Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Report Reveals Why The Big Ten And SEC DON'T WANT Florida State | Why NC State Can Win The ACC

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Brett McMurphy from Action Network reports that the Big Ten and SEC are not interested in adding Florida State and Clemson. On FSU, his sources say it doesn’t make financial sense, those conference are done expanding for now, and they consider Florida State to be a “disruptive partner.” According to the report, the SEC or Big Ten would only add the Seminoles in the event of the ACC completely falling apart, making them free agents. Hosts Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs wonder if McMurphy’s sources have reason to not be entirely truthful about the situation. Perhaps they are downplaying FSU as part of a negotiating ploy or dismissing them in order to avoid tampering charges. If the report is fully true, this would be very bad news for the Seminoles. Donno and Gibbs preview the NC State Wolfpack for the upcoming football season. NC State can rely on a solid defense, but people are sleeping on their offense after adding QB Grayson McCall, WR Noah Rogers and RB Jordan Waters. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

New bombshell report explains why the Big Ten and SEC don't want Florida State. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Shout out to the everydayers for making Locked on ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team, every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. Make every moment more.

His playoffs wind down. The sport stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, Fandual is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily. That's right. There's something for everyone every day all summer long. Visit Fandual.com to get started. On this episode, we will be previewing the North Carolina State Wolfpack, why they can win the ACC, what obstacles could be in their way. But we like to continue on this soap opera first. that is conference realignment. And we've, we've quoted Brett McMurphy before from Action Network on this show. He's a very good reporter.

He's been at it for decades. He's currently with Action Network. He's been out at all the conference media days. I'll probably run into him at the ACC next week. And McMurphy, I'll read you his ex post. I've also read the article that goes with it. And I've watched McMurphy interviewed talking about this. So I'm pretty well versed on what McMurphy has to say on this matter.

he said, quote, Big 10 SEC, unlikely to add Florida state if it leaves ACC and ACC survives, sources told action network. Big 10 and SEC don't want FSU because adding FSU doesn't make financial sense, no desire to expand. And quote, they've been a disruptive partner, sources said. So Kent, there's a lot, just in that tweet, there's a lot to unpack. There's a lot to unpack from Mc Murphy's article. where would you like to start on that report? I mean, really and truly, where could you go wrong by starting in that report? If we're looking at this thing from a fully honest standpoint,

if we're looking at this thing from a standpoint where we're saying, hey, not to bash Florida State, but also not to kiss their throne either, these reports, there's a lot of speculation flying around. There's a lot of this, a lot of that. But I'm not going to lie and say it doesn't feel at least a little bit, interesting or maybe even good to see some of these some of the things that I had predicted coming the past do I think the SEC or big 10 will have Florida State absolutely but like I said when I originally said one of those conferences will add them at a discounted rate everybody said I was a

madman and Florida State would have no reason to take a discounted rate and I said which is more likely the conferences get together and bump heads and compete the conferences that have already formed an alliance together or would they get together and collude and say, hey, I don't want to pay them 50. I don't want to pay them 50 either, friend. Well, let's go ahead and pay them 30. Let's pay them 30, pay them partial and keep men because their only option is to stay where they are, because I know everybody keeps saying that the situation is too toxic. There's no coming back. I promise you, when the money gets, when the money gets low, as they say, it's cheaper to keeper. You know, there's an old joke in the community I grew up in.

When tax season come around, all of a sudden, all these halfway present fathers want their families back because they know what those refunds look like for a single parent. So what I'm saying here is this is a moment where we're going to find out who actually has the information and who doesn't. And like I said, I was not basing it off of any information saying that they're likely going to have to take a depreciated cut. I was not basing off information I received from other people.

I was basing it off of common sense. However, now seeing these reports saying neither conference wants them and their only option left is the Big 12, let's just say the Big 12 knows that they're the only option left. What then is the motivation to go get private equity money and be the Red Herring 12 as opposed to the Allstate Big 12? You know, there's a very, very big difference between those two. And so I'm looking at this situation. It's not looking good for Florida State.

hopefully these reports are all fluff because again, I don't wish no ill will on Florida State. I don't wish no ill will on Cliffs. I hope they land in conferences they want to be in at a rate they want to be in. It just doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. Yeah, and I don't want anyone to think that like you or I are trying to attack Florida State because let me go to the other side of this. There are obviously incentives as to why. And when I was listening to McMurphy being interviewed, you know, he mentioned he's talked to university chancellors.

He's talked to officials from various universities. He's talked to conference officials. Obviously, there would be incentives for people in those positions not to be completely truthful, right? Because, A, you are not, if there's going to be a negotiation to add these teams, right, you want to negotiate from a position where, yeah, we're not that interested, you know, where you're not, hey, oh, we'd love to have them. We'll pay whatever it takes to Florida State and Clemson. There are reasons why you would posture. a little bit. And then, of course, also, if University Chancellor's Conference officials, if they were going to talk openly about adding new members who aren't like currently free agents,

they're still fighting in court, there are legal reasons why you wouldn't openly talk about. Yeah, we'd love to bring them in. So I can see that side of it as well, that there could be reasons why. And I don't doubt McMurphy's reporting. Let me say that because he's been doing this at a high level for way too long. But you can say that maybe not. all of the information he's getting is it is at face value there. But then there's a couple of other interesting points from McMurphy that that I'd like to unpack because one of one of the things he brings up is that, you know,

basically the Big Ten and the SEC like they apparently don't want to just like steal these teams from a conference. But if the ACC were to collapse, then that would change the argument. So this puts more to Clayton in a position where again, if everything in the Mc Murphy reported true, they now not only have to try to get out of the conference, but they need to try to get out at such a low price tag

that what something McMurphy said was they could create a conga line. If they can win in court and get out at like a really low rate, then other teams could also get out because they could afford to get out. So if the conga line is created, maybe the ACC implodes. Florida State and Clemson now have to root for that to happen. And then on the ACC side of things, Kenton, this makes the stakes so much greater for the ACC. It's like, okay, not only are they going to try to leave,

they're going to try to leave nothing behind. They're going to try to destroy us. So now the ACC, as we've said it before, they're fighting for their existence, right? Why are they fighting these cases in court? They want to make sure that if Florida State and Clemson get out, the prices are so high for them to get out that you're not going to have four or five other schools,

Conga lining out the door. here's the problem with that donno there's only one problem and i hate to say this if if florida state and clums are in a situation where they have to destroy the conference on their way out in order to get paid they're not getting paid let me tell you why we are talking about two of the biggest brands in football and whether or not there's a feasible landing spot for them if these if this is what we're saying about the biggest brand what in the hell do you think we're going to say about NC State if they decided to leave, about Miami if they decide to leave, about USC if they decide to leave, about Boston College if they decided to leave. These teams

are, these schools aren't done. They're not done. They're not slow. They don't, I have said for a long time, it is more than handshakes and high fives and good feelings that holds the conference together. It's a contractual agreement that works out, honestly, although the pay cut may, or although the pay amount, The payout may not be what it is for the Big Ten and the SEC. They're here because it works. If anybody had that type of cash to where they could say, I don't feel like being a partner this renewed deal, they would have just did that.

They would have just said, when renewal was up last time, we're out. We don't have nothing to do with this. We're going to another place. even if the number that they can leave for turns out to be a hundred bucks, guess what? You would still have to say, give me the three teams that you would most likely say form the conga line out, Donald.

Give me the three teams after Clemson's divorce state you would see. UNC, Miami, and Virginia, just based on what the rhetoric has been. Do you think any of those three teams have a commanding enough presence to demand the spot in the SEC or big ten? You know, I would like to say Miami, but obviously I don't have any actual intel. In fact, a lot of the reports that I've heard indicate they don't have a soft landing spot there. And I don't know. Some people said that about UNC, but I've not heard that verified. So all I'm saying is, again, regardless of what the payout is, these schools have to find a landing spot. And if the big. biggest conferences are saying no to the top dogs. The top dogs need to realize, you know what? Maybe it's better to sit on top of a mountain of ashes than to go be in the middle of nothing.

And by the middle of nothing, I don't mean the conferences that they're going to or nothing. I mean you're not going to get a full payout, which means you're probably going to be making less than what you would have made to get a full payout win in 2013. So you would have lost money in essence for five years to then have to believe that you're going to make up such a great difference in the five years after that. Because mind you, the ACC is up for renewal in 2036 or 2035, correct? So you would have to break even or exceed them in those five years as opposed to what you lost in order to again, just break even. Just make this make sense. there's no conga line coming. If the idea is that Florida State and Clemson

could find places in the SEC in the Big Ten where they'll be fully vested right away cool, if the idea is the Big 12 is willing and has shown, hey, we're going to do what needs to be done to get these teams here at all costs, they're going to be the richest. Fine. If this situation is panning out the way that these latest reports are painting the picture to be,

it's going to be a grim and ugly picture. down there in Clemson and down there in Talasian. Well, and part of that ugly picture, and this was said specifically about Florida State, not for Clemson, and I want to break this down on the other side, is the disruptive partner part of it and what that means. And we will be breaking down NC State as well. And all that means you still have a lot coming up. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC.

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So head over to fanduel.com and start making the most of your summer. FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball. Thank you so much for making locked on ACC your first listen today. Make sure you make Kenton and I's other shows. Locked on Wolfpack, Locked on Cains, your second and third listens today. He and Grayson break down NC State at a high level. I break down everything Miami. So make sure you check those shows out as well.

So the other part of the McMurphy report, Kenton, and I heard McMurphy also clarifying this in an interview is, you know, when he talks about why the SEC and Big Ten, according to this report, don't want FSU because adding FSU doesn't make financial sense. No desire to expand. He says, and, quote, they've been a disruptive partner, sources said. And McMurphy talked about just, you know, obviously, you're, I guess by definition, you're disruptive when you're suing the conference. you're in, even though Florida State, of course, feels justified in doing that, but they've been disruptive in that sense. He brought up, you know, the accusations of Florida State is made against Swofford and the Sun and the nepotism deal and, you know, all the noise Florida State has been making. And again, of course, in me saying all this, Florida State fans understandably would say,

we're making this noise because this is what we have to do to get out of an unfair situation. but at the same time, Kenton, I guess there could be validity in what McMurphy is saying is that other conferences are going to look at that and say, okay, can we really trust them as a partner if we bring them into our league? Donald, this is insane. Imagine if somebody would have said. Imagine if somebody would have had the foresight to say, hmm, other conferences may look at this and say, why will we want to bring them in when they just left their last conference?

What happens if another conference makes more money than us on the deal? Right. If only somebody would have said it, Doc, if only that person perhaps were dashingly handsome and bald so much so that you could see their thoughts and you could see them saying this before it came out. You know, I'm just saying. But to that extent, I have made this clear from the jump. And this was, again, I tell you when I have information from the inside, I tell you what speculation. I did not have any information from the inside that the Big Ten. felt this way. But I knew, again, based on common sense, it's, you're making a lot of noise.

You're making a lot of mess. And again, whether or not you believe these conferences are a tier above, tier below, whatever the case you may be, or whatever the case may be, these guys go golfing together. Their kids go to the same schools. They're going to be the guy. And of course, that's hyperbole to an extent. I know that's, you know, Swofford and Swanky and Phillips kid, they're obviously in different cities, but you get what I'm saying. These guys are more likely to collaborate than slit each other's throats. That's just the reality of what we're looking at. And lo and behold, we are watching that collaboration at work once again because as a school,

as an institution, you are bucking the system. And like I said at the beginning of these lawsuits, you are, if these cases were to be won by Florida State and Clemson. You're setting a very interesting precedent for a lot of businesses that basically says, hey, you can't exploit people in business deals anymore, which I'm sorry to tell you, interest rates on houses are nearly 8%. It's kind of part of the deal in America. It's kind of, you know, part of the whole game.

You know, you hear about artists who sell millions of streams and all that, getting the $3,000 of bands and being stuck under that. table forever. It's part of the deal. If you sign the deal, regardless of how terrible it is, you put pen to paper. If you sign for a payday loan, you put pen the paper. And I know what people are going to say, Ken, that's not the same as a conference being derelicking their duties. And to some extent, I get you. I get the point. However, just because the volume of money is bigger does not mean a bad contract is all of a sudden, you know, hey, I can find my way out as I can wiggle my way out of it. So, objectively speaking,

here this whole disruptive partner narrative is unsurprising and unsurprising and kind of like a you know, I mean, this this now being the case and it being clear that the conferences are all kind of looking at each other saying, hey, I don't want my guys leaving. You don't want your guys leaving. We're cool with the hierarchy as it is. We'll try to gain some foot in here and there. Let's not rock the boat for each other. Makes a ton of sense. Yeah. And, you know, Florida State needs the Big Ten more than the Big Ten needs Flores State. I think that that should be pretty obvious at this point. And I'm not saying that they can't add value.

I believe that they can. I believe Clemson can add value to that conference. But at the same time, it's like you're talking about what is already a mega conference with Ohio State who look like they're about to be world beaters this year on paper. And Michigan, who just won the national championship last year. And oh, they're adding Oregon. And they're adding USC and UCLA and Washington. So that's, you know, that's obviously, no matter how this plays out, the Big Ten is going to be a really good shape, right?

Whether they had Florida State clubs or not, whereas Florida State, they need a home. They're suing their credit. Like, they need to get out of there. So one side definitely needs the other side more than vice versa. Yeah. And that's in the fact that that is now the case. Dono, you and I have discussed this ad nauseum. Somebody did not do their due diligence.

And that's, that's as gently as I can put this. that is as gently as I can put this in terms of the people did not realize all the dominoes that would fall in the ways in which they would fall because it's very clear. If those dominoes were put into consideration, these teams would have said, you know what?

The deal may be bad, but we already got an unequal split by, hey, you win and you get paid more. Let's just go out there and win some ball games. Because now you're in a situation where again, you're stuck, you're stuck. But before, at least, you were stuck with the hypothetical of, well, could they leave? Maybe they could leave.

Now you're stuck with the reality of I'm paying millions to get out and that path better had worked. But not only are you in a situation where that path better at work, if these reports are true, which again, people don't understand how pro Florida State and Clemson I am. I really hope these reports are lives. Because if they are true, Florida State and Clemson will have potentially backed themselves in the corner to where they're going to leave the conference just because of optics. They're going to leave just because of optics and they're going

to take a financial hit. Now, I'm not one of those people that says, oh, college football is better when this team is good or when that team is good. But I do believe that college football is better when you don't have teams making a bungling fool of themselves. I think that that can be agreed on by everybody. When you're already taking out loans

that you're going to be paying until my key, are at, you know, probably walking around forming full sentences and whatnot. Lord forbid if we talk about your little one, he's probably going to be on somebody's football team shaking and breaking them up, you know. And so. He'll be the equipment manager though, probably something. Well, you know, shaking and breaking the flex helmets ain't bad either. But you get my point.

This is a situation where you already have a somewhat of a debt trap darn near in one deal. And now you're going to have to find more money. to lead to either go lateral or below, again, this is not about my care for Clemson or care for Florida. I genuinely hope that these reports are wrong. Because if these reports are right, boy, it's going, again, it's, it's, this is darn near inexcusable in terms of how much money these universities are going to spend to make less money because of the perception as opposed to reality. Well, we'll go from Florida State to NC State when we come. I'm back, why the Wolfpack can absolutely win the ACC this year.

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You know, Kenton, NC State, of course, has built a reputation as very strong defensive football team. I don't want anyone to sleep on the Wolfpack offense this year because I think the, what I'm going to call an upgrade at quarterback to Grayson McCall, who was very sought after coming out of Coastal Carolina. You have Casey Concepcion returning, who is the ACC's offensive rookie of the year last year you add noel rogers at wide out from ohio state you add jordan waters at running back from nc state i i think nc state's offense the defense is going to do them a lot of favors this year but i'm not

sleeping on that oh either so when you think about why the wopac can win it all you look at a defense that tony gibson we've seen it through multiple injuries to superstars i mean guys that were legit you know um any defensive award you can name payton wilson's won it and there were years where he was down. He was that they were down to Drake Thomas, not no disrespect to Drake Thomas. Lord knows how much I love the man and how he gets down on the field. But there were times where you went from this all world linebacking corps of Payton Wilson, Isaiah Moore and Drake Thomas to just having Drake Thomas to those three available.

They still find ways to win football game. We're talking about an NC State defense that bought in one of their best defensive back recruiting classes ever, ever. I believe it was two years ago, and last year's class wasn't bad either. So, you know, obviously those guys are growing up and getting a little bit better and, you know, doing things in a way that should be beneficial, especially in the Porter, we're getting the guy like G.I. Carter or Jaha I Carter, rather, who was very, very special at Syracuse when he was there during his time.

But like you said, the offense, the offense is seemingly going to be the difference. And I mean this very thoroughly when I say this. I don't think there was a single position group that did not see massive upgrades. On the offensive line, you get Zee Kerald, one of the best players in the portal period, to be on your offensive line. You get Noah Rogers, a former All-American who has not one, not two, not three, but four years of eligibility left. Obviously, you get one of the best gets in the portal in Grayson McCall, who, again, don't let the numbers from last year fool you, okay? Tim Beck could not coach his way out of a paper bag. I don't know how he keeps getting bigger and better jobs.

I need his agent immediately. Him and Matt Canada, if their agents want to call me, hey, give me the deals y'all been giving them and my life is yours. But anyway, in all seriousness, every single position has been upgraded. The wide receiver position, again, Nora Rogers and Wesley Grimes and a ton of guys who can make a ton of plays out there, the running back position, and Jordan Waters, he may not be the biggest guy, but the guy looks like he doesn't have an ounce of fat on him.

I mean, that guy's just muscle on muscle on muscle. And then you're talking about the tight end position with the tackle breaking against tight end in the country with Justin Jolie. You're looking all around at positions where you get better, get better, get better, get better, and you're saying to yourself, why would I not expect the team to get better? Yeah.

Well, and another thing that I look at where NC State can absolutely, And they would obviously be surprising some people if they won the ACC because they have the fifth best odds to win the conference. But Kenton, there are four teams that have better odds to win the ACC than NC State. And that's Clemson, Florida State, Miami, and Louisville. And they only play one out of those four that are ahead of them in those preseason odds. And that's Clemson on the road, which will be one of the tougher games on the schedule. You know, the other toughest game on the schedule is not going to count towards the conference standing.

and that's against Tennessee week two. So I look at the conference schedule outside of at Clemson, which will not be an easy out, of course, home against Wake Forest, home against Syracuse, at Cal, home against Stanford, home against Duke, at Georgia Tech, who were not sleeping on and at North Carolina.

Now, NC State has owned that rivalry, as you well know, in recent years. So that's a very manageable conference schedule. They've owned that rivalry. Have they? Oh, man, you wouldn't know how. how those boys in baby blue talk. They still talk about wins that happen when both teams weren't provided

scholarship. The helmets were soft. You know, I'm just saying a guy like me wouldn't have been able to get in either college then for reasons. We're not going to talk about on there. But in all seriousness, you know, this is a schedule for them that we talk about a lot of teams in the ACC having relatively soft schedules. But it's very interesting to me, the amount of teams that are kind of on the bubble or

on the brink that have very soft schedules. It's almost as if, and I'm not a kid. accusing anybody anything. It's almost as if somebody looked at the favorites and said, maybe, maybe you're doing something to the conference, the conference doesn't like. I bet what, right, exactly, yeah. Maybe we'll make it a little easier on the teams that are nipping at your heels per se. Because I'll tell you what, NC State and, again, multiple other teams that are right there on the cuff, have schedules that you look at. And you're like, man, this thing is charm and soft. And so, you know, I've talked about this before and I've talked about

this in terms of really, really good teams and some of the front runners in the conference, this season for NC State will be about their maturity as a team. Do you know what to do when you're the favorite? Because that's, to me, all the teams that disappoint a lot, and I'm sorry to have to take here, Donno, you know, I don't have no problem with the canes. But for years, the maturity level not only in the locker room as far as the players, but the maturity amongst the coaches has come into question because if you have more talent and you're not winning, that becomes a clear, hey,

there's something wrong with your mindset. You're not doing this right from the neck up. That's where you're losing the game at because you got to, your belt loops are a little bit further apart than everybody else's. Your guys run a little bit faster than everybody else's, and yet somehow their guys are always dancing in the end zone. NC State is going to have to have a mature year because they have the talent. They have the horses in the stable to do it.

They have the horses in the stable to wear two games. They may be underdogs all year, too. And in those two games, you could feasibly lose both, and there's a million possibilities for you to still get to Charlotte. So it's going to be about that. And the last thing I'll say in terms of obstacles, it's all about health. All about health.

As this WIPAC team is, outside of the wide receiver, or really pass catching court, because I think they're going to afford for a couple of those past cars to go down, especially of the guys that they bought in. I think that this freshman class of receivers in terms of Anderson, Jackson, Jonathan Paler, who's a guy? I'm waiting.

I'm salivating for when he gets in NCAA football 25. I'm telling you, I notice there's players who weren't in the game yet who opted in. I'm waiting for these roster updates. You and me both, but I'm telling you that that Paylor Jet Sweep is going to feed generations. You understand? I'm going to make some kids rage quit with that play. But in all seriousness, outside of that position, they don't have a ton of depth. in other places where I can see like, oh, yeah, if your top guy goes down there, you'll be

just fine. The lineback and core, obviously, they're expecting very young guys to step up and play. And you're going to have to ask yourself at some point in time, how much can we put on Tony gifts? How little of talent or not even little of talent? How young of guys can we give him and still trust that they'll go out there and get net positive results? Not only net positive, but these top 25 results, top 35 results that you've been bringing

year and year out. Well, I think that's well said. And who should we preview next, Kenton? Should we do Florida State next or Clemson? Who should we hit on the next episode? You know, we may touch the favorites. We may touch on another one of those bubble teams. You must stay tuned on the next episode of As the World Turns to figure it out, okay?

Yeah, maybe we'll have some more. Actually, I do. There is another legal update. We'll save for the next episode. The Florida Attorney General is flexing about about the media contract. We'll talk about that. This again pertains to Florida State

and pertains to Clemson to a lesser degree. So thank you guys so much. Smash that like button. Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. We'll talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown, ACC, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.