Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BREAKING: ACC Schools RAKE in RECORD $45 Million | But There's a MAJOR Catch!

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

ACC football's financial landscape is shifting, with the Miami Hurricanes and other ACC schools closing the revenue gap with the SEC. Could this reshape the college football hierarchy? Explore the implications of these financial dynamics and how they might influence the Miami Hurricanes' future.Join Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs as they dissect the ACC's financial standing, potential College Football Playoff format changes, and the surprising entry of Bill Belichick into college football. Discover how these developments could impact teams like Clemson and Florida State, and what it means for the ACC's competitive edge. The episode also features insights into Jim Phillips' stance on playoff changes and the strategic decisions facing ACC schools.Tune in for a deep dive into ACC football's evolving landscape and uncover the strategies that could define the conference's path to success.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.

ACC schools made a lot more money than you think this year. And it's actually a lot closer to the SEC revenue split than you think. But there is a catch. You are locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Shout out to the everydayers and thank you so much for making Lockdown 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 Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Donnell from Lockdown Canes. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch money. Use code Lockedon College at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. An anonymous ACC coach said that kicking Belichick's butt is the top priority this season. Had to have been an NC State coach, I would think. We'll talk about how Jim Phillips, ACC commissioner, is in favor with a direct seeding format in the college football playoff, what that means and so much more coming up. And so Kenton, a big question on

everybody's mind is, can the ACC find some way, shape, or form to at least be in the same stratosphere with the Big Ten and the SEC financially to make this conference as attractive and competitive as possible. And I got to tell you, with the TV earnings that were announced last week at the ACC Spring meetings, I was actually shocked that the Atlantic Coast Conference is going to be sharing this year or has just shared this year a record $45 million per member institution. Now, we'll talk about the catch in a moment.

Now, the SEC's revenue split was $53 million. Now, who am I to say that $8 million? is not a lot of money, but would you say that that gap is closer than you thought it was? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I, you know, the way that this gap was talked about at televised, you would have imagined that it was a $15 to $20 million gap. Easy. Easy. The way it was talked about, we're not even in different conferences. It's like different leagues. You would imagine that you would be looking at different leagues worth of money. Instead, $8 million for, for context. For context, point guard PJ Haggerty, who just left Memphis, allegedly had a $4 million price tag when he entered the portal.

So congratulations. The difference between an ACC school and SEC school in terms of revenue is two point guards. Two really good point guards in the portal. That's it. You know, like, what are we actually doing here? You know, it's not one of those things that I would say, you know, is not a problem at all because it is. And like Dono said, there's a catch to this that we're going to get into.

However, when you look at the totality of this, I have said this for a long time. The people who are pushing the narrative, the people who are responsible for driving the sport forward through storytelling, paint the ACC in a certain way to where everything is so negative, everything is so doom and gloom, everything is so poor old ACC. I have said since the beginning of the Florida State Clinton, and lawsuits. The ACC without Clemson and the Florida State would be closer to the Big 12 than it is to what happened to the Pact 12.

And people are acting like I'm crazy for saying that. The money is there in a way that it wasn't for the Pact 12. Teams do not have a place to go like many did for the Pact 12. The ACC equivalent of Washington cannot go to the big team. They cannot go to the SEC. So where are they going to go? Where are they, you know? So again, the ACC is in a much,

better position than many people had fathom. And I think that, again, the long-term survival of the conference is fine. It will look different, but the conference will survive and it won't need to go and pick up Mountain West schools to continue going. And that's not a shot at the Pact 12. It's just the reality that, again, this is not that and that is not this. So, all right, let's talk about there's actually a couple of catches. Now, the first catch, this isn't the big one, but this is one that can actually be a positive or negative, depending on every individual school standing because this $45 million split that I talk about is before the brand initiative comes into play, right?

So that's going to make the halves in terms of the teams that put up the biggest TV ratings, you know, schools like obviously Florida State, Clemson and Miami get thrown among their chief among them that are actually going to increase their amount of revenue based on bigger games and higher TV ratings versus, you know, the teams that don't do as well on television are going to make less. So that $45 million could actually grow to a bigger number for some of these schools, but you're taken from the same cookie jar. So that's going to shrink for others. So that's one catch. But to me, the biggest catch, though, Kenton is this. And why I look at this $45 million, it's a mirage. And it's a mirage because the ACCC right now has three

members, three new members that are contributing to creating more revenue that aren't currently taking an equal split out of it and their revenue shares are going to grow. What do I mean by this? We all know Cal, Stanford, and SMU join the ACCC this past year, but they're not taking a full revenue split. In fact, SMU is taking nothing right now. SMU will have no media rights revenue until year 10, which would be, I think, the 2034 academic year, 233, 2034, they're going to go up to a 100% revenue split. And right now, Cal and Stanford, Kenton are making 30%. Years 1 through 7, they make 30% of ACC media rights revenue.

Year 8, they make 70%, year 9, 75%. And then in that 2033, 2034 range, years 10 through 12, they're going to make a. a 100% media rights share. So right now you've got three members who are contributing, but hardly taking anything out, once they start taking out their full share, which, by the way, when all of those schools hit their full 100% share,

that is the same year that the SEC is going to get a new television deal where the ACC will still have three more years left on their deal that runs through 2036. So there is a catch. Eventually, the revenue split's going to get way wide. between the SEC and the ACC. Well, here's the other part of that, Domino. You talk about the success initiative

and how much who's making and all that good stuff and what that looks like. You and I both know the negotiations are going to start in what, 2013. That's when the new TV deal is due for SEC and Big Ten, 2031, 2032, something like that. If that's when the new TV deal is due, and this is why I say all the time,

it is so fascinating to me that so many people who are college educated have advanced degrees cannot figure this math out why would you be pressed to leave super early you could literally wait up until the moment and continue to be all of these initiatives you talk about 45 million apiece imagine how different that money is going to look when you finally get done with the success initiative and the ratings initiative for a team like clemson you went to the playoff. You won the conference championship. You're, you're the top dog. Florida State had a down year. Everybody's eyes were on you. And for whatever reason, you spend millions of dollars to get a price reduced. That again, if you just play this out and if you believe your

current trajectory continues, you would have had more than enough to leave anyway in the future without, you know, much going on there. But I do agree that the numbers are somewhat cooked. The books are cooked. The books are cooked. Anybody who lies to you and says, oh, this $45 million is 100% legit, the books are absolutely cooked. But with that being said, again, the teams who have won in the success initiative and the viewership initiative, I mean, again, I would think long and hard. I would think long and hard because, and this is with all due respect, if you believe that the SEC is a different league, if you believe that they're above, you know, all that good stuff what we can do. That's fine. You just went two and ten in the ACC, Florida State.

You just went two and ten. Was it the money? Oh, y'all only lost the teams that got more money in it than y'all, right? Georgia Tech surely have more money in them. Boston College. I'm sure Bean Towns got some heavy bags, right? They're beating up on poor old Florida State. Poor little Florida State that's scraping for pennies. No, it's not just about the money. And again, you may leave to go buying greener pastures and then find out, wait a minute, we could have been a top dog earning 50 million a year over here. But instead, we're a middle of the road or even worse dog in this conference where we're earning 55 to 60.

So let's pretend that gap of 10 million is really bad. Sure. But what's worse? That gap of 10 million or being relegated to permanent? Man, permanent. I mean, good year or two, but. They're never really that team status. Well, another thought on that plus, something that ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is in favor of when it comes to tweaking the college football playoff format.

I know that a lot of the desired tweaks are things that do not benefit the ACC. Here's one that he's on board with. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Oh, we're only getting started with Monarch money. They're helping me save and budget so much, guys. You ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, entertainment, it's easy to lose track.

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There's like a risk-reward analysis. Like for anybody, Clemson, Florida State, Miami, UNC, and anybody who might be thinking about, you know, making a jump into a power two conference, you have to kind of consider, you have to kind of measure, hey, is the widening of the revenue gap, is it worth it to make a jump somewhere where, you know, you've got such an established super conference. If I still have a road, potentially an easier road, probably an easier road, into the college football playoff being where I am, does it actually benefit me to maybe make $8, $10 million less per season, but more of an opportunity to get into the playoff every year. Like, that's something you have to consider and weigh the reward risk of.

Absolutely. And when you don't weigh that risk, you are simply being very short-sighted because even if your argument is, well, Kenson, you're arguing against yourself because you're saying that this team went two and ten, and how do we know that nothing stopping Clemson from doing that in a couple years? Or Florida State or said, well, yeah, if we went two and ten here, we could have went two and ten there, but at least it's got, you know, 50 million or 10 million more dollars or whatever the case may be. I hear that argument, but to that I would simply say this. if the argument is I can do bad here,

why are you even pushing for more money anyway? The argument is you need this money for your success. That's the argument. The argument is, I need this money for my success. Therefore, I am willing to leave this conference. If you are looking at a conference where you do not have an established path to success. And even if you believe, well, this extra money will provide that path, again, we just saw two and ten against teams that make less than you.

Everybody makes less than you. Except maybe Clemson. That was the only team that you can say they're in our stratosphere financially that we lost to. Everybody else. Stop it. Stop it. And then you say, well, you know, from the Clemson side, we didn't go to and 10 and hey, you're absolutely right.

But again, the argument is if you are going to that conference and saying, hey, we're going to be more successful with this extra money. Everybody has that extra money. Everybody. Everybody has it. And the belief that, oh, I'm playing in a bigger, better conference now and all that good stuff, it's fine. But again, with all these initiatives, you're going to tell me that Oklahoma wouldn't be in a better situation right now in the Big 12? You're going to tell me that?

You're going to tell me, oh, that there's no way that if these initiatives were put in place and they would make more, it would be better for them. They just won six games. Didn't even scratch double digits, even if you say, we'll get brinkfuls out of there and we'll be better. Sure, sure. But again, it's not a guarantee, not a guarantee at all. So, you know, more part of you, the grass is always greener on the other side. But as told by Ginger told us, someone almost told me the grass is much green on the other side. But when I took a visit, I was happy I missed it.

It was different, but exactly the same. You'll have different problems. Either way you go. I do get the argument of I want the problems that come with the money, but that problem could actually reduce your money in terms of, again, you're not getting those incentive-based bonuses. So right now there are two different conversations being had about the college football playoff.

One of those, which I would say is more important, is the long-term future when in two years they're going to move from 12 to either 14 or 16, Momentum right now is on the side of 16 over 14. But Kenton, they're still having conversations about how to tweak for this upcoming year, which will be, we think, the final year of the 12 team format. So I am in favor of this idea. I was actually kind of surprised that Jim Phillips was in favor of it. But you know how they did the first round buys last year were for the four highest ranked conference champions.

and right where you had, Boise State had a first round buy somehow. So this year, I think almost everyone, including the ACC commissioner, is in favor of in the 12-team format, you give the first round buys to the four highest-ranked teams, not highest-ranked conference champions, right? Just do it straight, direct seating this year. Now, I think an important distinction to make here is when you're talking about college football playoff seating, I still think that you've got to give automatic bids to the five highest ranked champions to keep some value to the conference championship game because I don't want that to be worthless, right? But are you in favor of direct seating when it comes to first round buys?

Here's the problem with the devaluing of the biweek four conference champions. when we get to the point where there are multiple guaranteed for conferences, then you really have taken away the value of a conference championship. That's why I'm against straight seating. Because straight seating by itself sounds good, but when you put it in combination or in conjunction with these other factors, it's no longer a good thing. Straight seating when you're saying, hey, we're going to guarantee conferences,

potentially what's being looked at right now, Big Ten and SEC, guaranteed eight spots. upwards of half of the playoff, depending on what that situation looks like, whatever the case may be. If you're looking at that and saying, hey, we're guaranteeing that every year, you're going to run into the problem of teams saying,

you know what, we're in the conference championship. We're one of the top rated teams. Hey, why risk getting our guys hurt right now? Oh, no, we're down 10 points. Pull our starters. hey, we just couldn't come back. You know, that 10 points against this team, it's remarkable.

And what they'll obviously say is, oh, you all, you know, the fans, you all think about campus championships. We're thinking about the big one. You know, that's what we got on our minds. That's what, you know, that's what we're competing for it. So you all want us to risk these guys health and safety

when they've already got to play an extra game and go forward. You know, we're not going to do it. We're not, and it's like, dude, I can see it coming. I already know somebody's going to do that. So I say give those conference champions a buy to keep that incentive. Because again, once you start guaranteeing the teams that lose, no, even if I get trumps by 60, I'm a being.

So at that point in time, I have no incentive to play this game out. Nah, uh-uh. Let's make sure that if you win this, you get your body, you get your rest, you get your boys healthy. That makes sense. Now, when it comes to the longer term changes, in 2026, where they're going to move to either 14 or 16 teams. The big thing that makes the ACC folks nervous is the idea of four automatic bids for the Big 10, four auto bids for the SEC, and only two each for the ACC and the Big 12.

We're a little disappointed, you and I, that Jim Phillips, he didn't go off on this. He basically declined to comment. I'm reading from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Phillips stops short of criticizing the proposed 4-4-221 model. That's the model of the automatic bids at ACCC spring meetings, but wasn't supportive of the idea either. A 16-team model wouldn't come into effect until 2026, but there's a lot at stake for Phillips and the rest of the league, which is in danger of missing out on millions of dollars in revenue annually if it loses stake in the college football playoff. He said, quote, I remain steadfast about fairness in the system and access, he said. Out of respect for my colleagues, I want to hold off on commenting about automatic qualifiers and specific models.

Do you think Phillips missed an opportunity to publicly oppose that proposal? Absolutely. He was given a layup. He smoked a bunny, as we would say, on a basketball court because this was easy. This was easy. You could have easily galvanized ACC. fan bases by simply saying, you know what? No, I don't believe in entitlement. I don't believe in guarantees. I don't believe in any of that. I believe in going out there line up in there.

That's what I believe. And let it rock out from there. Let it rock out from there. Or at best say, you know what? We're still working on that. But I would not be for a system that guarantees one power four conference literally two times as many bids as another. I don't think that there's that type of disparity that exists within these conferences and leave it at that, right? That's not disparaging anybody. That's not taking down anybody. That's sticking up for your guys saying, hey, listen, I don't think that your fourth best team

will always be best in our third. I don't think that. I'm sorry to tell you. That's not what I believe. But instead, you know, Jim Phillips kind of just, hmm, nah, I don't want to talk about it. Well, you should. You should want to talk about it. you should do it for the second of your conference.

I think we need another lawsuit because the most fired up that we ever saw Jim was at the ACC football media days last summer where he was like he was going off on the lawsuit. So like we need somebody to sue Jim Phillips or sue the ACC. So he gets fired up again because he was fired up that one time. It's not fired up anymore. And let me tell you, I saw him at the Duke's Mayo kickoff where Tennessee, and NC State were playing.

He was still fired up about those lawsuits. The fire is gone. The fire, the flame has been put out. Somebody applied some flame retardant material to Jim Phillips because the flame is gone. The flame is gone. But you know what? There is a new flame that has been ignited in ACC football because, hey, somebody out there, an anonymous ACC coach, cannot wait to try and kick Bill

Belichick's butt this year. You want to keep it locked. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ECC. So this is that time of year when we start to get these like anonymous hype quotes. Like coaches don't want to put their name on this stuff. They don't want the direct bulletin board material. But the athletic gets a lot of these quotes. And I was just reading one of them here shared by Bleacher Report from this David Ubin and Justin Williams article. in the athletic. An ACC coordinator, anonymous ACC coordinator said it's Bill Belichick. I think it's great for college football. It's really, really important for all of us who have come up in college football to kick his ass this year. And I think that's like, hey, this guy who's the goat in the NFL thinks he can just come in the college football where it's a completely different animal

when it comes to managing college students recruiting and transfer portal. It's different, although we're becoming more NFL-like than we used to be with the whole free agency thing. But if he just thinks he can waltz in here from the NFL and dominate us, kicking Belichick's behind Kenton. I've got to think that quote came from an NC state coordinator. Well, listen, I'm going to tell you this. I don't, I'm not going to lie and say that I know Elliot or Kurt Roper enough to say, oh, I know their personality.

I know exactly which one it was. But I'll tell you this. It could be anybody because you mentioned all the off-the-field stuff that's different from college football to the NFL. Do you know how many differences that are massive on the field? For example, the difference between the hash marks, how far outside the ball can be spotted from center field. That is an absolute advantage or disadvantage depending on how you use it. If those super wide, you know, if those super wide hashes didn't exist, Josh Hyper's offense would be much less effective than it is now, right?

And it's not just Heppel. There's plenty of coaches that take advantage of the wide splits and all that. That's a different thing, though. What I'm saying in general is there are tons of rules. Illegal contact, for example, is another one. Five yards down field, you can redirect and chuck guys in college in a way that you cannot do in the NFL. So I look at this and I say, you know what, more power to Bill Belichick. But again, there is so much going into this that I think somebody who's a first time ever college football coach may not be able to adjust to.

And I'll say this for that coordinator, number one, anybody who know me knows I hate anonymous quotes. But even if I didn't, even if we ignore the anonymous part of this, you got to be the biggest food out unseen if your whole thing is we got to beat North Carolina as your thing. I don't care if you're at NC State. Beating North Carolina should be part of the deal, yes, but we need to be aspiring for better than that. You're wanting to be the team that had most of their best players leave. A team who's their quarterback. That's who you're aspiring to be.

Come on, dog. Yeah. I understand. There was a different ACC coordinator. They say at least one who believes the Belichick experiment will go well, says they'll find a tough, schematically sound team in college football. half the battle, getting talent and playing hard. So, you know, they believe in the coaching chops of Belich.

Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you? Now, I still think Tom Brady had a lot to do with his success. I don't know if, what is it, G.O. Lopez is the next Tom Brady. But, you know, I mean, he's definitely a sound coach. He has proven everything at the professional level. Let me tell you something. Stephen Belichick, we are on to you.

We know that it was you who made that quote. Say, you know that Hill's field a hard. working and talented. We're on to you. You are not slick, brother. You are not slick. We know exactly what. No, but in all serious, it'll probably Bill O'Brien and one of his guys, because, you know, he's from the, the Belichick tree. And again, that tree is rotten. All the fruit is rotten. None of them are good head coaches. None of them. So, you know, more power to them. I, you know, never wish well for the Dirty Foot Club. This is not in my constitution.

But with that being said, I do look at this and say, I am intrigued to see how this goes. And I know for a fact, this will bring more eyes to the ACC. Yeah. I mean, he's the biggest star in ACC coaching now. Like, who would before Belichick got here? Who would you say it was? Dabo? Like, Dabo had to be two-time national champion.

It was Dabo before Belichick, right? Oh, absolutely. I don't think it's close. And Dabo is not a great star because he's kind of, he's kind of boring. Like even the stuff he says is controversial and annoying, a little boring, you know, like, oh, the minute players get paid, I'll go do something else. It's boring because, like, that's such an absurd lie. It's not even like worth.

It's not even worth. It's still here. It's been, it's been like four years. He's still here. And that's my point. And not only that, then it became, then the argument became, well, it's NIL. The universities aren't paying them. And now we got revenue share coming.

You think he's going to retire? Like, no, it's such an absurd lie that it's like, it's not even fun to cover them. It's not even, it's like hearing Mel Kuyper said that he'll give up his career if a partial ACC superstar Jimmy Clausen doesn't pan out, which we all saw. Didn't happen, but nobody was like, Mel, we need you to retire now because like, this is an absurd lot. So, you know, I mean, Davo is just kind of a boring star as opposed to Bill Belichek who, he's coming in with all the smoke, all the glitter, all the the 24-year-old girlfriend is getting him in trouble left and right. He's coming in, drawing all the eyeballs. And so it's a star is one thing, but a feeling is even better.

And that's what Bill Belichick has been so far. You know, even the Belichick beat has been a little boring for the past week since he got a new publicist. Like, Pablo Torre has not come up with anything new about why he's not going to make it to the season. Yeah. And then, I don't know. And again, he's the star. He has a star cachet, but more so than anything,

he is the empire, right? If we're talking Star Wars, he's not the rebels. He's not Han Solo. He is the empire. We are rooting against him. We are root. Everybody's like, I want to see him fail so bad. I want to see the empire.

Who roots for Palpatine? If you actually watch Star Wars and you're rooted for Palpatine, you're sicko. You are. Yeah. But, yeah, it's that type of situation, right? He's the villain. Everybody enjoys watching them. And it's a hate watch more often than not.

But you and I both learned from the Howard Stern School of Journalism. where hate watchers watching longer than the people who like it. That's right. And you're right about Palpatine. Like, you know, we always, we kind of rooted for Darth Vader because the idea that there was still some good in him, you know, we found out he was Luke's father, like there's spoiler alert. With Palpatine, there's nothing redeeming about that dude.

Well, we appreciate everyone for making Lockdown ACC your first listen and your first watch today for your next listen. Check out the portal. our good pal, Brian Smith, does an awesome job with all the latest rumors, portal signings, recruiting, NIL. Be the most informed fan on the rapid changes to the college football landscape. Find the portal on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. And we'll talk to you again on another episode of Lockdown ACCC, part of the awesome lockdown podcast network. Your team every day.