Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - EXPOSED: College Sports Commission REJECTS Third-Party NIL Deals | Is the Bag Man RETURNING?

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

ACC football faces seismic shifts as NIL regulations reshape college sports. Will the new College Sports Commission level the playing field or spark legal battles?Hosts Alex Donno and former NC State defensive lineman Kenton Gibbs dissect the impact of NIL changes on ACC powerhouses like Miami, Clemson, and Florida State. The duo analyzes Pro Football Focus's surprising ACC championship prediction, questioning if the Hurricanes can live up to the hype. They also break down ACC Media Days selections, including Miami's choices of Dereon Coleman and Ricky Collins, debating what these picks reveal about team dynamics and coaching strategies.Tune in for expert insights on how NIL deals and media spotlight could alter the ACC's competitive landscape this season.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY 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.

The new college sports commission is already keeping busy rejecting third party NIL deals. Now, before you get too excited and pump your fist about it, remember what this means. The bag man is about to return. You are locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Happy Friday and shout out to the everydayers. 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. Today's episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code Lockdown College at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. He is Kenton Gibbs, former NC State defensive linemen and co-host of Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono, host of Lockdown Kane. and on this loaded episode,

we'll talk about which players are going to be attending ACC media days and what that may say about coaches' beliefs in their rosters. Pro football focus has a surprise pick for ACC champion this year. The only outlet I've seen that's going against the grain. But Kenton, we've got to start out with this brave new era

of college athletics. You know, we're a few weeks into revenue new sharing being a reality after the House versus NCAA settlement. And I was super interested to see how third party NIL was going to get regulated. Because they, you know, they made these big promises in the House settlement. You know, we are creating the NCAA is actually passing off their enforcement power to a new college sports commission. So the college sports commission is now in charge of enforcing all of their rules and disciplinary codes. and they created this name image, image, and likeness, NIL clearinghouse called NIL

go, where if you have third party NIL deals, anything over 600 bucks, which is like almost all the deals, we'll have to pass through this clearinghouse and they can reject the deals if they think it's not fair market value or if it's not for a legitimate business purpose. Now, Kenton, the College Sports Commission has already sent out a memo to all their schools saying, yeah, we have been rejecting deals like Dekembe Matumbo. They're blocking shots. We're rejecting deals because a lot of these deals are not meeting the legitimate business purposes. I'm wondering, Kenton, if it's only a matter of days or weeks, if we're going to start to see some lawsuits here. Days. Donald, here is what I am willing to bet, as sure as the sun rises on the east and sets on the west.

It's only going to take as long as it would take an attorney to file the formal complaint. And I'll tell you, with AI working in today's society like it does, somebody's going to click three buttons. And guess what? Complaint going to be ready to be fired. Donald, this doesn't make sense. Where do you draw the line? Where can you say this is a legitimate business impact or this is not?

Where do you say this makes sense for a business or it does not? I will give you a prime example. It is widely speculated that multiple studio companies, companies in terms of movie makers have put millions of dollars into movies and then never produced them and put them out to the world so that they could use it as a tax write-off. How do you tell a business that they didn't do that? How do you tell a business if a business wants to say, hey, I want to pay Alex Donno Jr. $500,000 to be our kicker and he needs to show up and, you know, advertise our peanut,

We've got Miami's best peanut butter. And, you know, just so everybody knows, he will exclusively eat Miami nut peanut butter for the rest of his time at Miami. And we're going to pay it 500,000 for that. How do you determine that's not worth that? How do you determine it? When you look at NFL players and how much they make on their deals, if you went through every deal in the NFL and said, hey, this guy has a signature shoot,

did they make money on it? If you did the same thing for the NBA, did they make money on every person? out a signature shoe? Because if not, now we're getting into the territory of, well, you don't even need to make legitimate profit off of this deal. It just has to be a deal, period, and that's what makes it legitimate. This thing is foolishness. We have opened up Pandora's Box, and Donnell, the phrase Pandora's Box is important for a reason. What was it that you couldn't do after you opened Pandora's box, Donald? What was the one thing in a word you couldn't do? You can't close it. You can't close it, damn it.

You cannot close NIL. You have players that have been committed for millions of dollars. Millions. You've got Carson Beck dedicated for $4 million. You've got Bryce Underwood at $3.5.4 million. You've got Darien Mensa at $4 million. And I'm just naming those players not to say, hey, they got some money. Go hopping their DMs for a dollar.

I'm not saying that. I'm saying those are the most prominent examples of, guys who have massive an IEL. What do you tell me? Hey, sorry, we can't, Barstool can't pay you that much. Hey, sorry, Ray Lewis, Rose Royce and Bentley can't pay you that much. Hey, sorry, we would love to pay that much, but, you know, we just don't have that kind of money that, or we can't prove a legitimate business purpose for paying you four million dollars. Stop. Yeah, so as I'm reading through, you know, ESPN.com had a really good article about this on three sports.

had a good article about it. It looks like the real crusade that this college sports commission is on is they want to kill NIL collectives. They want to obliterate the third party collectives because obviously, you know, they have established, hey, schools can now directly pay players up until their salary cap of 20 and a half million. They've got to distribute out that money to all of the sports. But they want to destroy the third party collective. So here's from the ESPN piece, Kenton.

The letter, this was the memo that the College Sports Commission sent, explained that if a collective reaches a deal with an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, the standard is not met because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit. The same would apply to a deal an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because of the purpose of selling merchandise is to raise money, to pay that student athlete, potentially other student athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose, they said.

A deal, however, could be approved if, for instance, the business paying the players had a broader purpose than simply acting as a collective. The letter uses a golf course or apparel company's examples. Quote, in other words, NIL collectives may act as marketing agencies that match student athletes with businesses that have a valid business purpose and seek to use the students NIL to promote their business, the letter said. But again, a lot of this stuff, first of all, the gray areas of trying to determine all of this, Kenton, are crazy.

Antitrust lawsuits, I believe, are going to come out of this. And the NCAA's record in antitrust lawsuits is like, oh for 60. I don't think they've won a single antitrust lawsuit to this point. And, you know, the real reality, and when you talked about Pandora's Box, It was a perfect analogy. I mean, Kenton, it was around 100 years ago that didn't the United States of America, there was something called prohibition where suddenly alcohol is illegal. So do you think Kenton, during the time the prohibition was in effect, nobody consumed any alcohol, right? Like there was no bootlegging going on.

There were certainly no speak easies go like none of that. I mean, we just collectively all stopped drinking alcohol until they made it legal again, right? So you know what's going to happen. The only bootlegging America New Inn was slinging Sammy Ball faking a hand off and rolling out, right? That was the only boom they knew of for sure. Exactly. So, of course, none of that was going on. I mean, we just all, everyone just stopped drinking alcohol for several years, right?

So here's, and I already see lawyers talking about this like Darren Heitner, sports and entertainment lawyer. What's going to end up happening here is if you scrutinize the third party NIL deals, the collectives this much, all that's going to happen here is, because like, you said, you're not going to close Pandora's box. You're just going to bring the bag man back. Like, this stuff is going to go under the table again the way that it used to be. So to me, you're not fixing a problem. You're just creating new problems, which I feel are worse. Because if you're cutting big NIL deals, even if they may not be for legitimate business purposes,

I'd rather these deals get cut out in the open rather than illegal deals get cut behind closed doors where you have no idea what player is making what. And again, that which we legalize, we can then regulate. If it is legal and we truly work with the understanding that we cannot close this box, we can prevent Jalen Rashada situation. We can prevent situations where players aren't meeting their end or teams aren't meeting there in. And now we've got this weird thing of this kid has been, has in essence had either millions of dollars or his career stolen from him in essence.

We can fix situations like the, the potentially avoiding future Nico I am, I, Nico eyes. We can prevent it. That name was going to whip me, it was going to whip me bad. I was just going to hit me, blah, blah, but it's whooped the best of us, that name. But we can prevent future Nico eyes from happening and saying, hey, listen, we've signed, you've signed, this is what we signed to. These are terms of the agreement. This is just it. Again, I am a very, big proponent. Oh, let's sit down at the table, get some collective bargaining going and all that. But even after that happens, you still cannot close the NIA door. It's just the reality. It's just the reality. These teams are going to want to pay. These schools are going to want to pay.

The boosters are going to want to pay. And again, how do we determine what a legitimate purpose is now? Because every school had boosters before NIH. And I'm not even talking about schools that were doing the legal things or paying players or The Shapiro's in the world and company. We're not talking about that. The Miami fans just probably cringed and winced hearing that name again. But we're not talking about that. We're talking about legitimately raising money for the university, raising money for increasing the funds to the facilities and all that.

Is that not a legitimate purpose now? Like, where do we draw the line here? What comes to my question? You've got to leave this stuff out and open. And again, we've got to accept it, embrace it, and say instead of trying to put the horse back in the barn, let's just put some reins on that thing. So we can steer it and guide it to where we want to go. Yeah.

And again, this is this is a developing story because if lawsuits come out of this, this stuff is going to keep changing and evolving. Believe me, let's talk about what's actually going to happen on the field this season when we come back, because there's one media outlet. It might be the only one who's actually going against the grain and not picking. Clemson to win the ACC this coming season. We'll tell you why and we'll tell you who when we come back. You want to keep it locked right here.

We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Do you ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch money, it can. Whether you're growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver's seat. It's like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Guys, Monarch money is more than just a budgeting app.

It's a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending all in one place. So in addition to managing your money, you're also building wealth. Guys, I've been using Monarch for the past several months, and I can't tell you how nice it is to have one spot and one dashboard to see all of my expenses, all of my budgeting. Because before, I had to log on to like 12, 13 different apps to see everything going on. And Monarch has helped me realize how much I was spending and overspending on things. like eating out, food delivery, streaming services, and it's really helped me get in charge of my financial planning and help me plan a lot better with my wife, which is always great.

So it's time to take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code Lockedon College at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That's Monarchmoney.com code locked on college for half off your first year. Thank you for making Locked on ACC your first listen. your next list. Check out our other shows. Kent and Gibbs and Grace and Boone do an awesome job hosting Locked on Wolfpack talking to all things NC State. I talk all things Miami at Locked on Keynes. And Kenton, speaking of Miami, I was interested. Now, I know pro football focus. Okay, this is the outlet. All of their stuff is analytics based. Now, of course, their analytics formulas are created by human beings, but they run a ton of simulations, analytics, statistics,

based. And they are, I think, the only outlet I've seen that's actually picking Miami to win the ACC this year over Clemson. And Miami, they give Miami actually a better statistical chance to make the college football playoff than Clemson. Now, Kenton, it's worth noting that there are other analytics-based formulas. So we talked about the ESPN FP Plus, which is database. Now, their data does have Clemson winning the conference pro football. focus, though, has Miami atop the ACC and Clemson second, and they give Miami actually over a 50% shot to make the college football playoff this year. Now, even as the Miami guy, I will say that's not my expectation. My expectation is for Clemson when the ACC and Miami to probably come in second.

Well, I think that PFF is doing this mostly based off of what we saw on paper as opposed to what we seen in real life. With all due respect to these teams, I have to be honest about what we have seen in real life. On paper, Carson Beck is phenomenal. On paper, Carson Beck, one of them ones. He's one of the best. He's a guy that is a, he's a floor razor. He's a ceiling razor. He's a champion. He's all the things. In reality, he is a guy that there are injury concerns about. He is a that has not thrown to his wide receivers this offseason. So you're looking at a situation where there are very legitimate concerns about this Miami team, but on paper, you would not see them, right?

On paper, that doesn't exist. They don't, you cannot account for, hey, this young man has not thrown a ball to any of his receivers yet this off seat. Well, he probably has now by this point in time. But coming out of spring ball, he had not thrown a single pass to a single receiver, right? Right. That is a very real thing. So I think that these, you know, more power tool. We're at that time in the summer where we're right before Media Day.

Some people are having their media days. You know, I enjoy watching the Big 12 media days. They got some entertaining coaches down there. But it's just the thing where I'm not really too surprised by computers and analytics, spinning out different numbers because they use different data sets. They use different pieces of information to say, how much is this way and how much is this way? For example, how much is returning talent weight, right? If that's what you're weighing the most,

then Miami is nowhere near a top 10 team in the conference. However, when you account for the new guys coming in and you account for, hey, they're going to meaningfully be something this team, all of a sudden your numbers start to change a little bit. So it's very, you know, I'm not surprised that there is an outlet that has picked Miami based on simulations. It's, you know, it was bound to happen eventually. I mean, the way that I look at it, Miami can win the ACC based on their talent.

I just think there's more that has to go right for Miami to win the conference than for Clemson, because Clemson has the proven continuity. And I think there's a certain value you give to Davos Sweeney and his history and having won two national championships. And of course, you know, Mario Cristobal always there's some things he's got to work through when it comes to his game management. But yeah, Miami's got the talent where they absolutely can get it done. I just think more has to go right for them. Here's a little bit more about what they're saying on pro football focus. And by the way, shout out to TigerNet, which is a Clemson website,

for bringing this to my attention. So they've got Miami ranked number nine nationally, just pro football focus. And this is after running 10,000 simulations of the season. So you run 10,000 simulations. You examine the averages afterwards. So they have Clemson as the number 25 strength of schedule, and they have them projected to win just over eight games, which seems very low to me,

and a 30.65% chance to make the college football playoff, and an only 2.9% chance to win the national title. As far as Miami, Miami is number nine, so four spots higher nationally than Clemson on their list, and given a 52.4% college football playoff projection, and a 20.97 chance to win the ACC. Miami joins Ohio State, Oregon, and Georgia as the only four teams that are given an over 50% shot

to make the college football playoff. And so Miami guy, I hope they're right. Because at one point, Kenton, last year, when Miami was 9 and 0 before finishing the season, you know, 10 and 2, when Miami was 9 and 0 last year, I think that their live odds to make the college football playoff were over 90% at one time. They didn't end up making it.

So percentages, especially preseason percentages, it's a crap shoot, but I hope they're right about Miami. I mean, Donald, even in the Syracuse game, when you take a 210 lead, your percentages were in a 90th percentile. The fact of the matter is humans are going to human. And the problem with Miami has shown time and time again, on paper, Miami are the on paper ACCCC champion.

in perpetuity, darn me. That's just the reality. That's just the reality. At some point in time, you have to put together on the field. Like you talked about, the game management issues. You know, like we've talked about with Carson Beck, the injury problems that could potentially pop up. Like we've talked about, or not like we've talked about, but like we know to be the

case before Chris Ball got there, your player retention and your depth. That was a big part of it. How many times have guys left from Miami? to enter the draft early and then didn't get drafted or got drafted in the back half of the draft. And it was like, dude, one more year could have done wonders for not only you, but also the program, but everybody wins here. You know, so it's just one of those things that you kind of look at and you say, it's fun to talk these things. It's fun to do all these projections, but projections are projections are projections. At some point in time, you've got to get it done

in real life, in real life. At some point in time, big angry men are going to lace up their queens, put on some shoulder pads, put on some helmets. And the question is going to be, which big angry men can move the other big angry men better. Amen to that. Who do you, I had a conversation about this with Brian Smith. I did a spot on Lockdown Seminels today. And he was kind of asking me, like, who I have, you know,

after Clemson and Miami. I think you agree with me, right? I did speak for you a little bit on Lockdown Seminoles, but we're both pretty high on Louisville, especially with their running back duo, and we both believe in Jeff Brom. I'm pretty high on SMU, even after losing some players from last year,

having a more difficult schedule. So I probably go Louisville third, SMU fourth, but then I think the big wild card is Georgia Tech, because I think Georgia Tech could be good enough to sneak into the top three in the ACC if things go right for them. You know, like I've said about Georgia Tech, Love this team. They have the talent.

They have the returning talent. They have the quarterback. They have the running game. They have, like many people have talked about, a team that prepares in schemes better than anybody. I am worried about the depth. I am worried about depth at some key spots. That's the only problem that I'm having with Georgia Tech. I'm like, I don't know.

Because if I felt like the depth was there, I would put them ahead of SMU. If we're talking just top in talent, if we're talking a game where you're like, You get your, you know, best 15 guys on both sides of ball and that's it. Oh, absolutely. Give me Georgia Tech. I think that they're the third best and it's not particularly close. Unfortunately, football don't work that way. Okay, I could tell you as a guy who tore both of my Achilles and my biceps, football

don't work that way. Okay. So, you know, Georgia Tech is absolutely in there. And obviously, SMU with what Red Lashley is done, he's always going to be right there or in that conversation at minimum. you go ahead and win the AAC and then you come to the ACC first year you're in the conference championship game. That's a hell of a job there.

And Louisville, imagine if I told you your second best running back is averaging 10 yards per carry over your last four games. Yeah, it's crazy. The second best guy. The best guy is out there lighting the world up as well becoming a freshman All-American and all these different things. Their backfield to me,

pound for pound, I would say, in terms of explosiveness and big play capability, that's in America. I like Allen. I like the other guy at Singletary. I like those two up at Penn State. I like them. I think they're good. I think if you look at the complete body, what they can do.

I think that they've got a slight edge over Louisville's back coming into the season in terms of national perceptions. I've watched tape on both. I believe big play capability, them Louisville boys got them. Those two are absolutely just like, oh man, is he even? Nope, he's not even. He's gone. He's gone. You're not catching him.

So, you know, this is at the end of the day, there are a lot of good teams in that next tier. They just all have different question marks that you're kind of sitting up there saying, is Louisville going to have the wide receiver core available to do it? And defensively, what do you look like after losing Ashton Jolati and some other leaders on that team? You look at Georgia Tech. We've talked about the depth a lot. SMU, same thing as Louisville. You lost so much talent in production.

How do you replace it in a year? These are all legitimate questions that the teams at the top don't have things. Well, coming up next, we're 11 days away from ACC Media Days kicking off. Every team in the ACC has now revealed which four players they're bringing to Media Days. And the players you bring with you

It's usually a combination of your best players, your most mature players, your team leaders, maybe your best talkers, the four ambassadors of your football team. So how much can we read into who's not coming? You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. So Kenton Gibbs, when I was reading, the ACC has put out the full list of which four players are attending from every team. And so I know, I cover, obviously, Miami very closely.

And I know that Mario Cristobal likes to always bring players who are considered to be team leaders and, you know, leadership council members. So obviously I was relieved to see that Carson Beck is attending because that goes to show you they're pretty confident in how he's recovering health-wise. Otherwise, they would not bring him to media days. I know in the case of Miami, and I definitely raised an eyebrow when I first saw this, kind of wondering, like, why is Rubin Bain not coming? I was told that he actually has, like, a legitimate prior conflict, like something else in his life going on. So there's actually like he would have come, if not for something else coming up for him. There's a couple of other interesting ones.

I definitely did a double take when I saw Syracuse's guest lists because they're bringing a quarterback. they're bringing Ricky Collins, who had been named the starting quarterback before Steve Angelly, who's got a lot more experience, came in and transferred in from Notre Dame. So some people would say, hey, does Ricky Collins come? Does that mean he's going to be the starting quarterback over Angelly? Kenton, I think all it means is Ricky Collins was there for spring, and Steve Angelly was not. Like, I think that's the reason why I'm not reading too much into that one. I think it's going to be a competition.

And I think it's a competition to me, Angelie is probably going to win. Well, here's the thing. I see where you're going with that. And I also want to acknowledge one thing real quick before I get into the nitty-gritty of the Angelian Collins situation. One thing that I think people need to realize, not having your quarterback at Media Day, is an indicator that's a problem. When's the last time we saw a good team that did not have a quarterback at Media Day?

Florida State last year. They didn't bring DJ Oiyunga Lalee, and you know what? We saw how that turned out. But that's my point. When's the last time we saw a good team, a good team that brings, that does not bring their quarterback.

It's just part and parcel of the gig of being the start quarterback. Now when somebody is asking, hey, we need representatives to speak for the team. It doesn't matter how mature you. Doesn't matter if you're a four-year starter or your first year on campus, Rice Underwoodstown.

They've got to bring you because you're going to be one of the guys. if you are a really good team. So, you know, the Ricky Collins thing over Angelie is interesting. At the end of the day, they had to bring a quarterback. And sometimes you're like, you know, I'm just going to take somebody. I'm not sold on who the starter is or is not, but I've got to take somebody and that's kind of where you land.

So, you know, that's where I am as far as that goes. With Collins and Angelie, I am very interested to see how that plays out. It wouldn't be the first time that we saw a team bring one quarterback in. to Media Day and then the other guy ends up starting. Remember, SMU have Preston Stone in front of all of us. We were all thinking Preston Stone's the guy. He's going to be the one. And then ultimately he gets usurped by Kevin Jennings.

And Jennings never looked back. So, you know, I'm not really too worried about that. And again, like you said, it sometimes is about maturity, but it's also sometimes about who has the mannerisms, who's well-spoken enough. As you, some of you all may remember, there was a Texas A&M player that when I asked what is your

motto for this season, what is your mentality and replacing all it? It was CBO. I'm not going to tell you what it means. You can Google it. So, you know, sometimes it's about even if he is a great player, even if a guy like that is a

perennial leader, he may have situational awareness on the field, but when a camera and the mic is in front of him, not so much. Not so much. love you, you work hard, you're our guy, just not the guy we're going to put in front of the camp, you know. Yeah, yeah.

From what I can tell, there's, there are a few teams that are not bringing quarterbacks, but most are. Like, Pitt, it's not bringing a quarterback this year. Boston College, not bringing a quarterback this year. Stanford is not bringing a quarterback this year. Those are the three that jump out to me. I just, I just want to place something out to you. Of the two that you, of the three to two.

you just pointed out, 66% are predicted to finish with less than five wins. Yeah, you're right. You see what I'm saying? Like, it's rare that you see a good team, a team that is really, they're getting it done, they're rolling on all cylinders that doesn't bring their quarterback. Also, not bringing Eli Holstein is insane. I mean, that guy, like, when he got hurt, that's what the rail pitch season, when he got hurt, it was like, oh, it's over now.

We had a good run, everybody, but we're cooked now. He must speak in one-word answers. And it's funny because Holstein, but they didn't know at this time last year, they didn't know he was going to be the starter. Pittsburgh actually brought Nate Yarnel last year because I remember talking to him. Then Holstein ended up beating him out. And this year they don't even let hold. Holstein must be a two-word answer kind of guy, maybe.

They're not bringing him around. Now, Thomas Costalanos, that's one of the quarterbacks who's going to be there. Fair to say, the Florida State PR team is going to give him a few dues and don'ts. right because he put his foot in his mouth a couple times within the last couple weeks one of my biggest regrets was when you guys broke that down unlocked on acc that was an episode i wasn't around for jackson filled in for me i think for that one so like castianos has recently said oh nick sabin is not there to save alabama he goes up against them and he carried the acc last year at boston college like oh my god i uh you know

I'm going to tell you this much. I worry about a player who lacks self-awareness to that degree. Don't get me wrong. Every athlete has a little bit of delusion in it. Every athlete believes, yeah, so what, I'm a left town? I'm going to win the Heisman a little bit, right?

Like, everybody has a little bit of that. But it gets to a point where it's like, hey, you're facing the world, buddy. Whatever you say is representing not only you, it's representing the Casalano's family, It's representing Florida State 70s. This is maybe slow your roll, pop your brakes. Again, last time we saw you, you were getting replaced,

which it don't mean a ton to me because, again, I think that O'Brien is a terrible coach. I think he's an awful coach. I'm on the record saying that a million times, and I'll say it a million more before I leave this earth, hopefully. But you were still getting replaced last time we saw you, big dog. So, you know, I hope that we don't have any more. Consolano's moments, any CBO moments, anything like that at ACC Media Day.

Please, please. You know, I enjoy people being exciting. For anybody who knows anything about me at ACC Media Days, they know me for asking very interesting and detailed questions about different guys and whatnot. So I try to poke and prod to get interesting answers. But, you know, maybe make your answer less spicy Thomas Consolano. Take a jalapeno off. We'll be over. Picture like the Florida State SID, the media director.

He's talking to Tommy right now. He's like, all right, Mr. Castellanos, there's going to be this guy who's going to be the Kenton Gibbs. You've got to be, he's going to try to bait you. Like, he's going to try to make you disparage Nick Sabin and the entire Alabama roster. Do not take the bait. Hey, listen, that's not me. That's not me. I'm interested in all charges, okay?

One of the more interesting questions I asked, which people were surprised by a couple years ago, was I was talking to Ali Jennings, who transferred from Old Dominion to Virginia Tech. And I said, normally the saying is if you can't beat them, join them. But you lit this team up. Old Dominion won the game. And yet you joined. Why? What was the deal?

You know, that's the type of stuff I'm going to act. I'm not going to say. So, Thomas, when you said they don't have Nick Saban anymore, what is it that you believe that Bama lacks that you'll be able to expose? Why do you believe Kalyn DeBore is such trash? Like, can you explain that to us? Exactly. When you said you carry, you tore up the ACC by yourself and you're no longer the fastest guy.

So you are acknowledging you were the fastest guy, best athlete in Chestnut Hill, correct? Just speaking to the mic for the people, please. I love it. Well, that's going to be a good time there. We'll talk more about that next week as we preview that. ACC Media Days are going to start on July 22nd in Charlotte. Thanks to everyone for making Locked on ACC, your first listening to your first watch. Make sure to follow Kenton at TGIF underscore Kenton.

on X, follow Lockdown Wolfpack, follow us, Lockdown Canes, and follow me at Alex Dono. And we'll talk to you guys again next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.