know, Soresby has already been bullied right out of college football. That thing got resolved already. So we're on to the next. Meanwhile, how about this for outrage? On Three Sports has released their ranking of ACC football coaches.

I know some of you are going to be mad about who they have at number one. Some people might be mad about who they have at number 17. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Thank you so much for making LockdowneACC your first listen. All right, so let me read you, Kenton, Andy Staples' top 17. I mean, there are 17. His ranking of ACCC coaches.

Let me give you the first eight, and then I'll give you the back nine, but I'll give you a chance to react to the top eight here. At number one, he's got Mario Cristobal fresh off a national championship appearance. I know Cristobal was certainly not sniffing number one on lists like this up until last year, so that's big upward movement. Number two, the new kid on the block, James Franklin, already ascending to number two among ACC coaches, which means there is outrage in Clemson, South Carolina,

over Dabo Sweeney getting ranked third. Ret Lashley, SMU, ranked fourth, Jeff Brom, Louisville, fifth. Mani Diaz, Duke, fresh off an ACC championship, is ranked number six. Pat Narduzzi, pitch, Number seven. And not much love for Tony Elliott. I mean, barely makes the top half,

the Virginia coach who punched way above his weight last year, comes in at number eight. So Kenton, I know I'm already, you know, taking Shrapnel left and right about people like Mario Cristobald, number one, recency bias. I mean, okay, people will forever criticize the in-game decisions, but I think the program building and the Talent Act position has to count for something, and that's why he's number one.

Well, my question about these things is always very simple. What is the criteria, right? Because if we have a standard of criteria that we work, that we're working with, it makes a lot of sense. If we make Mario Cristobal number one because the program building and what he has shown has displayed, hey, you're building a little bit of a unit, then I get making James Franklin number two. I get that.

However, who was number three, Dono? Number three was Davo. Okay. So how do you put dabbo ahead of Red Lashley from that standpoint of who's built was? Right, because here, and by the way, you're asking for the criteria. The criteria is very brief, but it says as they are in 2026. So it's so that's even worse. But still, yeah, because now I'm confused, how do you put James Franklin who left his last job

in disgrace. Yeah. In disgrace. And again, I know, I know the Virginia fans are probably sitting up here, Virginia and Virginia Tech fans are saying, oh, they're picking on us because we don't have a show. We want you all to have shows, by the way. We really do. I don't know.

By the way, I think Tony Elliott is ranked so low because he's taking a hit for the lawyers because Virginia's lawyers are 17th out of 17. They're 18. They're putting in the 18th spot right now. They just are fooling. Foolery. But now I'm confused because. As they are right now, Tony Elliott, you cannot say anything about the man as he is right now,

except, like you said, he punched well above his weight class, one of the only double-digit win seasons in UVA football history, and you don't give him love for that? How do you not? How do you not? You talk about building a program when Bronco Mendon Hall stepped down. That was a team that was not. They were in a good place under Bronco.

but that was a team that went through a lot of things. We know what they went through on the field and off that we don't need to go into on air anymore, but we know completely unique at a non-football school and you get them to 10 wins, and this is where they rank you? I mean, are you saying, well, just who has the best program in general is now the best coach?

Because then that's a different conversation. Everybody who knows me knows I view Mario Cristobal as a guy that has been born a bit on third base. That's just the reality. He has not been to schools that historically are like, oh, that's backwater trash. And Mario made him a powerhouse. His first head coaching job was at FIU. That was a pretty rough place to coach.

How'd that go, Donno? How'd FIU go for him? I mean, he did get fired, but it was a little scandalous because it was very clear. I just wanted to be real here because like being down in Miami where FIU is and we know it's not a powerhouse program. I think he did better at FIU than any other coach who's ever coached there. I do think Willie Simmons, who's there now, is doing a pretty good job building the program. But it was ridiculous at the time that the athletic director fired him there. And I think hindsight showed that to be a big mistake.

And I agree. And I get you in terms of I think he did well for what that program is and who they could be. I thousand percent agree. Did Mario Cristobal do anything as the head coach at any school where it's not like, everybody has success there. Everybody has some modicum of success there. I would say Miami, because it had been a very long time

before anyone had a modicum of success at Miami. So let me ask you this. What coach that's worth their weighted dog crap has done nothing at Miami? Nothing. Oh, okay. They have it. I guess.

Yeah. All of the coaches who were bad at Miami. He has won the ACC somewhere else. He couldn't do it at Miami. And it took him years to get done. back there and he got there with losses to Tulane and a blowout, a drubbing at home against Illinois. So again, I'm not saying that Mario Cristobal hasn't done a fantastic job at Miami. What I'm saying is this criteria doesn't make sense to me if you're saying as they are in

2026. Mario being number one makes sense. I give him that. But I'm saying from the standpoint of as they are in 226, it's hard for me to say Tony Elliott deserves to be this down, this far down, when he doesn't have a budget that Clemson has. He doesn't have a talent Clemson has. He had none of that. And yet who was better last year? Who was better by a mile last year? UBA. UVA.UVA was better than Clemson by a mile last year. So it just doesn't make sense to me that you put Tony Elliott down there where he is. But you know, it is what

it is. I look at a lot of these rankings and I say it's meant to do what we're doing now. It's meant to get your blood pressure up and get you going. Because James Franklin, that number of, number two ahead of the likes of a Red Lashley, who built a G4 team that had never recovered from the death penalty to three straight conference championship appearances, one of which being jumping up a level, that's, that's beyond me. Man, your blood pressure is so high. Like, we don't even have time to go over the bottom nine. So we're going to go over the back nine on our next episode because I know Kenton cannot

wait to hear where the bills are ranked. We appreciate everybody for tuning in. Make sure you follow Kenton, who will, I don't know, maybe we can start a go fund me just to get you down to Brazil anyway. Like I, you know, if it's not there to watch a football game, just hang out on the beach. It seems like there's stuff to do down there. Hey, listen, Donald, the Lord has been better to be not deserving of financial realm. Don't y'all start to go fund me for me. I wanted to go see some football when I was down there. I wanted to go see some big, angry men. moving some furniture around. And I won't get to see that now unless I'm watching somebody get kicked out of the favelas.

That's just disappointing to me. Yeah. And I would say go down there to watch like, you know, proper football, but the Brazilian national team is not what they used to be. They were pretty, pretty mid in their World Cup action so far. So I don't know. Pele walking through that door. He ain't not walking through that door. That's tough.

Not walking through that door. Well, make sure you guys follow Kenton at TjF underscore Kenton on X. You can follow me at Alex Dono. Make sure you check me out on Lockdown Cain's. Check Kenton and Grayson out on Lockdown Wolfpack. And thank you all for supporting this great network. Ten years of the Lockdown podcast network. And Kenton, I've been with the network for a little over four.

You're around six years, right? Yes, sir. I'm at six years now. It's been a great time, man. I've loved every moment of it. Incredible. We'll talk to everyone next time on another episode. episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the number one sports podcast network, the Lockdown

Podcast Network, your team every day.