Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - UNC FIASCO: North Carolina Football EMBARRASSES Itself as Michael Lombardi Suspended, Scandal GROWS

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

UNC Tar Heels football face mounting off-field turmoil as General Manager Michael Lombardi is placed on paid administrative leave following an HR complaint. With the program also under College Sports Commission investigation for alleged NIL and transfer portal violations, is North Carolina’s high-spending approach backfiring in spectacular fashion? Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs examine UNC’s struggles, from Lombardi’s “33rd NFL team” slogan falling flat—no players drafted, bottom-tier recruiting—to the media’s latest ACC preseason rankings, where Miami Hurricanes surprisingly lead with 165 first-place votes. The episode breaks down the slow Stanford Cardinal rebuild, the ACC’s internal credibility crisis, and key changes proposed for the Protect College Sports Act, including expanded player retention funds. Can the Tar Heels recover their football reputation, or will ACC rivals seize the moment to rise in the new college football landscape? 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!   KALSHI For a limited time, Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get up to $500 in bonus credits when you trade $25.   The Game Don't miss this chance to celebrate 40 years of The Game with 40% off your entire order. Visit https://TheGameCaps.com and use promo code LOCKEDONat checkout.   Wayfair Patio season is here and these deals won’t last! Head to https://wayfair.com right now to get your outdoor space ready for way less.  Wayfair. Every style. Every home.  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   Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMto play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season.  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 general manager of North Carolina Tar Heels football has been put on paid administrative leave. And that's not all. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. He's Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains. And on this episode of Locked on ACC, the media that covers the Atlantic Coast Conference, including Kenton and I, we both have votes.

The media has spoken, and we now have the rankings, officially, one through 17 for who's going to finish where in ACC football this upcoming season. But we have to talk about what's going on in Chapel Hill. And I know Kenton Gibbs takes no joy in what we're about to say. And I mentioned the suspension of the general manager is not even the only thing that's going on with that football program right now. Now, first and foremost, Kenton, if you told me a certain staffer from Tar Heels football has been put on paid administrative leave due to an HR complaint, my response would be,

what did Bobby Petrino do now? But it's not Petrino. It's general manager Michael Lombardi. We don't have the details, but there was, according to Pete Thammel and other reporters out there who cover this sport at a high level due to an HR complaint Michael Lombardi has been put on paid administrative leave and again I don't know

what he was accused of doing or if he's guilty but usually when this paid administrative leave thing happens for high level executives it doesn't usually end well for them oh man you know Dono it's it's so unfortunate to see such a thing happening

to such an esteemed program with such a an esteemed man, you know, I mean, Bill Belichick's most trusted confidant outside or his most trusted confidant who can get into 25 and up clubs, you know. The first hire. The first, here's a, here's a fun fact, Donald. The staff includes two people from Bill Belichick's direct lineage, direct lineage. Yeah. And yet, do you know who the first hire was?

It wasn't the sons. It was not the sons. It was Lombardi. It was old Mikey Lombardi. It hurts me, Dono. It hurts me to see this, you know. This was such a great hire at the time. It made so much sense, Dono.

Because when you looked at the overarching theme of college football, you said, you know what we need? We need more old dogs. We need the old guard back. And so you know how we restore the old guard? by bringing in a coach that's never coached college football in his life. And who happens to be over 70 and who happens to not have been on a campus, college campus for anything other than Pro Day and to scout coeds apparently.

Yeah. But now we've got this going on. Dono, when they said, you know, I'm upset because, you know, we're, Cali is now sponsoring us. And I put down a little bit, I'll put down a little bit of action on Cali. I thought I was. be some kalshi i love me some i've been learning from you donno i've been learning to hedge my bets so when the bet came out of which unc staff member is going to have an hr complaint first petrino

was the odds on favorite but i said i'm a hedge my bets i'ma get a little sum of that action on bill bellichick that way i can't lose and michael lombardy says actually the house always wins sucker give me that money yeah i'm hurt by this donno i'm devastated and And another reason I'm devastated by this, I think that UNC could have withstood one more terrible year of football. I think they would have been able to withstand just one more year of good old-fashioned mid-football. The off-to-field embarrassment that this is becoming is reaching a level. You cannot, you may never, you may take over,

and people think I'm exaggerating because of what Kirk Signated did and all that, but I'm not, Indiana was just known as bad. They were not known as like, hey, y'all spent more money than any. to be terrible. You're getting to the point where it may take a generation or two to recover from the type of damage that's being done to this program and their reputation after moment. Well, and you're right to say that it's not just off the field, though, because it's like, in the case of Lombardi, you could say, we assume that this HR complaint has nothing to do with football or the X's and O's. It's something off the field. But then if you're Michael Lombardi,

like you can't even say his performance in the front office would make it difficult to fire him. So he's the general manager, Kenton. And obviously it's a little bit different at every university. But the primary jobs for most football GMs is you head up the talent evaluation department. Right. You're in charge of scouting players. You're in charge of the recruiting big board, the transfer portal, big board. There's a lot of different NIL components you have to figure out.

You know, for most general managers, there's a big hands-on recruiting component to it, actually going hands-on with student athletes and prospective student athletes. And so Lombardi, and one of the big reasons why we have dragged him in the past on this show, and we'll continue to do so, he's the one who came up with that super goofy slogan of, we're the 33rd NFL team, like to try to make you sound. so professional and so much better than all the college programs out there. Oh, you want to go play for Georgia or Oregon or Bam. No, no.

We're the 33rd NFL team. The 33rd NFL team just had zero players drafted into the NFL for the first time and a long time. The 33rd NFL team currently ranks 42nd in 24-7 sports composite recruiting for the current recruiting cycle. So you tell me, does that sound like a general manager who's doing his job on or off the field? Absolutely not. And let's take it a step further, shall we, Dono? The first year the approach was all portal. Just go get everybody out to portal. We're going to go all portal. And now I keep hearing this phrase come out of UNC, freshman led. It's going to be a freshman led team. Freshman led. What? That's never a.

good thing. That is never, I don't ever remember a time where a team was like, hey, the young guys are going to lead us and we're going to be just fine. Even teams that pull in top five and ten recruiting classes don't say that. They don't, again, the university may not be able to call you in temper. CJ, hit my line. They got a Coney Island in Riley. I'm just saying, C.J. I'm just saying, you know, I was of course not talking to my fellow technician C.J. Souther. But the reality is this, you know, it really is like a black eye on the entire conference. Like, you know, obviously, metaphorically and literally taking off my NC state hat here, it is quite literally a black eye on the conference to have them acting out like this. This is the second offseason in a row.

And mind you, we haven't even gotten to the fact that Pablo Torre is now on the case And the compliance commission is now on the case, which means that there was allegedly something inappropriately done involving NIL and something on those lines. And so I've said this on multiple shows, and I don't give a damn how many times you hear it. Because this should never be okay with anybody. You had to cheat to get four and eight and Billy Edwards. That was the fruit of your cheating? Hey, hey, if you're a GM and people are telling you, bend the rules a little bit,

and the best you can come up with is four wins and Billy Edwards going in the year two, you may need to hang it up. It may be time to say, the game is truly past us by. We did our little heist. We stole a couple, you know, tens of millions from a university. It's time to go ahead and sit down now. I mean, what North Carolina has done here

with this coaching regime and GM regime is the ultimate example of misguided aggression. You can't say they're not aggressive, right? There are some athletic departments out there that do everything on a shoestring budget. They don't want to spend. Like, North Carolina was willing to spend. Like, they were willing to pay the demands of, you know, the alleged greatest coach in NFL

history and to get his expensive. Lombardi, by the way, is the highest paid general manager in all of college football. The highest paid GM is getting you four and eight, zero players drafted, not even top 40 in recruiting. That's what the highest paid GM is getting you. So it's like North Carolina wanted to be aggressive with their football program, but it was the most misguided move ever. And then you brought up the CSC. That's the College Sports Commission who is now responsible for enforcement of the NCAA rules on NIL, transfer portal violations. And North Carolina is now under investigation by that college sports commission.

Now, I don't know what's going to come out of that investigation or whether or not they really have the power to enforce anything anymore. But like Kenton, we have like seven, eight figure deals happening out there that schools are getting away with because they, you know, they have whatever paperwork necessary or whatever way to prove that these deals are legit. And now North Carolina is on the CSC's radar. so they can't seem to do anything right. It's embarrassing. It's honestly embarrassing. And again, I'm, you know, a lot of people say I'm giving Billy Edwards too much flack and all that. Here's the biggest thing.

It's not about him as a quarterback. It's the fact that, Donnell, was Billy Edwards just started last year? No. You went out and got a backup in the portal and got four wins. And that's what you got from cheating. again, taking off my NC State had metaphorically this time, because it was too much work to put it back on, that is embarrassing for the conference.

It's embarrassing for the conference. This is why people laugh at us. This is why people look at us and say, oh, we're not a serious conference. It's not just about, you know, Bill O'Brien repetitively coming back, popping out two and three at Boston College. It's not just about that.

We're three and four, rather, at Bosca. It's not just about that. It's about multiple teams having an outright refusal to just say, hey, this ain't working. We got to go another direction. And some people say, well, you would be willing to get rid of Bill Belichick after one year after what I saw out of that team last year, the second. And when I say the second, I mean the literal, like, as soon as the season was over, as soon as the season was over, in Carter Finley Stadium, if I was Bobba Cunningham,

I would have walked down, shook his hand and said, You've coached your last game as you and C's that coach. We appreciate you, brother. The search starts now. The search starts now because we can't go through another offseason and what has bringing them back yielded? For your request from a 25-year-old, it's yielded an HR complaint against your GM.

It's yielded now the college sports commission coming down for alleged infractions or running an investigation. It's yielded a preseason, I believe they're picked to finish what, 14th in the league. Spoilers, we're going to get to that. Don't worry. My bad.

My bad. Either way, I'll say this much. Because, you know, 17 years of football, ain't great for the memory, so I'm probably off by a little bit. I know they're in the bottom third of the conference. How about that? I know for a fact, they are in the bottom third.

So that's what this gets you after bringing them back for a year. Again, I'm not a big believer in pull the trigger to fire people very quickly. I don't like calling for guys, jobs. I really don't. This is one of those rare situations where it's like bringing him back as an athletic director, you're almost being derelicking in your duties. Yeah. Yeah, no, no doubt about that. Well, we are going to talk about where North Carolina and everyone else are picked to finish in the ACC this year. You notice the ACC doesn't move that quickly. Like the SEC had their media days and then

three seconds after their media days were over, all of their predictions and votes came out. The ACC was like a week and a half delay. We're using dial-up, but we are here. You want to keep it locked because we're only getting started on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACC. Folks, we are so excited to welcome the game back to the Lockdown Network. Since 1986, the game has been creating classic college hats that fans are proud to wear, whether you're an alumnus,

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all one word at checkout. That's the gamecaps.com promo code locked on. Celebrate 40 years of the game with 40% off. But don't wait, this anniversary offer will not last forever. Thank you for making locked on ACC your first listen. All right, so Kenton, you and I both cast our votes. You know, we on our digital ballots at ACC kickoff media days, everyone who chose to participate in the vote,

and there were literally hundreds who did, were able to rank the order of finishes in football for this year from 1 to 17 in the conference. And I chose to use this specific tweet from Brandon Marcello of CBS Sports because he not only has the order that the media voted for, but he also has the number of first place votes in parentheses. So something I can't help but notice is Stanford picked dead last. in the ACC. I was actually kind to them. I had them 16th, not 17th. They're picked to finish dead last, but somehow the Cardinal got one first place vote. Whoever that was should not be allowed back to ACC kickoff next year if you really think Stanford's going to finish

first place in the ACC this year. Let me tell you something. Stanford's head coach, he got me sold on his vision. I'm sold. I'm sold on his vision. of bringing back what Stanford football is and all those things. However, I'm aware just like anybody else, the Stanford rebuild is going to be a slow grind. This is not going to be a situation where we just look up and that Stanford's it. They got the goods.

They got the guys now. It's not going to be the case. It's not going to be the case. And so with that in mind, I'm deeply concerned about them getting a first place vote because unless Andrew Luck showed up or Kobe Fleener or one of those guys, You know, Bryce Love just snuck in while we weren't looking and was,

oh, you can't get out of here. I'm very shocked by that. But, yeah, man, a lot of this other than that makes a lot of sense. Miami at number one, of course, makes sense. SMEA or two, makes sense. Louisville at three makes sense. Clemson getting the most first place votes behind Miami. What the hell is going on there?

What is that about? You did notice, though. There were, there, Clemson had. a lot of media at media days, I've noticed. They had like two full tables of different radio shows, which is more, more than most teams had representatives. So Liz, I appreciate it. And it's not like voting Clemson to finish first.

Like, it's not a crazy thing to do. It's not like they're voting Stanford. Boston College didn't get any first place votes this year. Last year they did. We made one for that. Yeah, they got one last year. Yeah. Shout to our boy, AJ Black.

We know it was you, AJ. You can try to sneak around us, but we know it was you, Arrilius James Black. But in all seriousness, you know, I think that this is very interesting. And again, this is one of those things. Miami, beware. Beware.

Oh, I know. Yeah. We've seen this game before. Remember last year, I want to say it was Clemson and like two other teams got votes. It was not outside of Boston College, of course. It was only like two other serious teams that got votes.

But all the votes went to Clemson and we saw how it worked out. So Miami, beware. I'm not saying that Mario is Dabo, but I'm saying we've seen the past few years. One team was picked as the team. Three years ago, it was Florida State. Oh, they're bringing everybody back. They're going to be, oh, man. And I, oh, yeah, they got DJU.

Oh, they're going to be so good. And then what happened? And then it was Clemson. And then what happened? And now, you know, I'm just saying beware. Yeah, I don't like this one bit. So if you count it up, Miami, as it says there, 165 first place votes,

only 20 first place votes went to anybody other than Miami. So, yeah, I'm a little nervous about that. But I want to pick up with what you were saying about Stanford with a slow rebuild. For a number of reasons, it appears that way. First of all, you mentioned their new head coach, Tevita Pritchard, I think could very well end up being the right guy for that job. He's a Stanford alum. He was actually the starting quarterback before he handed the torch off to Andrew Luck,

so the two of them have that connection. I think having a Stanford man as their head coach makes a lot of sense because he understands the culture and everything. But Pritchard's never been a head coach before. So it's going to be on the job training for him. That's one reason why it could be a slow rebuild. The other reason, Kent, it is Stanford, as everyone knows, is a very rigorous academic institution,

which makes it very difficult to take transfers. Because a lot of times the credits don't line up with what you need to transfer to Stanford. And an example of that, KG, was Stanford lost, they lost 18 players to the transfer portal between last year and this year, which is not a huge number. But 18 guys, you know, for a coaching change,

it's not a huge number. but it's significant. They only brought in three transfers. So the math ain't really mathing there. And again, a lot of it has to do with how difficult it is to transfer your credits there. So you can't portal the way the other schools can. And I'm not very high on their new starting quarterback Davis Warren. I mean, if you just look at the top of his resume would say former starting quarterback at Michigan.

And so if you read that first line, it's like, all right, former Michigan, starting quarterback coming to Stanford. But then you read the fine print. And the season where he started for Michigan, Kenton, through seven touchdowns to nine interceptions. And he's coming off an ACL injury that cost him all of last year. So I am not very, very much of a Davis Warren believer. The good book says let all who have I see in Matthew 13.

And now, and let all who have eyes see what Davis, Davis Warren did at Michigan. It may not be good. It may leave some of us partially blind, but it is a fact that he wasn't started quarterback at Michigan, and it was God awful. It was so bad.

It was so bad. It's like, hey, you know, maybe he can make good at his next stop. But again, the academic rigor is only one part of what makes it really tough to, you know, recruit at Stanford. There's also the aspect of the fact that, IEL funds, you got to be there. You got to be there. You got to be competitive with all the other teams in the area.

And you look at who's right next door. Tosh Lepoy is one of the best recruiters, not just in the ACC, in the nation. Do you want to guess where Cal's portal class was in terms of the ACC? Oh, I think it was either, what, second or third? It was up there. Third. Third. Think about that.

You bought in three players from the portal. they're number three overall in terms of the ACC. It's a very, very different ballgame. So, you know, again, I think the Stanford has the guide that can guide them through a rebuild. It makes sense that they are where they are. Boston College, they're unsurious. I think they're fine with being there right now.

North Carolina, they're the most unsurious of all the unsurious. They might be ranked too high. It's one thing to be unsurious and not spend that money. It's one thing. To spend as much as they have, Like, if they were to break the ACC down by spending cohorts, there is not a world where UNC is down at 15 or lower, not down at 13 or lower, not down at 9 or lower.

Their coach put together this giant manifesto of all the things he needed, and they did it. They gave it. And yet and still, you're down at 15. That's just, you know, I may have gotten a little carried away this morning on Twitter. but one thing that I know for sure, I'd rather be the guy that does more with less than the guy that does less with more.

The guy has been given everything in the world. I was born on third base, but somehow I get picked off trying to steal second. What? That's not how it works. So, you know, it's very embarrassing. Well, when we come back, your Big Ten has their media days going on.

And, you know, not as much complaining as the SEC. but some interesting details have come out as to how, you know, the Congress man and woman, Cantwell and Cruz are willing to make some compromises to their Protect College Sports Act in order to keep the big guys happy, right? The SEC and the Big Ten wanted changes. There are some proposed changes out there that Tony Petiti, the Big Ten Commissioner, talked about today. You want to keep it locked right here.

We're not done yet on Locked on ACC. folks support for today's episode comes from wayfair your home should feel like your home and sometimes it doesn't take a complete renovation to make that happen just takes finding the right place at the right time the right piece i should say at the right time whether you're refreshing one room or updating your entire space wayfair helps make creating a home you love feel more attainable wayfair makes it easy to shop for furniture and home essentials across every style and budget with everything from decor and lighting to storage, seating, rugs, and more. I've got my eyes on some of the outdoor pizza ovens that they have.

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I'm curious, Kenton, because everybody has a different style of the way they do their team shows. How much time will you or have you and Grayson spent talking about what's going on at North Carolina, your rivals. Like how much of a show do you devote to that? Oh, man. Normally it's a C block thing. You know, we're ending the show. We like to give fans a little treat for sticking around through the rest of the show.

So we don't want to do much more in C block. We never want to have them in the A block. We don't want to lead the show off there. Oh, we hate these guys so much. It's more of an afterthought for all the good things we have going on. Who's got it better than us? Not the boys in Carborough, ladies and gentlemen. And then so, you know, it's a, it's a, we, we talk about them.

We talk about those bozos. We don't spend too much. You know what? It's the same approach that I have on locked on canes. Like if, you know, if there's something, something not so good going on at Florida State, you know, I don't, I don't start the show with that. We'll maybe put it in the C block, you know, that sort of thing. I know, I had to look behind me because I was getting word into my earpiece here. I got, I got word in that you were one of the three people who gave Florida.

state of first place vote. They said that you would consider doing it. If I felt like that would be some kind of a reverse jinks on Miami, I would do it. See, and that's what I heard it was. I heard that it was to lessen the votes to Miami and get people to look at them like, aha, you see what's going on up there in Tallahassee? What a clown show. So I heard that that was you. I just, I needed confirmation. I need to know what type of co-host I got. neither confirm nor deny. But something interesting being talked about today at the Big Ten media days. On three sports, Pete Nacos reported this.

Sources tell On Three that among the concessions being made to the Big Ten and SEC by the senators of the Protect College Sports Act are, first of all, an additional $25 million for player retention. So what that means is everybody has their, you know, their quote unquote salary cap for revenue sharing money of 21.5 million. But here's the thing, Kenton, like most of the big hitters in college football were, you know, they weren't sticking to that. They had third party NIL deals. And retaining your players is expensive because other schools will come calling, try to get them into the transfer portal, tampering going on. So now you get an additional $25 million for retention. So if my math is correct here, you're talking over $45 million that you're able to spend on your roster, which is obviously it's great for the, you know, Oregon's and the Texas A&Ms and the Ohio States

and maybe even the Miami's of the world. Maybe not the most level playing field, though, for the ones who don't have, you know, 40 million. plus under your couch cushions. Oh, yeah, absolutely. This is one of those things that, you know, it's why I said the players need to come to the table because of the way that these, the money was going to be changing.

But this is one of the few moments where players are getting money put back in their pockets, right? Where we're looking at this thing saying, all right, you're going to be taking away money potentially. But this is one of the few moments where the big conferences said, we need our advantage. You understand me? I didn't just sign a deal with Chase that pays me as an individual university as much as the entire Big 12 as a conference is getting paid for the official drink of coming home to punch for no reason.

We need to be able to use this to our advantage. And so, you know, obviously I figured that there was going to be some working and changing and rigging and jigging around the numbers. But it is a situation where I'm expecting more in this bill to get done. changed. I really and truly am because again, there's there's so much on the retention side and on the money side of things. But the biggest thing with the money in the movement, what are they going to do about the restriction of teams movement and conference growth? Big Ten and the SEC are not going to agree to that. They're just not going to do it. And really, the ACC, if you really want to be honest, has no reason to agree.

if you can keep the teams that are here, here, hey, I'm so, so sorry. This is not obsession. This is not a one wish willow. You are not Nicky. Oh, I still need to watch that. I've got that in my, in my peacock cue to watch obsession. Oh, it is quite the movie.

Do not watch it with your child around. But, yeah, it's, it's, I'm telling you, it's one of those things where you, if you're a conference, you're happy to hold a team against their will. You're happy to say, hey, Miami, you're doing so great. We're so happy to see you back on your feet. We love that you're back on your feet.

Stay right here. Hey, Clemson, we know you're going through a downtime. Let us be a shoulder to cry on. Stay right here. Hey, Dirty Foot Club, we see, I'm sorry, UNC, we see all the things that are going on with football. And let's be honest, even your basketball team, right? Since the invention of NIL, no national championships on your arm.

Stay right here. Stay. Stay. Duke, you think you're going to partner with Amazon to leave us? No, no, no, no, no. Stay right here. You know, so I'm sure the ACC would want to incentivize all of those teams to, let's just stay put for a while. Everybody love everybody, you know, the old Jackie Moon saying. You know, another point that was conceded to the Big Ten and the SEC

from the senators, which I find interesting, is prohibit compensation of recruits before enrollment, which I actually thought was already a rule, but my follow-up question would be, so if you prohibit, you know, paying recruits NIL, actually, you know what, it does happen. I've heard some stories. Yeah, they pay guys to come on visits. Yeah. Yeah, right.

Yeah, that's true. So, so my question would be, even if you prohibit compensation, does that prohibit you from signing like pre-agreements? And maybe they're okay with that. because there's a lot of cases where, you know, you commit to a university and they tell you this is, this is what we're going to pay you when you get here. So I guess that's okay.

But like you said, getting paid to go on visits, which is, feels a little shady. I mean, maybe that'll stop now. Hey, listen, I love it.

I love it. And again, I'm saying this as an NC state got it, don't got the money. Like a Miami, like a Clemson, like let these young men get paid. If you're going to pay them,

let these young women get paid. I withdraw my protest, your honor. I'm with you now. If you want to pay to get them to come to campus, who are we to stop it? But what I will say is this. This is a thing that I'm not wholly against. This is not a moment

where I will plant my feet in the sand and say, you're stealing from the players. I'm not really there in terms of paying for visits or not. Is it immoral? Is it wrong? Should it be outlawed? I say no. But if this was one of the concessions to be made

in a grand scheme of things that does put in meaningful rules and still pays these players their fair share, I'm all for it. Yeah, well said. He's Kenton. Gives. Make sure you check him out at TGIF underscore Kenton. He's a former NC State defensive linemen. So the insight is always there. Lockdown Wolfpack is his show. I host Lockdowne Canes. You can find me at Alex Dono. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the number one sports podcast network celebrating 10 years of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.