Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BROKEN: ACC 2026 Football Schedule EXPOSED | Jim Phillips THREATENS Conference Integrity

Starting point is 00:00:00 The ACC is changing up its schedule for next season and beyond. Is it good? Is it bad? Let's talk about it. You are locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, everyone, and welcome in a locked on ACC. I'm Jackson Holeser, the host of Locked on Syracuse.

Starting point is 00:00:31 And thank you for making Locked on ACC, your first listen of every single day here on the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Of course, always free and available wherever you get your podcast on the number one sports podcasting network. Of course, that's Kenton Gibbs, the host of Locked-on, NC State, Wolfpack, and also a co-host here on Locked-on ACC. And on today's show, later on we'll discuss some ACC basketball, who is surprising us early on in this season, and who is disappointing?

Starting point is 00:01:00 My very own Syracuse Orange are very disappointing this season. Plus, the ACC has said for the 2026 season that there will be new tiebreakers. We don't know what those tiebreakers are, but there will be new ones. So me and Kenton will go over our thoughts and give our analysis on what we think the tiebreakers should consist of for the ACC. Hello, Jim Phillips. Are you listening right now? Maybe you probably should. But first and foremost, the ACC is changing up its schedule for the 2026 season and beyond.

Starting point is 00:01:33 Now, Kenton, I read the press release. I'm sure you read the press release as well. The ACC is viewing the 2026 football schedule as a quote unquote transition year. And that is because not every team is going to be playing the same amount of conference games. In fact, 12 teams are going to play nine games in the ACC and five teams are going to play eight games in the conference next season. Of course, the five teams that will only play eight are Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech. and North Carolina. In addition, sorry, this is a lot to get through here,

Starting point is 00:02:08 but in addition, every team is required to play 10 power conference dames, including Notre Dame and that. So if you have Notre Dame on your schedule, congratulations, that counts as a power conference dame. So in total, you're either playing eight conference games and two power four games or nine conference names and one power four game. And then in 2027, all but one team will play nine ACC. game. So with all that being said, Kenton, what are your thoughts on this?

Starting point is 00:02:38 I don't understand how Jim Phillips can be this bad at this job. I am legitimately shocked by it every single day. Why would you not go with the lowest common denominator of games that everybody has? You find the amount that everybody has in common, the lowest amount, and say, all right, you got to play this many. And everybody else, hey, if you have that extra game on there, we will leave that extra game because it is a power for team, but it will be like we have with Wake Forest and UNC. It will be like NC State and Virginia this past year,

Starting point is 00:03:20 where it's like, yes, you are playing a team at conference, but it does not affect your conference record. Because that way, you look at a scenario where if you do that for all the teams that have nine's first game, all of a sudden, everybody at the end of the season has an eight game schedule to judge on. You have eight games worth of criteria to judge on, and that's it. It makes it easy. It makes it smooth. You don't have to have a, well, should we do it by winning percentage, perhaps? Because this team was seven and one, and this team was six and one. Well, I'm not sure how this should work. Make it easy. Make everybody as similar

Starting point is 00:03:58 as possible. And for the one team that has less conference games, I would say, personally, always make that the team that finished dead last in the conference the year before. Because the chances are, you are not going to have to worry about them in terms of the conference tiebreakers and whatnot. So when you say, all right, you're going to have one less than everybody else, let them schedule whoever they want, whatever power for a team they want, but you put it in a position, or you put it in a position,

Starting point is 00:04:28 to where the team that is extremely unlikely, because it's been forever in a day since a team to finish last place, dead last place, any ACC goes to ACC championship, or is even in that conversation the next year, it's just a mess. It's a mess the way that it's set up right now because you're going to have unbalanced schedules,

Starting point is 00:04:47 you're going to have who's nine, who's eight, well, I guess we do winning percentage, well, who beat who had that. It's just foolishness. You know, I repeatedly say on this show many times that all you got to do is win your games, right? I always say that. It's my classic phrase.

Starting point is 00:05:03 Just win your games, right? You want to keep complaining. That's fine. Win your games is we all take a drink because I said win your games. But here's the reality of how dumbness schedule is, is that you can win your games and it does not matter. See, you have an unbalanced schedule where there could be,

Starting point is 00:05:23 I don't know, I'm not sure how the math would work, but I believe this could happen where you have three teams. that go undefeated in the conference because not everyone's going to always play each other, which means you could have a 9-0 team and then an 8-0 team and an 8-0 team. And it's like, well, according to win percentage and according to record, 9-0 is better than 8-0, right? But the other team that went 8-0 doesn't have a chance to go 9-0 because they're not playing the same amount of conference games. Kenton, I think to your point about lowest common denominator, that's a perfect solution to all this. it's perfect it's right there on a silver platter and you know what i'll even add to that kenton

Starting point is 00:06:02 you can make that game everyone it gets designated as you know that this is the game that's not going to count towards your acc schedule so everyone knows in advance you can put a little mark next to it but it could also be counted as a tiebreaker game you can't just you you can't just like ignore that it is an acc game like you are playing against an acc team so if you do run into a scenario where you're going down the checklist of tiebreakers, which we can talk about later on in the show here. And all of a sudden, you reach a point where you're like, what do I want here? Do I want where you're ranked in the polls? Or do I want potentially, hey, how'd you do in the tiebreaker game? How'd you do in the soft launch game? How'd you doing it? Did you play in it?

Starting point is 00:06:50 Did you not playing it? Did you win? Did you lose? And that way, everyone plays eight ACC games and that ninth game is just another power conference game, but because you know it's the ACC, it could be counted as a tiebreaker, perhaps. I mean, what are your thoughts on that? I like that a lot. And here's the other thing you could do with that. If you talk about the teams to only have eight, they still got to play a powerful team. So you could throw in that game and say, hey, this is your tie break for you as well, even though it's not formally an ACC team, power 14, and you're choosing. some people will say, well, that benefits the team who get a powerful team of their choosing.

Starting point is 00:07:28 Well, this is only one year. This is not something that's going to be happening in perpetuity. Like, hey, for the rest of time, we're going to have this delineation. I'm sorry, Jackson. I hate saying that people are really terrible at their jobs, but I legitimately do not understand what Jim Phillips is doing. I legitimately, I want, it's like X-Files. I want to believe.

Starting point is 00:07:54 I want to understand. I want to have something to believe in and say, Jim Phillips is not sleeping at the wheel. But it feels like we're propping up the course like weekend at Bernie's here. Because what are we doing? What are we doing? The answer was right there. Hey, we'll just count to eight.

Starting point is 00:08:15 And like you said, make the ninth a tie break game. And even beyond that, the thing that is most confusing about this is who came to the idea that it would be more effective to have this mismatch of schedules where five are playing this many, 12 are playing this many, or whatever the case would be. Who came to that idea, that that would be better than simply saying,

Starting point is 00:08:41 you know what, no, the games are already scheduled so we're not going to move them, but we can move how the schedule evolves and what matters how much around it. Even if you didn't do it as the top rate, I just think that the answer was right there to say everybody gets a, it's going to be clean, it's going to be crisp, it's going to be clear, and we'll do it the exact same way.

Starting point is 00:09:00 We'll either say at the front of your schedule or at the back of your schedule, and we go from there. You know what I mean? You know, the ACC make that decision for everybody. Your first game against the ACC opponent is not a conference opponent. Every game after that counts, but not that one. I just, it's so frustrating to see our conference fumble the little things because we're also fumbling the big things. Jackson. We're fumbling the big stuff. We're fumbling the small stuff. It's like, well, damn, you know, I feel like Riggins dad in Friday night lights, hold on to the damn ball, son.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Hold on to the ball. That's all we're asking the ACC to do. And every time they do their best impression of the three stooges, I don't know how it happened. We've humbled. It's one of those rare instances where we both agree. Yeah. And when we both agree, it's usually pretty dangerous for the opponent because we go at it at times. We go at it plenty here, plenty of times. And we're both in line. I mean, could you imagine the stuff that we could get done together? I mean, we could fix the ACC together because it's right there.

Starting point is 00:10:11 It's not that hard. But, you know, the ACC, you know, they can't have good football teams. And now they don't know how to do a schedule. Now, coming up, perhaps they can get the tiebreakers right. So we'll talk about what the tiebreakers could do. be next on Locked-on ACC. Ever feel like your money just disappears each month? It happens fast, a few subscriptions here, an impulse by there,

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Starting point is 00:11:22 That's Tenton Gibbs, host of NC State Wolfpack. And I am the host of Locked on Syracuse filling in for Alex. So in addition to the ACC fumbling the schedule, good news, ladies and gentlemen, they have not yet fumbled the tiebreakers just yet because in that same press release, the ACC said they will be changing the tiebreakers, but I'll give them credit for this. They know that they are going to change the tiebreakers, but instead of impulsively saying what they're going to be, they're actually going to take time to think what the tiebreakers should be and that allows us to speculate about what they should be.

Starting point is 00:12:01 And now for some background, ladies and gentlemen, the reason why this is really happening is because of what happened this past college football season where you had plenty of teams jumbled up at the top for who should be in the ACC championship game. And ultimately, the team that won the tiebreaker was a seven and five Duke team. And to their credit, yes, they won the ACC. But that team wasn't even good enough to be selected for the college football playoff next year. every power 14, by the way, that wins their conference is going to get into the college football

Starting point is 00:12:29 playoff according to the new memorandum, but that's maybe a topic for another day. But regardless, Kenton, what do you think the new tiebreakers should look like? I think the new tiebreakers should be who you beat, the record of who you beat. If we get down, and then mind you, we're talking about the seventh or sixth layer of tiebreakers here. So we're not talking about the first layer of tiebreakers, because the first layer of tiebreakers is obviously, always going to be head to head who won and all that good stuff. But it's if you end up in a jumbled up situation where everybody's beating everybody, it should be the, it should be who had the best record against the, you know,

Starting point is 00:13:13 common opponents and all that stuff and who had, who beat the teams with the best records, in my opinion. The interesting thing is I'm confused as to how the. the tiebreakers didn't sort Duke out because all of the two lost teams except Duke had beaten each other. Duke was the only team in that two loss range that did not have a win over another two lost team. They were only one. It was just them. So I get confused as to how, like what happened with the tiebreaker where we didn't say, oh, head to head, y'all don't have a win. You got to go. The door's that way, you know. And again,

Starting point is 00:13:54 No disrespect to Duke. Give them all their credit and love, like you said. They got to the game. They won the ball game. Hey, if they, all you can do in the words of my good friend Jackson-Hosier is just win your games. And they did it. They did it. They just won their games.

Starting point is 00:14:12 So with that in mind, I got to give Duke their love that they were there. However, I do think that it needs to be a situation where if we have a team like a Duke next year, and this is not like a Duke in terms of. they're out of conference record. I can give a damn about that. I don't care as far as like that being at the top of the list. But it should be if it's a bunch of teams with the same record, nobody should be considered if you don't have wins

Starting point is 00:14:37 against the other teams with that common record. If you've only beat teams with worse records than them, if you beat a team with a record that's ahead of the pack, okay, great, that can be considered in. They didn't have a conference win that was in that group, that was in that cohort. So how they ended up there, it just didn't make a ton of sense to me. So I'm going to throw out a couple of tiebreakers at you.

Starting point is 00:15:00 I want to get your thoughts on these. First, I would like for overall record to be considered. If every team in the ACC is going to be playing against 10 power conference games, then I don't think you're necessarily worried about what every other team is going to be like an in balance schedule, if you know what I mean, where, oh, but this team in their non-conference, they played absolutely nobody. Well, if everyone's playing 10 power conference teams, then you know that the other two are probably going to be cupcakes,

Starting point is 00:15:28 they're probably going to be wins. So you can maybe take overall record into account. So if you have a bunch of teams jumbled up, all right, well, who went nine and three and who went eight and four? And just take the team that had the better overall record. And so if you had that for this past season, well, Duke is at seven and five. They don't make the conference championship game.

Starting point is 00:15:46 Miami would have made the conference championship game. Maybe 10 and 2. We'd put them in in the conference. title game and they got in the college football playoff anyway, so no harm, no foul. But that's why I would say, I think overall record has to be on the list of tiebreakers. Another one that I want to throw at you, and this is along the lines of the style points, mattering in college sports. What are your thoughts on point differential potentially being taken into account?

Starting point is 00:16:12 That's, I don't, I don't hate it, but I don't love it. That's one of those that I'm more on the side of I don't like it. But I understand, I could understand it as a metric. The problem is it will create, like, when you play Boston College, leave your starters in until the end of the fourth quarter. Because if you can get enough of a point difference against them, now you've erased, in essence, maybe a one point win over a team that you should have beat by more,

Starting point is 00:16:42 whatever the case may be. So it's not, you know, with all due respect to Boston College, you know what you weren't this year. Or at, you know, Syracuse, after they were playing the lacrosse player, and whatnot because I believe Syracuse lost to Boston College. Oh, they got stumped by Boston College. Yeah. So if you're playing the Syracuse without a quarterback and you're like,

Starting point is 00:17:01 oh, well, we got to drop 70 on them. I don't like that, but I do understand that those are outliers. And you can't really base a rule for the most part around outliers because normally you're not expecting every year we should not have a team as bad as Syracuse was this year. No, I mean, I think they're going to have a real quarterback next year. So, well, the thing is, the thing is, as much as I love Fran Brown, you cannot be one player going down away from that. Like that's, this is not, it wasn't even like it was like, oh, we're competitive and we're good in every other aspect except this one.

Starting point is 00:17:37 When quarterback played without everything fell off a cliff. It was, oh, we can't stop anybody. But that's neither here nor there. We don't, now it's not the time to slander Syracuse for Fran Brown. The reality is you should not expect a team to be that bad every year. I get it, not basing a rule around the outlier. And in general, that point differential will, for the most part, bear out pretty good results.

Starting point is 00:18:00 So I don't love it. I don't hate it. I don't like it. But I would be opposed to it. It's a weird. I think it should be on the list of tiebreakers, but I think it would be towards the bottom part of it. I agree.

Starting point is 00:18:13 Would you prefer, because I know this is, this is most likely going to be on there, which is where you're ranked in the pulse. Would you prefer where you're ranked in the polls or the point differential? Because here's the thing now, because point differential is taken into account in the minds of voters because they look at the style points. So it's almost the same thing, except the point differential is more objective than the polls, which are just people's opinions at the end of the day. Right, right. And that's I, if I had to pick one or other, I hate where you're ranked in the polls. I hate that with a passion.

Starting point is 00:18:49 I really don't like that because it's so often based on brand recognition and who people think you are and all that. I mean, you know, prime example at the end of last year, the way people treated Indiana for losing in the playoffs and getting stumped by Notre Dame, they didn't have the biggest margin of defeat in the first round of the playoffs. And yet they were talked about as a team that was like, we can't invite them back because of who they've historically been. And now look at them this year. number one, Heisman winner beat Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship. But again, we were told that they didn't belong back because of brand bias. Like, that's the type of thing that, you know, we shouldn't have to go full.

Starting point is 00:19:32 If you're not undefeated, you put yourself at the hands and mercy of the voters. So I don't like the idea of doing it by ranking, which the only pro of doing it by ranking, which we probably know is what's coming here, it's the money aspect. If you do it by the ranking, you'll get bigger brands in. You get bigger brands in, you'll get more money in

Starting point is 00:19:57 because it's, you know, more support and all that type of stuff. But again, if I had to pick one between the two, give me the point differential all day and tomorrow as opposed to the brand part. But you know,

Starting point is 00:20:08 at the end of the day, the money's going to win. The money's always going to. The money always wins. I was listening to a different podcast today. It was more of a hockey podcast. And it was on there. I was like listing out all the reasons why the NHL should not expand.

Starting point is 00:20:22 They shouldn't expand the league anymore. They're good at 32. And then the opposing point is, well, it's a $2 billion expansion fee. What do you think is going to win? The $2 billion expansion. The $2 billion is going to win. If I said, you know, this doesn't make any sense, but you're going to make $2 billion as an organization or in the case of the ACC,

Starting point is 00:20:40 hey, judging it by the polls, I actually don't think it's a terrible idea to put there as a tiebreaker, but it shouldn't be at the top of the list of tiebreakers. Hey, maybe this isn't the greatest thing in the world, but we know how the voting works, and we know that the brand bias is going to trump a lot of other teams here, and we're going to make more money off of this. What do you think they're going to do? They're going to take the money. So I think we know where we're at.

Starting point is 00:21:07 I like the idea of common opponents, but against like the good teams, which was what you were proposing. I sort of like the idea of point differential. I definitely like overall record as well, now that there's more balanced schedules across the league. Polls, I think, should be towards the bottom. But for the love of Almighty, no more seven and five teams in the ACC championship.

Starting point is 00:21:29 That absolutely cannot happen. Credit to Duke for going out and winning the game, but it can't, it just can't happen anymore. You can't have that sort of scenario. You need the two best teams in the ACC title year in. And you're out. Kent, any last thoughts on this topic before we move on to talk some hoops? All I will say is this. Yes, money will always win. But in all fairness, how many things has money winning reduced in terms of quality over the past like 10 years? We don't even need to go

Starting point is 00:22:01 me and Jackson's lifetime. Just over the past 10 years. How many times do we say, yeah, money won on the front end and then on the back end it was like, oh, that thing got exponentially worse because we let money win here. So, you know, just my last two cents there. You know what's going to happen though? Yeah, I mean, that does happen. But at the end of the day, you know how they cover up for it by doing another, making another decision based on how much money it's going to be? That's just an never-ending cycle here of, ah, we made a decision based on the money. And then it didn't necessarily work out. Let's make another decision based on the money again. And it just keeps going. And all it takes is you hit on one of them, and next thing you know, brilliant.

Starting point is 00:22:42 I mean, next year of college football playoffs, it's going to be 14 teams in all likelihood. And then the following year, 16, the next thing you know, you got March Madness for college football. You ready for it? It's going to be fantastic. I'm sure it's not going to lower the quality of football at all. But money always wins. I'm ready to see Cinderella, Central Michigan, make it all the way to the final four in football. That won't happen.

Starting point is 00:23:03 I am ready for Syracuse with a lacrosse player at quarterback, reached. the final four football or one shining moment. That's what's going to be like in the year of 2037. Hopefully there's no lacrosse players of quarterback anymore for Syracuse. I'm Jackson Holeser host of Lockedon, Syracuse. That's tent and gets hosts of Locked on Wolfpack. We're both hosting here on Locked on ACC. Now coming up, we'll talk some hoops.

Starting point is 00:23:27 Which teams are surprising us and which teams are disappointing us? Find out next on Locked on ACC. The holidays always show up faster than we expect. And if you're still putting together gifts, last minute decor or getting your home ready for guests, Wayfair has you covered. Whether you need a quick home refresh, new bedding or those final seasonal touches, Wayfair makes it easy to get what you need fast. Wayfair truly is your one-stop shop for everything home with decor, furniture, kitchen essentials,

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Starting point is 00:24:25 As I keep saying here already on locked on ACC, it's much better this time around than it was a year ago. And hopefully that gives us some hope for ACC football for 2026 that, hey, things can get better year over. year within the ACC as far as the quality of the teams are concerned. Now, I think some of the teams are fairly obvious as far as, you know, who's doing well and who's not doing well. I mean, everyone knew that Duke was going to be really good and then Boozer is amazing. Carolina's holding steady. Louisville, yeah, I know they got spanked by Tennessee the other day, but they're still

Starting point is 00:25:01 holding firm. But Kenton, who is surprising you and who is disappointing you so far early in this season? I mean, you know, you talk about what everybody thought this. ACC season was going to be and who we thought was going to be where we all thought that there was a chance that Virginia was going to make a bounce back and a comeback under, I believe it's Coach Odom. We all thought that like, hey, they had a chance to be good. They have come out of the gates sparking. I mean, what more can you really ask of UVA than what they've given you early in the season?

Starting point is 00:25:37 And I'm not going to sit here and tell you, oh, yeah, they've been blowing everybody out by 30, and, you know, this is a team that we can go ahead and book it. This is Bennett Ball is back and they're going to be in the final four soon. But I can say, objectively, they have won a bunch of games that they were supposed to win and even a couple that they weren't. When people look at that Texas game, you talk about a team that can absolutely light it up on any given night, you held them to 69 points. So I wouldn't exactly say Bennett Ball is back, but these guys are figuring it out.

Starting point is 00:26:10 they're winning their games. And at the end of the day, y'all know us on this show. We're always going to say, just win your games. And that's what Virginia has done at the extremely high level. So we're always going to give them their respect there. I think that they've surprised me in a positive way. In terms of who's disappointed, I don't want to say it. Don't say it.

Starting point is 00:26:33 Don't do it. Listen, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it because we talked about this in pre-production. so I'm not going to steal your shine there. But I will say maybe this was a bad take by me. Maybe it was just my fault. Maybe it was just my fault, you know. Maybe it was my fault for believing in this team that they could come up.

Starting point is 00:26:53 But Syracuse has like, oh, they've had a moment or two where they've looked all right. But, man, it's been a very, very rough go for them. And every team below them was expected to be terrible this year. Syracuse was a bit of a wild card. Some people said, oh, they'll be all right. They'll be middle of the pack. Some people said they'd be bad.

Starting point is 00:27:15 I mean, outside of their win against Tennessee, it has been slow going for the Syracuse orange. Some of the worst, most disappointing losses. Darn near triple digit in the net at this moment. Oh, ha. It's, we're at Christmas time. And the words of the narrator from the Grinch, stink.

Starting point is 00:27:36 Stank, stunk. Adrian Autry says that there's no problem with the Syracuse offense. I've got no problem with growing here. Yeah, I can do it whenever I want. Yep, yep, yep, I'll leave it at that with Syracuse. Everything is fine. I mean, you have Jim Beheim saying that he would give a coach five years in the NIL era to build a successful program.

Starting point is 00:28:02 Five years. That's what he would do. Five, that's right. Adrian Autry is saying that his offense has no issues, even though they have no half-court offense, which I guess it doesn't have a problem if you don't actually have one. So I guess I get his point. I guess I get it.

Starting point is 00:28:23 I get it. I get his point. Yeah, everything's okay. We're all good. We're 96 in the net. But, you know, there's still occasional people who still have hope in Syracuse. And I host Locked on Syracuse. I want them to win.

Starting point is 00:28:36 I'm a Syracuse alum. Kenton, when you said that they could finish top four in the ACC this year, I looked at you sideways like, are you sure? I hope I am. It's not your fault. I'm not blaming you for it for believing in Syracuse. But, yeah, they are a very disappointing team. As far as who is surprising me,

Starting point is 00:28:58 I don't know if this is really a surprise, but more like I'm proud of this program. And it's an example, just like Virginia, of a team that can get their act together with a new coach in just one year. That's all it takes now in the NIL era. One year you can turn it around. The Miami Hurricanes. Miami was one of the worst teams in the ACC last year.

Starting point is 00:29:18 Correct me if I'm wrong. Did they play in the ACC tournament a year ago? No, they did not. No. They finished dead last, I believe, or second the last? They were pretty terrible last year. They did beat Syracuse, though. So maybe they weren't so bad.

Starting point is 00:29:29 But, you know, they beat Syracuse last year. Great. Syracuse was terrible. But anyway, Miami this year, 33 in the net. They're basically right now, I get it's not even Christmas yet, but they're basically putting themselves in great position to make the tournament in year one of the J. Lucas Haram. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:29:48 Very, very impressive. And I said before the year, I'm high on the Miami Hurricanes. I like what they did in the transit portal. I like this new coach that they're getting over from Duke. I think he knows what he's doing. That's a program that does have a lot of money. And it's also a program that's had success fairly recently. there was no reason to believe that this team could not bounce back this season, and they have done

Starting point is 00:30:07 exactly that. I also want to shout out Cal because very quietly Cal has a win over UCLA. They're 10 and 1 overall. Now, the metrics still don't necessarily love them. Cal is 63 in the net right now, but if you're 63 at around this time, that puts your team in decent position to be able to make a run from ACC play. And as we all know, the ACC is a lot better this year. So Cal is going to have more opportunities to secure big wins. Therefore, Cal could be a sleeper in the ACC to maybe make a run deep in the tournament for the conference tournament is concerned and perhaps make March madness at the end of the day. Cal is a surprising team for me this year. As far as a disappointing team, aside from Syracuse, let's put them away.

Starting point is 00:30:53 NC State, I leave with a question mark. Just a question mark. That's all it is. I don't know if they're truly disappointing me, but I'm kind of just waiting for them, Kenton, to get over the whole. I mean, what are your thoughts on your team? I don't think you're wrong at all. I think that Will Wade's larger-than-life persona had people expecting gangbusters out the gates. It had people expecting, hey, he's coming in, kicking behinds and taking names immediately.

Starting point is 00:31:20 And this process has not quite yielded that yet. But I also do want to warn people about one thing that I truly think a lot of folks have gotten wrong here. when I heard Will Wade in his first press conference talk about what the expectation was for year one. He said top four in the ACC and a tournament appearance. Right now, according to the metrics, NC State is firmly within the field of 64. It's not even like they're like, oh my God, we might just barely sneak in, just barely get left out there. According to the metrics, whether you agree with them or not, they're on the right side of the bubble. And then beyond that, you look at the other part of your top four in the conference.

Starting point is 00:32:03 Well, last time I checked, has anybody played a conference basketball game yet? I mean, I don't. So hypothetically speaking, this thing is wide open for everybody. But I do understand how, you know, constantly being close with no cigar. It was like, well, wait, that's been the story of NC State for the last 30 damn years. You know, that's been who they've been for forever. or why are we acting as if there's a different story there at hand and there had been elsewhere.

Starting point is 00:32:32 I get it. I get it. I'm not mad at anybody saying this team has been a disappointment so far. I completely understand. I completely get where you're coming from. If you had belief in Will Wade, like a lot of folks in Wolfpack Nation did, I completely understand it. But I will warn those people, just like I warn Wolfpack Nation.

Starting point is 00:32:52 At the end of the day, yes, we have seen coaches come. in year one in the transfer portal era and tear it up and do great and all that, we're not even halfway through year one. We're a third of the way through year one and you're ready to close or shut the books on this team when there is. No, no, I'm not saying you. I'm saying like folks who are ready, you're ready to close or shut the book on this team that has a bunch of quad one opportunities ahead of them.

Starting point is 00:33:20 That has a bunch of very quality teams and conference ahead of them. I think it's a little early and a little naive. to do that because Jackson, how many times have we seen the team look fantastic and out of conference? And then that has to carry them through a very mediocre conference play season that, you know, barely got them in the tournament. And how many times have we seen teams out of conference that look, man, so, so. And then in conference, they get hot. And all of a sudden, we look up like, well, damn.

Starting point is 00:33:48 Louisville was that team last year. And that's my point exactly. And their coach was in year what? One. Oh, okay. So could it be possible that there takes a little bit of time to buy in? Yes. Could it also be possible that, hey, what you see is what you get.

Starting point is 00:34:03 NC State will not improve throughout the season. There will be no tournament. There will be no top for an ACC for you. That's also possible. That's also possible. I'm not going to sit here and say, I'm a Will Wade evangelist and brother Wade is going to take us to the promised land.

Starting point is 00:34:18 I'm not going to tell you that. What I will tell you is it's 10 games. Just free. Fair enough. I mean, that's why I put a question mark next to NC State because it's like I'm not mad and I'm not disappointed. I'm just kind of like, like I'm left with maybe wanting a little bit more because they're taking care of business against the teams are supposed to take care of business again. I mean, they did it last night with McNeil going off for how many points? I mean, was it 48, 59, 47. What's the difference?

Starting point is 00:34:46 Who cares? It was so many points. It's just like, oh, they's got another bucket. Well, you know what? He definitely hit his over under. That's for sure. He definitely hit his over-under. So, yeah, they're taking care of business against the teams are supposed to do that against them. You look at where they're at the net, and they're right behind Miami, actually. They're 33 right now in the net, I believe, are 34.

Starting point is 00:35:05 One of those two, does 34 in the net. So they're not a bad team. It's not like, oh, my goodness, NC State has just fallen flat on their face. It's when they've had the opportunity to get some big wins this season, they've just come up a little bit short. And so my question for them going forward is, okay, when you get to ACC play and you're planning

Starting point is 00:35:24 against other good teams, are they going to get enough big wins this season and ultimately make the NCAA tournament, which I do think is a fair expectation given what this team did in the offseason and given that the coach that they have, that they should be a tournament team, even in year one of the Will Wade era. And that's a very fair question given the fact, it's a fair question. All I'm saying is, I understand humans are going to be humans. Fans are going to be short for fanatic. Fan is short for fanatic.

Starting point is 00:35:53 That's what people are going to do. I'm not ready to write this team one way or the other. I'm not ready to say, I can guarantee you. Will Wade's going to do everything he said he's going to do because like I said before, I trust Frank Williams Wade with my unborn first child and I'll trust them with this team. And I'm also not going to say,

Starting point is 00:36:11 well, it's the same old NC State that we've seen since forever. Oh, it might as well be Sidney Lowell back coaching with all due respect to NC State legend Sidney Low. It's not that. It's not that. So let's, you know, let's let's let's let this thing play out. I think in today's society, everybody wants ox tail worth a blessing and hot dog timing. That's not how it works. You can boil a hot dog on a stove for five minutes and that thing will be ready.

Starting point is 00:36:37 Sure. You can't do that with oxtails. And which one is last you longer? Which one is a heart of your meal? Which one would everybody in the world say taste better? And if you say I'm lying, look at the price difference between the two. How much you got to pay for a pound of hot food? dog versus pound ox tail.

Starting point is 00:36:54 Them oxdale so expensive. Almost had to take out a second mortgage to get me some for Christmas. So let's just keep that in mind. Fair enough. Kenton, any last thoughts on ACC basketball as we head towards conference play? I'm excited that we're talking about so many good teams. I really am. From Cal to Miami, to UVA, to Louisville, to Duke.

Starting point is 00:37:15 We're talking about so many good teams. Last year, we said, is anybody going to get in except Duke in Louisville? Last year the conversation was, okay, Duke is really good. Clemson and Louisville are pretty good. There'll be tournament teams and everyone else is kind of just like here. Yeah. Like I, you play basketball during the week, sometimes on the weekends, and that's it. And this year, we got so many teams that are good,

Starting point is 00:37:41 even if Duke does turn out to be what everybody thought they were and just dominates and run away. You'll still have a damn good competition for second. you'll still have a hell of a competition for third. Last year it was like, it's basically who doesn't want to lose the least that'll get third place and all that. So the quality of ACC basketball picking up excites me.

Starting point is 00:38:05 Now, ACC football, following the suit of ACC basketball and just win your games. I actually checked the ESPN latest bracketology and it was from December 16th. it's always a couple of days behind whenever I check it, just so happens to be that way. But the ACC is eight teams in the projected field so far.

Starting point is 00:38:27 Eight. That's pretty good. We'll take that. That's all right. That's, that's, that's, that's pretty good. Well, we'll take eight. I mean, maybe we can get a little bit more in there. But who knows?

Starting point is 00:38:37 I mean, eight teams at this point, given what the conference has been the last few years in terms of getting teams in the tournament, you know what the ACC did right? They're scheduling. They did the scheduling right. less conference games, more out of conference, therefore you can showcase yourself more outside of the ACC, prove that you're good relative to the rest of the leagues.

Starting point is 00:39:01 And next thing you know, all of a sudden people look at the ACC and say, maybe they're not at their heyday, but they're certainly a very, very good respectable power conference. Whereas the past few years, they had a few teams that were good and every other team, no respect whatsoever. So shout out to the ACC and the official.

Starting point is 00:39:19 that made the schedule for this year and beyond, you actually got that one right and teams. One more drink here, Kenton, are winning their games. Cheers. All right, folks, thank you all so much for watching. Thank you all so much for listening. If you like this podcast, be sure to hit that like button. If you really enjoy the podcast, be sure to hit subscribe.

Starting point is 00:39:40 Tell all your friends about locked on ACC, and of course, feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below. Tell us why we're bold idiots. I mean, who in the ACC is going to emerge in basketball this year? a team that we're not talking about enough. What do you think the tiebreaker should be for ACC football going forward? And also leave a comment expressing your concerns about Jim Phillips and his commissioner status with the ACC, given that he can't get the football schedule right, apparently.

Starting point is 00:40:02 It gets basketball right, but not the football right. But anyway, folks, thank you all so much for watching. Thank you all so much for listening. And we'll be back tomorrow here on Locked on ACC.

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BROKEN: ACC 2026 Football Schedule EXPOSED | Jim Phillips THREATENS Conference Integrity

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