Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Why Commissioner Jim Phillips' ACC Championship Plan Raises Eyebrows

Starting point is 00:00:00 How's this for an idea? The top team in the ACC couldn't play in the ACC championship game. Huh? You are Locked-on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:34 We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. From the first whistle to the final drive, Fanduel makes the NFL playoffs even more exciting. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $300 and bonus bets if you win your first bet. Visit fanduel.com to get started. We'll talk on this episode about the Miami versus Wisconsin drama over Xavier Lucas, the defensive back who has transferred from Wisconsin to Miami,

Starting point is 00:01:03 despite never actually getting put into the transfer portal. I had a chance to speak to his lawyer today about that. We'll talk about the way too early odds for ACC football champion for next year. Speaking of ACC champions, Kenton, we may find a new way of crowning an ACC champion, which would include the top regular season team in the ACC, maybe not playing in the ACC championship game. Sometimes when Jim Phillips speaks, I wonder if he should maybe run it by somebody

Starting point is 00:01:35 before he starts talking about his great ideas. Each and every day, Donald. Each and every damn day, we find ways to be less and less competitive as a society. What is this? Oh, you're in first place, so you're going to opt out. I'm going to tell you a little story that traces back to 2nd Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, okay? My junior year at Cass 10, we're slated to be one of the top teams in the state, and we were that.

Starting point is 00:02:06 We were one of the top teams. We had a pretty good regular season record, all that good stuff. Our only loss in the regular season came out of conference. So we were already locked into the state playoffs. We did not have to play another game if we did not want to. And our coach said, is there an opportunity? Can we line it up with somebody? Can we schedule somebody?

Starting point is 00:02:27 And even in that game, a lot of folks said, oh, your team's a little banged up. You got injuries here and there. You should rest your starters. I mean, you don't have to play this game. You go ahead and rest them. RJV could have beat you and D.JZ with that year. They still put the starters out and we trumps those boys by 24 points. So I say all this to say, what the hell happened to compete at all costs?

Starting point is 00:02:53 What the hell happened to the game I love? The game I love where you go out there and every time you're given an opportunity, if you're the top dog, because I understand bowl out of times, that's a little different. If you're in a bowl, nine times out of ten, you're not the top dog. If you are the top dog, if you're the big dog, I'm chopping at the big. I'm begging and pleading and scratching at the door. Let me get in. Give me a shot.

Starting point is 00:03:24 Give it, let me show everybody how much better than everybody else around me. I am. And what? I don't understand Jim Phillips. Every time he makes a decision, I'm like, hey, that's a good decision. He comes in with something immediately behind it to say, oh, I'm about to make the worst decision you've ever seen, buddy. I'm about to make Antonio Brown look like a solid decision maker, I tell you.

Starting point is 00:03:49 And, yeah, so you guys are probably surmised, like the premise. would be that since, you know, SMU, who was the top ACC regular season team, you know, they ended up losing the ACCC championship game to Clemson, but like, they still made it in, like they had to sweat it out, they did still make it in. So the idea, basically from Jim Phillips is, well, hey, maybe the top regular season team should just not play in the championship game so we can, you know, theoretically guarantee them a spot into the playoff. And then two versus three

Starting point is 00:04:21 play for the ACC title game and the winner. And the winner, if that game gets in. And I agree with everything Kenton had to say about competition, by the way. And by the way, credit to Andrea Adelson at ESPN.com for putting this article out there. So here's a couple quotes from ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips. He says, the conference championship games are important as long as we make them important, right? He said, do you play two versus three? You go through the regular season and whoever wins the regular season, just park them to the side.

Starting point is 00:04:52 and then you play the second place versus the third place team in your championship game. So you have a regular season champion and then you have a conference tournament or postseason champion. He says that's one of the options depending on how you treat the conference champions or that championship game. You may want to do it different. He says, I have alluded to that and some of our every other week AD calls and these are some of the things moving forward.

Starting point is 00:05:19 We want to have a recap of the regular season, postseason. do we think moving forward. Now, okay, you know where I'm at on this, Kent. And to me, you either play a conference championship game or you don't. Like if you want to, if you want to get rid of conference championship games altogether and just say, hey, maybe this could do more harm than good, fine. But this idea of having the top team sit out the championship game and have two versus three, it doesn't make any sense to me. So let's either play the championship game or let's not pretend it's important and scrap it. You do one of those two things.

Starting point is 00:05:54 Absolutely. Play it or scrap it, period. I'm one of those people. If I'm going to do it, I'm going to screw up. I'm going to screw up early. I go dip a toe halfway and half a half of. We want a conference championship game, but we don't want to risk number one getting out.

Starting point is 00:06:11 And Dono, can we discuss that for just a second here? Let's do this logically. Jim, Jim, Timothy, let's put on our thinking caps, okay? I'm going to speak directly to you for a second. If we are parking number one so the number one is guaranteed to make the playoffs, quick question, Donald, how many teams do we have make the playoffs this year? 12. How many in the ACC?

Starting point is 00:06:33 Oh, you mean the ACC. Sorry. Two. Okay. Now, Donald, just out of curiosity, let's say that the number one this year would have beaten number two. Would number two have sniffed the playoffs? No.

Starting point is 00:06:48 That is what you're. Like, if two loses to three. Yeah, that's a great point. Like, three is still probably not going to get in because once you redefine the parameters of the conference championship, now the playoffs have rights to say, well, wait a minute. They're doing something fishy over there. They're cooking the books to get two.

Starting point is 00:07:11 So now we're going to go at the highest rank of those two, and then whoever falls out of the wash after that, we may consider you. But somebody's going to get screwed out of that situation, either the regular season champion or the tournament champion. And Lord forbid, again, three loses to two. Now you went from two teams being in in the inaugural to one. If that, because again, you've now opened Pandora's box for the committee to say, do they have a true champion?

Starting point is 00:07:43 Do we need to rethink our parameters? Somehow our rethought-out parameters have Vanderbilt in. Who could have thunk it? So, you know, this is this is a half-baked scheme that is clearly not thought through, not thought through at any relevant measure. This is something that did not require a modicum of neurons to say, hmm. Yeah. Yeah, this is stupid. This doesn't make sense.

Starting point is 00:08:11 This doesn't, Jim, come on back. Come on back. Get it? I bet he in that dark room with Aaron Rogers. That's what he was doing. He was in that dark room with Aaron Rogers. You're with a shaman right now. Aaron Rogers is a Cal grad, which means technically he's an ACC alumna.

Starting point is 00:08:26 I did it. I understand, Jim, but you leave that man alone. He is not okay. He is going to have to find a new job when the Jets get rid of him. You don't want to be in the unemployment line with him, okay? But saying stuff like this, Jim, you're going to be right there with him, updating your LinkedIn. Yeah, man, no doubt. I mean, listen, I come up with terrible ideas all the time.

Starting point is 00:08:47 I just, I don't necessarily run all of those by you on the show. I try to filter the terrible ideas. Maybe, maybe Jim Phillips should start filtering out the terrible ideas. Listen, there's nothing wrong with brainstorming, right? Yeah. You know, maybe run it by somebody first. We have a lot more to get to on this episode of Lockdown ACC. I want to get to this Xavier Lucas saga next.

Starting point is 00:09:09 So this is the player, and boy, this is, we seem to set new precedents every single year when it comes to transfer portal and NIL related matters. This combines probably every hot button issue college football currently has to face. So, you know, this is a player who he's originally from South Florida, Lucas, had a good first season at defensive back for Wisconsin Badgers, decided, you know, he wanted to transfer and play closer to home, asked, requested to hit the transfer portal over a month ago. Wisconsin just didn't put him in the transfer portal, despite by NCAA rules, you have 48 hours to put a player into the portal after their request.

Starting point is 00:09:51 But Wisconsin says the reason why they never put him in the portal was they feel he breached a binding to your NIL contract. And they're also accusing Miami of tampering. I had the privilege earlier today of speaking with Xavier Lucas's lawyer, Darren Heitner, who's very, very well-known name for college football fans because he's been involved in a lot of different NIL and transfer portal related cases. And a number of things we talked about, Kenton, including whatever he knows about what Wisconsin claims to have about Miami tampering. So we'll get to that and so much more.

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Starting point is 00:11:57 Thank you so much for making Lockdown ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. For your next listen, make sure you check out our other shows. Kenton and Grayson do an awesome job hosting Locked on Wolfpack. I host Locked on Cains. Earlier today, Kenton, I interviewed Darren Heitner, who's the lawyer for Xavier Lucas, former Wisconsin Badgers cornerback now with Miami. And this was this was a crazy story. So what ended up happening was, Kent, that his lawyer found a loophole on how to transfer despite never actually hitting the transfer portal. So he was able to unenroll academically from Wisconsin before their semester deadlines and enroll at Miami before their semester deadlines and basically circumvent the transfer portal. The NCAA actually admitted that they, you know, that there was nothing illegal about what they did from that standpoint. Now, Wisconsin has contended that Xavier Lucas, according to them, is breaching a binding NIL contract.

Starting point is 00:13:00 And here's where it gets crazy, Kenton. So they are trying to hold up this NIL agreement that he signed with Wisconsin Athletics that is based on the House versus NCAA settlement, a revenue sharing contract. Now, Lucas's lawyer contends that that contract, he refers to. it not as a binding contract, but as a memorandum of understanding an MOU, that it cannot be binding because it's based on hypothetical legislation that hasn't happened yet. And also no money has been exchanged yet from that deal. So there are no damages to be sought. So this, basically, they're, contending that these contracts that are already going around certain Big Ten schools cannot be upheld. And this, this is only getting crazier by the day. I want to make something clear here,

Starting point is 00:13:52 I don't know. I want to, I'm going to challenge you on something, but I'm not challenged you on this because I believe that you're not a man of integrity, but because I believe you are. So I'm a challenge of this. The framing of this and that his lawyer found a loophole, I strongly disagree. Wisconsin tried to find a loophole, tried to exploit a loophole simply by not entering him. They said, well, if we sit on our hands and don't enter him, he can't leave. The university attempted to find a loophole. If the rule is you have within 48, hours to put a young man in the portal when he requests, you do what you got to do. If the argument is he signed with an NIL collective, he signed with the revenue, he signed disagreement. So that's what it is. All of the players who,

Starting point is 00:14:35 remember when we had that mass exodus out of NC State's defensive backfield, guess how many of those guys didn't sign for the 2024, 2025 or the 2025-26 season? Guess how many of those guys didn't sign? Um, zero? None. All of them had signed up already. All of them had signed up.

Starting point is 00:14:56 Everybody said, I'm coming back for the next year. And then they said, actually, no, we're not. And you know what NC State did? Hey, the game is the game. More part of you. Y'all boys go and find your best lives. Go do your best elsewhere. We'll go find somebody to replace your door, do our best to do so, and move on.

Starting point is 00:15:16 It is not. And here's the thing. Anybody who knows me knows, I got mad love for Wisconsin Badman. Mad love for Wisconsin Badger's. But at the end of the day, if a player don't want to be there, it's like a relationship. I take volunteers.

Starting point is 00:15:30 I don't take hostages. Baby, if you don't want to go, as the great Fantasia Burino once said, if you don't want me, then don't talk to me. Go ahead and free yourself. You hold that young man there and he doesn't want to be there. What is the outcome you're expecting for me? You expect a guy.

Starting point is 00:15:50 that's going to give his all. You expect a guy that's going to make not going to make business decisions with those big 10 running backs coming down the hill? Is that what you expect? Like, no, if he wants to go, hey, I don't care what agreement you signed. More part to you, brother. Go on a bunch of way. Go do your thing.

Starting point is 00:16:07 And if you are to make the argument that, hey, he acts outside of the window, then sure, pursue whatever damages you need to pursue to say, hey, we were well outside his window to transfer because I believe Wisconsin's bow game is longer than five days ago, right? Well, but he asked actually, I think it was like December 16th or 17th. So when he asked to leave, it was well within the window. Yeah, so they never filed his paperwork. So that's the thing. If he's within the window, he's within the window.

Starting point is 00:16:38 If he's outside the window, you can make the argument sure that he did not give you enough time to replace him with an equal or close or greater cornerback or player or whatever, sure, maybe, but it seems like he did everything right. So it's not his lawyer finding a loophole. His lawyer said, this is the protocol, period. This is how this goes. When a player wants to leave in the year of our Lord and Sabre 2025, they have the right to do so. The universities have to honor them. And the University of Wisconsin thought they were slick, thought they found themselves a loophole,

Starting point is 00:17:13 they thought they'd get out of it. Now, last thing here, to Wisconsin's benefit maybe to maybe play devil's advocate here or badger's advocate, because the devil got enough advocates, he don't need no damn more. So to play the badgers advocate here, maybe they do have proof of temper. At which point, sure, go after Miami in the court. But even if they tampered their tail off to go get that young man, let the NCAA bring the hammer down. Right. Let the NCAA say, all right, boom, lost a scholarship, vacate wins, post-season bail, whatever it is. But it's not your place to say, I'm going to hold you and violate my end because you violated your end.

Starting point is 00:17:58 No, go do your thing. And because you violated your end, we'll see you in court. Well, yeah, and if they're going to go the tampering route, you better hope that your house is squeaky clean, right? Because if you're, I mean, there's a reason why a lot of schools out. there don't go after others for tampering. It's because maybe they've also done it. Maybe Wisconsin's squeaky clean. There were some allegations a couple years ago about how they acquired Tanner Mordecai

Starting point is 00:18:24 from SMU. I'm pretty sure when they started interviewing Luke Fickle for their head coaching job, he was under contract in Cincinnati. You better make sure you're squeaky clean. As far as, again, I don't know what Wisconsin thinks they have or what they have possibly evidence against Miami. me, I have no idea. You know, for what it's worth, we'll play the clip here of me, my occasional co-host,

Starting point is 00:18:51 Bruce Warner, and Darren Heitner, who's the lawyer for Xavier Lucas. And I asked him, like, what he knows about what Wisconsin may or may not have in terms of alleged evidence of Miami tampering. To your knowledge, do they have something or do you have any idea what they think they have? To my knowledge, the answer is no. I have not spoken with Wisconsin in a few days as we're recording this podcast. I only had a small amount of communication with Wisconsin leading up to Xavier deciding to unenroll from the university and then subsequently enroll at the University of Miami.

Starting point is 00:19:33 I had made numerous efforts to communicate with the school. I was very frustrated in that process, but ultimately did connect with somebody who absolutely has authority to speak on behalf of the University of Wisconsin. I don't want to get too deep into those conversations because we agreed to keep it as settlement-related conversations and keep those communications privileged. But one thing that I did discover in those communications was that, at least as far as I understood, they didn't have real proof other than hearsay as to whether or not there was tampering. And in the limited amount of time that I've been a part of Xavier's team and as his counsel, I have not personally seen or heard any examples of tampering by the university.

Starting point is 00:20:25 In fact, it appears that the university was very, very careful to not go down that path. And we were also careful in terms of how we orchestrated this whole process within the scope of the NCAA's rules. I mean, as I'm sure you and your listeners saw, the NCAA released one of the most interesting statements it has ever issued, at least as long as I've been living, which is that it says there's nothing that we did that is impermissible, that you can actually move schools outside of the transfer portal, largely rendering the portal useless. There's a lot to unpack there. Now, you know, one of the reactions that people had Kenton was, you know, did Xavier Lucas just, did he completely destroy the transfer portal?

Starting point is 00:21:13 And now, like, you'll have a player who will, you know, play for Wisconsin week five and then week six, he's suiting up for Miami. I don't think it's gotten, I don't think we've opened that Pandora's box, because there are still our academic deadlines that need to be met for transferring. Like, you still can't transfer within a season. Now, maybe the portal no longer exists and we're going to see different offseason jumps, but you, You still cannot go from one school to another within a season. We're not at that point yet.

Starting point is 00:21:42 I think that people who say that are missing the purpose of the transfer portal. The purpose of the transfer portal is not the movement, the actual like, hey, this is the vehicle via which players move. No, it is a system by which players can let others know I am looking to move. That's a great point. What are we doing here? Oh, the transfer portal is going. Everybody's going to be transferring every game and you're going to sign a one game

Starting point is 00:22:14 contract. Do you hear yourselves? Are you okay? If you believe that, I'm going to tell you to do something. And these steps are going to be very important. Step one, after you finish listening to this podcast, press that power button, wherever it is on your desktop, laptop, phone, wherever you, whatever you listen to this on.

Starting point is 00:22:35 Step two, walk towards your front door, the front door to hotel, the front door, wherever dwelling you're at. Step three, go outside. Go outside. Feel the sun on your skin. That's optional. Maybe where you're at, there's not a lot of sunlight right now. Here's step four. Now, this is the most important part.

Starting point is 00:22:55 Either find some grass near you or walk, jog, bike, take a cab, find some grass, and go touch it. Don't touch that damn grass. Hug the grass. Rub it on your face. Because it is clear. It's clear you ain't touched no grass in a while. Rub it on your shoulders. Rub it on your back.

Starting point is 00:23:14 Rub it on your belly. Grab you some grass. Go touch grass. That's idiotic. Again, the portal is a way that if I, Ken Gibbs, were to say, hey, I'm leaving Southwest Missouri State University,

Starting point is 00:23:29 everybody who wants to contact me, come on, let's have these talks. that's what it's for. People have transferred before the portal existed. Right or wrong, Donald? Yes, correct. 100%. So if people transfer before the portal,

Starting point is 00:23:45 why do you think, oh, destroying the portal is now just going to destroy transferring in this meaningful way? No, it will destroy the foundation via which people can communicate with these players to say, hey, Donald, I'm interested in Kent. Or, hey, Ken, I'm interested. I heard you leave in Southwest Missouri State. Well, let's talk. That's what it's going to destroy.

Starting point is 00:24:06 It's not going to destroy the actual foundation of, hey, these are still student athletes. These are still students as well as they are athletes. Yes, they're athletes, but they still got to take a class, even if it's basket weaving, even if it's rocket science, even if it's aerospace engineering, they still got to take some type of class in order to be here. So, you know, this is, again, this case is messy and it's mucky. but this case is not something that we haven't seen in a way besides the fact that it's the university that is very clearly trying to pull a fast one if things are like they appear at least from the outside

Starting point is 00:24:46 peering in through my glasses. But again, if this is a tempering case, I would love to see what the end result is. And the worst part is, even if the end result is that he was tempered with, guess where he's still not going to be, Buki? It's not going to be at Wisconsin. So why are you fighting it like this? Why would you fight it in a way to like, oh, we're just not going to release you? Go on a bunch of way, man. Go about your way.

Starting point is 00:25:09 We'll see you in court. My theory, again, I don't know what they think they have on tampering, but what I think that Wisconsin's big issue here is, you know, because the Big Ten has this template of these two-year revenue sharing agreements. And I really think the challenge why Wisconsin is making a big stink about this.

Starting point is 00:25:32 is to try and uphold the validity of those agreements because the Big Ten has basically drawn up these contracts that are, if they can be enforced, are transfer portal proof, right? I mean, you know, there's, you have two opportunities every single year to enter the transfer portal. And yet, you know, Wisconsin and the Big Ten seemingly want to make sure all their players are locked in for a minimum of two years. So I really think that there is a willingness on their part to want to, validate those agreements and basically from their point of view say, hey, like, yeah, you can transfer if you want to, but you got to wait two years. Once you sign this agreement, you are locked in.

Starting point is 00:26:12 I think that's what they really want to enforce in my humble opinion. But here's the problem with that, Donald. That's like saying SMU just wanted to pay their players NIL before they got to death to me. Like, sure, you were just ahead of time. The timing of everything matters. sure when a revenue sharing agreement has been formally reached, when revenue sharing has been officially set up,

Starting point is 00:26:40 and you pay out that first payment to say, hey, Dono, I'm paying you because we want you to come play receiver here. We saw how you were bawling down there in Miami, and we need you. We're going to pay you. This is our agreement. This is the Big Ten Lobby. The Big Ten Lobos. I was going to say.

Starting point is 00:27:00 They're trying to stop me. But if they say, we're going to pay you, this is the deal, this is the agreement, that they have got to honor that when that time comes. The problem is you're too early. And that matters. You're outside of that pocket where those agreements have been formally reached to where the money is in the coffers. I've received the money or I have the money and I've now said I'm allocating it to you in this way. Now, if I am wrong here, which is possible, I'm not a lawyer, I don't know Wisconsin's finances.

Starting point is 00:27:34 If they already have the money in the coffers and have already started to pay this young man as part of that agreement, hey, that's a different thing. That's a different thing because monies have been rendered. Well, I don't think, I don't think they're able to legally start paying revenue sharing before revenue sharing gets approved. So I, so, so they're either, they're either not paying revenue sharing or they're illegally paying revenue share. And that's my point. Either way you cut or slice it, your timing is off. Your timing is all. And again, I say this as a guy, I never grew up having smoked for the back. As I grew older, I have enjoyed them more. I've been like, hey, man, that's a good, that's a good program up there. Besides that one kid that was always taking charges up there, you know who you are.

Starting point is 00:28:20 It was a white guard from Wisconsin that was always taking charge. That's not the way to play the game. So, but other than that, I've never had any, any smoke whatsoever with Wisconsin. I wish them all the best. I hope that they turn into everything they want to be. And Barry Alvarez, one day, decides the four pass is a viable option in Madison. But I look at this and I say to myself, it seems like they're trying to uphold something that's not here yet. And you cannot say, hey, guaranteed based off what we anticipate is coming because it could be, It could work out that, hey, the revenue sharing is not what everybody thinks is going to be

Starting point is 00:29:00 or works out in a different way where there's different scales for different schools and all that stuff. You don't know. You just don't know. And so if you're early, you're still early. Was SMU doing NIL early? Yeah. Yeah, they work. About three decades early.

Starting point is 00:29:15 And guess what happened? Hey, Pony Express, more like we're beating a dead horse. That's it. They were visionaries. They knew. In like 30 years, this is all going to be legal. Let's do it now. But now we can't go back

Starting point is 00:29:28 and undebted penalty them. We can't go back and reinstate all their seasons. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. We knew it was coming eventually. That's not how it works. Even if it is a much closer eventually, which we're seeing right now, you can't base things off

Starting point is 00:29:43 and eventually possibly. It either is or it is. Yeah. Well, when we come back, we're going to predict the future because we have way too early betting odds on who's going to win the ACC and football next year. You want to keep it locked. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on

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Starting point is 00:31:04 I'm Alex Dono from Locked on Cains alongside Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. When I looked through the early betting odds to win the ACC next year, a lot of it seems like, you know, pretty obvious who the favorite is. But I will say that sometimes we get surprised, right? Who were the odds on favorites a year ago at this time? to win the ACC. You remember? Was it the nose, I believe?

Starting point is 00:31:32 It was. It was. And, you know, I don't think, I don't think two in ten was on anybody's bingo card this year. So, you know, I'm not expecting that to happen next year with the favorites to win the I'm not expecting that to happen. But you will not be surprised to hear that the Clemson Tigers are, I think, rightfully favored to win the conference at plus 1,800.

Starting point is 00:31:55 We can question, I think, second, third. fourth and fifth Kenton. So, you know, Miami, who is, you know, they've certainly Xavier Lucas included. They've added a lot of defensive backs. They added the top transfer portal, ranked player in Carson Beck to play quarterback. It's Miami at plus 4,000. SMU and Louisville at plus 6,000 tied for third and Florida State at plus 8,500 rounding out that top five. So, you know, maybe the Knowles are in for the big bounce back. I see you've been making this. face ever since I mentioned Miami at plus 4,000 odds.

Starting point is 00:32:30 Because it hasn't gotten better. I wish something would have came in and corrected my face. The only team that I believe is rightfully where they are is Louisville. All those other teams you say, and SMU, I can see them at number. What about Clemson?

Starting point is 00:32:42 It plus. Yeah, Clemson's good. Clemson is good. Anybody who knows me knows, I've had to eat my crow to the Clemson fan. Hey, I was wrong. That bowl has proven still nationally relevant, more part to the boys.

Starting point is 00:32:55 With that being said, Miami at number two. why? How? Here's my thing. Here's my thing. The more I look at that roster, the more I ask one question, is Carson Beck a ceiling raiser?

Starting point is 00:33:11 Is he a ceiling raiser? Will he raise the ceiling of this team? That's my question. Because with the weapons that they have coming back in terms of skill position, he's going to have to be that. I don't think that there's any argument that like, hey, this team does not get to

Starting point is 00:33:26 the ACC championship with Carson Beck being a quarterback that you win with. I think that's fair to say. I think he has to be a guy to a high degree that you win because of him.

Starting point is 00:33:37 Because he's here, we will win this game as opposed to like, if we get a quarterback that just don't kill us, we'll be fine. I don't think Miami has that type of team yet.

Starting point is 00:33:46 I think they're building that. I think they're one or two years away from that type of team where it's like, you know, hey, give us a Ken Dorsey and we're going to win us in that. I don't think they're there. So, Miami being the two, a little surprising.

Starting point is 00:34:00 And the nose? Come on, man. Come on, come on, come on. Come on. How many times we got to play? In the words of that blue fish from SpongeBob, how many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man? Florida State, how did you watch what they did last year?

Starting point is 00:34:20 Watch them clean house in the way that they did last year and say they're the fifth most likely team to win. in ACC championship. Now, do I believe it's possible that they finish fifth? Sure. Sure. That's possible. Fifth most likely to win it all, no.

Starting point is 00:34:36 We have seen and talked about quarterbacks in their first year out of the transfer portal, and I think Consolanos is really good. I just don't see it working out that way for them. Louisville is a team that I think they're underrated again. I think those backs, oh boy. And here's the thing. I don't think Miller Moss is a quarterback that is a ceiling razor either.

Starting point is 00:34:56 However, I believe that they're put in a position to where their offense has never been one that was reliant on one guy. It's never been that. It's never been like, hey, we barely have a system. This guy is a system. And they're not losing a ton in the same way to Miami. They're not losing their schools all time leading this, all time leading that record holder in this record. They're not losing that in the same way. So that's why I'm a little bit more confident in Miller-Mawson company.

Starting point is 00:35:26 potentially winning it than I am. By the way, let me correct. These are, these are odds to win the college football playoff, not odds. I mean, okay. I was just about to say, clearly, plus 1,800. Let me go ahead. Yeah. I was looking at that like that. Yeah, those are, those are odds to win the playoff. Now, still, you know, you can take the order of ACC teams and interpret it the same way, but those are those are odds to win the playoff, courtesy of fan duel, by the way. So Clemson, rightfully so, does get those odds. So we appreciate everyone for tuning in, making Lockdown ACCC your first listen and your first watch today. He's Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Cains. You know, we're going to talk next time about whatever happens in the national championship game tonight.

Starting point is 00:36:15 We're right before the game. So, you know, I didn't want to get too deep into it because a lot of you are going to watch this and listen to this probably after a champion is crowned. We'll break it down afterwards. We'll talk to you next time on another episode of LockdowneACC, part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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