Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Wild Theory On How The ACC Is Being SABOTAGED! Why It's Unlikely... ACC Coaches In ESPN's Top 10

Starting point is 00:00:00 Well, this one has to be the most, let's say, salacious theory that I've seen in terms of conference realignment. Is the ACC getting sabotaged by their TV partner? 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 for making Locked on ACC your first listen and your first watch today. I'm Alex Dono from Locked on Caines. Kenton Gibbs from Locked-on Wolfpack. Kenton, are you ready to dive into, I don't know if I should call this a conspiracy theory,

Starting point is 00:00:53 but I think that's exactly what it is because it's a theory about conspiracy. Do you want to dive into this? Oh, this is absolutely the stuff of conspiracy theory. Locked-on ACC family, break out your tinfoil hats and put on, get that little gavel from Party City and get ready. Yep, there we go. There we go. Get ready.

Starting point is 00:01:13 Get ready to have some order. Order in the Locked-on ACC court. Order, I say, because we're about to put our armchair lawyer suits on and getting our succession back. So this thread on X is getting noticed and getting talked about by a lot of people. It's from a user who goes by inside the Big 12. I think I've seen some of his post pop up before. This is probably the thread that's gotten more traction than anything he's ever posted. before. So inside the Big 12, and I cannot speak for his connections or sources. You're just going to have to either take him at his word or not. But he, he wrote today,

Starting point is 00:01:56 ESPN has approached FSU, Clemson, and the ACC about a potential settlement allowing the Seminels and Tigers to leave the ACC whenever they want. But an ESPN broker deal is only possible if FSU and Clemson leave for the SEC. Then he says, why? I'm glad you. asked. He continues because ESPN is the exclusive rights holder for both the ACC and SEC. Moreover, ESPN is a partner in both the ACC network and SEC network. ESPN would not lose money if FSU and Clemson are in the SEC as opposed to the ACC. He continues the basics of the potential settlement are point number one. FSU and Clemson would pay an exit fee equal to what Texas and Oklahoma paid to exit the BIC 12 plus a percentage.

Starting point is 00:02:45 Point number two, the ACC would retain the rights to FSU and Clemson home games, but license those rights to ESPN for SEC broadcast. Point number three, the ACC receives 50% of the fair market SEC value of FSU and Clemson home games in both football and basketball. The percentage the ACC receives would decrease each year of the agreement. Point number four, ESPN would pick up the option on the ACC's contract until 2036, but would renegotiate the terms to reflect the loss of value from losing FSU and Clemson. Point number five, the SEC, namely FSU and Clemson, would be contractually obligated to play a top-tier ACC program each year.

Starting point is 00:03:28 My source tells me, he says, that the details above are the initial opening proposition, and they will change slightly as negotiations change the details, but the basics will remain the same, he says. So, okay, the way that he paints this, he tries to paint it like it's a win for all parties. But I think that there are a certain number of parties within the ACC not named Clemson and Florida State who may not feel like something like this is a win, Kenton. You know, Donnell, I need you to pass me that tent foil hat as well because it's very clear to me that these theories that are being thought out, You know, I'm just going to say this, whoever his sources are that said this, there's also one key detail that Donald left out. These, all of this was supposed to be unraveling tonight, or I'm sorry, last night. Oh, I didn't see that.

Starting point is 00:04:29 Yeah, he said that this was going to. I don't think I got that far down the thread. He said that this, all of these things were going to play out within the next 24 hours. And that was starting, that 24 hours is starting retroactively from the morning before this was recorded. Okay. I'm sorry, from the morning before when you are hearing this. So with that in mind, I called around because, you know, Dono and I, we've been doing this for a little while ourselves. You know, Dono and I have combined nearly three decades in the game at this point.

Starting point is 00:05:03 I want to say somewhere around that. I put in some calls myself. I reached in to some of my source base. I say, hey, what's going on, man? I'm hearing that this is, what's the deal? What's going on? And I was literally laughed off the phone. They said, if there was something like that going on,

Starting point is 00:05:20 we would tell you if that was the case and that was going to be put out in the next day or two, you would know. But with that being said, one thing that I will give this person credit for is the logistics kind of work out. if you don't think about it that hard. That's what I was told by one of the people who didn't laugh me off the phone. The old saying, you sound smart to a dumb person, that's basically what I got told here. I was told that if ESPN were to do this, that is what is considered in antitrust laws excessive control. they're forcing one entity into a complete other conference

Starting point is 00:06:10 and strong arming all parties involved into agreeing to this deal. That, my friends, is not legal. You cannot force one team away from, when you force, when whatever team forces their way out, be it Florida State, be in Clemson, be in Louisville,

Starting point is 00:06:30 be it pit, be a way of force, be a Boston, whoever it is, if they find, themselves away from the ACC, they then have the rights to go shop around, talk to every conference. If the WAC were to come back, exactly. If the WAC were to come back and they had a billion dollars to drop on the TV deal, they'd say, we'll pay you a billion dollars to be on

Starting point is 00:06:52 CVS with us. Hypothetically, they have the right to go talk to the way. They have to have that right. They have to have that ability. Again, if not, something really unscrued. scruful list is going on, a lot like how Dono and I kept saying, if either these teams had already been talking to another conference behind the ACC's back and the ACC were to request a FOIA and pop that, oh, guess what? We're going right back to court and that one's going to be short. That one is going to be short. That one's not going to be nearly as long as you think of it. So this is one of those threads where things could resemble something along these lines in a few months to a year someone on those but you know this is one of those very fantastical like oh i'm a

Starting point is 00:07:41 source i'm a guy who knows things type of type of thing because again donno and i are waiting because it should be going off at the time of this recording or in the hours shortly thereafter if the timeline that we were given was correct well and because the other thing that that that and i can understand why that threat is compelling right because certain parties would theoretically win there. Obviously, you know, and let's just assume Florida State and Clemson just want to be anywhere but the ACC, then that's a win for them. And obviously, the SEC is a fine conference, but this would assume that they don't really want to be in the Big Ten, which a lot of people support Florida State to Big Ten would be more likely. But theoretically, Florida State and Clemson win because they get out of the ACC, right? Obviously, the SEC wins.

Starting point is 00:08:27 And I can see why ESPN would win there because an even further strengthened SEC is probably more valuable to them than the ACC in terms of their TV deal. So I get that. He basically writes it off like it's a consolation prize for the ACC because they get their renewal. They get a diminished renewal, but they get their renewal through 2036, which essentially means the conference will. survive, okay? But here's what I feel like gets left out there. There are, what, 13, soon to be 16 remaining members of the ACC? I don't know whether you count Notre Dame or not, but, you know, whatever. There's there's either 12 or 13 remaining members of the ACC who would be suing ESPN into oblivion if they found out they were orchestrating this deal, Kent. Yeah. Yeah. And that's

Starting point is 00:09:17 what I keep, again, this is why I said, we're going to get ready. to put our lawyer, our armchair lawyer suits on and why I've got my locked on ACC gavel here already because there's no order in this court right now. There's no order in this court. In what world do you think that you can cut the legs out of 12 different teams financially by basically telling too, hey, we'll sweeten the pot to ensure that you all have a soft landing over here? And the 12 that have the legs cut from other than are like, well, it's better to be together. None of us know where we're going to go.

Starting point is 00:09:52 We're so happy for them that they got, and we're going to band together. We'll be great over here. We'll be awesome. And here's the fun part, Dono, even with your winners, let's do the math. The winners are set to go in at a 50% rate. Dono, how much is the Big Ten, or I'm sorry, the SEC set to make next year football-wise? Was it about 50? Maybe, maybe over that, but yeah, about that.

Starting point is 00:10:17 Let's get aggressive. 60? Yeah. The ACC is set to make how much? 30. 30. If the SEC is set to make two times as much as the ACC, and Clemson and Company, Florida State and Company,

Starting point is 00:10:37 just accepted half for them to leave, did you just spend a few million dollars on lawyers to break even? That's a good point. Yeah. Just so you can say you're no longer in the ACC, it's a win. Oh, well, later on. And the other, yeah. And another part, when I think about people who would want to sue ESPN over this,

Starting point is 00:10:58 which would include the remaining ACC teams that would sue them, also Fox and the Big Ten would also sue ESPN for that. So you only guarantee this team safe passage to this conference dependent upon they don't look at the other option, which could give them more money? Yeah. That seems legal. That seems very legal. So you guarantee that the conference they were leaving would be safe so that they didn't look over here at us. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. That's how business is done. That's how. That would also open the ACC to get sued by the remaining. Now, they're already getting sued by two of the schools in their. So maybe they're so used to getting sued now they don't even care.

Starting point is 00:11:50 But, you know, they're not currently getting sued by the Miami's and NC states and UNCs and Georgia, Texas, so on. But I guarantee you they would then sue the ACC and ESPN if they orchestrated this happening. I want to talk about some of the responses to these theories. And then I also want to get into some national rankings are coming out. Top 10 coaches in college football heading into next year. Is the ACC well represented in that? Is anybody left out of that list? And on three sports ranked every ACC head coach, one to 17 heading,

Starting point is 00:12:24 and that includes the incoming new members, one to 17 heading in the next year. So you know what you want to do, my friends? We're only getting started. You want to keep it locked right here on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Folks, eBay Motors has gotten me out of jams with my vehicle. Passion, drive, and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance.

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Starting point is 00:13:56 part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Alex Dono from Locked-on Cainz and Kenton Gibbs from Locked-on Wolfpack with you. So, you know, Kenton, you were, when you alerted me of that thread in those theories, you brought some of the responses to my attention as well. A good one came in from Jeremy who said, hey, collusion, anybody? ESPN trying to force the ACC to let schools out of the grant of rights while dictating said schools go to a specific conference that ESPN has invested interest in while attempting to sabotage another conference that they are invested in. Sounds like big lawsuits. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Starting point is 00:14:37 It sounds like a lot of lawsuits. Order in the locked on ACC court. Order in the court. Because again, these threads are moving out of order. They're moving on some foolishness, okay? Now, you know, as my mother would say when we were about to go into a store, y'all go in here and act like you got some sense. That's what I'm going to start quote tweeting all of these threads with,

Starting point is 00:15:00 with all of these fantastical ideas of what's going to happen. You are getting here and that's like y'all got some sense. Because this young man, Jeremy, he clearly has some sense. He clearly has something about him that's like, hmm, something about that doesn't exactly feel super legal. something about that, it just reeks when you put it up to the smell test, when you put it up to a little bit of critical thought there. So shout out to Jeremy for that.

Starting point is 00:15:29 Well, it doesn't like ESPN, they have to walk a pretty delicate tightrope. I know that they've unfortunately had to go through several rounds of layoffs. You know, they've been hemorrhaging money. Isn't Disney looking to sell them and kind of bounce them off their network of assets, right now. So yeah, I'm pretty sure that, you know, Mickey Mouse is still running the show there for now. I don't make Mickey wants to open himself up to that sort of scrutiny and those sort of lawsuits. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, none of want to step foot in that court. Not for no foolishness that they're already trying to unload. Come on. What do we do? Yeah, there's another response

Starting point is 00:16:14 to the thread from, uh, from Hickmania who said, FSU has, you know, made it pretty clear they want the Big Ten, not the SEC, especially given what happened in the playoffs. Why would FSU not just push to discovery enforce the hand? I predict Florida State will leave for the Big Ten having paid exit fee plus two years of T1 right. I do say that once they get to the discovery phase of these lawsuits, you know, lawsuits to get that's going to be super interesting, Kenton. I'm going to have my Poplar money for that because it's obvious the ACC doesn't want certain parts of their business out there. Neither DZPN. They don't want those TV contracts out there. So yeah, Discovery is going to be a lot of fun. And that, you know, based on the way it's trending

Starting point is 00:16:57 right now, Florida, they're probably feeling pretty good about that ruling in Florida or very good about that ruling in Florida earlier this week. So maybe that would be the better route for them. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, I'll tell you this. Again, everybody keeps swearing that us two are delusional and that we think the ACC is going to be together until 2036. Again, I can speak for me and Dono, and trust me, I don't speak for other people, especially those that I'm not paying their bills and all that. And last time I check, Dono handles all his responsibilities. I handle all of mine. I'm telling you right now, I can speak for me and Dono insane. The ACC as it exists today will look very different by at latest 2030, and I'm not just talking about the new teams that are being added. I am a thousand percent sure of that.

Starting point is 00:17:49 The ACC will look different. But what we are talking about right now, I keep trying to tell everybody, we keep imagining that court works how it does in law and order. We keep imagining court works how it does in Monk, in Syke, in Perry Mason, where we get the gotcha moments. It does not work like that in real life. It doesn't work that way.

Starting point is 00:18:12 Court is boring. It's really, really boring. Lawsuits are boring. They're really, really, really arduous task that take time. And here we are at the start of something, because last time I checked, both of the everybody filed in the beginning of this year, and we're four months in and everybody's swearing, my side's going to shut them down now.

Starting point is 00:18:37 Oh, my side's going to kill it. Stop. There's plenty of time to go in these things. And as much as we as much as Donald and I would love to see this thing in so we could strictly talk what's happening on the field with the rosters, with the coaches, with the portal, with all the things. We would love to talk about that. But as long as these folks continue to tell us, oh, the eclipse is here, the switch will be flipped for the ACCC. We continue to have to address things like this. Hey, man, I spent like two hours at a spring football practice today.

Starting point is 00:19:11 I want to talk football. We will talk a little football, if not football adjacent, when we come back, because a national ranking by ESPN, when they're not too busy sabotaging, they're still writing articles at ESPN.com. Top 10 coaches in college football, does the ACC have enough or too much representation on that list? And on three ranked every ACC football coach, 1 to 17. Are they ever going to forgive my guy, Mario Cristobal, for the lack of kneel down last year. You will find out after this on this brand new episode of Locked on Cainz.

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Starting point is 00:21:40 list number one head coach head i'm not going to argue with this one kirby smart of georgia number two calen debor now at alibate i mean is is he getting you know a bit of a bit of an alabama inflation there i i know he just coached a team to the national final last year uh but you know debor he's got a big task on his hands replacing nix i think number two it's a little premature for that i'm sorry say them boys doing tricks on it uh yeah that's a little bit uh that's a little bit crazy. That's a little bit crazy. You know what I mean? Two is very high. And I get it.

Starting point is 00:22:16 There are, with Nick Saban retiring, I don't believe that there's anybody who's won a national championship in the last, what, decades still coaching other than Dabo and Kirby. And Kirby. So I get it.

Starting point is 00:22:31 I get it. I understand that he had to be high. Two feels a little too rich for his blood, just a little too rich. What about Kyle Whittingham at Georgia number three, or sorry, Utah, what it was Georgia, Kyle Whittingham at Utah number three. I think it's interesting that they have him one spot ahead of Davo Sweeney, who is, he is a two-time national champion, and it wasn't that long ago, 2016, 2018. Whittingham has done, he's done a hell of a job at Utah, but basically what he's done is, like,

Starting point is 00:23:04 kind of overachieve at Utah without winning the big one. Like, should he be ahead of Davo? No, absolutely not. Absolutely. And here's the thing, right? Unless you're judging this by not your previous body of work, but what we project that you do going forward, and even then, it's still kind of rough to have him over Daubo. Because I understand Daubo's refusal to use the portal is problematic.

Starting point is 00:23:32 That is problematic. I've been the biggest proponent of Davo is going to get left behind if he doesn't use the portal. So I'm not going to sit here. and act like that's a small deficit or a small cheek in the armor. No, that's a huge hole in the armor. Absolutely. With that being said,

Starting point is 00:23:49 as much as I want to give Winningham credit for winning at a higher level than Utah is used to, I'm sorry, you've got to win you a Nadi. You've got to win you a chip. If I'm going to predict that going forward, you're going to be better than a national championship winning coach, especially which division or which, conference is Utah going to now?

Starting point is 00:24:12 They're going to the Big 12. Big 12, right? Big 12. I can see them. I can see them wreck and shopping the Big 12, which they're making. They're actually like all the preseason prognostications basically have them bossing the Big 12 next year. Of course, you know, Oklahoma and Texas on their way out, Utah on the way.

Starting point is 00:24:33 Are they the new gold standard in the Big 12? We'll find out. I'll tell you what. If that's a new big gold standard. than the Big 12 more power tool and they can do a lot to justify that ranking this year. They can also do a lot to lose it this year. Yeah. So Whittingham is a spot ahead of Davosweeney at number four.

Starting point is 00:24:53 And then Mike Norvell comes in at number five. And he comes in ahead of Dan Lannning at number six, Steve Sarkeesian at seven, Lane Kiffin at eight, Lance Lee pulled at Kansas at nine and Ryan Day, Ohio State at 10. So I was reading the comments on that article. I'm not really going to argue where Mike Norvell is because, you know, Florida State has had a solid upward trajectory and they got, they should have been in the playoff. I don't think they would have done anything in the playoff last year. But a lot of people in the comments on that argument, maybe just all Ohio State fans wing. And they thought that Ryan Day at number 10 was way too low. I'm not so sure that that was way too low.

Starting point is 00:25:36 I think it was too low. I don't want to say way too low now. I don't want to say way too low. You know what I mean? Like some of the guys they put it from, what has Dan Lannick done to command that position? What has he done to demand something? Yeah, he's put together really good teams,

Starting point is 00:25:51 but he hasn't gotten over, like he hasn't gotten over the Utah and Washington Humps. And I was just about to say, where have those really good teams gotten? At least they can say, hey, I've been to the highest, I've been to the highest heights. I've climbed to the top of the mountain.

Starting point is 00:26:06 Even if I, do they have a national championship under day? I don't believe they do. Oh, no, I think, I think the last one was under Urban. Let me, let me fact check that real quick. But either way, either way you cut it or slice it, I think Day has done more than a lot of that bottom part of that list. And again, if we're going strictly by like a 100% projection of the future where we barely attach it in a past to it,

Starting point is 00:26:31 which really then that doesn't make sense because how do you project the future without the past? But I don't see a world where you have that many guys over day. I just don't. I'm sorry. I think they belong somewhere in that six, seven range. That 10, I ain't going to say Dave belongs the top four now. I ain't going to say nothing crazy like that. But day belongs in that top of the bottom half range.

Starting point is 00:26:58 He's not one of Natty, by the way. He's won, obviously, the Big Ten twice, and he's won the Big Ten. twice and he's won the big tenies three times. Yeah, and listen, give Kansas coach love. Turn around what Les Miles did. That turf eater had them looking down. Horrific. Down horrendous.

Starting point is 00:27:17 Good job for turning a program around. How do we put that in front of Ryan Day right away? Yeah. You know, like, I get it. I get the whole argument of like, oh, coach of the year goes to a coach who coached up a team that everybody thought was going to be bad and they turned out to be good. But there's a funny thing that that happens again.

Starting point is 00:27:34 college football. You don't have a GM. You don't have a director of player personnel and all that the same way you do in the NFL. The head coach does that. That's the head coach's job. His job to start is to say, hey, we need to go get this kid, this kid, and this kid. And these are the positions we need to build them up. Now, how y'all go about doing that? You know, bring me to players. I'll tell you yes or no, but I got to say so on that. I got to approve. I got to approve. on that. I'm going to be the one making a call on whether or not that guy's good. And so, you know, to see that folks are getting credit for taking over bad teams and making them good, but Ryan Day is not getting credit for maintaining the level of a college superpower, that's a little,

Starting point is 00:28:22 that feels a little shade to me. It feels a little, little icky. Well, I want to tease the other side of this list for next time because we'll discuss on our next episode, if the head coach is strictly in the ACC are ranked correctly from number one to number 17. I feel bad for number 17. You know, we'll, what we'll talk about who that is and why he is where he is. Alex Dono from Lockdown Keynes,

Starting point is 00:28:47 Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. We'll see if there's still an ACC come Monday, Kenton, because these rumors are getting crazy now. We'll talk to everybody next time. Go ahead. It'll be back. It'll, you know, one week after Good Friday, we're going to have the worst Friday, apparently, in the ACC, where it's not bad Friday.

Starting point is 00:29:08 It's the worst Friday, y'all. Be prepared. Be prepared. It's just like the eclipse. It's just like 2012. It's just like Y2K. Be prepared. We'll be ready.

Starting point is 00:29:17 We'll talk to everybody next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Wild Theory On How The ACC Is Being SABOTAGED! Why It's Unlikely... ACC Coaches In ESPN's Top 10

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