Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Turning Point: Miami Hurricanes IGNITE ACC’s Rise, Stun SEC Doubters & Surge to National Glory!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Ammy's run to the national championship game has spearheaded a renaissance for ACC football. You are locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. The ACC had a head-to-head winning record against the SEC this year, and I hope that this momentum can carry over the way I think we're seeing it in basketball. The ACC is bouncing back already in basketball. Basketball is a tough year after a tough year last year. Thank you so much to the everydayers for making locked on ACC your first listen.

Starting point is 00:00:42 We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the number one locked on podcast network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create your account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase. We got to talk on this episode about here comes the Irish, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, reality show on Notre Dame.

Starting point is 00:01:08 They released a clip on the decision to skip the Pop Tarts Bowl, and it was cringe. Spoiler alert. We'll talk about big changes coming to college football's red shirt rule and potentially to the college football playoff. But, you know,

Starting point is 00:01:23 Kenton, Brandon Marcello at CBS Sports wrote a good story about, you know, the ACC, and we didn't think it was going to play out this way. It's like Miami barely got into the playoff, but we're seeing now a good postseason for the conference. He writes, the ACC is taking a victory lap heading into its first championship game in six years,

Starting point is 00:01:43 and it has receipts. The ACC leads the country with a nine and four bowl record, including a seven and two mark against power conferences. Nine of the ACC's 17 teams won eight games or more this year, and the conference finished eight and six against the SEC. So Kent and I remember us doing shows a few months back about how downed, the ACC was in football. It turns out they stuck the landing. And who was the one telling everybody, hey, this is being overblown. We're imagining the conference to be much worse than it is.

Starting point is 00:02:17 This guy. You know why? You know why, Donno, do you know what told me all along? The ACC is going to be just fine and we're not that bad. Because head to head when we lined it up against these guys that were gods amongst men, apparently, that were so much better than us. we found ways to reduce results. Now, did I acknowledge that we had a down year as a conference?

Starting point is 00:02:41 Absolutely. However, a couple things. Number one, these things ebb and flow. Every conference goes through up periods and down periods. However, you know, I made a TikTok about how the SEC had not scored a single touchdown against a fellow power 14, not also from the SEC, until Mrs. O. Miss scored against... Yeah.

Starting point is 00:03:05 Miami in the third. That was the first time, right? And somebody said, this is the biggest one shot beef ever. No, this is the reaction to a specific group of teams being crowned as the kings, as the irrevocable, irreverable, the undisputed kings to the point where half of the playoff needs to be made up of them or else there's a problem. There's a problem. I have no problem with Greg Sanky Sanky, saying 17 should get in.

Starting point is 00:03:37 You know why? He's a commissioner. He's doing his job, yeah. It's his job. If anybody asks Dono, hey, should your boy get a scholarship from Miami in a few years? He's going to say, hell, yeah, little Donno needs to be on the team. Even if it's in a water boy capacity, he needs a scholarship to be on that team, right? They give scholarships to punters.

Starting point is 00:03:55 I think my kid has a chance. There we go, because he's his father. That's what he's supposed to do. However, the media machine doing it. was the problem. Kirk Herbstree talking about how Indiana no longer belonged and should never be bought back. And it's about who we need to stop looking at wins while sitting behind the largest blowout from the first round, which included an SEC team being blown out. And that team was not told, oh, no, no, no, you don't belong. But for some reason, a team from outside that conference was.

Starting point is 00:04:27 So ultimately, the ACC having this type of year is not super surprising. It's, It's not something that blows my mind and is, oh, my God, who could have seen this coming? Because the teams from the SEC simply did what they were supposed to do for the most part. How many teams do we have that we look back at and say, wow, that team was a revelation. Nobody could have expected them to be good this year. Nobody overachieved. Like I'll say, like, coming out of the regular season, I thought Georgia, in my opinion, based on, you know, 13 games, I thought Georgia was the team to beat in the playoff, but they underachieve.

Starting point is 00:05:03 right at Alabama got blown out in the playoffs like old old miss ended up being the team that got the farthest after their head coach left him at the altar they're the only one that made it to the final four exactly and so again i say that to say if you paid attention to the acc this year if anything our top dog clemson drastically underachieve what everybody thought they were going to do Miami in the playoff has overachieve we nobody can deny that nobody can take that away from Miami's Miami. Yeah. This is a fantastic performance by them. But every other team did about what they were expected to do or maybe a little bit better. And we ended up with all these eight win teams. We ended up with all these wins and bowl games. And here's the most interesting part that I also want to point out.

Starting point is 00:05:49 Guess which conference had the most opt-outs across the bowl games? Guess which Colorado Four conference had the most. I don't know. What was it the big? The ACC did? The ACC did? The ACC. The SEC had the most.

Starting point is 00:06:05 I didn't know that. I would have assumed it was the SEC, but you made it sound like a trick question, so I didn't bite. The SEC had the lease with 31 across all their bowl eligible teams. Now, granted, we weren't that far ahead of them. I believe our number was 34 or 30 yet. I need to look back to make sure at that.

Starting point is 00:06:22 But either way you cut it or slice it, the ACC deserves to be in the sunshine and in the limelight and in the spotlight, because we've earned it. We've taken the lumps in the bruiser. who teams are suing you and now guess what Miami and all this spectacular run as much as it helps the ACC credit wise guess who gets to keep every dollar from it the camys they get to including those three million of travel expenses from coral gables to Miami gardens you know

Starting point is 00:06:51 and last time I checked you can make that trip in about what a three dollar bus ticket you know I mean and yeah maybe there's a lot of traffic though I mean if you yeah and the Miami team is find their way there. So ultimately, I'm proud of Miami for this run. I'm never going to say to Miami did not help the conference exponentially with this run because you have. You have. So we everybody take a bow to the Keynes for what they have done or rather applaud the canes. The canes take a bow for what you have done for the profile of this conference. But ultimately, this was always going to be the result of just lining it up and playing football. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I've, I didn't feel that much love from like other ACC,

Starting point is 00:07:32 fans during the buildup, like the first few games of the playoff. But Kent, I've actually had it like a surprising number of fans of other ACC teams tell me some of them probably don't want me to even like say who they are because there's been a couple of Florida State fans even, believe it or not, including my doctor, who's a Florida state fan even told me like, congratulations, I'm actually pulling for you guys because I don't want the ACC to be a complete embarrassment. So I'm surprised. This is this is a moment where.

Starting point is 00:08:02 And I said this back when we had the original talk about whether or whether or not D.C. was good enough. You got two choices. Hang together. Hang individual. Either way, you're all going to hang out one way or the other. It's all going to happen one way or the other. And I'm going to tell you, a fist is a lot stronger than five individual fingers. The ACC is better and stronger.

Starting point is 00:08:21 And don't get me wrong. I get it if it's your biggest rival. Like in Florida State fans are like, oh, I can't root for my. I mean, it's my own. Honestly, I wouldn't root for them. If the shoe were on the other foot, I get it. get it, right? I don't think I would root for the dirty foot club if they were in there.

Starting point is 00:08:36 No, I would not. But I'd root for Duke. If Duke was there, I'd root for him. You know, if Wade Forest was there, hey, Dix, get it done, boys. Go ahead and get it done. If Boston College is there, they finally figure out of pay a dime into anything. Hey, go for it, man. If Syracuse and Fred Brown finally got washed up and won some games, go for it.

Starting point is 00:08:57 So again, I'm not saying you got to root for your biggest rival. But if you are an ACC fan. You need to be pulling for Miami. You need to be saying the only reason I ever said that Miami was going to lose games because I'm supposed to be objective on the show. I'm supposed to tell you what I see and what I think. And even then, when it came around to Ole Miss, I knew, oh, Miami is the better team. This game ain't going to be the way most people think of it.

Starting point is 00:09:22 So ultimately, I'm excited for Miami. I'm geeked up for Miami. I'm rooting for Miami. I hope that Miami knocks off the bus off. I hope that Indiana finally beats the. the cheating allegations with a loss. I hope that everything goes. I mean, listen, Indiana, that's the best way to prove you're not cheating would be to lose the game.

Starting point is 00:09:41 I'm just throwing that out there. I hope that all those things happen. You know what I mean? But ultimately, but ultimately, regardless of the results of the national championship, all ACC teams should be proud for and proud of Miami. We should all be rooting for them, pulling for them, and say, hey, y'all doing your thing. We get it, FSU. I know, I know.

Starting point is 00:10:01 But everybody else, get it. Get your tail up. If you from the Bay Area with Stanford and Cal, get your tail up. If you're down in that Dallas Metroplex with SMU, get your tail up. If you're in Louisville, Syracuse, don't matter. Root for Miami and this national championship. Well, coming up next, you know, you mentioned how many opt-outs the ACC had during bowl season.

Starting point is 00:10:23 Notre Dame had 105 opt-outs. Their entire scholarship threshold dropped out of bowl season. and they have documented this on a reality show that I just learned was a thing a couple days. Apparently they're in the second season of here come the Irish. I'm now going to start watching this. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. The new year is here and it's the perfect time to reset your routine and refresh your space.

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Starting point is 00:11:56 Wayfair, every style, every home. Thank you so much for making Locked on ACC your first listen. And if you're an everydayer, join the everydayer club. Click the link in the show notes below or go to locked on acc.com. You get exclusive ad-free episodes of the podcast and you also get access to an exclusive discord server. So locked on acc.com. All right. So, you know, Kenton, it was it was controversial.

Starting point is 00:12:29 It had everybody buzzing, you know, a couple months back when, you know, Notre Dame was, they were offered a bid to the Pop Tarts Bowl, which you and I have both attended different Pop Tarts Bowls. And it's an event, right? I know a lot of memes come out of it. Notre Dame fans, I think we're kind of embarrassed by the prospect to go into the Pop Tarts Bowl. And apparently the players were so embarrassed about it that Notre Dame's captains, you know, you probably heard the story, but we got to see it unfold on TV. Notre Dame's captains were like, yeah, you know, we're going to make the decision for the entire roster.

Starting point is 00:13:02 We're not going to the Pop Tarts Bowl. And then you see the reality show clip of it from here come the Irish. And like they had that sappy reality TV show music playing in the background. It felt like you were watching like a big breakup on the Real Housewives or something. And Marcus Freeman is like, I'm so proud of our captains for opting out of the Pop-Tarts Bowl and making this decision. It's like I felt like I was watching it from Bizarro World Kenton, like this glorification for, you know, on a bowl game that, you know, obviously the captains, six of them, they voted on behalf of the entire roster. I don't know how many of those players maybe would have looked forward to

Starting point is 00:13:44 suiting up one more time for Notre Dame. It would have provided millions of dollars for your athletic department. And it also just would have shown you're not going to quit when you don't get your way. Like I just thought it was very odd, like the dramatization and the glorification of opting out of the Pop-Tarts Bowl. we as a society and this expands beyond sports this is but sports is just becoming the latest symptom of it we as a society are building or have built and continue to build generations of people with no resilience with no stick to itiveness with no ability to handle adversity and say ah i got knocked down ah this was unfair but i'm going to get back up and i'm going to keep up and i'm going to keep

Starting point is 00:14:32 keep marching. I'm going to keep going and keep persevering. My biggest problem with this whole thing is the fact that this was even a discussion. What do I mean by that? Everybody saying, well, the seniors, you know, the captains talked to the team and they decided to opt up. Why was there even a discussion? Let me ask you this, Dono. Let me ask you this. If a team was a defending champion, number one all year, undefeated up through its conference championship. They lose their conference championship and then they're deemed not one of the best teams worthy being in a playoff. Do you think that that team would have a right to feel like they got jilted by the

Starting point is 00:15:14 playoff committee? No. Okay. So do you think that that team would sit around and have a question of, should we opt out, should we opt in? What do you think that team would do? I think they'd play in the game. I described the Georgia Bulldogs from 12.

Starting point is 00:15:30 That's what I just described. The ultimate example. We'll get our revenge on the field and they destroyed Florida State. They showed up and they pounded Florida State into the dirt. Now, here's the other part of this. And I know people are going to say, oh, y'all just love crapping on Florida State. I'm not. I promise you, I'm not.

Starting point is 00:15:46 This is what I mean by lack of stick to it. Florida State had players who opted out in that game and then came back. I want to make that clear. They had players that opted out. that came back after. And I knew January 10th of 2024, oh no, Florida State is in trouble, coach, room.

Starting point is 00:16:10 Because how do you opt out when you see your brothers need you more than ever? When you know you're going to have a ton of NFL talent opting out. And then the coach allows you to come back. I have long held disbelief, and I'm willing to bet any Notre Dame fan that wants to take this, anybody who believes this. I will bet a dollar to your dime,

Starting point is 00:16:34 a dollar to your dime, up to $10,000, that Notre Dame will not win a championship within the next three years. Because this type of Loserville stuff, it rots in your culture. And it gets worse and worse until you see a coaching change

Starting point is 00:16:50 or until you see every player who is a part of elite. Because one of two things must be true about the Notre Dame team, not Florida State, about Notre Dame. A, those players sat there and denied their brothers who wanted to play another chance to get out there. That's what they were made up of or two, or two. Nobody on that team wanted to play and compete and throw on the golden helmet one last time,

Starting point is 00:17:22 which is even more indicative of a team that is not, you know. And this is the last thing I'm going to say on it. I keep hearing this, and I keep hearing it from people close to me. My good, good friend, Malik Zaire, love the man down. He knows that I say this to his business. And I've said, absolutely. I've said many a thing to him on social media and in person about these types of things. I keep hearing at Notre Dame, we don't play for Pop-Tarts.

Starting point is 00:17:47 We play for national championships. I think that sense of entitlement is part of the problem. Well, here's my question, Donald. When's Notre Dame's last national championship? Since they only play for national championships and not Pop-Tarts, when's their last one? 1988, I believe. Well, I'll even be generous

Starting point is 00:18:03 and give them the one that they say was stolen from in 97. I'll be generous. I'll be real, real generous, okay? They said one got stolen up off of them. So let's give them that entitlement. Let's give them the 97. Dono, when that happened, I was in diapers, barely forming sentences.

Starting point is 00:18:18 Wow. I have been through hair loss, love loss, loss of family members. I've lost a lot of things since then. A lot of follicles. A lot of follicles, whole lot. And you're going to sit here and tell me, we only play for championship.

Starting point is 00:18:35 So every season of which you did not play for a championship was meaningless, because there's been a whole hell of a lot of them in Notre Dame history since 97. If you want to go back to 88, even further, even more seasons where you did not get to the national championship. And all those seasons were Beckless, meaningless, throw them out, didn't count. Because you didn't get there?

Starting point is 00:18:54 Because if that's the case, as soon as y'all lose a third game from here on out, y'all should just shut down the season. All right, guys, we're not going to playoff. It's this type of loser bill stuff. And then this, this, the parapizing of it, you use the therapy words to try to flip it into something it's not. Well, they're, they're reclaiming their space

Starting point is 00:19:15 and they're not going to give time to something that's not worth their time. It's not a worthwhile effort. Oh, you know, well, we're going to make, we're going to play BYU on our turn to take all the money. Since when are football players media rights guys, when I was at NC State, I didn't think to myself, well, wait a minute, coach, who are we playing out of conference and who gets the money from it?

Starting point is 00:19:36 Do we get the gate or do they get the game? What's the split, coach? Exactly. I've never asked that. I said, who do we got to play? Where do we got to play? I'm lined it up. So ultimately, this whole here comes the Irish thing.

Starting point is 00:19:48 I know that this show has been going on apparently for a while and all that. The covering of this, wildly disappointed. of my opinion. Yeah. Well, when we come back, there's about to be a seismic rule shift in college football in terms of eligibility. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet

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Starting point is 00:21:25 For your next list and make sure you check out our other shows. Kent and Gibbs and Grayson Boone do an awesome job hosting Locked on Wolfpack covering all things NC State. I cover all things Miami on Locked on Cains. All right. So Kenton, this tweet from David Uben today from the athletic college football writer, the FBS head coaches voted unanimously to expand the eligibility for red shirt years from four games to nine. This is just a recommendation that will be put forth to the Division I committees.

Starting point is 00:21:57 But I would assume a unanimous vote makes it pretty likely to pass. So up until, and this rule only changed a number of years ago to allow four full games. But it has been if you play in four full games, but you, you know, you sit out or miss the rest of the season, you can preserve a red shirt. Now if this passes, you can play three-fourths of the season. But you play nine games and it still counts as a redshirt year. Why not just give five years felonibility at that point? Here's what people are not understanding about this. The way the personnel groupings work and who goes in for what?

Starting point is 00:22:30 game and what packages and whatnot, a player could functionally play an entire season. Like there, unless the cutoff is after the ninth game, a player could. No, I don't think it is. I think it's any time. Anytime. Yeah. So a player could functionally play an entire season. Oh, you're the backup dime.

Starting point is 00:22:48 Don't worry, buddy. You're not. You're going to be out there for a few times, a few games. And we're going to get you nine and that's it. Oh, even if you're a starter. We're going to be a starter. Oh, you got hurt and missed two or three games? Okay, we'll hold you out against,

Starting point is 00:23:06 against Presbyterians so you don't have to, you know, miss your red shirt year so you can come back and make even more money. This is getting ridiculous, man. It's getting ridiculous. At this point, I agree with the people saying, just give you five. And regardless of what happens in those five, that's it. I don't care if you get hurt.

Starting point is 00:23:28 I don't care if you're red shirt. I don't care if you're a double red shirt. whatever the case may be, the minute you step on a college campus as a member of that team, the clock starts. The clock starts. Because this is getting to a point where, like you said, just give them that fifth year. We're bending and twisting and warping and doing all these things. Just give these guys that fifth year to give them an opportunity to earn whatever money they're going to earn,

Starting point is 00:23:54 give an opportunity to do and be whatever they're going to be in college. Because this is, what's even a point? of functionally saying, hey, you, you lose a year of eligibility at nine and a half games. What's even a point? And that to me also, you know, you've seen a number of like high profile appeals for guys who like played like one extra snap in a fifth game and that they're trying to get their year of eligibility back. So now you're going to see that happening because somebody played in a 10th game. It's like just give them the five years and you clean up a lot of headaches. Now, the other thing I want you to take on real quick, Kenton, the Big Ten apparently is pushing for a 24-team college football playoff.

Starting point is 00:24:37 Now, I would like to think this is one of those things where you really want 16, so you're pushing for 24, because then you're more likely to get 16 because a 24-team playoff to me in football. College football seems a little absurd. I think that's way too much. I do think it's a lot, but I'm not sure if I hate it. I don't like it, but I don't hate it. It's one of those things that I'm like, eh, I mean, whatever. We all see 16 coming down the pipeline anyway. It's not much of a surprise there.

Starting point is 00:25:10 The only thing I would like to see is do a change in the calendar that creates a situation where teams that get a buy are not put at a disadvantage from teams that are playing right away first round. That's the only thing that I would like to see change. more importantly than anything else, because right now we have the data. Teams who received a buy are one and seven. We have the data from even when things were receded to where it wasn't. Oh, it was a Mountain West team so it doesn't count because Mountain West had to play a big 10 team.

Starting point is 00:25:40 Okay, fine. You receded it. You did it the way that you wanted that you thought would guarantee all of the power brands whooping the wheels off folks and even that yielded a one in three result. So to me, that's a bigger issue than how many teams get in. If they want to expand this thing till Kingdom, come, go for it. But I think the schedule changing is more important than how many

Starting point is 00:25:59 teams they live. I'm with you on that. Well, we appreciate everybody making Locked on ACC your first listen. Make sure you check out the everydayer club, locked onaccc.com. He is Kenton Gibbs from Lockedon Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockedon Canes. We'll talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC.

Starting point is 00:26:17 We are part of the awesome Locked on podcast network. Your team every day.

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Turning Point: Miami Hurricanes IGNITE ACC’s Rise, Stun SEC Doubters & Surge to National Glory!

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