Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - MISTAKE?: Did Penn State Regret Letting James Franklin Go as Virginia Tech SURGES in Recruiting?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Did Penn State mess up letting James Franklin go to Virginia Tech? Of course they did, and Saco knows it, but he's going to lie to us a little bit today about it. You are Locked on College Crossover, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. This is a Locked on podcast crossover event. We've got Zach Saco from Locked on Nipney Lions, Kent and Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack and Locked on ACC. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains and Locked on. on ACC.

Starting point is 00:00:39 On this episode, could the ACC get left out of a possible super conference if some Big Ten and SEC want to join forces? Where would that leave the Atlantic Coast Conference? We'll talk season projections for Penn State and for Virginia Tech. Really, fellas, we're talking about who won that divorce? Who won the Penn State, James Franklin, divorce? Ed. Seiko, I have a feeling I know some of the things Kenton might say today.

Starting point is 00:01:07 So let me start with you. from the Penn State point of view. Are you guys still kind of monitoring, what Franklin's doing over at Virginia Tech? What are your thoughts? I mean, oh, absolutely. He takes a new job right out of the gate. So I know that I am watching,

Starting point is 00:01:23 and it pops up on my feed, right? I guess it's because it's the social media posts that I'm seeing a lot of the times or that I'm interacting with Penn State, Virginia Tech. So it's hard not to ignore James Franklin at Virginia Tech. And I think for obvious reasons, If you are, kudos to you. If you're a Penn State fan that says, hey, I've moved on.

Starting point is 00:01:43 I respect that. But when there's overlap right now between recruiting, between the players that went from Penn State to Virginia Tech, in my opinion, you can't ignore it. And there's nothing wrong. I don't think there's any shame in following what Virginia Tech does with different conversation if we're talking five to 10 years later, right? But now for the immediate shore. But who won?

Starting point is 00:02:05 Kenton doesn't even let me get to say my piece there in the intro. I look Virginia Tech should be happy. They are absolutely overachieving when it comes to expectations. But was there is, has there been a significant drop off with Penn State? But because they're their top 10 in the 24-7 recruiting rankings, top 15 in the rival. So there's a little bit of a discrepancy between those two services. But recruiting seems to be fairly similar where they get some premier players in the top 100. There's a bunch of guys that are under the radar right now that are events.

Starting point is 00:02:38 going to be four stars. I don't know about five stars per se, but solid four stars when all said and done. And that's basically it. So Virginia Tech is overachieving here, but I think Penn State's far for the course. No, when I look at this thing, I go back to the question that our good friend Seiko was so gracious as to answer last time I had, we had them here. What is the goal for Penn State. What is the goal? Because it's not, for me, I'll give you a prime example from, from what am I thinking of right now, pop culture, for those of you who don't know, right? Amma Sheper Tiana Taylor. They were married. They get a divorce and all this good stuff. And Tiana Taylor moves on. She's in a public relationship. He's Monshumper doesn't. He's just doing

Starting point is 00:03:25 his thing, whatever, whatever, whatever. And then Tiana Taylor says, makes a video saying, you know, people were saying bad things about me. He didn't protect me as my ex-husband. And everybody's saying, well, that's not his job anymore. You need to go find someone who will do that and better. So for me, when I look at Penn State, the idea is I'll even give you a year or two to adjust. I have no problem saying I'm not going to judge Penn State and who won the breakup by this year. I'm not going to do it. That's unfair.

Starting point is 00:03:55 Because Penn State, you've got to get up there to win the breakup. To me, if you win nine games but you finally beat Ohio State, but you lose games that you should win, that's a loss. That's a loss. The only way to win this breakup for Penn State in my eyes, you do better than what you would have done with James Franklin. And if that is, you have that nine-year where you beat Ohio State and then you have a couple 10 years wins, 10-win seasons,

Starting point is 00:04:25 and then you go to a national championship and you're undefeating all that, I'll say they want a breakup. But again, the bar set by Franklin was so. damn high. I think that it's a little bit delusional and they're headed into their Nebraska post-Bau-Polini era because again, that's, you just don't get 10 wins in one of the big two conferences with all due respect to the ACC of the Big 12, which we are, but you don't get 10 wins in the big two and just scoff at it. I still think both sides can win this divorce like truly and honestly. Oh, for sure. For sure. Who's winning more. Virginia Tech is winning more right now. Right now. Absolutely. But

Starting point is 00:05:03 But it's not, the thing is, like, and Kenton and I've talked about this before, it's Virginia Tech is doing like relatively better. Like they've gotten a bigger boost from this than Penn State has. But part of that are investments that are around James Franklin because, you know, Kenton and I talked about this a couple weeks ago, the Virginia Tech Athletic Department is now, or I should say their administration, is now investing over 47 million more annually into athletics. So it's been sort of this spark plug effect.

Starting point is 00:05:36 Like if you had taken James Franklin with the Brent Key budget, then, you know, things would have gotten, I think, a little bit better, but not to where they are right now, where Virginia Tech is top 20 in recruiting, which is something they were not doing in a lot. I don't know if they've ever been a top 20, even when, even when Frank Beamer was there, they weren't like out recruiting the big boys at that point. So I think a part of the reason why Virginia Tech just seems to be kind of the hotter, the hotter end of that divorce right now. is they're investing a lot more because the Franklin effect has gotten everyone really excited. There was more room for growth. There was a lot more room. Right. Because Virginia Tech was trying to avoid four and eight seasons, three and nine seasons.

Starting point is 00:06:17 So increasing your win, right, Penn State can increase its win total. But, well, I guess it can with a playoff by four, five or six wins. Virginia Tech can. They can increase and go from, right, four and eight to ten and two. And that is a significant jump. Penn State going from 9 and 3, 10, and 2 to what? 11 and 1, 12 and 0. And I'm not saying that's going to be every single season.

Starting point is 00:06:39 That's not the argument. But the argument is, as Kenton, it's not, I don't think people should be overly concerned about recruiting. And I don't think there are any issues with recruiting right now. It is the on-field product where are you beating Ohio State or Michigan, whoever that team is, Oregon, Michigan, Ohio State. They're going to rotate down in this big 10. and Penn State being one in 18, one in 18 against top 10 big 10 teams is the reason this happened.

Starting point is 00:07:09 And that part we can agree on that. And that part we can agree on. I'm not saying that Virginia Tech is, first of all, I said it's too early to say anybody's the winner to begin with. But if you do say who's trotting around town with the do hot girl and all that in the moment, who's winning more.

Starting point is 00:07:25 Of course it's Virginia Tech. Of course. It's Virginia Tech because, because Penn State. was at such a high level already, right? Maintaining the level is just maintaining the level because to get to that next echelon, you need national championships.

Starting point is 00:07:41 You don't get into that echelon of top five recruiting classes without either a national championship under your belt or the type of NIL support and the type of weather and type of environment that you cannot match, right? USC don't need a national championship. It's Los Angeles. It's the beach.

Starting point is 00:07:57 It's all that sun. It's all that good stuff. And NIL, unmasked. Happy Valley is not that with all due respect. It's just not that. So you need national championships to get there. And plus, again, Virginia Tech's recruiting, we were looking at classes that were 50th.

Starting point is 00:08:12 We were looking at 40-somethings. So you got a lot of room to grow. I agree with you a thousand percent, Seco. That is something we can bond over right now. Not our use of head and shoulders, obviously, but we can bond over the fact that when you think about what is happening and how this divorce is won, it's not won in recruiting, period.

Starting point is 00:08:33 I don't care how good Virginia Tech recruits. I don't give a damn how good Penn State recruit. Neither one of them. I don't care. What do you do on Saturdays, and since ACC is now playing football on all these other days, Thursdays and Fridays and Wednesdays, and whenever you're putting that ball down on national TV,

Starting point is 00:08:51 that's what matters. And again, I think that Penn State put themselves in just an untenable position, because again, you have to get there. You have to get over that home. Because if you get rid of Franklin and all you do for the next five years, you average 10 wins a year, that's objectively to me not success. It's just not.

Starting point is 00:09:11 You got rid of a guy to get the same guy, just in a different flavor, or to get the same results in a different flavor, rather. And that, to me, would be like, well, what did we waste all this money for? What have we raised all this hoopla and all this coaching search where we looked like we had egg on our face for 90% of it for. Well, I want to get into when we come back, realistic expectations for both of these teams. Because I also think that people are getting a little ahead of themselves

Starting point is 00:09:39 for year one for Franklin. I think he can build something sustainable there in Blacksburg. I just don't necessarily think it's going to pop the first year, the way that some people do. But I'd like to know the Penn State point of view. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new crossover event of a lockdown podcast.

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Starting point is 00:11:29 on podcast.com slash everydayer and join the everydayer club today. Thank you for making locked on ACC and locked on nitty lions your first listen on on this locked on crossover event. So all right, Zach, what have been the returns? Like we're through spring football. We're in official visit season in recruiting. How is Matt Campbell done so far? I think personally he's overachieving.

Starting point is 00:11:57 I wasn't expecting 20 commitments. I wasn't expecting a give or take top five recruiting class. again, depending on which service you use at this point in time. And a number of prospects that, oh, you know, Penn State's conceding here or, no, there's a number of prospects, but this is a similar tale. Same thing under James Franklin, he would try to find some of the diamonds in the rough, if you will. And these prospects, they were using their own scouting.

Starting point is 00:12:23 And so Matt Campbell is doing that similarly. I don't think Penn State had a recruiting problem. And some people are trying to frame it that it is the case or that Penn State is, is going to take a significant drop off in recruiting, and we haven't seen that yet. So this is a class that I probably expect around the top 15, definitely within the top 20 for sure. But that's kind of always Penn State would peak at times inside the top 10,

Starting point is 00:12:47 but never a consistent, hey, they're top five. They're top five under James Franklin. So we're seeing similar outputs here from recruiting. So it's a matter of can you win in year one? Can you win the big games? Because Kenton, I'll add to what you said as we closed. the first segment, you said you got to win national titles. I say you got to win big games because when prospects look at it, it was, Penn State was looked like they were finally starting to turn the

Starting point is 00:13:11 corner in 2016 because they beat Ohio State. But those prospects that were deciding between Ohio State and Penn State or Michigan and Penn State, it was okay, if you win that second or third game, then Penn State's now in the upper echelon. And they never did it. They never did it. And that's the idea here is you win the big game or you win more. Because, I agree. Let's say it's 2 and 18 instead of 1 and 18. Everybody's time was wasted here with moving on from James Franklin. But what if that becomes, again, five or six wins? You win a third of the time.

Starting point is 00:13:45 Is that completely unreasonable to win a third of those big games? I don't think it's unreasonable at all. But again, I think that it's about maintaining the consistency of winning the games that you should win as well, which to me, that has been, and this is no disrespect. to Matt Campbell, that has been to some extent his Achilles Hill. You can't tell me they were supposed to lose to Colorado last year. You can't tell me that made sense. They were banged up a little bit.

Starting point is 00:14:13 They were banged up. I agree. But I'm saying that's been the theme with Matt Campbell. You could say, okay, they were banged up last year. That's fine. Not mad at that at all. But again, every single year you go through, what was the excuse for Kansas a couple years ago. That wasn't a really, really good Kansas team. That was a really good Iowa State team.

Starting point is 00:14:34 That was one of the best Iowa State teams we'll see it quite some time. And you lose a game that you shouldn't. So is the tradeoff worth it if you end up losing some games that you shouldn't, but you do get those big games here and there. That's my, my whole thing about this has never been Penn State is de facto a loser. I'm, Donna will be the first person to tell you. I've come on this air plenty of times and said, hey, I was wrong. On Locked on World. Wolfpack, I've come on there and told everybody with Will Wade left when everybody in the university told me, oh, there's nothing to worry about here. I got on there and said, my sources were wrong. You know, I'm okay with saying that. I'm okay with Penn State going on

Starting point is 00:15:13 and becoming a powerhouse and dominating it or not even just becoming like the next Georgia or something, but just having a year or two where it's like, all right, we're close. But to me, a year or two where you're close, I mean, were they not two drew Aller balls away from a national championship a couple years ago. Like that so so again, I'm looking at this and saying the comparison levels, Virginia Tech doesn't have to jump very high to win the divorce because you got them out the trailer part as opposed to, you know, with Penn State, they're up here in this ivory tower. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:15:49 They're in the penthouse. That's what they've been chilling at. And now you want to buy the whole building. That's a very different task. Like get one single family owned by the whole building. So again, the recruiting. it has been great. Matt Campbell has done his thing. He's done, he's made entrails in my home state of Michigan, get some pretty good recruits out of there. So I'm, hey, watch out. Come visit Cass Tech. We do well up at

Starting point is 00:16:10 Penn State. But in all seriousness, it's a, it's a situation where I think Campbell will do well. I'm intrigued to see how well. Yeah, let's talk a little Virginia Tech, though, and Kenton, you alluded to it, that the bar has been so low for the past several years. And listen, I know they have a lot of transfers. including a lot of former Penn State players and the new sheriff in town with James Franklin. But the bar has been so low in recent years that I'm looking at Virginia Tech schedule. And they've got an over under of seven and a half wins this year.

Starting point is 00:16:42 And like Kent, I've said it before, I'm not sure if they can get to seven, let alone over seven, just because, you know, relative to the ACC, this is not an easy schedule this year. And Virginia Tech, obviously not favored to win the ACC. Miami's a heavy favorite.

Starting point is 00:16:58 and then SMU, then Louisville. Most of the books have Clemson and then Virginia Tech sitting around 5th. But Virginia Tech's schedule, I mean, the early non-con games are home against VMI, home against Old Dominion, which could be tricky. They play at Maryland, at Boston College. That one should be easy. A home against Pitt will not be easy. At Cal could be a very difficult game.

Starting point is 00:17:21 Home against Georgia Tech could be a really tough game. At Clemson, tough game. At SMU, really tough game. Home against Stanford. that should be a win at Miami, really tough game, home against Virginia, which will be a tough game. So it's like anywhere, I don't know, guys, anywhere between like five to maybe eight wins if they hit their ceiling. But below seven would not surprise me, fellas. Can I just point something out real quick about this schedule?

Starting point is 00:17:48 Just how many ghosts there are for James Franklin? Oh, please. Old Dominion, former offensive coordinator at Penn State, Ricky Ronnie, Maryland, obviously, one of his, he was the offensive coordinator there, supposed to be the coach in waiting. That's always going to be personal to him. That's why Maryland was always circled on the schedule. Boston College, Bill O'Brien was the coach before James Franklin at Penn State,

Starting point is 00:18:11 right? And then Pitt, well, we can't, the whole debate around Penn State's afraid of Pitt, they'll never schedule them. And I think of Davos-Sweeney, right? Penn State and Clemson were kind of always compared to each other over these past few seasons and fitting that that was a projected playoff matchup, and they end up meeting each other six and six. and the bad boy mowers bulls.

Starting point is 00:18:30 So we got them in the postseason, just not in the playoff. But that's what I think about Virginia Tech schedule is look at all of this storybook moments for James Franklin and ghosts and parallels from his time at Penn State. And a lot of them, not just one or two. We're talking like five or six. Yeah. When you get to this level, I think you're going to see that a lot. But Dono, I'm with you on this. I don't see eight the easy way here.

Starting point is 00:18:56 I don't see it. I think seven and a half was a really good number by Vegas. I would have said it at six and a half personally if I were if I were doing it. Well, here's the thing, Donald, do you feel comfortable fading under? Would you feel comfortable right now saying, give me that under right now? I take the under. Under seven and a half, I would take it. No, I'm not saying would you take it.

Starting point is 00:19:15 I'm saying, is this a bet that you feel comfortable? Oh, when we're like, oh, they're giving away money, right? No. So for example, last year when UNC, I believe their underover was six and a half or seven to have something like that. I ran. I sprinted to go get that under. I'm not even a better. He didn't just go to fandual.com. He ran to the Fandual headquarters. He sprinted there. With my wallet in hand, please, take my money. Take it. But, you know, this is one of those things where you're absolutely right, Donno.

Starting point is 00:19:45 This does look like a fairly tough schedule. I wouldn't be shocked if they pulled eight. I wouldn't be shocked. The only question I have for James Franklin that he did. did not answer a Penn State, which he will have to answer immediately. Not tomorrow, not in weeks, immediately averaging the tech. Have you finally learned how to develop a damn quarterback? Okay. Have you finally learned to get your quarterback play to the next level? If it wasn't Trace McSorily, who can you say, oh, yeah, he came into Penn State as

Starting point is 00:20:18 like, man, and he left as the guy? We had multiple guys come into Penn State as he's the guy. He's the next one. he's going to be the new great hope. And then we were all left saying, what was that? What I guess? Okay. So that question has to get answered.

Starting point is 00:20:36 That's the most important position in football. All these rules have been crafted to make that position look better. And James Franklin still is like Ricky Bobby in his first interview where he's like, I don't know what to do with my hands whenever it's time to develop a quarterback. Wait, let me ask Zach, your opinions on Ethan Grunkum, who, you know, he brought his guy over from Penn State. It seems like he had a pretty good spring from what we heard about Virginia Tech. I mean, what do you think his ceiling is?

Starting point is 00:21:04 Yeah, and Kent makes a really good point. I'm sure you can find a ton of our previous shows where I was trying to defend Drew Allen and Kenton said, no, he's, he is, he is not it. Ken wouldn't have it. No, you were absolutely spot on. So I'm glad the questions carry over here. And the thing is, Runkumeyer looked so much better in the, in the final. quarter of the season. Those final four games, he looks so much better. So if he takes a step

Starting point is 00:21:31 backwards or he doesn't take a, he doesn't take a step forward, just part for the course or looks worse, that is more of an indictment on James Franklin. And again, goes back into there's, there's a litany of reasons. It's not just, oh, well, they went 10 and 2 every year. It was some of these other storylines that people don't talk about. It's a lot of the stuff that's under the surface and that's one of them is that a five-star quarterback comes in. He gets worse. That's weird. Sean Clifford never takes that massive step forward. Trace McSorley was the last quarterback that was a true superstar for Penn State. Why is that? Christian Hakenberg, first five-star. That was kind of the same Drew Aller track. So Grankhammeyer looked a lot better. Looks like he has promised. Could be a draftable

Starting point is 00:22:15 quarterback. If he doesn't take that step forward, yeah, that goes into Kenton's concern. I'm going to tell you, it's a lot. Oh, go ahead. I'm just going to tell you. I'm going to tell you, it's a lot like finding out that one of the partners in that divorce got a drinking problem. And you're like, if you could get that bottle down, if you could just put that bottle down, you'll be all right. Listen, James Franklin, you need to develop a quarterback. If you can't put the bottle down, you will lose this divorce, brother. That's just what this is.

Starting point is 00:22:43 And that's, you know, obviously it's not exactly the same. Not saying he has substance abuse problem. I'm saying it's a really big thing that is very apparent he needs to do well. If he still can't develop a quarterback at Virginia Tech, I think that's the one path that is very clear for Virginia Tech to lose this divorce, where they end up getting this golden goose, it seems, fall into their lap. Well, let's talk conferences because, you know, Kenton and I have the, I guess I'll say privilege of covering one of the more volatile conferences in sports, the ACC's. A couple of years ago they got sued by their own members. Seiko's representing the Big Ten. And, you know, what happens if we see a super conference?

Starting point is 00:23:26 Does the ACC get left behind? You want to keep it locked right here on this locked on nitty lions locked on ACC crossover. Thank you for making us your first listen. For your next listen, make sure you check out all of our other shows. If you're a locked on nitty lions every day or make sure you check out locked on ACC and vice versa. I think all of us take a lot of pride and passion in our work covering our teams and covering our conferences. And speaking on those conferences, SACO, you know, one of the concerns for the ACC and the Big 12 would be, you know, if the, we clearly see that the SEC and the Big 10,

Starting point is 00:24:08 they're the ones that are running this thing, right? They decide how big the playoff is. They decide how many auto bids there are. The ACC and the Big 12 are kind of just along for the ride. And we know that the Power 2 have this leverage where, you know, if the NCAA or the other members of the alleged power four, you know, aren't swinging in the direction they want to swing things in. They could maybe, and they've kind of already done this, like threatened to break off and do their own thing. Do you think we ever see that day, Zako? Yeah, I think we do in the next decade or so. I think the money or the potential of money that the Big Ten, that the powers that be at the SEC and the Big Ten think that they can get because the NCAA just kind of continues to be an asset that deprecise.

Starting point is 00:24:55 if it wasn't anything other than that, right? But it just kind of keeps taking a bigger step down. And the Big Ten and the SEC figure out, okay, well, there's more money on the table that could be had. And instead, it goes to the NCAA and towards projects that don't really benefit us when we're carrying all of this. For the ACC, yeah, the the the the ACC itself should be concerned. Absolutely. But when it comes to Miami of Florida, Clemson, Kenton, I want to know your take on it because when I think of NCC, state, I would like to think that they would be taken in by the Big 10 SEC super conference, right?

Starting point is 00:25:31 This is what's going to happen when these two conferences break off. There's going to be an open invitation to get other major names to join that super conference. Because it's not just going to be the Big 10 schools and the SEC schools. Miami of Florida is going to want him. I think of Texas Tech. With Texas Tech try to keep the Big 12 alive, absolutely not. Same thing with the hurricanes. And then if I'm North Carolina, NC State, I would be trying to.

Starting point is 00:25:55 like all heck to survive and get into that mega conference. Yeah, I mean, in terms of whether or not NC State has enough to get into the mega conference, I think they're batting just above the Mendoza line. Just enough. I think they're just there. They're like last four end or whatever you want to say. Exactly, exactly. But I think that there's something even more divisive than a mega conference on the way.

Starting point is 00:26:21 I think we're looking at the balkingization of college football, ladies and gentlemen. I think that more and more teams, the Penn States of the world, the Michigan's of the world, the Ohio states of the world, the Georgia, the Bamas, so on and so forth, they're all going to look at what the ACC has done, which is a miniature version of that. SACO, just a quick question. When Penn State went to the playoffs, what percentage of that money did they keep from that run that ended just short? So they had, I know they had over 80 million. I can't give you percentages, but it was, it was. was just under what Ohio State made in terms of the TV deal, something like $88 million. They brought in from that season.

Starting point is 00:27:02 They bought in $88 million from that total season. Dono, how much did Miami bring in from just that playoff alone? Nothing else, just the playoff. Oh, I don't remember. Was it like 100 mil or something? Because they got to keep all of it. That's the biggest point. That's the biggest point.

Starting point is 00:27:18 When Penn State went to the playoff, they had to say, here you go, Wisconsin, here you go Rutgers, here you go Purdue, here you go Illinois, here you go, every single school got their gram out that bag. I am not a drug user. It's just a reference. Everybody got their little bit out, right? The ACC on the other hand, Miami said, this is ours. Hey, thank you. This is ours. This is all ours, right? And that's a part of what the ACC did to appease their constituents and whatnot because folks were suing and threatening to leave and whatnot. But I think that we may see that at a high level because look at what Notre Dame has going on, right? They skip a bowl game.

Starting point is 00:28:03 Who can find everything? Who can find? Exactly. It's all there. It's all there. And I think that a Penn, now when we talk about the Mendoza line for what and what, I think Penn State is at the bottom of that line where you go independent because people forget, Penn State was one of the last independents before they joined the Big Ten.

Starting point is 00:28:21 And they were doing just fine. So I think Penn State is like the bottom, like one of the last teams that I can say, we go independent and make more on our own. We go independent and do this thing, how we want to do it, schedule who we want to schedule. Yeah, we'll hold a couple of rivalries. Yeah, we'll throw a bone to pit every five to seven years and give them that game that they've been begging and clamoring for. And then we're going to go on bottom of our lives.

Starting point is 00:28:42 So the Super Conference thing is possible. And I could be wrong here. This is all speculation. I do not have sources telling me this. But I just know the nature of people wanting as much money as possible for as little work as possible. Oh, yeah. With as many, with as few constraints as possible. And think about it.

Starting point is 00:29:01 You can skip a bowl game when you want. You can skip any NIT or any tournaments you don't want to go to. You don't have to answer to anybody else's TV deal except yours. You don't have to say, well, I can't play this game on Amazon because ESPN needs their cut or the big, the, what is it, Fox Sports needs their cut. But all you got to say is, actually, this is our thing. We're all good here. So I am concerned about a super conference. I'm even more interested to see if volcanization happens in college football.

Starting point is 00:29:32 I mean, I think both of those things, with it eventually trending to super conferences, it just makes too much sense. And I know, like, it would very go against the historic spirit of college athletics. But at the end of the day, a lot of brands don't make money. And, you know, if you're in the Big Ten and you're like, hey, why do, why does, Rutgers and why do Purdue make the same percentage of revenue that I do? That doesn't make any sense, right? You know, if you're in the SEC, I guess, well, the SEC's more well-rounded now. I think they're overrated. But for a lot of years, you'd say, I'm Alabama. Why is Vanderbilt making the same share

Starting point is 00:30:06 that I am? So I think it only makes sense. Mississippi State, yeah, like, eventually I think we're going to move into that direction where the bigger properties go on their own. If it's a 40, 50-team super conference. Like, again, I know it really goes against what college sports used to be about, but we're more than halfway to that point now anyway. I think eventually we're going to get there. Yeah, I couldn't agree more, man. I don't see a world where the conferences stay as they are, and I don't see a world where, let's say that, you know, a Miami were to leave the ACC, a Florida state were to leave the ACC, and they were to say, hey, we'll agree to join your conference so long as we get the same deal in terms of we keep all our playoff.

Starting point is 00:30:47 So long as we keep the revenue from viewership and all that, because I'm not trying to split my revenue share equally with Kentucky football. Not, nah, don't want to do that. Not interested in that, brother. So I think that this will be a very interesting thing to watch play out over the next few years. But for the sake of us, Dono, we got to hold on to this thing as long as we can. The ACC is going to be just fine. There's no war in Bossing, say everything is good here.

Starting point is 00:31:15 I mean, I'm going to I'm going to go by the trademark to Locked on Super League just so we have it in our back pocket, Kenton. And I can go to David Locke. Get the domain. I'm going to go to David Lock. I'm like, hey, David, I already, I was proactive. I've got this. And me and Kenton are ready to host this thing. Just tell us go. Yeah, we already good, man.

Starting point is 00:31:36 You know, we'll get out ahead of this thing because unlike the ACC, we didn't have a Tar Hill graduate messing us up and putting us with Raycott. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I don't want to get us a copyright strike or anything like that. That's not what I meant. Oh, man. Well, listen, I had a blast. I think we all did.

Starting point is 00:31:53 Make sure you guys check out Zach Seiko at Zach underscore Seiko on X and locked on Nittney Lions. Check Kenton out. Locked on Wolfpack and Locked on ACC, TGIF underscore Kenton. Check me out. Locked on Cains, locked on ACC and at Alex Dono on X. And we'll talk to again next time on another episode here on this Lockedon podcast network, the number one sports podcast network, your team every day.

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