Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - STANDOFF: SEC Can Block 24-Team College Football Playoff Push? ACC Overreactions REVEALED

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

College Football Playoff expansion hangs in the balance as the SEC clashes with the Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12’s push for a 24-team format. Will the SEC sacrifice its lucrative conference championship game revenue, or is another year of the 12-team playoff inevitable? Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs debate high-stakes negotiations, the real reasons behind TV partner influence, and whether “sacrifices for the good of the sport” actually benefit college football. NIL chaos deepens as the NCAA’s understaffed College Sports Commission faces a crippling backlog in clearing third-party deals, leaving recruits and programs like Miami, Clemson, and Florida State frustrated and millions in limbo. Plus, CBS Sports’ ACC spring football overreactions spark a spirited breakdown: Is Clemson’s offense truly fixed? Can Duke really hit nine wins without their stars? Don’t miss this essential snapshot of ACC football’s shifting landscape and off-field drama. 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! 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. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The powers that be in college football are at a stalemate over CFP expansion. So here's what happens if they don't reach a deal by the deadline. You are Locked-on ACCC, 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'm Alex Dono from Locked on Caines. today's episode of Lockdown ACC is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins.

Head to fanduel.com to get started. On this loaded episode, we'll talk ACC post-spring overreactions. Some of these are funny, man. We'll talk NIL frustration. Frustration over the House settlement and how it's being enforced. If you thought passing the House settlement would just be. be a smooth ride. Think again. But how about this stalemate Kenton over CFP expansion? So it's reached a point where, and I was watching a Heather Dinnich report on ESPN this morning, where she noted that,

obviously, as we already knew, it's going to come down to the SEC versus the Big Ten. Like, they're the ones we're going to have to agree because they're the real power brokers. Now, the Big Ten are the ones that are really pushing for 24 teams. They want to double the same. sides of this thing. I think a lot of that has to do with, you know, they can say all these things that they want to about inclusivity and getting more teams in. But I think the real reason why they want to double it is to give their broadcast partner Fox a lot of opportunities to get games because they currently don't have those opportunities with the 12 team playoff. But the big 12 is also in favor of 24, you know, more inclusivity, more of their teams get in.

the ACC, aside from Mario Cristobal, also in favor of it, give more teams a chance to get in. Even Notre Dame is open to, because they're the other power broker outside of the power conferences to expanding to 24 teams. The SEC, they're the loan holdout. And this doesn't move forward until they agree because the SEC doesn't want to get rid of conference championship games because they would lose 80 million in revenue. Annley from their conference championship game. So let me ask you first, Kenton. Do you think that the pressure from everybody else pushing for 24? Do you think the SEC eventually caves?

Well, I'll answer your question with a question. Will the pressure from everybody else affect their wallet? Not in a good way, apparently, unless they can find a solution to make that 80 million come from somewhere else. Well, what I'm saying is, will the pressure make the SEC rich or poor? independent of any results outside of it. Will these people putting pressure on them saying, hey, you've got to do what everybody else wants to do.

Would that affect the SEC at all? Apparently not. Unless you remember that quote from Jim Phillips last year where it's like sometimes you got to make sacrifices for the good of the sport. And ironically, I don't think this is good for the sport, but do you think the SEC might say if everybody wants this, maybe we play ball this time? Jim Phillips is the only one.

who's willing to make sacrifices to his own for what everybody else wants. Sanky would watch every collegiate sport die on the buy before he gave an inch of what he doesn't want. Like that's just how he's moving. So I'm sitting here and I'm saying, well, if we're looking at what do we have? What's going on? will the SEC cave, you've got to ask yourself, what is the incentive to do so? Just to make everybody else happy, I guess. That's the incentive.

Okay. And when you're a little one, when he wants to stay up to midnight, you're like, no, dude, you got school tomorrow. And he's like, I'm going to be really mad. You're like, oh, well, the alternative is what? Like, what are you going to do to me because you're upset? I'm not at the age where you can put me in a nursing home yet, buddy. So you've just got to deal with this and take your tail on. to bed, right? That's just all this is. I mean, the reality is, and I don't want to put the SEC

in the position of a parent, but it's the same thing as like if you got a roommate or something, you turn down to news. They have no incentive to do it, so they're not going to. It's going to come to a head of, hey, we'll just cut you all out. That's what has to be on the table for the SEC to then move, because at that point, you're saying, well, we're the champions anyway. And it's like, not so fast, my friend. Ever since everybody started getting paid, them championship rings been real few and far between for the SEC. We've been looking for the money.

Y'all spend all this on your teams and spend all this on your coaches. You know, the most famous SEC coach ever, Nick Saban, had a rule that his pay had to match the top three in the SEC or the top five nationally. But guess what? He ain't walking through that door. So the boy ain't going to bring you what he bought you. Kevin ain't going to bring you what he bought you.

Sark ain't going to bring you what he bought you. Kirby Smart can't even bring you what he bought you. So again, what leg do you have to stand on? To me, I'm one of those people, man. There's a reason that I don't get in diplomatic positions like this because I'm one of those guys. I'm from the west side of Detroit, baby. Let's cut the chit-chat.

Let's get down to action. Let's get down to Braston. We can do all this back and forth and the legal rigmaro and all that. Hey, we're going to cut you out. Agree to it, we're going to cut you out. You know, and again, you and me both on the side of keeping it under 24. Let's make it.

Let's get that a thousand percent quick. I'd be okay with 16 for the record. I just think 24 is too much. I think 12 is enough. I think 12 is enough. I think you got. I think you got everything you need right there. Because again, we're arguing the merits of this team that has two losses belong and not belong.

Stop it. The game I love, every regular season game used to matter. Two losses was it. That was it. That was all. That was a. Go home. now. So, you know, I look at this thing and I say to myself, realistically, if the other schools

are not ready, if the other conferences and Notre Dame are not ready to say, hey, you got two choices. Join us or we cut you out. Stop the rigamarole, man, because they have no reason to cave. Right. And the SEC also has time on their side because the other part of this Heather Dinnich report that I found very interesting was if they don't come to an agreement by December 1st, they just roll over another year of 12 teams. This is like a rolling clock every year. That's the way the agreement with the CFP is structured. So like the SEC has no incentive. If they're happy with 12, I mean, I did say the SEC wants 16. They just don't want to budge above that, but they're much happier with 12 than they are with 16. So if the SEC just kind of ignores these other parties,

the Big Ten specifically is, I'm not going to agree to that. December 1st, you lock in to a 12 teamer for the following year. So that's where we're at on that. Something else coming out of all of these conference meetings I want to dive into. You know, we talked all about the ACC meetings last week. The Big Ten meetings are going on in California. And Kent, I didn't realize what a mess, the enforcement of the House settlement was until today. You want to keep it locked right here because we're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC.

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go to locked on podcast.com slash everydayer to join the everydayer club today. Thank you so much for making locked on ACC your first listen. All right. So, you know, Kenton, the House settlement passed last year, which was, you know, landmark ruling and it involves this college sports commission, which is like the governing body that oversees these NIL deals, right? Because the big part of the House settlement is you have. your, essentially your salary cap for revenue sharing, which was 20 and a half million last year.

I think this year it goes up to like 21.3 million per school. That's your budget for all sports, although, you know, the big football schools use most of that money for football and then basketball and so on, kind of that hierarchy. But then the other part of it is this college sports commission, the CSC, has this clearinghouse, Kenton, where all the third party NIL deals, collective. deals, legitimate business deals, they all have to go through this CSE where they approve, hey, is this legitimate or is this pay for play disguised and they're trying to pull a fast one on us?

There's some frustration. I was reading some reports from Yahoo Sports. And Kenton, I was shocked to know because when you think about hundreds, if not thousands of NIL deals having to go through this clearinghouse, I assume they had like a warehouse full of clerks. like, okay, this one's legitimate. This one's not. I read today, Kenton, there's only 15 to 20 people working for the CSC. And they're trying to clear or deny all of these different NIL deals from third parties. Because listen, some of them are legit.

Obviously, some of them are not. They just won a ruling against Nebraska cornhuskers, student athletes. They ruled that these were not legitimate NIL deals. But apparently there's a major backlog of these deals. and there's a lot of frustration, especially for schools in the Big Ten in the SEC, but there's also some big spenders outside of that. Miami and the ACC, you know, Clemson and Florida State also are significant spenders as well, SMU, you know, Texas Tech, Utah, BYU, and the Big 12, and so on,

that apparently there's like a big backlog of deals that have not been approved or denied, and there's like tens of millions of dollars in deals that have not been, accounted for yet. And of course, Kenton, you've got schools that are promising certain NIL money to recruits and to transfers, and the money's not getting cleared on time to the point where

the Big Ten and the SEC are like already threatening maybe they'll leave the house settlement or they want the house settlement to get fixed. So this thing's already a mess. I mean, is this a surprise, number one? No. And number two. Not of this is surprising. And number two, you thought

that the NCAA was going to be adequate stabbed for this. That's cute. That's funny. You and I both agree that the NCAA needed certain things in order to make not only the house settlement but the transfer portal work. We agree that, hey, you need independent third-party evaluators of film and a player size and just like, hey, this is where you can land.

This is with your skill set and what we know about your measurables and your injury history, this is about the level that you would land at if you get in the portal. Have they done that? No. No. You and I both said when this first came out and when we first heard about there was going to be a commission to accept this, you and I both said they're going to need hundreds to potentially thousands of people. I thought they had like a full warehouse full of people.

That's what I thought. You and I both agree when this first came out. Oh, there's going to be the NCAA is going to have to take out, you know, they're going to have to back up the brink truck basically to have enough people. people to properly vet these deals to where when a new deal comes in, boom, done, no problem. And yet they've got 20, 30, what, 50 people? I heard between 15 to 20 is what is what I read. 15 to 20 to 20.

15 to 20. Even if we were to say, and this is why, this is why college, student, athletes, I keep trying to tell y'all, you need to sit out at that collective argument table. And this is stuff like this is why. Because this will for sure be used as a reason. Well, we don't know who's going to get paid what and what's held up here and what's held up there. And, you know, I just think, you know, we might not be able to pay them. We've already seen players promised monies that they did not get, that then went on to suit, that then derailed their career.

Not saying, not for nothing. And I don't know this young man personally. I don't know what his level of talent is. I don't know what things would look like. But Jaila Rashada and the situation that happened with him, he's on school number what? Four now, five? Something like that.

And this all started, which I don't blame him at all for saying, hey, if I get paid now, I want the most that the market can possibly bear out. But then that turned out to be what, the fool's goal? Because, you know, there was a. a lot of, oh, well, we don't know, oh, well, that was this person, that was that person, the NCAA needs to regulate this thing, get collectives to be recognized as part of the university, make it clear, make it clean, make it plain. Because guess what else has happened from how the NCAA has dealt with the house selling? Not only are they understaffed on people

to measure the NIL deals, but, but, and this is actual fact, I looked this up, and I spoke to somebody who works for the NCAA. If I work for the one-pack NIL collective and I wanted to recruit you, Donno, if you had extra eligibility left and I wanted to recruit you. I got four years, buddy. Come for me. I could not only come to you. I could come to you and say, Donno, I know you at Miami.

I know you're a Miami lifer. But we've got money over here. Come on. How about it? I've already talked to the coach. He's told me this, that and the. third about if we come get you come on with it and guess what by the rules do you think that's tampering i'm going to say no because of the no third part no it technically is not tempering

wow it is not tempering to tell you dono hey coach doris told me we're going to take care of you it wouldn't be tempering for the other way it worked the other way around hey let me tell you something donno's donuts in miami we're doing great we just opened the location and then In Orlando, we got a couple opening up in games. Will let me tell you something. We're going to take care of you. You come down here and play for Miami. We're going to take care of you.

You know, I've already talked to Mario. I've already talked to Jason Taylor and we all want you. We want you real bad. Come on, I got a $2 million check. You can send a check. You can send a picture of a check. The exact thing that that most ever really. That very easy workaround you're describing makes it all the more appalling, you know,

that Pete Golding of Ole Miss was allegedly texting, Luke Ferelli directly. Like, there are so many workarounds that you don't have to do that. But that's my point exactly. That's my point exactly. The loopholes are so big. They're not loopholes at this point. It's just nothing.

It's security screening out of stadium in a really nice neighborhood where it just, the guy just kind of does this number all over the silhouette of your body. Doesn't actually touch it, just kind of does one of these and says, all right, gone through. You've seen the meme before at an old. Oh, God, it's like, oh, yeah. That's what it is. That's what this is.

So to see where we are now, I'm not surprised by NIL frustration of money's being held up on the players in, on the universities in, and there's no way to enforce a salary cap in a meaningful way while NIL is here. It's just not. You could try to say, oh, all you can spend is X amount of revenue share. Sure. But then where's the extra money come from? Oh, it's an NIL deal.

Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. The university happened to pay Dono's donuts. And Dono's donuts happens to be a third-party vendor who's not directly connected to the school. Again, these are not loopholes. This is a mosquito screen. That's as wide as a softball net.

That's what's happening. Plenty of mosquitoes are getting through. How did I never think of Dono's donuts? That's a billion-dollar business right there. Donuts don't even have to be good. It just rolls off the tongue. Donno's donuts. It does. I'm going to tell you, man, Dono's Donuts is going to be taking over America soon,

and they're going to be helping Miami's NIL as well. You know, we're looking for the next Rubin Bain all throughout America. And Dono's willing to entice you because it's not tampering. America runs on Donos. You know, America runs on Donos. Now, that may get to suit. That may get to suit. Right, right.

I got to think of a better slogan, but we're getting there. All right. So I was looking at, and I love this stuff, you know, with spring football in the rear View Mirror. You know I'm a big fan of post-spring reactions and overreactions. CBS Sports came up with post-spring football overreactions for every ACC program. Some of these are really good. Some of these are kind of boring. But who would you like to hear first, Kent, an ACC football post-spring overreactions? Oh, man, this is an excellent question. You know what? You know what? let's go with

a team that I despise the most. Let's go with Boston College. Outside of a Dirty Club, of course. I was about to say. Give me Boston College. We'll start from the bottom because Boston College, two wins last year. All right, so the post-spring overreaction for Boston

College. Now, remember, they have a new quarterback, Saginaw Valley State transfer, Mason McKenzie. So here's the overreaction. Mason McKenzie is the next Trinidad Trinidad Chamblis. I don't think you can beat that one. I think that's the overreaction of a century there.

See, but this is the thing, right? Whenever we see overreactions, we're always going to get a few of these where it's like, that's a legit overreaction. And this is one of them. Yeah. This is one of them. Because if you, this is what I mean

by a lot of people do revisionist history. Because if you remember, who's the starter for game one of old Mississippi? season. It was Austin Simmons. It was not Trinidad Chamblis. So when did Trinidad become the start, Donnell? So I want to say week three, maybe. When Austin got hurt. Yeah. That's when he became the start. He didn't take over because Austin wasn't performing. He took over because Austin got hurt. And then he was the guy. And that was the end of the store. You're telling me that, oh, yeah, they found the guy. I get it. Saginaw Valley and Grand Valley State. Or yes.

Saginaw Valley and Fair Estate, you know, arrivals and their clothes and all that good stuff. I get it. I get it. It's fine. You know, I'm a Michigan guy. I get it, right? Some of my high school teammates went there. Some of the kids I went to school with went to both of those schools. Stop it. Stop it. That's where the comparisons should begin and end.

Right? Like, that's it. D2 quarterbacks jumping up a level. That's where it should begin and end. Because, again, I don't, I don't see how you expect to strike, for lightning to strike multiple times. And statistically speaking, it has borne itself out over and over and over again.

Year one of quarterbacks from the portal is never as good as year two. They're never really setting the world on fire. That's just the facts. Are some of them good enough? Yeah. Are there a few that are really, really good, even in year one?

Yes, as there's a larger sample size of more players who are transferring, you'll see that. But to expect a Trinidad Chambler situation again, that's foolishness. Plus, I would also, and I may be speaking out of turn here because I didn't watch any D2 football last year. But I would think, Kenton, if Mason McKenzie was as good at the D2 level as Trinidad Chambliss was, he probably would not be at Boston College right now. He'd probably be at, you know, slightly bigger program.

I'm just saying. And again, the biggest thing is I tell people all the time, quarterback is the most important position of football, but it can also be the most reliant position of football. Because with a lot of other positions, you don't rely on as many people doing their job right as you do at quarterback. At quarterback, if you don't have, if Trinidad Chamble's didn't have Lacey running the ball the way he did

for the entire season, And if he didn't have Lane Kiff in scheming up amazing offensive game plans, you know, we saw what happened. Again, Ole Miss, in terms of the playoff, only put it down on a group of five team. That's it. That's it. When they had to play a power four team, how many points do they score again, Dono? 47.

I'm not saying that's terrible. That was the best performance by an SEC team against a fellow power five team or power. 14 that wasn't that wasn't an SEC team but still you know it's a you're not you're not it there's a lot of factors that go into it and Boston College with all due respect does not have the supported cast to put up that type of production well there's some I think good overreactions for for Duke and for Clemson and some others you want to keep it locked right here we're not done yet on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACC. Thank you so much for making Lockdown ACC your first listen for your next listen.

Make sure you check out Kenton Gibbs and Grace and Boone on Lockdown Wolfpack talking all things NC State. Mr. Gibbs, of course, former NC State defensive linemen. I host Lockdown Canes. Make sure you check that out. We're available free wherever you get your podcast and we're part of the number one sports podcast network, the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. All right.

How about this one, Kenton? for Clemson. CBS sports overreaction for them is Chad Morris, who's returned as their offensive coordinator, is back to end all of their offensive woes. And hearing that, I still, after a couple of years, I'm a little bit surprised that things didn't work out better with Garrett Riley, who's supposed to be a genius. But maybe it's more a reflection on the personnel.

and now the quarterback situation that Chad Morris is inheriting is not the best, Kenton. So is Chad Morris going to get Clemson back to their 2017 heights? I really do think that Riley was one of the most overrated offensive coordinators in all of America. I really do believe that. I looked at them, and I remember Florida State a few years ago. It was actually the year that they got snub for the playoff. It's fourth and short. in overtime and they run a read option with a screen tag on it.

And, you know, K. K. Klupnik throws the screen, gets tackled for a loss, or it might have been third and short, but either way, it knocked him further back. Yeah. And I remember watching that play thinking, he needs to get fired today. He needs to be told today, hey, man, I appreciate everything you've done for the program. we're going to go in a different direction. It didn't happen. It continued on for multiple years of blah.

And so, Chad Morris, I don't think can do a much worse job than Gary Riley did, but you're absolutely right. And the fact that Dono, the quarterback situation that he's in, it's not about your exes and your O's, man. It's about your Lerries and your Joe's. And when you got the right Jimmy's and Joe's in there, you can make something shake. But right now, we're saying, oh, a quarterback has been there for three years.

he still ain't the guy yet. He still ain't been announced. This is our quarterback. This is our quarterback. Barring him getting hurt or something like that, he's going to be the first guy that's out there on the field. It's, well, leaving spring, he's our star. Yeah.

Well, he's in pole position. That deeply concerns me. The things that I've heard out of their spring ball about their offense deeply concern me. And it seems to me either Clemson's defense, exactly, either Clemson's defense is the 85 bears, or Chad Morris ain't solved much of anything yet. So I do think that Chad Morris schematically is better than Riley,

but you got to show me something, brother. Yeah. All right, so here this overreaction for Duke. I feel like I should recuse myself from this one and let Kenton handle this because this overreaction involves a situation that the team that I cover, Miami created. Okay, so I'll let you deal with. with this one, but the overreaction for Duke is the Blue Devils can still hit nine wins without Derry and Mensa. Your thoughts? Here's the thing. Here's the thing, okay? I think

ACC football is going through the period that ACC basketball just came out of. And by that, I mean, underperforming coaching, it's like a lot of lacklusterness and, you know, some of our the best brands and names are just kind of coasting and getting guys who just are kind of there. And with that being said, you're going to run into some schedules. Like, I mean, the Duke Blue Devil schedule, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that they're world beaters and they're going to do this. It's possible. It's possible.

Do I see them doing it? No. No. But this is a good overreaction. This is a good overreaction. Yeah, that's definitely an overreaction. I looked at the overreaction list, and I'm going to tell you, the one that pissed me off the most was NC State's offense would be just fine without Hollywood Smothers.

Why? That's not an overreaction. That's just a random statement. And we saw it last year. When Hollywood Smothers was unable to go against Georgia Tech, Duke Scott said, don't worry about it. Hey, I've got to watch, brother. We'll see you in Valhalla. It went for 200.

Like, that's what, that's not an overreaction. Duke getting nine wins with this team, that is an overreaction because you're losing quarterback one, you're losing receiver number one, and you're losing a lot in terms of that defensive backfield. And you're saying like, hey, you're just going to come back and beat the guys. I think that's an overreaction. Well, let's take a look at Duke's schedule, 12 games, whether you think which games are wins and losses if they can get to nine.

They open up at home against Tulane. win or loss? Win. I think two lanes could be win. Yeah. That's true. They lost John Summerall to Florida. So we'll agree win there.

At Illinois. Illinois beat them last year. That's a loss, right? Illinois beat them in Durham last year. Oh, Illinois going to beat the breaks off of them boys in Memorial. That ain't going to be a pretty loss. So we're still at one win. Then you have the ACC opener home against Stanford.

I'll say that's a win. I'll give my win there. I'll give my win. So that's two wins. Home against William and Mary. I'll give them a win. Yeah. That's three wins.

Okay, we're getting there. On the road at Georgia Tech. Loss. I'm going to say I'd have to lean to loss. Home against North Carolina, I say win. Win number four? Yeah, Battle for the Liberty Bell. I think they take it.

I think they're just a serious program, even if they're not very good this year. Win number four. All right. On the road at Virginia, who's obviously lost a good bit from last year, but I'm going to say loss. That's a toss-up. You know, I'll agree with you on loss there. I'll agree with your own loss, but it feels like a toss-up at the moment.

All right, so we're still at four wins. Then we get to Halloween at home against Boston College. I say that's win number five. Win number five, I agree. At NC State, I say that's an L. You know, they've had NC State's card lately. This is another toss-up for me. I would not be shocked.

I would not be shocked if NC State is set in the world on fire and then Walker Egan walks in there and looks like Prime Peyton Manning. But with that being said, I'll go with you on that one. I'll give NC State a win. All right. So it's that you're either still at five or you're at six with three games remaining, right? So you have to, if we, if we're even generous and we say they're at six wins at that point, Kenton, you've got three more to go.

Yeah. On the road at Miami, I mean, it's a loss. Yeah, Hard Rock Stadium ain't going to be generous to them, boys. That ain't going to be, it's going to be ugly, big loss. So you're still at it five or six wins there. Two more games left. Home against Clemson. Probably a loss.

Yeah, I think this is going to be just about Davao Swan Song potentially. If it's not Debo Swanson, you're, you're, and even more danger because now Quimson is looking like they're back. All right, so you're still a five or six there. And then the finale on the road at Wake Forest, which is not as easy as people will try to say. Wake Forest also won nine games last year. I'm saying toss up, I could lean to win, but toss up at best.

You know what? We took too many tossups away from them. I'll give them this toss up. I'll give them this one because you can't say all the 50-50s you're going to lose. I get your winning. All right. So they're at six or seven wins in a regular season. Now, last year, their nine wins included an ACC championship win.

I don't think either of us think they're getting back to the ACC championship game. Those darn tiebreakers are fixed now. But, you know, and bowl game. So if they would win a bowl game, our best case scenario, Kenton, would be seven to eight wins. So the path to nine wins is going to be very difficult for Duke this year without Terry events. and without Cooper Barcate. Yeah, and there would need to be a lot of things that break their way.

A lot of things that break their way in order for that to come to fruition. Yeah. We appreciate everybody making Lockdown ACC your first listen. Make sure you check out Kenton at Lockdown Wolfpack and at TGIF underscore Kenton on X. Check me out at Alex Dono and on Locked on Cains. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the number one sports podcast network, the Lockdown Podcast Network, Your team every day.