Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Will Bill Belichick Stay at UNC or Return to the NFL?

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Is Bill Belichick eyeing a return to the NFL, leaving UNC in the lurch? As rumors swirl, the college football landscape could be on the brink of a seismic shift. Join Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs as they dissect the potential impact of Belichick's departure on the UNC Tar Heels and the broader ACC. The discussion heats up with Tyler Van Dyke's move to SMU, reuniting with coach Rhett Lashley, and Dabo Swinney's newfound embrace of the transfer portal at Clemson. The hosts also tackle the challenges posed by Stanford and Cal joining the ACC, reshaping travel schedules and competitive dynamics. Don't miss this engaging analysis of college football's evolving narrative and its implications for the future. Tune in for insights that could redefine your understanding of the game.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Rocket MoneyCancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com/lockedon today.Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert. Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service. Real-time updates only in the iOS mobile app. See guarantee details at TurboTax.com/guarantees. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelFrom big upsets to game-winning drives, the NFL Playoffs are better with FanDuelnew customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED - Win or Lose.Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. Make this playoff season unforgettable with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. 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.

Bill Belichick just got to North Carolina. Now they're already talking about him going back to the NFL. 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 hasn't coached a single game yet in college. And the past month has already been super interesting just covering Chapel Bill at North Carolina. Thank you so much to the everydayers for making Lockdown ACC, your first listen and your first watch today.

We're available free, wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual, from big upsets to post-game winning drives, to game-winning drives, I should say. The NFL playoffs are better with Fanduel. New customers can bet $5 and get $200 and bonus bets guaranteed winner-lose.

Visit Fanduel.com to get started. He is Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cainz. On this episode, we'll talk some ACC basketball. Do we even know who the second best team in the conference is behind the Duke Blue Devils? Also, there are the complaints being lobbed out there about that new ACC travel schedule since Cal and Stanford are now in the conference and those West Coast swings you have to make. We'll talk football transfer portal because SMU has landed another quarterback and it's a very familiar one to Rhett Lashley. Clemson is still making transfer portal moves.

This is Davosweeney 2.0. But the coach who gets the most talk right now in ACC football is the NFL goat, six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick. And Kenton, there are already reports out there as of Wednesday today that the Las Vegas Raiders, and remember who a minority owner is of the Raiders, his old pal, Tom Brady, and other teams that were not named in the support NFL teams are contacting Bill Belichick to figure out if he is interested in ending his college experiment before it even starts.

Already supposedly the Raiders might be interested in bringing in Chapel Bill. I mean, Kenton, the guy has been there a month. He's out on the recruiting trail right now. Like, are you buying that Bill Belichick might leave North Carolina before coaching a single game? hell before coaching a single spring practice do you think there's actual noise to this tom palisero by the way uh who's a serious reporter uh NFL media's tom palisero was the first so i'm not i'm not getting this off somebody's blog like these are real reports out there kenton dono this was always going to be the case just a quick question what is the buyout if he is to leave where he's

fired right now what's the buyout now 10 10 million like do you think an NFL owner right now would pay $10 million to buy out Bill Belichick. Now hold on, hold on. What is the buyout, or actually when does the buyout drop to below $10 million? And how much does it drop by when it drops? It drops, like, and this is why I don't think he's going anywhere next season because, so on June 1st, which is just, you know, five months away, a little less than five months. June 1st, the buyout drops to $1 million.

But I don't see any NFL team hiring a coach on June 1,000. first. Like that doesn't make any sense for the calendar. That's after mini camp, after OTAs, after the draft, after free agency. But yeah, I mean, if you can wait until June, you get bill for $9 million less. Okay. So I want to, I want us to all think about this from a very serious standpoint. Why under God's green earth would your buyout drop 90% when you have not coached a game yet. Yeah. Like what in what world were people expecting this to be like a

Anywho, would I be shocked if he left before he coached the game there? No. Because again, Donald, you've been covering this game for quite, for quite some time. How long have you been covering? For, man, almost 20 years. I think we're at 18 now. Almost 20 years. I've been covering the game for nearly a decade in terms of as,

a strictly on the reporter side of things. I don't understand. I've never seen the contract with a buyout as wonky as this one. Have you have you done? So why we're looking at this as if this is normal circumstances,

why people are talking about this as if this is like some upcoming coach that's like trying to prove his medal at, you know, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, it's not that. It's not that. This is a guy that honestly and truly, I thought this was going to be about one thing, and I may have

been wrong, it was about nothing. I thought it was about getting the son of head coaching job, but it may be worse than that. It may be that situation where, you know, I haven't done this, but some people say if you want your ex back, all you got to do is get with somebody else. And they'll get so jealous. All of a sudden, they're like, you know, they thought they didn't want you, they thought they were done with you, thought they couldn't have nothing to do with you. Oh, where'd you go? I don't know what just happened there. It's the big Chapel Hill media.

They're trying to silence me. I think it hits. It's a situation. It's a situation where, you know, all you got to do is get somebody new. And all of a sudden is, well, you know, they don't look so bad. You know, them leaving the toilet sheet up wasn't so bad. You know, they weren't kind of considerate. They did buy flowers and playing nice dates.

I guess I go back. And that's what this seems like this is. So would I be shocked if he left before he coached a game? No. What I would be more shocked by is this lasting beyond the end of next season. When I say I would be shocked, I mean I would be legitimately Lord. Like, wait, what if this lasted two years? So let me redo Tom Pelliserro's initial report.

And then something from a different reporter that did refute the Pelliserra report. So a couple of reputable reporters are giving us. conflicting information here. So Tom Pelliserro sent this out on his ex account at noon on Wednesday. Multiple NFL teams have inquired about whether legendary coach Bill Belichick would reconsider his move to college football, including the Raiders, whose new minority owner, Tom Brady spoke recently with his old coach per league source. And of course, Antonio Pierce was fired by the Raiders. So you add that to the list of open jobs in the NFL.

Now Pelliserro did not elaborate on other NFL. team's the only one that he named were the Raiders. Okay. So that got everybody talking on Wednesday. Diana Rusini also a respected NFL reporter. A few hours later sent this out. Bill Belichick has no plans to return to the NFL per sources. I'm told his sole focus is on coaching and recruiting for North Carolina as he continues building the Tar Heels future. He's recruiting today in New Jersey. And actually, you know, to be fair, I don't, you know, I know I characterized it like Rusini and Palisera are giving out different information. To be fair, like Palisero didn't say Bill wants to leave college. He just reported the teams allegedly want Bill, where Rusini reports,

and this is not conflicting info, that according to her, Bill is not interested. He's committed to North Carolina. So like, I mean, Kenton, my theory on this is that I feel like Bill's people are leaking this out. And it's not because he wants to leave right now. I think he wants to leave. I think he wants to leave. next year and he wants to he wants the buzz to be out like bill bill belichick wants to get back to the NFL he wants to break don shula's wins record which he can't do if he's not coaching in the national football league i think that's ultimately where bill wants to be he has wanted NFL jobs he interviewed for the Atlanta falcons job last year didn't get it you know with apparently he was interested in the jet's job and they weren't interested in him so he's trying to put that buzz out there so yeah he's

probably going to have to get through one season college to get back there. But I do think Bill's people, in my humble opinion, are probably the ones leaking this out. Can I ask you a question, don't know? Can I, can I answer a very serious question here? You're a Miami guy, right? When Saban was with the Dolphins, were there any reports like, oh yeah, he's definitely talking about him? He's out. Were there any reports? Were there any reports that were saying that at the start, at the, like, when you, when you first start hearing murmurs, where there are legitimate folks saying immediately when you first start hearing remember, oh yeah, he's definitely going to bed.

I mean, it didn't start till like late in his second year at my. It didn't, it didn't start right after he took the Dolphins job. It started. You be there for two years. It started at the end of the second year. What I'm saying is when things like this happened, you never get all of the whatever is going on up front. You never get 100% of it.

The first report is like, oh, yeah, he's going to this team. He's gone. He's going. There was a, there was a famous press conference that Saban had. right before he left the Dolphins where a reporter flat out asked him, are you going to take the job at Alabama? And he said, I'm not, these words, I'm not going to be the Alabama coach.

He said it. And then like two days later, he was at Alabama. But you get what I'm saying here? Like, at the end of the day, nobody will ever say, oh, I'm gone. I'm out. I'm done in terms of these coaches. I've never heard that. I've never heard a coach said.

I've never heard anybody. say, hey, I'm still here right now, regardless of how long they've been somewhere. I've seen coaches that you knew were beat down, dejected, were on their last leg, okay? You know, when people say, we're going to ride this thing until the wheels fall off, well, hell, they were grinding on the axles. And still, they were ever picking up the car and rolling, Flintstone style. And they still weren't going to lie or they still were going to lie and say, no, I'm where I want to be. I'm happy.

Hey, it's the owner's decision. Hey, you know, where I'm just, nobody ever. says, of course I'm leaving you idiots. They're going to pay me more money there. I'm going to have more control there. I'm going to have more of what I want. I'm going to get to be the head coach and the GM over there. This GM kind of states.

You don't hear that. You don't hear that. So, of course, there's not going to be a report on this. But, you know, I'm not really worried about them with them. Well, I would love to hear from Tarheels fans. Let us know in the comments. If, I mean, would you be worried about losing Bill before it even starts. And if it were to go down that way, would be some of the worst timing to go out after

just hiring a new coach to go out and do another coaching search when a lot of, you know, the good names have already gotten jobs elsewhere. That would be an absolute nightmare. Or maybe you don't want to live under a cloud for the next year or two where you're constantly hearing rumors about your coach leaving. Maybe you want to be free of that early outside. I'd love to hear from the North Carolina fans. And where, why you're, why you. think these reports are surfacing today? And again, Tom Palisero is, he's a reputable reporter. This is not, you know, this is not somebody just making stuff up. Why do you think these reports are coming out today? Got a lot more to talk about on this episode of Locked on ACC,

including Davos-Sweeney continuing to use the transfer portal and Ret Lashley, I'm not sure if he needed another quarterback, but he just got one. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACC. Did Rocket Money help you find any subscriptions you forgot about or maybe you were paying for them twice? That's definitely happened to me before. I had a few subscriptions. I didn't even realize I was still paying for. And Rocket Money made it so easy to track them all down.

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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 Lockedon college football, especially with the semifinal games, the championship coming up. Spencer McLaughlin is going to have you covered on everything going with the final four in the college football playoff with the transfer portal, much like this show, Locked on College Football is available free,

wherever you get your podcast and available free on YouTube. So, you know, it seemed if they're, and some of the former Miami players do very well at SMU, like Richard Smith, an incredible turnaround for his career this past season with SMU. But, I mean, maybe someone needs to notify Ret Lashley. You don't have to literally take everybody who used to play at Miami. But, you know, this one, this one might be a useful addition for reasons that are not obvious. So we found out on Wednesday, Tyler Van Dyke, former Miami Hurricanes quarterback, who actually had his best season under Rhett Lashley, his former offensive coordinator in 2021.

Van Dyke had, you know, a tough stretch, his final two years at Miami, 2022, 2023, a lot of interceptions, a lot of trouble, you know, with two high safeties. He goes to Wisconsin and didn't play a whole lot because he tore his ACL early in the season. He's still recovering from that injury. TVD, who gets an extra year of eligibility because of the early season injury at Wisconsin, he now reunites with Ret Lashley at SMU. Now, first reaction to this, couple things. From a Tyler Van Dyke point of view, TVD must have realized that, like, I'm not going

to get a guaranteed starting job at any prominent program at this point, I have to accept probably being a backup, right? And for for Ret Lashley, you know, this is a guy who can potentially compete. I don't see Van Dyke unseating Kevin Jennings there at SMU. So I guess from the Rett Lashley point of view, I'm getting a guy who I know can do well in my offense and can be an insurance policy, an elder statesman six year guy in the room and can maybe can maybe help the rest of my quarterback room developed. I'm going to hold your shoulder when I say this time.

Go get a job. Go get a job. Go. And by go get a job, I don't mean leave the game alone. Your job can be coaching. You can be a graduate assistant. Put on that ball cap. Grab that clipboard.

Go watch the tape. Break it down. Tell us what percent of cover one they ran against cover three. Stop this time. Stop. the game is passed you by brother the game's past you by dono you and i both saw it mentally the game passed you by at miami yeah and you know what happened at wisconsin it physically passed you by go on somewhere tyler go on somewhere go on go ahead and listen i'm a big enough man

to admit if i'm wrong if somehow kevin jennings gets benched and tvd comes in and all of a sudden and this is the reunion of a lifetime. Hey, I'll admit it. I'll sit here and say with the straightest face, well, damn, you've proved me wrong. But I see a guy that's a shell of himself both physically and mentally. Let it go. Let it go.

But I get it. If I was him, I'll take the deal too. The question is, like you said, Rat Lashley, you do know you can get transfers from other places. You can go to. Other schools, you don't have to say, did they're going to play for Miami? No, coach.

Is he from Miami? No, coach. Is he from the Southport area? We don't think so. I don't want him. I don't know. He's not a type of guy. But coach, he runs a 4-3.

He has a 40-inch vertical. He can catch everything. I don't really want that guy. Give me Tyler Van Dyke. Forget about these other scrubs. What do you mean? He could throw the ball 80 yards on the road. Don't want him.

Give me TVD. No, but in all seriousness, I mean, you know, I look at this as for SMU very blah, for Tyler Van Dyke, good for you. If they're going to pay you, show up. If they're going to give you a master's degree to, you know, hold the clipboard with shoulder pads on. I'll take it. What about getting a job, becoming a graduate transfer? This could be his bridge to that.

Because, I mean, that was there. I can totally see Rhett Lashley in 2026 when, you know, TBD is finally out of eligibility saying, hey, like, why don't you stick. like Lashley has Dierre King, who he also coached at Miami as his quarterbacks coach. Van Dyke also knows King because he sat behind King for a season and about a season and a half before he took over when D. Eric King got injured at Miami. So this could be TVD segue to be on scholarship for a year and then become, you know, a GA or an assistant coach the following year. This could be his bridge to that. Now, you know, also like I wouldn't, you know, I would probably 99% rule this out.

but I wouldn't 100% rule out a Cinderella story for Van Dyke getting opportunities to play there. Because at least one thing we know about Ret Lashley is when it comes to quarterback competitions, like the guy doesn't play favorites. I mean, if there's any issue with the current starter, because Preston Stone last year seemed like a lock to be a full season starter. And as soon as Stone started to struggle and Jennings was clearly practicing well, Lashley gave Stone the hook, went with Kevin Jennings, and it paid off. he had an awesome year. So if for any reason, and I'm not expecting that to happen to Jennings,

but if Jennings struggles or if he picks up an injury and Van Dyke practices well, and maybe the Ret Lashele's system is the secret sauce Van Dyke needs to be his best self because he's played well in that system before. I know, it's probably not going to happen, but stranger Cinderella stories have happened in college football. So maybe that's in the cards for him. Yeah, and you know what? Hey, while we're talking about success in Texas,

I could also find a date with Meg the Stallion somewhere in here. You know, I could probably find that. I'm rooting for you. She's from Houston, you know, I could probably find my way down there and just, oh, look at us, just bumping at each other at the Galleria mall. Look at this. How crazy is that? Yeah, it's not going to happen.

When you look about, when you think about Jennings and Stone and how that replacement kind of went, Stone was not having a good time passing the ball, and that's his whole thing. Like, he's a true. pocket guy. He's not known as a guy that's like, hey, he's going to extend plays. He's going to make a bunch of crazy things happen with his legs. So when you look at him and Jennings, you're like, well, hell, if you're going to

be a net zero passer, basically, what are you doing? We can put Jennings out there who will be, if he's a net zero passer, at least he adds into the run game to make the lanes a little bit easier for Breschard Smith. And guys can't immediately crash down off the end and the read option because they're like, hey,

you got to play it out. Because if he pulled, if Jennings pulls it, that's a very different dynamic. I don't see a single thing that TVD adds. I'm like, oh, Jennings can't do that. He cannot. Yeah, that's true. I just don't see it. That's a great point.

Elsewhere in the transfer portal. So Davosweeney has just brought in his third transfer of the cycle from zero, the previous couple of years to now three transfers already. he had already brought in transfer wide receiver, Tristan Smith, transfer edge, Will Helt, and now he's brought in transfer linebacker from Alabama, Jeremiah Alexander. And so, you know, you notice two out of those three moves are on the defensive side of the football. That's the area of the field.

Clemson needs to bolster not only their defensive personnel. They still need to find a defensive coordinator, which they have not done yet. Neither is Miami, by the way, a couple of high-profile D.C. jobs that are open. In the case of Jeremiah Alexander, like he never really, you know, he's, I think three years at Bama. Like obviously that's a dog eat dog world at Alabama, the first couple of years under Sabin, but he never, he never really quite panned out to his former five-star status coming out of high school. But, you know, the development needs to be on the field. Alexander was hurt for the early part of this season, only played in four games once he recovered from injury.

So he wanted a change of scenery. and now that, and Kenton, I am scared to death because, you know, the big, the big handicap that Davosweeney had in this new era of college football was, was refusing to use the transfer portal. He just won the ACC this year against all odds because, you know, the way their season started was not supposed to finish that way. Now that Davoswini has taken transfers, it might be over for the rest of the ACC. Nobody else has a shot next year.

You know, you and I were talking before Davo used the transfer. for a portal like hey yeah what they're bringing back next year you're bringing back your quarterback you're bringing back your most expensive or your most explosive weapons out wide and your most reliable uh you're bringing back pretty much everything except i believe phil mafah is timing out i think he's the only really big name in terms of your skill position guys are guys who touch the ball a lot on offense that are leaving and that defense i mean let's be honest that's probably the worst clemson defense we've seen in quite some time so you expect them to naturally get better.

You're right. You're right. This feels like Thanos getting the time stop. That's what this feels like a little bit because I'm deeply concerned. People might have thought that Davos Sweeney fell off and he said, you know what? All right. Y'all think that I'm done. Y'all think that I'm washed.

No, I'm washing the ACC. That's what's happening. I gave y'all a little bit of an opportunity to get a couple chips while I was, you know, adjusting to this portal thing. But now that I'm engaging in portal combat, everybody's cool. I'll tell you what, I don't think that this is the last infinity stone, but it may come within 365 days.

I think what is officially going to get in my Marvel analogies, I don't know all the terminology. I'm not a big superhero guy. I've seen some of the movies, but that last infinity stone is going to be whenever Brent Venables gets fired at Oklahoma, and he can have that reunion. Right. So it's obviously, if Oklahoma was going to fire him this year, it already would have happened.

Venables will probably get fired next year. This time next year he's going to be fired. And then whoever Dabo brings in this year as defensive coordinator, maybe politely kick him to the curb, bring VB back, and then the world is your oyster. Yeah, or bring Brent Venables back as your linebackers coach and your co-defensive coordinator. Right. Nuds, wink, wink. Right. Yeah, yeah. We don't want to fire you.

We don't want to pay you less. We're just going to bring back old bread vegetables. You know, you get him at a little bit of a discount because he was one of the highest paid assistance in the nation when he wasn't assistant. And I was like, hey, I have a couple years ahead, coach, an SEC money. You got blue blood money, too. You got OU money. You know, you don't need us to pay you super high.

You know, you're being the code D.C. till the guy that's not really the D.C. moves on and goes wherever else, and then you take this thing back over. I'll tell you what, him getting, him getting Brett Venables back, I might, all of the ACC would let out a deep, deep spiritual side in unison, just to, you know, when you had a bad day and your pants loop gets stuck on the door, that's what the ACC is going collectively do. You've been there, Donald,

we're like, everything's going wrong. And you're like, all right, well, at least I'm home. And then boom, your pants are stuck on the door. You're just, oh, boy. Alexa, play, I'm tired by Labyrinth. Well, it was a disappointing football season for the ACC. Is the same thing going to play out in basketball? Now, the ACC outperformed their rankings in the ACC,

in the NCAA tournament last year. Right now, there's a clear top team in ACC hoops. Who's the second best team? And also, we're already getting some complaints about that ACC travel schedule now that Stanford and Cal are in the conference and teams are having to go out and spend a week out west. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Thank you for making us your first listen and your first watch today.

We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. we're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. He's Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Keynes. So the ACC has one top 25 team. It's number four Duke.

And Duke went up against Kenton last night, a Pittsburgh Panthers team that was averaging 84 points per game. And Duke held them to 47 points in a 76 to 47 thrashing. And Cooper Flagg had, I know it's early in the season. but probably the dunk of the year. Put somebody on a poster last night. And it kind of leaves me wondering. And Louisville pulled off a big win against Clemson.

Is Louisville the second best team in the ACC right now? Is it Clemson who had that 4-0 ACC record before last night? Like it's clear that the Blue Devils seem to be the hope the ACC to win a championship this year. But like, who would you say is the second best team? Because I'm not so sure. You know, I don't think that there's any argument here. It has to be Louisville. I mean, Louisville has been phenomenal.

And this is a lot like my pistons with Monty Williams being gone. And you're like, oh, my God, this team is 500? They're competing for a playoff spot. What the hell happened? It's the same thing with the Kenny Payne error. And yes, I said error, not error. Kenny Payne was absolutely abysmal there as the head coach. And I hate to say this, but it was just a bad situation all around.

So far, Louisville has been spectacular for a ton of reasons, but I want to say the main reason is Chuckie Hepper. I mean, good grief. We ain't seen the undersized Chuckie terrorize anybody like this since the mid-90s when all of those Chuckies and return to Chuckie and the bride of Chuckie movies were coming out. This young man is on fire. He makes the right decision with the ball every time. He can put it on the floor and get to the rim.

He can shoot the lights out. He can do it all. And he's leading this Louisville team in a very meaningful way. And I'll tell you this much, if you even thought, and don't get me wrong, I was on the side of like, hey, Clemson is right there. They're right in that discussion. You know, we don't really know this is kind of a 1A, 1B situation. But when you watch that game last night, when you watch what happened, it was close.

Clemson was right there. We're neck in neck until it wasn't. until it wasn't. It just at a certain point in time, it became clear in that second half. Oh boy, Louisville is just they're, they're one of those ones in terms of being a team that just is going to keep piling it on

and landing on your thick. In particular, the way that they started off that second half and closed out the first half, you're not really going to make too much argument against Louisville being the second best team in the conference. Because, again, they have played lights out basketball, they took some early tough losses, but they're seeming to figure it out

and jelling together very well at this moment. Now, of course, during football season, we obviously talked a lot about SMU, who nearly won the conference in football, and Cal, who had some good moments in Stanford. But, you know, they've joined the ACC in every sport, and we're starting to see how it plays out in basketball as well, Kenton.

And I know that, so right now, you have Virginia and Virginia Tech are the first two teams. that are doing now, and I don't know if this is going to be the way the ACC does it every single year. Maybe this experiment won't work out, but when teams from the east play Cal and Stanford on the road, what they're doing is they take a whole week out west, which means a week away from your classes, right? Now, it's actually not a factor for this week for Virginia and Virginia Tech, because classes have not yet resumed from winter break at those schools, but for everybody else,

they're going to be missing a week of class to go out out west to play Cal and Stanford the same week. Some of these games are tipping off at 11 p.m. Eastern time. And by the way, when Cal and Stanford come out east, some of those games are happening before noon Pacific time. So the schedules are pretty wonky. And, you know, Ron Sanchez, who is the interim coach at Virginia this year, doesn't seem too happy about the schedule. And so, I mean, we're already hearing complaints about it in basketball. People forget that you've got non-revenue sports who have to make these trips as well, Kent. And at least most of these basketball teams are flying, you know, charter, if not private, out there out west, where, you know, when it's track meets, swimming and diving, you know, volleyball, the logistics are going to be a mess now.

Donnell, who could have guessed this? who could have said, oh, no, how is this going to work out for all the teams who don't play once a week? Who could? If only somebody could, I don't know, do something like doing the knowledge and what's locked on ACC, where we specifically said, hey, we get it. Football is the driver. Football makes the money. Therefore, you know, cash is king.

Football makes the cash. Therefore, football is king. there are other sports to consider. We particularly talked about what the hell baseball would look like, where you got to have three-day joints, where you're going out there for a weekend or, you know, potentially whatever the case may be in that regard, you're looking at very, very different circumstances

than you would in any other sport. And we've talked about the fact that the biggest teams that got screwed the most were the Olympic sports that don't come close to generating revenue because like you said, what does the track meet look like? For example, again, I'm an NC state guy, so I'll talk about what I know well. Raleigh Relays. People go to Raleigh Relays, different teams from around the region and around the country come to Raleigh Relays, and they're there for damn near a week.

What do you do for the California version of that? What do you do for the version that's in Palo Alto or in Berkeley or, you know, what do you do for the one that's in Dallas? What do you do? Because you can't just, well, we're here for a week and then we'll go on back to school. You're going to miss out on very meaningful time in terms of your education trying to mess around with stuff like that. And so again, this is one of those things that as much as we talk about the sports aspect of things, these young men and women are in fact still students. Yes, they get paid. Yes, they are professionals, but they are still in school. Part of their professional package, part of their compensation package is that degree.

That's just part of it. And so, you know, anybody who says this expansion has not hurt that, again, like Donald said, school ain't even started back yet and folks are already complaining with good reason. And by the way, there are, I think, eight teams that don't have to go out west for a week this year. And I was reading this on an article from the Augusta, free press. And out of the eight teams that don't have to go out West, you're probably not surprised that Duke and UNC are among those who do not have to make the West Coast swing this year. They probably never will. What? Alex Lakeveas Donno, I am shocked. I am surprised by this, Dono. I, I, I,

who could have guessed it? Who could have thought that those two teams wouldn't have to go out West, wow. You know, especially in this inception when you're feeling your way through the dark. There's no way the ACC, the very equitable and fair conference that they are, would have potentially thrown other teams out there as like, hey, y'all are lamps and slobber. Go see how that feels and report back so that we have information for anybody that the conference may or may not favor. Because the conference wouldn't do that. The conference has always played it straight down the middle and made sure everybody had an equal chance. Of course. Well, we appreciate everyone tuning in and making Locked on ACC your first list and your first watch today. Make sure to smash that like button and subscribe.

Hopefully the Bill Belichick era is not over before it even starts at North Carolina. I mean, I want to at least get to cover the guy at ACC media days this July. Like, can we at least make it through July so I can ask Bill a question in Charlotte this summer. He's Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown-Kane's. We'll talk to you next. time on another episode of Lockdown ACC, part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.