Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - REVEALED: ACC Football Powerhouses BREAK Tradition, Spark CONTROVERSY Over QB Media Picks

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

ACC football programs spark quarterback controversy as several top teams—including Clemson—opt not to send their signal callers to ACC Kickoff media days. Is this a warning sign for programs like Clemson, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina about uncertainty under center? Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs break down what these media day decisions reveal about team confidence, quarterback competitions, and the broader implications for ACC football powerhouses. Key topics include Miami’s media day roster strategy, the anticipated media performances of head coaches like Dabo Swinney, Mario Cristobal, and Brent Key, and standout ACC players selected in the NBA Draft—highlighting Cameron Boozer (Duke) and Caleb Wilson (North Carolina). The hosts also react to the NCAA’s new 5-and-5 eligibility rule and the immediate legal and logistical fallout. ACC fans, get insider analysis and storylines shaping this pivotal offseason. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!   Odoo Great organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.  Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast   FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel.Visithttps://FANDUEL.COMto get started now.   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.

Every ACC football team has just announced which players they're sending to ACC kickoff media days. But it's who they're not sending. I'm looking at you, Clemson, that tells a bigger story. You are Locked-on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. He's Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains. and on this episode of Locked on ACC,

already controversy on the NCAA's new five-and-five eligibility rule. I mean, I sometimes feel bad for the NCAA because they can't do anything without getting sued. We'll talk about the ACC in the NBA draft. You had a dozen players selected over the last couple of days. But in ACC football, Kenton, this is one of the more exciting times of the year for us. We're going to be in Charlotte in a couple of weeks. for the ACC kickoff media days and getting access to the top football players in the conference is always a big perk along with the head coaches. So every ACC program over the course of, it's going to be Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday out there, July 15th through the 17th, will have their head coach and three selected players available to the media.

And the usual trend, Kenton, is most programs will send their starting quarterback. and two other players, usually seniors, right? And you can tell me what's your hypothesis usually when a team does not send a quarterback to ACC media data? What does that usually mean to you? I'm going to tell you this, Donno, and I mean this as a defensive lineman, right, the natural predator of a quarterback, okay? So this is a killer whale speaking of a shark fondly. that's what you're hearing right now. The reality of what we see with a quarterback,

he's generally going to get most of the credit. He's generally used to being in front of cameras. So he knows because that's the first person you come to after the games. They had more media training and more media experience than most players, especially if you think about what it takes to become an ACC quarterback. There's only about two paths to get there. You are a really good high school player, which means you were in front of cameras all the time in high school,

or you were a underscouted guy who worked his way up through Juco, maybe went straight to FCS, maybe went straight to Group of Sixth school, right? Which means you were good enough there to get lifted up to his level. People have been in front of your face with cameras. So normally it means, hey, this is a guy that we trust to be eloquent, to be well trained, to not say anything that's going to embarrass the program in front of cameras, and he's the guy that the play normally starts with him saying, hut, hutt, him doing it, a clap, a leg lift.

It starts with him, right? If you're not sending that guy, it is generally a harbinger of very, very rough waters ahead. Dono, there were two teams who did not send a quarterback last year. Do you want to guess who those two teams were? Ooh. North Carolina and trying to think who else. I'll give you a hit. It's a team that's not sending the quarterback this year.

Virginia Tech? No, sir. It was actually, you know what? Let me stand that. Let me stand corrected here. Let's just work with the North Carolina angle for a little bit. Okay. What was their record over?

raw last year. Oh, what did they win? Three, four games last year. Four and eight. Yeah. Let's go to Penn and talk about them from a couple years ago. Eli Holstein was not the guy that was there. What happened? Right? Like, you generally, generally, you see bad things when the quarterback is not the guy that is bought there. That's just the reality because, again, he's not talking about 10. He's the face of the program. He's the highest paid player in a bad. majority of programs, right? Miami's one of the top dogs. Who on that team is making more to mensa if you had to estimate?

If you had to guess, this guy probably making more. Nobody. Nobody. If I had to guess who's making more than CJ Bailey and the words of Keith sweat, nobody, okay? Nobody, baby, because these quarterbacks are the faces of the program. So if you don't want your face there, what's going on? Yeah.

Are you not sure he's going to be the face? Are you not sure he's going to be the starter? We've seen guys get taken and then replaced within the first three weeks of the season. But what we haven't seen is a team not send a quarterback and then just knock it out of the park that year. It just doesn't happen because, again, generally it says our offense is built around this guy. We've worked to his strengths. We've built to his strengths. He's our guy.

At least we have confidence in it to be our guy right now. When that quarterback isn't there, your offense looks like a rudderless ship by default. Yeah, and for the most part, you know, there are a handful of teams that aren't sending quarterbacks. And I think, with the exception of maybe one, and I'll explain the one. But most of them in the case of Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Clemson, it means they don't have conviction on who their starting quarterback is going to be. Now, I think the one exception of that, Virginia Tech is not. not bringing Ethan Grunkenmeyer to ACCC media days. But I think the reason for that is because the three players that James Franklin is taking

with him are all players who played for the Hokies last year in Kamari-Coplin, Tyson Flowers, and Marcellus Hawkins. So that looks to me like Franklin is sending the message of, I'm not going to take any of my like Penn State buddies who came with me over here. I want to take players who are on the team, which is a little understandable because their quarterback is one of the Penn State guys. But with Vizina and none of the other Clemson quarterbacks going to media days, like is that another sign in your eyes, Kenton, that the quarterback outlook for Clemson

does not look good for this year? One million percent. One million percent. Again, if we go through the history of this thing, in 2024, it was Florida State and Wake Forest, those were the two teams that did not bring quarterbacks. How did that season work out for both of those teams? The reality is your QB needs to be there. If you're not bringing your QB,

and this is what Dono and I have said all along, so I don't want anybody saying, here's the thing. He can prove us wrong. There's a world where we're proven wrong by, you know, Vazina. There's a world where that happened. Donno and I would get on this show in E. Crow. But number one, to say coming out of Springball in the FAR camp,

he's in pole position. the race should be over. You've been here. You started doing laps and the other drivers are showing up, oh, we got to get in our cars now. Oh, okay. It should be no pole position. The race should already be settled.

And then you don't bring the quarterback to media days. And we're to believe, hey, you're going to be good now. Y'all, yeah, our quarterback situation is good enough for us to make this thing work. I'm deeply concerned about this Clemson, I'm deeply concerned about this Clemson offense. I did not hear good things about their offense coming out of spring ball. I did not hear, hey, we're settled, he's our guy coming out of spring ball. And now going into fall camp, we're looking at, well, we don't know who's going to be that. You know, we're going to build around whoever the quarterback is, whoever the guy is.

that's deeply, deeply, deeply concerning. So it's not just about Clemson. This is about any team that if you generally do not have a quarterback that you would at least feel comfortable enough to take. Because remember, SMU took Preston Stone. Was Preston Stone the starter at the end of the season? Nope. But generally, it says offensively, we have a direction. We have the guy that we know we are most comfortable with.

Press the Stone is not. Yeah. I was going to say SMU is bringing Kevin Jennings this year. They're bringing them. They're bringing them. You know why, Dono? Why? Because Rhett Lashley knows offensively our direction is going to follow this young man's arm and his legs.

That's what we're going to do. That's how we're going to rock this thing out. So I'm looking at these teams that are not bringing in guys, they're not bringing in their quarterback saying, this is very, very bad. And then here's the worst part of it. about it that a lot of people don't recognize and talk about. It plays in the quarterback psyche as well. Yes.

Because the quarterbacks know, I should be there. I should be there. Why are you, I'll give you a prime example of what the wrong positions, guys who aren't media trained say when you put them in front of a camera. Texas A&M defensive linemen, they ask them, what's the motto for this, for this, you know, unit, this group. How are y'all so ferocious? And he said, well, you know, we get C.B.

Oh, it's a choke a woman out because it's CBO. Now, mind you, that's one of those things that if you're a smarter individual, you say, what's the motto of this team? Even if that is your motto behind closed door, in public, you say, choke an offense out. Yeah, right. We want to squeeze the life out of an offense. Obviously within the rules, but we want to squeeze the life out of an offense.

I'm sure. I'm sure there was a media staffer with. Texas A&M that got chewed out for that even more than the player who said it did because it's like any modicum of media training that you give to these players would say whatever you say to the media, don't say that. But guess what? Even if there was a game where Texas A&M only allowed 20 rushing yards and the offense scored 10 points.

Whose face do you think the camera would have been in afterwards? Marcel Reed and former NC state player Kevin Concepcion or that defensive lineman who probably had a much bigger impact on winning. The quarterback. Beyond. Yeah, right. So you've got to look at this thing and say, the quarterback by and large, he is the guy. He is your 1A in terms of speaking to the media, being the face, being all those things.

Not taking your quarterback is bad on multiple levels. It's bad. Even with James Franklin, where you say, well, it's a little bit of an exception because it's players who've already been here. It's still like, yeah, but. I don't know, man. Because you had a quarterback that had to deal with the questions of how do you replace Durella all last year.

He's ready. He's ready for all the silly questions. He's ready for all of, hey, you're the quarterback during one of Penn State's worst years in over a decade. How do you, he's ready, you know, but that's just my opinion. So we'll see. Well, we'll tell you who is going because there are some incredible players.

And when I look through this list, Kenton, I'm so excited to be able to talk to these young men. You want to keep it locked right here. We also have ACC players drafted to the NBA. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Folks, we are only getting started with Odu because running a business should not feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. You got one app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talked to each other. It sounds a lot like North Carolina football last season.

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And that's why you should get O-D-O-D-O-D-C-com slash Locked-On. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-com slash locked-on. My friends, if you haven't joined the Everydayer Club yet, you can try it free for a week. You get exclusive ad-free versions of these episodes. Do you want to join the Everydayer Club for Lockdown ACCC? Locked on Wolfpack with Kenton and Grace and Boone. Locked on Cains with me. You get ad-free versions, exclusive Discord chat access.

So many other great benefits. Go to Lockedonpodcast.com slash Everydayer and join the Everydayer Club today. Thank you for making Locked on ACC your first listen. So Kenton, on the first day of the ACC kickoff, July 15th, we're going to have from Florida State head coach Mike Norvell, quarterback Ashton Daniels, defensive back, Jabriel Rawls, and wide receiver, Deuce Robinson. Like three, well, two out of three really good players. I don't want to say that about Ashton's necessarily. But man, Mike Norvell doing interviews, Kenton, at the ACC kickoff.

I hope he's ready because it's going to be awkward with the questions he's going to be getting. Well, I think if anybody's prepared for awkward at the ACC media days, nobody's more prepared for it to Mike go. Every question that he'll be asked this year, very similar to what he was asked last year. He came into last year, number one on the hot seat list from ESPN, first time, double number one guy back to back season, first ever. He's that nobody's done what he's done in that regard. So everything that we asked last year, everything that people talked about last year with, how do you get this team back? How do you, what do you do? What is it that you're lacking, you know, that gets there. How do you coach under these circumstances? You want to talk about awkward?

Dono, imagine him talking to the boosters right now. Imagine all of those big money folks that signed checks with a couple commas in them. And he's saying, hey, man, give me a couple million. Excuse me, man. Give me a couple million. Your football team needs it. And this is why, despite the fact that that is one of the few universities,

one of the few, and I say this all the time. There's less than 15 of them in America. where eight wins a year will get you fired. Everywhere outside that 15, eight wins a year, you'll be there for 15 years, you'll get a statue. But those 15,

if you get eight wins a year, they're going to say, hey, it's been real, it's been fun, but it ain't been real fun. Going in skedaddle, brother. So, you know, he's already been in the tough situations.

He's already been in the fire. His existence has been, it's been Sisyphus pushing the boulder up hill in perpetuity. he's just stuck going uphill both ways and 10 inches of snow like our parents would say even your parents who were in Miami don't know it's just what it is so you know it's one of those things where if anybody's prepared for it I think that Mike Norvell is prepared but we're still going to ask the tough questions Mike so don't get easy don't get restless he's not ready for Kent and Gibbs like he's he ain't ready for that smoke but moving on Miami will also be in the first day Mario Cristobal, Mark Fletcher, Jr., who, for those who haven't, like, talked to him or seen interviews with them, Fletcher's just one of my favorite human beings. Like, he's an incredible young man. Dary and Mentsa, quarterback will be there. And eighth-year senior linebacker, Mohamed Toray, will be there.

I'm sure Kenton's going to have some questions about his longevity. But that's going to be a really good group from Miami. and for people wondering, like, how come they're not sending Malachi Tony? Miami, with quarterback being an exception, Miami only sends seniors. Like if you're the starting quarterback, they'll send you for an underclassman, but they like to bring seniors only. So that's why Tony, there's no particular reason why they wouldn't bring Malachi Tony, except he's not a senior.

Yeah, and at the end of the day, I mean, this is summertime and the living is easy of an ACC media days for Miami, right? It's the questions are going to be, how do you, stay sharp after what you've done and all that type of stuff. And Mario Cristobal is going to give the very obvious rebuttal of. We haven't won anything. You know, we haven't. There's nothing.

We don't have an ACCC championship. We didn't win a national championship. I said that exact line. I was doing a crossover episode with locked on gaiters and locked on seminals. And I said the same thing. And I realized I'm like taking on Mario Cristobal's talking points, which is a little weird. But I'm doing it. But you know what?

The fan base takes on. the personality of the team. The team takes on the personality of the coach. The media, sometimes we get involved in that too. And it's like, oh, yeah, we are saying the same thing that this guy's been saying for years. So I don't, I don't think that, you know, I think this is going to be just a walk in the park for Miami because, I mean, how tough can it be when you are the national runner up and you return with the best player in the conference that wasn't on your team last year? It's coming back, probably, with the exception to Isaac Brown. I think In terms of positional value, though, quarterback is far more valuable than running back.

So even if you are a slightly lesser quarterback than he is a runnerback, you're still much more valuable to your team. Yeah. Let me see. I mentioned who Clemson's not bringing. So I think we should mention, to be fair to the Clemson fans who are angry at us, probably. Let me mention who Clemson is bringing, along with head coach Davosweeney, some really good players. Linebacker Sammy Brown, Jr., will help who were big fans of the defensive end. and tight end Olson, Pat Henry will be the third going there.

So three very good players. And you know what? All of those guys are definitely, in our opinion, more valuable to that team than whoever the starting quarterback is going to be. So maybe it makes sense from that. But that's the problem. That's the problem we've talked about with this team. And I'm going to tell you this. I've heard help in front of Mike before very eloquent, especially for a defensive lineman, right?

And I say that knowing being a former defensive lineman and knowing, you know, what the guys and that. room we're like. The reality is what you're looking at with Clemson, they bought a bunch of guys that are not only impactful, but guys who can conduct themselves in front of Mike. And Sammy Brown, he's, he to me is a player that has the most to prove going into next season. Of all the players in the ACC, they have a lot to prove going into the next season, I think Sammy Brown is truly one of them, because the question now is becoming, you're the, the new Skolsky, you're the new Jeremiah I try to do. You're the new, that guy, that's the middle of this thing that the world revolves around you in terms of that Clemson defense. Now, all those other guys held that defense to a certain standard that with all due respect, when Woods was off the field last year,

you were transformed from one of the top rushing defenses in America to pedestrian at best. So, brother, you've got to show and prove. You've got to be the guy this year that covers over a multitude of sins because I do not believe. that you have the talent in front of you to do the same. How do you deal with that, right? So I think this would be a very interesting media day for Clemson. The first one, and quite some time, because it was like, oh, they had a year where they were off, and then they go to the playoff and it's like, oh, everything's good again.

And now we're looking at, uh-oh, hold on now. We're looking at some time here where we're like, all right, you're going into another year and we're concerned about you? Hmm, what's happening? Now, let me ask you this, instead of going over more of these player rosters, because you, I think you've been to more of these than I have, the ACC media days. I've been to the last two out of the head coaches, because Dabo's got to be right up there, right?

Is he probably the best one to listen to? Because Mario Cristobald doesn't give away much of anything. Mike Norvell is kind of awkward in front of the mic. You know, Bill Belichick, you know, he's got that, you know, the six ring aura, but he's, he's not a great guy to listen to on the microphone. It's dabbo and who else? Lashley is pretty good, I think, as well. Lashley is good, but I'm going to tell you, the guy, one of the guys who, and I'm a little

confused by his actions here because he's one of the coaches that's not sitting a quarterback. And he knows when he gets in front of that media, he knows what to do. He has you ready to run through a wall. Brent Keith. Oh, I'm telling you. Oh, yes. When he is talking, you sit up a little bit.

You start to, when he talks. about that thing man he i remember his first year as the full-time head coach right and and i believe the question i asked was something along the lines of you know you had more wins in your time as an interim head coach than any Georgia tech head coach had in an entire season since paul johnson left how do you kind of reconcile that with next season he's like we ain't won jack but let me tell you something everybody in this room doesn't just know we ain't one jack they're not happy about that they're not happy about winning four games out of eight and it's like okay all right because it's one thing to just say we're we're not complacent we're not fat and happy it's a different

thing to say everybody in that room is pissed off about all four that we love and it's like oh okay all right i want some of that what's he on give me some of that so he is a really really good one and i'd probably say in terms of who's the most savvy who's going to make you laugh a little bit know how to carry the energy of the room and all that. Narduzzi is a really, really good one. In terms of he answers your questions and he knows how to kind of duck some of those landmines while still keeping it entertaining. So I'd probably say, key and Narduzzi are the two that I look at the most in terms of like, oh, that's a really good listen, either from an entertainment standpoint or getting your geeked up standpoint. Let me give you a prediction I have for one of the new head coaches in the ACC.

I predict that when James Franklin is up there, they're going to have to cut his mic off and play him off with music like they do when somebody's Academy Award speech goes long. Because I've seen James Franklin press conferences before. And I remember after, I think it was right after Virginia Tech hired him, they brought him up as like a guest commentator for supposedly like one segment between commercials for Miami versus Virginia Tech, and they like, they couldn't get him out of the booth. So like, that dude is a talker.

And I've got talkers in my family, people who talk even more than I do. So I know his personality that they're going to have to cut James Franklin's mic off in order to bring the next coach on stage. You know, it's a very pressing in some things that I'm going through in my personal life, but they, they say they got to wrap it up box at the back of funerals. They got after about two and a half minutes, they hit that box. And they raise it up and they say wrap it up on the, yeah, we're going to need one of those for James Franklin. I'm excited to see him in the ACC. And the most interesting thing about it,

he was a talker before, but ask anybody about his personality from when he was at Penn State for the last three to four years versus what it's been in Virginia Tech. And everybody's like, oh, he's so much more talkative. He's so much more excitable. He's so much more amped up for every little thing. And it's like, there's more than what we just saw at Penn State?

Okay. All right. So don't worry. We have already called the Chappelle show to get a formal version of the Wrap It Up box to, you know, just specifically for Drane Franklin and Dabo Sweeney. Because I know Dabo will walk up there with a book. That's thicker than somebody working at Magic City talking about, hey, these are all the things that Old Miss did wrong. These are all the things that are wrong with the NCAA. And this is why Clemson needs to have your sympathy. and your deepest condolences and respect because we have been victims of an injustice. Yeah, absolutely. All right, NBA draft 12 ACC players were selected, plus new eligibility rule by the NCAA is already being challenged. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC.

Thank you for making Locked on ACC your first listen for your next listen. Check out our other shows, Kenton, Gibbs, and Grayson Boone, do an incredible job talking all things. NC State on Locked on Wolfpack. I'm Alex Dono. I also host Locked on Cains talking all things, Miami. All right, so congratulations, Kent, and to first round, third overall pick, Cameron Boozer of Duke, goes to Memphis. First round, fourth overall pick, Caleb Wilson of North Carolina, goes to Chicago. First round six overall pick, Mike Lowebough, of Louisville to the Brooklyn Nets.

First round 17th overall pick, Abuka Okeree from Stanford, was technically drafted by Oklahoma City. He's being traded to Detroit. Second round pick, 33rd overall, Isaiah Evans of Duke. Drafted by the Nets is going to be traded to Minnesota. 37th pick in the second round, Ryan Conwell of Louisville, drafted by the Thunder, going to be traded to the Miami Heat. Malik Brown of Duke, 44th pick of the second round,

drafted by San Antonio. Toby LaWalle of Virginia Tech, 48th overall pick, drafted by Dallas, 52nd overall pick, Henri Vesser from North Carolina, drafted by the Clippers, but will be traded to the Hawks. Uguna Oienzo of Virginia, drafted by the Rockets, going to be traded to the Pistons. LeJJones of Florida State, drafted by Golden State, and 58th pick, Geron Pierre of SMU,

was drafted by the New Orleans Pelicans. Which are the, maybe outside of those top couple of picks, who do you think are going to have the biggest impact in the NBA? You know, I'm not going to be a homer and say the two guys that my pistons are getting because obviously Okary and the big fella. I watched both of them. One of them gave NC State 30 plus. The other one, eight blocks off the bitch against NC State. So I'm going to remove my bias there. And I'm going to say that there are a ton of guys in this draft that I think are.

going to be very, very productive. But I'm going to tell you, I think that that guard combo out of Louisville, I think both of them have a really, really good shot to be productive. And I would say, to give Vassar a lot of credit, I would say if Trey Young was still there, I think those two on a pick and pop, pick and roll would have been deadly. But I also think that the Hawks got better without Trey Young last year. So we'll see how well Jalen Johnson, a duke guy. Vassar can mesh in terms of those two making it happen down there in Atlanta.

So I think that these are very quality picks all the way through. I mean, we've got so many guys going to league. And this is ACC basketball. This should be the standard. This should be what's expected. But those are the couple that I look at. And I'm like, I wouldn't be surprised if they not only stick on with their teams, but if they're very impactful players in the very near future.

Yeah, no, well said. All right, so the NCAA came down with this new five-and-five rule, and they're implementing this. This is no longer up for a vote. It's been approved. So now NCAA Division I student athletes will have five full seasons of competition with a continuous five-year window. So there's no more red-shirting, but you can actually play in up to five seasons, Kent, and not, you know, well, we used to pretend it was four and then give exceptions. There are no more exceptions, but you've got five years to play five seasons.

But that clock starts either when you graduate high school or at your 19th birthday, whichever comes first. So I know one of the big criticisms here are, and this is more of the thing for like hockey and basketball than it is for football, because football usually when you leave high school, you go. Now, they do make like religious exceptions, like, you know, for like BYU. A lot of players do missions. I think they do make exceptions for that, but they don't make exceptions for, like, other things.

So, you know, I understand a lot of college hockey programs will bring in older players. You can't do that anymore, apparently. You can't bring in older basketball players from Europe. And, you know, players who were from the high school class of 2022 that, like, don't really get fully grandfathered into this thing and either had to red shirt already or compete with guys who had the COVID year are unhappy. And there's already a group. of people, of course, suing the NCAA over this, which was like clockwork.

You knew that was going to happen. If the NCAA passed the cure cancer and give out free water act, people would sue. That's just the way it is, right? Somebody would come in and I graduated. I played when Dono was in school and I didn't get free water or cured cancer. I need this and that. It's just the nature of the beast now. everybody, I think this is one of the most consensus beloved, you know, moments in college sports yet.

And here's the thing, Dono. Who are the people that don't like this again? You said it's the players, right? The players who came in at a certain point in time. If only somebody, if only somebody's, let me not act like I was the only one. If only there were not plenty of people who got in front of mics and kept telling the players do something where you bargain potentially as a grouping or a collective, if you will. And if you were to bargain as this collective, you may be able to instill or make sure that you have a seat at the table when these things are passed instead of retroactively going or reactively going and saying, well, I don't like this.

Let's go to court now. because you can win. We've seen a lot of people win against the NCAA. You might win this, but we've also seen a lot of people lose. Yeah, Trinidad Shamblis got his year approved. We also saw the quarterback for Tennessee didn't. Yeah, we've seen plenty of times where folks get their desired outcome.

We've also seen somewhere it didn't. So if the players were to, I don't know, Dono, if there were to be a handshake, a truth, a agreement of sorts, a agreement of source of sorts based on this collective bargaining something like a a collective bargaining truce or agreement i don't know we'll work out the language we'll come up with the right word we'll come up with you out there we're just we're spitballing don't know and our spitballing okay if they were to do something like this all of a sudden you put yourself in a position where you no longer have to go to court on the back end because on the front end you were in the words of lin mel mel mel mel manuel miranda

and the folks who came up with, what was it, Hamilton, you want to be in the room where it happens, the room where it happens. That's where you want to be. You don't want to be outside that room, and then the happening is happening. And then you're like, oh, we got to get our lawyers. Come on. Happening. Ain't good.

You want to be in the room where it happens. Yeah, that's well said. Well, we appreciate everybody making Lockdown ACCC, your first list. Make sure to smash that like button, subscribe. Give us all your hype points on YouTube. the height points are now a thing. Make sure you subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube. We'll talk to you next time as we celebrate 10 years of the number one sports podcast network,

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