Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - These Conference Realignment Myths haven't broken the ACC... Yet

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Explore the evolving landscape of ACC football in this episode with Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs. They dissect the ongoing discussions around conference realignment, examining its potential impact on the league's stability and future. With insights into ESPN's extended TV rights deal, the hosts provide a comprehensive look at how these changes could affect teams like Florida State, Clemson, and new additions such as SMU.The episode delves into the implications for scheduling, coaching strategies, and the overall competitive balance within the conference. Through expert analysis and engaging commentary, listeners will gain a deeper understanding of the ACC's trajectory and what lies ahead for its member schools. Don't miss this insightful exploration of the ACC's shifting dynamics.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!WayFairAfter the holiday hustle, there’s nothing like giving your home a little TLC. Give your home the refresh it needs with Wayfair. Head to Wayfair.com right now. Wayfair. Every style. Every home. FactorLooking to optimize your nutrition this year? Eat smart with Factor. Get started at FACTORMEALS.com/lockedoncollege50off and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE50OFFto get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.  FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This past year has been a whirlwind with legal drama and conference realignment rumors. Here are six ACC myths that have been busted. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Happy Friday. Shout out to the everydayers. And thank you so much 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 Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. Right now, new Fandual customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. He is Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cain's. We've got some predictions on the win-loss record for every ACC football team next year. A couple of these seem too high.

A couple of them seem way too low. But Kent, the past, let's say 14 months, right, ever since Florida State filed their lawsuit last December, I guess December of 2023, that would have been the past 14 months, been so crazy. There's been so much clickbait, so much fake news on what's going on or what has been going on with conference realignment. At the end of the day, the ACC is still together, Kenton. So is there anything that stands out to you? What stands out to me is, in a lot of ways, you've been. right about a lot of this stuff, Kenton, when it comes to folks thinking the

ACC would disappear over the summer last year. Well, Donnell, you know, I've been told that I don't victory lap enough. I'm a liar. Nobody's ever told me that ever. So, so I thought I'd bring the

good stuff on there today, a little bit of ocean spray cranberry juice, because of course we can't drink alcoholic beverages on there. But Donna, how sweet it is. How sweet. How sweet it is to try to tell people in the most generous way we can. Hey friends, Judge Judy has rotted your brains. The people courts has rotted your brains. It does not work like that. Oh, these court cases are going to take time. No, no, no, no, no, no, Florida State has played

their last game in the ACC. Before the 2024 season, my brother, sister's friends, friends in Christ, are you okay? Are you okay? My folks in Yahweh, are y'all all right? Are y'all all? all right. You know, I sit here and I say to myself, hey, the other one that really blew me down on, the other one that really blew me, why would ESPN pick up the deal with the ACC? It doesn't make any sense for, you know, there's too much instability. And these two could easily win their lawsuit. You know, the ACC has to be right on every point. Florida State and Clemson just have to be right on one. How's that working out for you? Has that one appeared yet? as it appeared, because it looks like ESPN did, in fact, look around and say,

now, wait a minute, what the hell will we give up free money? What? There's no such thing as a free lunch, but we'll take it. If you want to give it, we'll take it. So, you know, Donald, there's been a ton of really, really good miss. And I'm ready to get into all of them, or at least the most prominent ones that we saw in our comments calling us everything but children of God over the sun. Yeah, so I went back over the past year, and there may be some,

that I'm leaving out. So if people want to let us know in the comments or Kenton, if you hear anything, I leave out. But I was able to compile a list of what I'm going to call six myths about the ACC's demise that have since been busted. And there are some things that are still up in the air. Like the court cases are not officially over, but I think with ESPN picking up that option, the ACC is going to be together until at least 2031. We'll explain why that's the magic year. But the first one, you remember this one, I'm not going to really. say we covered it on the show. We did laugh at it, you know, early in the summer. But you remember this one, Kenton, ACC members would vote before July 1st of last year, last summer to disband

the conference, that they would come together and they would vote. This was before SMU and Cal and Stanford joined the ACC that the other 14 members or 15, including Notre Dame for all the other sports would come and they would they would pass this super secret vote that people were talking about to disband the conference safe to say that one never happened that's one um another one and we did talk about this possibility for this one i don't think either of us thought it was going to happen but you know prior to the academic year of 2024 2025 one of the topics that was going around you know the twitter rumors and some YouTubers were talking about it that Florida state would make a formal declaration that they're exiting the ACC. They would make a formal

that one never happened. And then another one, Kenton, that ties into that one was, not only would they make a formal declaration, but myth number three was that Florida state would exit the ACC before the 2024, 2025 academic year. And then they would play their 2024 football season as an independent while they waited for the Big Ten. Safe to say that one didn't happen either. Oh, yeah. And in terms of just the first three, let's work these back, shall we? Number three, playing as an independent.

I was about to lose our clean rating. Have you wonderful folks who believe that? Have y'all worked out those logistics in your head at all? Have you worked out the logistics? Because everybody could imagine a world where they're like, well, the ACC teams were still going to want to play Florida State. No, they wouldn't. Why would they do that?

Why would the conference commissioner even say, hey, while you're suing us and you formerly left, you can still play all of our games. And we all know how notoriously four teams schedule their games, what, three months out from the season? Yeah, the day before the game. You just like, well, we're playing this week, coach. Yeah, in reality, it's like seven, eight years. I think Jordan here is a good place to go next week. Let's go down to Jordan Day.

What you think? What you do? You know what? The big house is tall. our name. Let's go up to Michigan, boys. Let's just go up to Michigan during their biweek, stand outside their stadium and look tough until they come place.

You know, nobody books games like that except Bishop Sycamore. You understand? Now, let's work back, because that was number three. Number two was that Florida State was going to be gone. Was that correct?

They would make the formal declaration. Do you remember people were talking about that online? It's like, hey, I think maybe Monday would be a really good day for the Florida State Board of Trustees or for the university president to come out and formally declare we're leaving the ACC. Didn't they just come out and say, hey, actually, we never said we wanted to leave the ACC. They did say that, yeah, despite the fact that they're suing the conference to break the grand of right now. We never said we wanted to leave. Quite a 180, don't you think, Alex? Quite a 180. I am confused at that one.

You know, quite a 180. And then the first of the bunch. Can you run that off for me one more time, I don't know the first of the bunch. Yeah, the first one. You remember we talked about this probably in June, that the ACC members would actually pass a vote. They would come together to pass a vote

where the majority would vote to disband the conference and they would either form like a new miniature conference or they would just all go their separate ways and join the new con. There was serious, like, it was tinfoil hat folks. Like it wasn't, you know, serious reporters weren't reporting that. But there were people saying that that would happen. Now, I just needed you to repeat that because I wanted to cut you off and stop you at the word a majority of the members.

The teams that were already in, what a hell would a majority of them be incentivized to vote against their own interests? What do a majority of these? teams get stop looking at this with whatever your team names color glasses is on okay i love me some nc state i love go pack okay till i'm blue till i'm red in the face go pat however i'm not delusional enough to believe hey if the acc falls apart tomorrow i know for a fan nc state has a bunch of potential landing spots a lot of people are too delusional a lot of people are too delusional and even with doug yesterday I was thinking of myself, what do you mean endowment is how these schools are moving?

Don't get me wrong. Endowments are important, but I'm not necessarily sure about that because if anything, wouldn't Duke be the school that everybody was clamoring for if we were talking endowments? But I'm need, you know, I'll just put it like that. As flat as you want to say it as however you want to do it, in terms of this first point where, oh, the majority, of teams were going to disband. Dono, you and I went down the list of teams and we

said how many of these teams would be net positives to the big two. Big Ten SEC. How many of y'all could amend it? Because if not, you're demanding a move where you're going to hurt a bunch of your allies, potentially other state schools to go to the

Big 12, which is a lateral move. So some of you are going to do that. There will be less than a handful of you to get accepted into the big 10 in SEC. Less than a handful. And the rest of you are going to be in Conference USA, in the American Conference, in the Sun Belt, you know, that's where you're going to end up at playing this game of,

oh, yeah, we for sure have a landing spot. You know, these schools are not done. The people who get paid tens of millions of dollars by these universities, the board, old stuffy people in suits, they like stability. That's what they do. And the ACC provides stability. It provides a good and stable home for all of these teams. So why they would venture out, why they would hate Cal, Stanford, and SMU so much.

So when they say, oh, they're added, we're done. All of us are done. We're blowing the whole thing up. It's over. It doesn't make sense. It never made sense. And I'm glad this comes to fruition that it just didn't make sense. We got three more myths that have been busted.

But also, there's some stuff that's still up in the air. I think conference realignment, they hit the pause button on it. Not as if this is ever going to completely go away. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. I'm only getting started with Factor. Looking into optimizing your nutrition this year, we all should be. Factor makes eating well easy with chef prepared,

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listen you check out Locked on College Football with our pal Spencer McLaugh Kenton and I have been both on his show this week talking all things ACC, Miami, NC State. Spencer does an awesome job, available free, wherever you get your podcast and available free on YouTube. All right. So the first three myths busted that ACC members would vote to dissolve the conference last summer. Nope, that Florida State would make a formal declaration. They're leaving the ACC.

Nope, that Florida State would exit before last football season and play the season as an independent. Nope. All right. number four. Now, some of these, Kenton, you, you covered so eloquently in your, in your passionate opening monologue. So number four, Clemson and Florida State will swiftly win their lawsuits and they would break the ACC's grant of rights and open the floodgates. Technically, technically, that could still happen, but we're more than a year into these lawsuits and we're, you know, we're just entering discovery now, as Doug Rohan talked about with us, but

that it doesn't look like that's happening anytime soon. Here's the thing, Donald. I would agree with you if the premise was that they win the cases. First of all, I would disagree in general with Florida State and Clemson and winning these cases. Like I have said a million times and I'll say it a million more times on record, because again, I have not been proven wrong here. America is built on some very interesting trades. You understand? Go back and look up the Louisiana.

purchase. I know you're thinking, what does that have to do with anything? I'm telling you right now, when people sign contracts in America, even if they're exploitative, you're kind of stuck. Nine times out of ten, you're just stuck because you sign. And lo and behold, here we are. So even if I were to agree with you to the premise that, hey, Clemsonston and Florida State are going to win these lawsuits, winning them swiftly. That, the crux of swiftly was the word around, oh, get that nonsense. Yeah. And honestly, at this point, now, maybe when the lawsuits were first filed, some folks, even some lawyers thought, hey, maybe these could be over quickly. But it's gotten clear over the three or four months that ensued that this stuff was not moving quickly. Also, I don't think anyone thinks like either side is going to flat out win. Like both, you know, most anyone, myself included, thinks that there's going to be some kind of a settlement. I think the question is which side has to give up more in the settlement. This is the question that I would, that I would ask. but there's not going to be a straight-up win or a loss here for anybody. Before you get the number five, before you get enough files, I was going to say one thing. Yeah. I was in an accident in March, okay? The car hit me, right? I wasn't even driving.

I was in a passenger seat of a certain ride sharing company, right? I got hit. Clear as day, clear as day. There's no argument for Kenson was at fault at any point in time. Right, yeah. That was in March of 2024. You think that's done yet? You think everything is settled out?

No, courts work slowly, even for stuff that's very cut and dry. Hey, I did a bad thing. It impacted this person negatively. Courts take forever, especially when you're talking about, well, how do we interpret? What is legally binding? What is through 2036, 37? What is this in terms of what a contract looks like? is the option picked up or not?

What is punitive? What is accurate? It was going to take a while. And lo and behold, here we are taking a while. Proceed to number. Well, before that, so a couple years ago, I was on a jury. I performed my civic duty, jury duty. I got selected for the jury.

I know everyone dreads that, but I got, I was on the jury. And it was a lawsuit involving a car accident. And I remember, like, when they were briefing us on the case, I was like, wait, this happened. how many years ago? The accident happened like three years before this got to a journey. So, yeah, the law does not move swiftly in most cases. All right. So myth number five, this was one of my favorites. And Liz's a lot of content for a lot of folks, a lot of folks got rich off of their, you know, their, their blogs and covering this one that the big 12 was going

to swoop in and take Florida State and Clemson. And some folks said, they're taking Miami and Louisville as well. The Big 12. I think the Big 12 stuff, and obviously they have been aggressive in recent years about expanding, but in terms of swooping in and nabbing these ACC teams, that one has been firmly debunked. But

a lot of folks made a lot of money covering that one. So I guess it's a win-win. Donno, a better man to me because he can't call no names. I'm calling out Drake Kardashian Toll. I'm calling you, brother. I'm calling you. No, no, no, Donald, because you're going to laugh, but you remember,

you remember every other day when Drake's different little headlines were how does this ACC team fit the Big 12? We all knew they weren't going. But for the Big 12 folks over here, Drake sold all people those goods and you bought. You bought them every time, hook line and sick.

You sat there rubbing your chin and said, what would Louisville look like in the Big 12th? You'll never find out. They're not going. He's got fantastic hair, and he does. He does a tremendous job. We're very jealous of his hair. Honestly, that's what it is.

Oh, my gosh. Me and Donald just hate no his hair. That's really what this was. He's got tremendous blonde locks. So the last one, and this takes us to the most recent event in the timeline, and we did cover this recently here on Locked on ACC, that people were very sure that this was going to happen, like very sure that ESPN would decline.

the option to extend the ACC's TV rights through 2036. Essentially, they would be destroying the grant of rights and the conference would die in 27. But you covered Kent and that didn't happen. ESP, not only did they not decline the option, they exercised the option to be in the ACC business for an extra nine years. You know, I remember not too long ago I was having to chat with one Michael Theodore or mouse.

For those of you who don't know, that's the formal name of Mickey Mouse. And I asked them, I said, Mickey, are your people thinking about turning down the ACC option? He said, Ken, you got to keep it off the record. I'll let you know, but you got to keep it off the record. I said, Mickey, let's have a talk, off the record.

He said, you know, Valentine's Day is coming up. Everybody's wondering who their date's going to be. My date's always with that shit. I'm chasing a check at all costs. So whatever you do, if you think I'm not going to take the check, you're a goofy and not like the guy that says, yuck you. I said, all right, Mickey. All right, that's all I need to know.

Because at the end of the day, you have a better time. It's much more likely that I actually had that conversation with Mickey Mouse than for the ESPN side of the house to say, you know what? We're making too much money on this ACC deal. We're good at you. We want to let go of our business. some of our biggest assets to go seek other deals, to go do things that would be more lucrative for them and potentially more expensive for us simply to appease Florida State and Clemscher

and possibly UNC, possibly UVA, possibly all these other teams who want to join in and pretend like they have guaranteed homes elsewhere. Come on. Again, I didn't have that conversation with Mickey just in case you didn't know. And the ESPN side of the house did not turn. down the extension of the option just in case you didn't know as well i'd like to believe you did have that conversation and the next time you get mickey on the phone please ask him why they ruined star wars like i'm just like i'll never get over it i'll never get over there they're changing the canon of star wars they're making all these shows that are so ridiculous it's like just ask him like it you're not a fear of baby yoda you're not a fair to i mean

I'm going to tell you, if I was going to ask about any franchise, it'd be Indiana Jones, because when did they get lasers? What happened? Oh, my God. Yeah, that's another one. Well, it's like, and I don't understand it because it seems like they're doing, they're doing a good, they've done a good job with Marvel. And I'm actually amazed because they've, they made like a hundred movies and most of

them are really good, but it's like they can't do a single good thing with Star Wars. Like maybe the first season of the Mandalorian, but it's like, like, you can't, Like, can you, can you ask the Star Wars people to borrow the Marvel people for a couple of movies and fix things? Don't worry. I'll set a reminder for me and Mickey to have a chat coming on. Again, he's got a date with that check on Valentine's Day, but I'll think he's available on a 15. So, you know, what's, I guess what's interesting, and we talked about this a little bit with Doug Rohan attorney who joined us yet. It was a fantastic episode the other day if you missed it. But I am intrigued by this North Carolina thing because they, it's been revealed through public.

records request, remember it's a state institution, because they can't hide this stuff off the books, that they have spent more than $600,000 in legal bills for what is described as behind closed doors exploration of conference realignment and their future in the ACC. And most of that 600,000 plus has been spent within the past year. So I don't know if it's like, this is just something you do to do your due diligence, Kenton, because I believe probably multiple schools have said, like, it's at least kind of take a look at our legal options here. But, you know, some folks are bringing this up.

Like, hey, North Carolina, they're clearly doing it in a different way because Florida State and Clemson, they sued the conference, right? North Carolina is more doing this behind closed doors, not to be a disruptive partner. But I just wonder, because they have spent, you know, almost seven figures in exploring this if they've spent all that money just to kind of give up and say it cannot be done. Well, here's the thing, right?

as delusional as the folks, excuse me, as delusional as the folks over in Chapel Hill are, there still is a amount of reality that seeps in for almost everybody, where you do the figures and, excuse me, you're faced with two options. You either succumb to the Sunken cost fallacy. We've dropped too much money in. We have to pursue this aggressively. Or you cut your losses. Your lawyers come back to you and say, actually, this thing is pretty ironcloth.

there's nothing we can do here. Let's just go ahead and walk away. Because I'm telling you, everybody keeps asking us, who's going to be the winner? Is it going to be the ACC? Is it going to be the Lansing? Who's going to be the winner? The winners are the lawyers. These lawyers are getting paid.

Ridiculous amounts. These are not ambulance chasing lawyers. These are not, we only get paid if you win lawyers. These are not those types of lawyers, baby. these lawyers, they're billable hours, even if you get the wheels whipped off you in court. Guess we'll still got to be handed over that check. Okay. So, you know, it truly is one of those things where I look over at Chapel Hill and I say,

they may have looked at spending upwards of $500,000 to aggressively say, can we get up? What is the likelihood? And then once that information was bought back to their board of trustees, they probably say, you know what? I think we're good. I think we're all set here. I think it was unfortunate that we spent this much money in this way, but we're good. Yeah. Well, when we come back, we've got predictions in front of us for the win-loss record for every ACC football team next year. A couple of these seem way too low. And are there too many teams predicted to win 10 games next year? Because that's another thing we have to ask ourselves. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC.

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All right, so Kenton, 24-7 sports has predicted the win-loss record every football team in the ACC for next year. I'll go in order of least wins to most wins. They've got the pit panthers near, not at the bottom, but near the bottom of the conference with a five and seven overall record three and five overall. Now, not that I expect Pitt to win the title or anything, the ACC championship, but I think with Eli Holstein back, I know they had a rough ending to the year, but they won seven games last year. I think they're going to go better than five and seven this year. I'm going to tell you, I don't know what to make of this team. I like E. Holstein a lot. I like him a lot. I think that he has the goods as a quarterback, but this team was the

tail of two cities. And I don't ever feel comfortable betting on the team. And I'm like, I don't know which version of you is going to show up from game to game. I'm just not sure. So five does feel low. But I'm not going to, I wouldn't be betting for it or against it either way. They got Boston College at five and seven. And I kind of get that. You know, I know, obviously they're losing some playmakers from last year, including Thomas Castellanos. But I guess he'd gotten benched anyway. So maybe that's, maybe Bill O'Brien doesn't consider that to be lost. But like, wouldn't you say if Bill O'Brien doesn't achieve a winning record in his second year there, is that, is that a failure? Or do you kind of say the third year is the one where you have to start getting over the hump? I would say year, too, you got to get things rolling in the right direction. It's a new world. It's a new world. Back in the day, transfers were rare. It was not like every. Sorry. Sorry. You know what? I said that wrong. They got Boston College going three and nine, not five and seven. I was looking at the pit. Oh.

That's, you can't be that bad. Like, oh, I would, five and seven, I would take three and nine. Bill O'Brien can't do that. Hold on now. Bill O'Brien has very few haters as fierce as me, okay? Bill O'Brien has zero haters left on this earth. I am in the ground. I am deceased.

I have gone on through the actor like the ancestor play. And the only wins feel alone. The only games they have them winning are Fordham. They have them beating Cal and they have them beating Yukon. in football. They have them losing every other game, Kenton, Michigan State, Stanford, Pitt, Clemson, Louisville, Notre Dame. I can agree with that one. SMU. I can agree with that one. Georgia Tech and Syracuse. They only have them beating Fordham, Cal, and Yukon. I mean, that schedule is kind of tough, but I'm not sure. Given Stanford that nod right away, feels a little intense. I mean, hey, more prior to, again, you'll be hard pressed to find somebody that feels less about Bill O'Brien than me in terms of his ability as a head coach. Three and odds, a little bit.

So what about these next two? Let's go through these a little quicker. They got Cal at 5 and 7. Remember, they lost Fernando Mendoza to Indiana in a transfer. And they've got Louisville. I think this is low for Louisville. With Cal 5 and 7 sounds about right. With Louisville, they've got them going,

they got them going 7 and 5. I think I would have Louisville closer to 9 wins than 7. Yeah, no way. There's not a word in which I believe Louisville gets only 7 wins next year. There's not one. I'm sorry. I believe in the Brabs in that running game too much. Yeah, they've got them losing to pit Miami, Virginia Tech,

Clemson, and SMU. That's the five losses that they're. gift. I think they can probably win a couple of those. I don't think they lose all five games. Absolutely. Stanford, they've got them going five and seven, Virginia, four and eight, Wake Forest, four and eight. Those all seem about right. How about this one for Duke? You know, Duke who had a good season, a nine wins season last year. They did have a pretty easy schedule last season, but they got Duke going eight and four this year, one of the better teams.

the conference. Now, you can maybe sell me on that, but it's weird to think they've got Duke winning more games than Louisville. That doesn't really feel right. Yeah, there must be something in terms of Duke's strength and schedule that just is incredibly bad by comparison to Louisville. Because I think that they're about a similar caliber of teams just in different ways. Just in different ways. I think that Duke is phenomenal defense, amazing defense, knows how to hide things extremely well as opposed to an offense that is always going to figure out how to move the ball with Louisville, but that's, something's got to be up with their schedules in terms of differences there,

because I don't think they're that different in terms of level of team. Well, let me give you their, their schedule. It is easier than the Louisville schedule. So they've got Elon non-conference. That's a win. They've got Illinois non-conference. They say that's a loss at Tulane. They call that a win.

NC State. They call that a win. Sorry, Kenton. At Syracuse, they call that a loss. At Cal, they call it a win. home against Georgia Tech win at Clemson. They call that a loss at Yukon win, home against Virginia win at North Carolina,

loss and at Wake Forest win. So that's how they get them to 8.4. Oh, that is a terribly easy schedule. Yeah, that's a terribly easy schedule. Okay, I get it. I get it because now I'm like, wait a minute, I'll find some more wins than those losses. Could be a special year for the boys in Durham.

We'll see. An interesting one is Syracuse, because they've got the toughest schedule in the ACC. Yeah, they play Tennessee, Yukon, Colgate. Those are the easy ones. They play at Clemson, play against Duke, at SMU.

They play Pitt. They play at Georgia Tech. They play North Carolina. They play at Miami. They play at Notre Dame. They play Boston College. They've got Syracuse going six and six. Honestly, six and six with that schedule

would probably feel like a successful year for Fran Brown. He's not going to be showering a lot next year. I see that as that. absolute win. I think that is an absolute again, you have, I believe you said what, four playoff teams on that schedule? Yes, four teams that were in the CFP last year, yeah.

You have one third of the playoffs from last year on your plate this year. Hey, whatever you can do. Whatever you can do, man. And also, Miami, who was the only reason why they weren't in the playoff was Syracuse kept

them out of the playoff last year. They were that close. So, four almost. almost almost five. NC State, Kenton, they've got NC State at six and six. They've got ECU as a win, Virginia as a win, Wake Forest as a win, Duke is a loss, Virginia Tech is a loss, Campbell with a win at Notre Dame loss, at Pitt. They've got that as a loss. Georgia Tech win at Miami.

They have that as a loss. Ooh, they got Florida State as a loss for NC State and North Carolina as a win, as they always should, because you always beat North Carolina. You know it, baby. You know it. No, but in all seriousness, I look at that game. I look at that schedule and I say this. If NC State starts off O and 3, they're going to win more than eight games, at least eight games next year.

However, I'm not sure if I comfortably feel like they're starting off O and 3. That is the problem. Said this on record many times, and I'm going to say it again today. NC State will win under five games or over seven next year. Book it. Yeah. Virginia Tech. got them going seven and five. That feels about right. Losing to South Carolina, beating Vanderbilt.

That's a big revenge game for them. Beating Old Dominion, beating Wofford, losing to NC State, beating Wake Forest, losing to Georgia Tech, beating Cal, losing to Louisville, losing to Florida State. They really like, we'll get to Florida State's record in a second. They really like Florida State here. Losing Florida State, losing to Miami and beating Virginia seven and five. I, I, I, I, I, I, I see it's not a terribly easy schedule. I see seven and five probably being about right for Virginia Tech. Yeah, I can see that. I can see that.

I wouldn't see much beyond that for them. But I can see that. I can see seven and five. That's definitely possible. I will say this, though. We'll say this, though. They better hope and pray and wish that that wide receiving court elevates a little bit from what they were last year.

Because at the end of the day, Kyron Jones needs some damn body to throw the ball to. And Karan throws needs to be more consistent. So, you know, we'll see. All right. So the next two are both pretty interesting. 24-7 sports has North Carolina and Florida State both going seven and five this year. That would actually have UNC below their over under of seven and a half, which we both thought was too high,

seven and a half, maybe six and a half, things a little more reasonable. And we don't know Florida State's over under yet, but 24-7 sports has them going seven and five, which would be a nice bounce back from two and ten. Oh, absolutely. I'll tell you what, 75 is an object success for Florida State and U.S.C. next year. If both of those teams go 75 next year, Bill Belichick's probably going back to the NFL, and Morville gets to keep his job. He didn't cool his seat. He didn't cool his seat off, but he will keep his job at 75. Yeah, when I asked Brian Smith from Lockdown Seminoles, how many wins would it take for Mike Norville to stay off the hot seat and keep his job? He said seven, so that seems to be the magic number. They got Georgia Tech going nine and three. Let's react to the final four here. They got Georgia Tech going nine and three.

And SMU, Miami and Clemson all going 10 and two. Now, SMU does play Miami this year. I don't think they play Clemson. I'll have to double check that. So they got three teams going 10 and two and they got Georgia Tech going nine and three. Here's the deal. SMU fans, I have good news. and I have bad news for you.

I don't know which one you want first. I don't care which one you want first. I'm going to give you the good news. The good news is Red Lassey may be your coach for a little bit longer. Here's the bad news. Y'all aren't. He's not going to be your coach if you win 10 games. He's not.

If Red Laszley wins 10 games, somebody is going to write that man a blank check out of one of these big brands in college football because there are multiple. Let's just be honest, right? We can pretend like, oh, Ben was happy. with what DeBoer is doing? No, they're not. Absolutely not.

They are spoiled petulant children, Donna and Tuscaloosa. You cannot tell them that there is anything less than a 10-11 win season in store for them and they be happy. So they're amongst the teams. Florida's amongst the team. There are multiple teams. And where did Rhett Lashley come from, Donna? What was his last position before head coach?

He was the offensive coordinator at Miami. Oh, so he already has experience recruiting down there in that area. I'm telling you right now, Red Leslie, if they win 10 games, SMU, thank them for the memories, and kiss them goodbye. By the way, they do play Clemson. They play Clemson and Miami this year, and they still got them going 10 and 2, which seems a little generous. So here's the game-by-game predictions. They've got SMU beating East Texas A&M. That's fair.

They got them beating Baylor, beating Missouri State, losing the TCU. They have them losing the TCU, but beating both Miami and Clemson, which is interesting. Or no, I guess they have them losing to Clemson. We'll get to that. So they have them beating Syracuse, beating Stanford, losing to Clemson, beating Wake Forest, beating Miami, beating Boston College, and beating Louisville and beating Cal. So they play right there. They have Miami, Louisville, and Clemson all on the schedule. That's a tough conference schedule.

Here's the thing. I like Kevin Jennings a lot. I don't know if he's this guy. I will tell you this. If SMU goes 10 and 2 next year, he's going to be in New York. He is absolutely going to be in New York. Or somebody from that team is going to be in New York. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, they could always, you know, book a vacation, see the Empire State Building. You're going to get the Heisman ceremony? They're going to be at the Heisman ceremony. They're going to be hearing their names called for the Maxwell or the Doke or the O'Brien or the Suck. because again, I think they just lost too much. I think that everything worked out perfectly for them last year. And this year coming in, you're losing so much production. You know, with all the respect to Lashley and the depth that he's built up in this thing,

I'm not sure if they have the type of depth to where they're that good to where they don't rebuild. They just reload. I don't think SMU is there quite yet. Well, on our next episode, I want to dive a little bit more into those predictions on Miami and Clemson, both going 10 and 2. And then if SMU also goes 10 and 2, which two get into the ACC championship game. So always have a good time talking to ACC football and basketball with you guys.

Make sure you hit the thumbs up button. Hit the like button and subscribe. Follow Kenton at TGIF underscore Kenton and at Lockdown Wolfpack. Follow me at Lockdown Canes. And we'll talk to you guys next time on another episode of Lockdown, ACC. We're part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.