Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - What Could 14 Team College Football Playoff for 2026 Mean for ACC?

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

In this episode, Candace and Kenton talk playoff expansion and the ACC tourney Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Who loves a little live action as we prepare for what will be a very exciting night of ACC tournament games? We also have 14 team playoff to talk about for 2026. How could that favor the ACC? We're going to find out all here on today's episode of Locked on ACC. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on everybody? Welcome to today's edition of Locked on ACC. I'm your host, Candace Cooper, joined by Kenton Gives,

is Locked on Wolfpack. Each and every day, you can find us wherever you listen to podcasts. Make sure you download, subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can interact with our community each and every day. Today's episode is brought to you by our friends at Fandul. Listen, I know that it is time to get in on some vending action. We know that you're making it right, especially those North Carolina friends. Make every moment more new customers join today,

and you'll get $200 in bonus bets if your first bet of $5 or more wins. visit fanduil.com slash locked on to get started. Kenton is here today. We're talking some football. We're talking some basketball. I know he is feeling himself, feeling high with it, because the pack are cardiacing and they're going to get us to the victories. It feels big stealing.

You was talking jump, but now look at your boys. First ever team to go from Tuesday up through Friday. I, you know, Joe Giglio always jokes about. He and Joe Ovis too very... Jillio. I'm sorry. Jillio. Joe Jiliio and Joe Obis always joke about the fact that, you know, the law of the war states when you expect the lease from NC State, that's when you get the most.

And when you expect the most is when you get the least? All of us came into this tournament. Like, is Louisville going to put us out of our misery? And three days later, we've got to win against the top 10 team. Come on. We got to win against a team that beat us twice. badly during the regular season. I don't know what's going on.

I don't know how this has happened. But to quote Kanye West, we don't want no devils in here tonight. We want the Lord and that's it. Okay? Because that's what has happened. The Blue Devils put out a very disappointing performance in which NC State was able to take advantage

and advanced 74 to 69 last night, which was surprised. It was a shocker to say the least, especially considering Duke were 11 point favorites or 10-5 point favorites. And we will get to that because I want everyone to keep listening to the show and hearing our takes on that. It's a little meat on the bum. Just to wet your whistle. We had to get that intro in.

But football is the king of the castle around here, and we would be remissive. We did not let you guys out of 2026. 14 team playoff is on the way because Notre Dame and Power Five conferences. They voted yes. Has it been implemented yet? All things ago? Not quite sure. But it's on the way.

All I'm saying is ACC not only gets their champion in, but they could find themselves having two to three more that you make an argument for. But that's just because everyone loves the ACC. And of course, we're so well-respected national media. And there's no way or no way know how that like six to eight SEC teams get in, right? How under God's greener did we jump to a 14 team playoff before we even did the 12th? That's like,

why did we go four to 12 to 14? like it's just it's giving participation trophy i don't know i i wanted 12 to get every conference champion a shot and two at large bids that's that's what i ideally wanted and of course group of five conferences that saw group of five conferences that saw their rPI be too low or their rank be too low i would have loved to see them replaced with a a you know at large bid but somehow we got 12 and that's not how i shook out sure whatever fine How do we get to 14 without exploring 12 first? We haven't even bladed with the 12.

We haven't even. This is like your partner comes home and says, hey, I want to redesign. I want to do some remodeling. I want to fix up the kitchen. I want to put a big farm sink in here. That's what I want. You know, I want to put one farm sink. I want to watch HDTV.

Better let them know. And then next thing you know, they're like, actually, no. I want two farm sinks and an island in the middle of the kitchen. It's like, we didn't even. we get the first farm sink in what do we can we stop can we see the synergy can we get the flow of the first thing before we go adding in more stuff so you just don't like extreme change i i don't like the change that was implemented before we even try the other change we didn't even try it but we're feeling like it's going to work it's going to be a blast you know i'm going to just tell you this

Okay, let me just tell you this. If 12 is a stunning success or a stunning failure, or actually, let me say this, 12 won't even get a chance to be a stunning success or a stunning failure because that run will be so short-lived. It's literally going to be two years, boom, gone. Doesn't matter what it goes, doesn't matter how it goes, doesn't matter if we get the most entertaining playoffs we've ever seen, doesn't matter if we get the least entertaining playoffs we've ever seen. Two years, that's it.

Format changes. You know, and I'm really, I get it. I know that you want to be forward thinking. I get this. You want to do all these things. You have to realize you are football. The CFP needs to realize you are football. People will watch.

It doesn't matter what's going on. One of the highest view bowl games last year outside of the playoff, the highest view bowl game, was the Pop-Tart bowl. I mean, you're watching off the strength of hoping that you get to see a real Pop-Tart or someone gets poured with Pop-Tarts on them. Like, I get it. You know, it's the vibes. But you see what I'm saying.

People are going to watch. If there are young men with helmets on giving each other long-lasting injuries, guess what people are going to do? I'm tuned in. I'm locked in. I'm strapped in, baby. Long-lasting injuries is crazy. I didn't know where you're going with that.

I'm so glad it ended there. But I will say, you know, after doing the quick two-year data, I'm happy to report that it's just exciting to see football, just get more and more money TV deals and less and less of wanting the kids to have any of it. So all in all, I just think that truly we should continue to just everyone, let's just get 64 teams in at this point. That's the little March Madden's five for college football playoff because I guess what is the end goal, right? How do you decide who is the top team, who deserves, who doesn't deserve? And it's going to be more of the same.

It's just adding a couple more players in the mix. Football and basketball are so drastically different that if you try to run a football schedule that was even close to similar to basketball, By the sweet 16, you'd have a very, very interesting situation on your hand. And not to cut you off, sorry, but like I also think when you talk about the 14 teams, right, we're still in an era where a lot of these kids are opting out. So despite the fact that you could, you know, have that chance to play for a championship, some people are saying, yeah, I'm all set. So I wonder if that will sway them or if they will still be engaged or try to protect their bodies more

because of what they're looking for towards their future. You can't opt out of a playoff game. like that opting out of a bowl game where it's like oh this is a meaningless exhibition where your your team gets a trophy of peaches if you win congratulations that is very different from my team was in position to win a championship my team was on the precipice of winning a championship and i decided that my draft stock and my body were more valuable than my team that will create a very different feel than like i opted out of the game because you know you talk about for example Florida State and their opt-outs last year, right?

Let's say that all of those guys come back and everything goes perfectly for them. And that game against Georgia not only is a competitive, but they win that ball game outright. Let's say they've whipped the wheels off Georgia, 28 to 3. Okay, great. What did Florida State just get out of that 28 to 3 way? Right, not much. Money for the school.

Money for the conference, though, and school. But do the players get a ring to where they say, only of this, the fraternity of players who have, have this, only one every year. Only one every year gets this one. And not only is it one every year, everybody else would trade their thing in for this. Everybody, you would trade in a sun bowl ring for a natty.

You trade in a Pop-Tart bowl ring for a natty. You trade in a Quicklane bowl ring for a natty. So, you know, it's just that situation of, I think that that would be viewed very differently by talent evaluators and all that because we've seen how title evaluation and personality profiles, and I hate to talk about it in this way, but how people talk about Caleb Williams, right? We see he's not done anything wrong here.

He's not done anything. But the things that people talk about as a slight against them, imagine, if you will, somebody says, you know what, I can't be a part of a national championship run, potentially, because my stock is too valuable. NFL teams wouldn't go for that. So a 14-team playoff hopefully eliminates the major key guys of opting out. And maybe that's what these people want all along.

But more than that, you know, you want high-quality games, which we haven't necessarily seen in these most recent bowl experiences. Well, yeah. And I think that, and this is the interesting thing about it. A 14-team playoff really doesn't stop those opt-outs or reduce it in a meaningful way. Because if you look at, you know, we just talked about. about, we just talked about Kettle Williams. He still wouldn't have made it. Let's bring it

to the ACC. Who do you believe is going to be the highest draft player in ACC? Drake May. Drake May. Was his team in the top 14? So he still would have opted out. So you're not really taking down the volume

of opt-outs all that much by spending to 14. Now, the absolutely insane, and I'm still, I stand by this idea is insane, even if we actually do get The absolutely insane idea of expanding into 64, you would potentially see those opt-outs get drastically taken down. But, you know, unless the college football playoff wants to continue doing home renovations

where they're like, let's take out this wall and add in the Florida room. Actually, no, let's add a whole new wing to the house like they're currently doing. We're not going to get 64 any time. Her job, loud and clear. All right, let's pause right here to say, did you even know that if you have a 401K for retirement, you can still have an IRA? Robin Hood has the only IRA that gives you 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robin Hood Gold. But get this. Now through April 30th, Robin Hood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with 3% match.

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All right. If you're a Duke fan, not the greatest, not the time. I'm sorry for you. Hate it had to be you. Dang, NC State, cardiac pack did what they had to do

to get by, period. I love to see it. I was rooting for the pack because I would always root for the higher-seated team to go ahead and do that underdog story. And that's exactly what NC State did.

Are you sure? That's the only thing. reason you were rooting for the pat, you know? I feel like as a North Carolina grad, there may be another reason that you were rooting for a team that was playing Duke, but that's neither here nor there. What would be my other reason? Well, you know, I mean, that's like, you all biggest rival when it comes to basketball. Y'all like hate each other's guts.

But according to Roy, we hate NC St. Moore, so I don't know. Yeah, well, Roy can see me outside. Roy, he can see me outside. That's neither here nor there. A 17-year-old man, that's crazy. Go ahead. Hey, Ryan Day can call out Lou Hokes. I'm on your head, Roy.

I'm on your head. But, you know, Modiar and what he's done in this game, what he did in this game and what he's done in this tournament is absolutely insane. And when you put that in the context of the fact that he is practicing Ramadan right now, the young man is doing all of this while not eating until sundown. My Lord, he is showing up and showing out doing. a little bit of everything, another double double, 14 to 16, and let me tell you this, let me tell you this, as dramatic

as Kyle Philpowski is, he got his, he got it, he did his thing, it was not Kyle's fault. However, I'm looking at you, Jeremy Roach, brother, they were looking for you, they were calling for you, they were screaming for you, they were screaming, somebody checked that DJ.

But you know what? I hate to cut you off because I listen to Jeremy Rose Conference. And Jeremy said, our sights are bigger, our sites are for more than just ACC tournament. Now it's funny because we heard that from Kyle Philipowski on senior night when they got beat by Carolina. It's like our sites are on bigger.

We want to win the tournament, like all these things. So like, y'all sites keep looking too far ahead and not on what is. And I think that's what's, I don't know what's getting in the way. I put up a tweet and I was like, so I'm ready to talk about John Shire or Knob because in my mind, there's something about your team that has not been up and ready to play. Y'all acting like y'all Duke and it's just supposed to happen as if you're These teams don't see, like I feel like Carolina had a problem with. You have Duke in front on your front of your jersey.

People already are going to try and play up for you. You have to come with it. You have to have this expectation of you are the target forever just because of where you went, where you attend school. They don't play like that. They do not play hungry. They play dirty, which, you know, okay. But play hungry.

I haven't really seen the Blue Devils do that. I'm sorry. Maybe Jeremy. That's it. At what point, at what point, where are. your sights actually set? Right. Where are your set? So your sights aren't set on, you know,

winning a regular season championship. Okay, cool. So your sights aren't set on winning an ACC championship. Okay, cool. So if you lose in the NCAA tournament, where do your sights go then, right? Oh, well, our sites are so much better. We're all going to be pros, you know. Yeah, okay.

A lot of y'all are, you know. Jeremy, you go to Argentina, Buki. Jared, you should lead. This is your yearly. I would not come back. Actually, I would come back for Cooper Flats. in that other young man. I think I would come back.

But Kyle is not your ticket, poopie. He is not your ticket. But like I very genuinely just, you know, their back court was very underwhelming in this game. Me. And that's, that's, you know. Tyrese Proctor, what are you throwing up, Boo? What is that?

Yeah, it was a game in which it, and the other part about this is credit agency state. They did a lot of things well to put themselves in position to win this game. They missed how many open threes, how many moments. NC State fans were holding their breath all the way through because it was like, she's open again. Another place is open on the perimeter. Oh, God, what's happening?

That, Kenton, NC State could not make a free throw down the stretch to save their life. They were handing you the game on a simple. The boy held the rim on a dunk. Come on now. That was your ticket to say, you know what? NC State going to NC State, they're always going to be who they are. And like, come on.

What are you doing here? I'm just saying. I'm just saying. It was giving typical NC State. But I was like, Middlebrook, now you're not that pretty. Come on now, baby. You know, you can't hang on every. It was just like, you know, one of those you hopefully get back.

I'm glad he's able to play through it. He has another game to get it back. Well, it was just like, damn, they are going to lose this game, aren't they? And damn it, Duke didn't try, but good for NC State for making some office, create some offense when at times they have struggled doing that. Yeah, and to quote DJ Burns from his post-game press conference when I asked, where was this all year? He said, I don't know, but I'm glad it's here now.

And that's how all the Wopack Nation is feeling. They don't know where this was, but they're glad as there now. Are they playing for their coach? One could say that. One could say that. And I'll tell you this much, you better be firing on all cylinders in this air ACC tournament because the way that Virginia has turned it all late, if you are not ready, that Virginia team is found out how to put it in the basket.

What? A Tony Bennett team that can put it in a basket can kill anybody. It's dangerous. That's a squad. North Carolina on the other side of the bracket. I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, them Tar Hills, the way they put it on Florida State, I said, Coach Ham, they're living on your thick. It's about time, brother.

It's about time, you know what I mean? It had me questioning whether or not Lenny Hampton was in the guy still. And I love him down. But I said, you know, what Mr. Hamill was in, it might be time to sit down. So I don't know, because that was embarrassing. But even Pitt, you got, like, it's dad in the building. So, you know, he's going to get about 30. You know, that's always how it is.

And I just feel like they've been. They're always, they're always a hungry team. So I think Pitt definitely wants them get back as they're getting ready to kick off playing North Carolina right now. But it just is like, everybody here has a story of the testimony. Who's hungriest is really what it comes down to. And you know, Capuling them, that background is that Duke background. So there would be nothing better than if their boys are out, if the guys that they,

if the horse that they rode their coach and coattails in on is out, they would love nothing better than to put out the targets, you know. You know, they would love nothing better than to do that. A thousand percent. It's going to be a tall task because I'll tell you what. That team is firing on every cylinder. I mean, those pistons are lubed up in every single. That engine rope.

You're done with your analogy today. I just need you to know that. Sad Trumbull looking like J.P. Tokto is like, oh. Do we not understand this is an engine? Do we not? It's just a lot going on. The loo. All of that is too much for me.

Thank you. That's what all you do. You know what we're going to go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm just a girl. I think that ultimately, NC, NC, C, here we go. North Carolina's ability to have their bench get busy is why we're sitting here, right? Like, it hasn't necessarily been the stars that have overtaking games are needed to. And, like, that's what makes good championship tournament teams.

Elliot Cadeau is finally coming on offensively, like, it's getting scary hours. And I'm excited. Do I want them to win the whole thing? Of course. When they lose, do they get hungry or even hungry for the next set? Yes. So. Oh, so they got bigger eyes.

Their eyes are on bigger things. I hope their eyes are too big for their belly. I hope that they stay locked in and focus. I hope they complete the whole gambit, the regular season, the tournament, and the national championship. That never happened. So that would be great to see. But, you know, I'd be a little too big from Riches there.

It's getting that. I mean, I'm not saying that, you know, when you eat that big meal, you got to let your pants loose a little bit. That's where you at right now. That's where you at. Dang, that's what I did to my jeans earlier. All right, this week's March Madness Bracket is brought to you by our friends at Nissan. Each week, we're picking one team that stands out,

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Shop nisongu.com. All right, Ken, we'll end it with this, right? Tournament expectations, four left. You got Pitt, you got North Carolina, you got NC State, and you've got Virginia. Of the four who have a lot to prove who you're going with. Don't make me say this on there. Don't make me say this in public, okay? If the Martians had the death being pointed at Earth,

and I had to pick a team, and I had to say, all right, who's going to win this thing outright? Obviously, the Dirty Foot Club is our favorites here for a reason. Why are she back in the pack? That's kind of corny. Like, ride or die. They are clearly locked in. in. They are moated.

Like, you know, they are strapped in. They are, they're very strapped in. But I'm a firm believer in the law of averages. And I believe that, you know, you can have a run. You can have a hot two, three, four games where you, to string together five is a very different thing. That's especially, especially five in, what, six or seven days or so. Hey, you lifestyle. Come on.

Come on, AAU. You're at. Come finding. Come find it. And listen, listen, I'll tell you this much, it would be the most NC State thing ever to end a 30 year, a 30 year conference championship drought with a team that everybody knew coming into the tournament. That coach is gone. It would be the most NC State thing in the history of NC State. More NC State than NC State's band playing Old McDonald after every win.

more NC State than the fact that a pig farmer is their biggest, biggest booster and donor. Shout out to Windale Murphy. You know, we love you, baby. But this would be the most NC State thing in sporting history. However, I have got to go with the Tar Hills because, again, I don't think the UVA can put the ball in basketball enough. Pit, with all due respect, if they were coming in on the other side of the bracket

where they had to take on NC State, then they could take on North Carolina in the final. I potentially see something different there, but they're running into a buzz saw that is rolling. I mean, UNC is cutting through the ACC like a hot knife through butter right now. And so this is a moment where, again, NC State would be the best story out of the bucks.

Absolutely. Because we talk about bid stealers. We talk about it constantly. And, you know, NC State is the only team. Well, some people are saying Pitt also is on the outside looking at. So they can potentially be a bid stealer. but we know for a fact, you know,

we were looking at this thing coming into the tournament, like, is this this thing going to make the NIT? So they're still in the bid for show, for show. And so that would be the best story of the bunch. But obviously the team that I'm riding with in terms of, again, if somebody said, your mama's life is common on this. And, you know, her birthday just passed. I love her.

I wanted to have many more. I'd have to go with you. Honestly, I'm back in the pack. I feel like DJ Burns owes Bay caught one. I think Big Out of Burns, it's giving that to me, right? I feel like Casey Morsell is really having one of those moments. I think DJ Horn is having one of those moments. I'm not upset about it.

I love Coach Keats, so I'm over here fighting for ice cream, y'all. I just want him to get another year, maybe 10 more years extensions. So someone tweeted, they said a UNC won, Duke loss, and Coach Keats is about to give another year. We're 3 in O right now as Tar Hill fans. And I was like, you know what? I don't hate it. I see the vision. I say, go pack.

Go pack. You know, I just want to let this be known. I have often said this and I stand by this, you know. In sports that require finesse and gentle touch and all that, hey, UNC,

they got NC state every day of the week. But in sports where you got to get physical, where you got to, it's having a soft chin matters. That, my friends, never going to go well for the boys and baby will. Never, but, you know. Never is crazy. Never is crazy. I'm just saying, you got to go back to the

time where the helmets was soft and they wouldn't let people to look like us played to get U.S.C. having an advantage of the United States football. That's neither him out there. Advantage or they've definitely popped them in a couple of times. But no, I'm saying it's over. The show's over. That's why I say nothing nice about NCSIC. That's why I can't do it because they see how people take it to the head

and we're done. And we're done. For Candace Cooper and Ken's together, we have. hope you guys have a great and safe weekend. Check us out back here on Monday. Until next time.