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Clemson Tigers football declared “dead”—can Dabo Swinney revive the program, or is stubbornness holding Clemson back? Major questions loom over Clemson’s inability to adapt to NIL, the transfer portal, and quarterback recruiting, as Alex Dono, Kenton Gibbs, and Brian Smith debate Tom Fornelli’s explosive pronouncement. Has Dabo’s anti-portal philosophy doomed the Tigers, or does elite coaching still offer hope for a turnaround?
ACC wide receiver rankings take center stage, with Miami Hurricanes showcasing top talents like Malachi Tony and Cooper Barkate while Florida State’s Deuce Robinson continues to impress. The crew spotlights breakout candidates across NC State, SMU, and Virginia Tech, raising the stakes for a competitive receiver landscape. As NIL spending escalates—rumors swirl of $40 million football rosters—controversy deepens: should Congress intervene, or will college sports self-correct? All this and more in a must-listen breakdown for ACC fans.
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Clemson Tiger's football program has been declared dead.
We've got to get into this.
Let's assemble the squad.
You're talking ball with the ACC squad.
From Florida State to North Carolina, from Syracuse to Miami, and from NC State to California,
it's the local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and
the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming ACC weekend.
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Squad up, you're part of the ACC squad.
Thank you to the Everydayers, and thank you so much for making the squad.
You're first listen.
I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Cains.
We got Kent and Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack, Brian Smith from the portal and Lockdown Seminoles.
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On this loaded squad, has NIL spending?
Is it really reaching the point where only the federal government can save college sports?
I want to get into that.
I want to talk ACC-wide receiver rankings.
I know Smitty has a few thoughts on that.
But friends, let's start with Clemson and Brian, I'll let you buy the first round on this
one because Kent and I did talk about it already this week on Lockdown ACC.
ESPN's Tom Fornelly, sorry, CBS's Tom Fornelly appeared on the cover three podcast on
Monday.
Very popular show and he said this about the Clemson football program.
Quote, Clemson is dead.
It's dead.
It's not coming back.
He said, as the off season goes on, you will start seeing people saying, maybe old Clemson,
maybe this is the year they nope, it's dead, he said.
Now, Brian a lot has been said about, you know, the blue chip ratio goes down a little
bit for Clemson every single year and dabbo hasn't been using the portal.
He's not recruiting the same way he recruited a few years ago.
Is Clemson really dead or is that an overstatement?
I think Tom was speaking a little tongue in cheek, but I mean, he's on the cover three
podcast every week and he likes to poke jabs at dabbo because, wow, I think we all do,
because he just doesn't adapt.
He has taken a few more portal guys.
I mean, he's gotten above five.
I mean, be careful, don't get too excited over there in Clemson, South Carolina.
But, is there a program other than Clemson in the major people that has not taken a transfer
quarterback?
I can't think of one.
It's a good question.
Kenton, yeah, I figured you might know if, like, is there any AC, let's start with that.
Is there an ACC team other than the Tigers?
I don't think so.
No, there definitely has.
No, there definitely has.
ACC team.
Yes, technically, it's a transfer of a cow.
That was the only one I could think of.
He was a transfer and for Morgan.
So I don't think there's a single one that hasn't taken anybody in terms of transfers.
Yeah, even, even Wake Forest, Boston College, they've all taken transfers.
Yeah, absolutely.
Unless, maybe SNU's got a backup or something, because Kevin was a recruit there.
Wendy Jennings.
Oh, what?
Maybe the only team.
Yeah.
They have taken transfer quarterbacks because they took Tyler Van Dyke.
He just hasn't started there.
Right.
Dono would know that one for a lot of reasons that he would like to get.
But the point is, it's still to say point.
They just don't want to adapt.
I asked somebody on their staff.
I ran into somebody on their staff and I said, well, who's quarterback going to be this
year?
He said, we're going to have an open competition.
And he mentioned five guys.
And I'm like, no, wait a minute, five.
And I'm like, OK, I'm assuming it's going to be Vazena.
But here's my scenario for fans.
If they don't do well this year, and like, Vazena struggles, and they don't take a portal
guy quarterback this off season, then I'll declare it dead until Davos gone.
You're always as good as your head coach making decisions.
And if he leaves the right coach, Clemson can be reborn, just like any program.
Miami was reborn when they got crystal ball.
They were dead the water forever, but you're looking pretty good right now.
So it's all about your head coach.
But I think they're in kind of no man's land until they figure quarterback out.
And again, name somebody that hasn't taken a quarterback.
This is on their staff.
That's why they're getting made fun of it.
You guys take it away.
But I'm pretty steadfast.
They got to they have to attack the portal differently.
I mean, I wholeheartedly agree that they got to attack the portal differently.
You know what?
I hadn't even considered the quarterback angle of it all, but I am a little bit concerned
by hearing that there are five guys.
I thought there were three that had a serious shot at this thing, and now coming out hearing
that there are five.
I mean, the rule is, if you got two quarterbacks, you've got none.
If you got five, you ain't got a shot in the dark.
You ain't got a pistol, you ain't you know, you ain't pissed to drop worth of a quarterback.
And so I'm very cautious of where Clemson is, but I'm also in the same vein as you, Smitty.
It's all about your head coach making decisions.
And nationally, who shown us that they can coach circles around Davo?
Who?
Who could you say?
Because with all due respect to a lot of coaches, and this is a cool and your boy crystal ball,
a lot of these coaches, especially the Sabin Tree, most of them were born on third base.
Most of them took over programs that were all either very good or headed in the direction
of being very good, and they were the capstone on it, as opposed to like coming in to something
where it's like, when, when Davo took over Clemson, Clemson wasn't known, Clemson's last
national championship before he took over.
Donna, what year were you born?
I was born in 84.
I think they, they, they, they weren't allowed five.
You weren't allowed.
Oh, I wasn't allowed.
You weren't allowed.
Okay.
Okay.
But it was not alive when, when that happened.
I was not allowed when that happened.
Smitty, I doubt that you were alive, or you were in diapers when it happened.
No, I was in second grade, but that's another story.
Okay.
Well, never mind.
He wasn't your diapers.
And if he was, that is another story.
If you were in diapers in second grade, that is another story.
But you get my point, like at the end of the day, we're talking about this as if they've
got a different head coaches.
If they got a different decision maker, don't get me wrong.
It is possible for the game to leave guys behind.
I'm always slower to call that moment though, because in the words of Tim McGraw, I am
as good as I once was, but I'll be as good once as I ever was.
And if Davo can stream together just a season or two of being as good once as he ever was,
I think that puts all this to bed.
Now, do I think that's this year?
No.
But do I think he has a little?
Yes.
I don't know.
I think he seems too stubborn to me, because it's not like it's not Davo, the coach that's
failing.
Like to your point, Ken.
I just, if you go by X's and O's, he could coach circles around almost every coach in high
level college football.
It's his Davo, the GM that's failing right now.
And okay.
Like he started to take a few transfers, and I think that's just kind of because he literally
has to to get to the 105 scholarships now, because you know, other teams are taking
his players to the ball.
Like he's got to take a few players, but he's still, he's against it, you know, he doesn't,
he doesn't use NIL, and I'm not saying they don't pay players.
Clemson does.
It's mostly for retention, rather than for new recruits and obviously for transfer
portal.
It's mostly for the purposes of retaining their roster, but his philosophy is very much
against using, you know, NIL funds to entice new players.
And I, I think we're seeing the signs now that, you know, his recruiting classes are still
good, but they're not what they used to be.
We're talking, you know, top 25 recruiting classes now when it used to be top five classes,
you know, in the pre NIL era for him.
So I think Davo can still coach and he'll forever be able to coach.
But I think if anything, he needs a complete shift in philosophy or the willingness to work
with a true football GM who embraces all of that modern stuff if he refuses to.
I mean, and Davo's defense, look what happened when he used the portal.
He goes on and it's one of the top linebackers in the portal and he says, all right, just
sign up for Clemson.
He says, I'm signed up for Clemson.
And then he gets some text and then he gets some text saying, Hey, I got a check for you
here in Oxford, Mississippi.
Come on now.
Talk to me.
We got a check back and double what they're doing and next thing you know, he leaves,
but I will say this, I do want to touch on the point that you said there.
They spend their money over attention.
That's a grave problem.
That's a grave problem because you don't just spend money in the portal now.
It's not like that anymore.
Trust me.
Again, I'm a cast tech graduate.
We got some big time dudes year in and year out rolling out of that program.
You're spending on high school guys.
If you don't spend on high school guys, you will not get high school guys.
As a matter of fact, my home state Michigan just approved high school players receiving
NIL while they're in high school.
So if you don't want to spend, if you don't want to spend and to their, to their end,
I don't blame these high school players.
Of course, you won't get high school players.
If the bulk of your money is going towards retention and not saying, Hey, man, you've
been underperforming.
We're giving you two, three years to work it out.
The business is becoming more cutthroat than it's ever been.
And when I play, I knew of a multitude of guys who were cut effectively, who were told,
Hey, man.
There was no transfer portal, but they were told, you will not play here.
You will never play here.
Like that's, you know, go find an opportunity where you can play elsewhere.
So with what we're looking at now, I mean, I believe the game is more cutthroat than
ever.
And I think that there just needs to be an adjustment in terms of not even necessarily
just a transfer portal.
The bulk of your money cannot be spent on retention unless you are number one year in a year
out.
You're rocking like that.
So where everybody you bring in, y'all kicking button, take your names, go for it.
But now you need to spend money on recruiting and Brian, isn't it obvious?
Is it obvious that that's what's happening because like, how else do you explain Clemson's
recruiting class is slipping because from where I sit, dabbo outside of the money, he has
one of the best recruiting pitches that nobody else in FBS can match.
And that's, if you come play for Clemson, I'm not going to recruit over you in the transfer
portal the way every other coach does.
We're going to invest three years, four years, five years into developing you.
And if that pitch isn't getting them top five classes, it's pretty clear to me they're
not paying.
I know they're not compared to some other schools.
Now there might be a few exceptions, but I had some face to face conversations with some
high level recruits.
And I had one kid tell me he wasted his time at going on the visit because of how much
money they offer compared to the other teams.
Like it was like a third of the money.
Now this was two years ago, things change.
There are a lot of, like Georgia doesn't pay a ton of upfront money, but it's Georgia.
They can get away with it as much if not more than anybody.
And their development obviously is really good.
Well, in Georgia, do they pay off your speeding tickets for you?
I think that's, I think that's part of the contract that you have.
That's seven figures for some of these guys.
It probably needs to be.
By the way, that is the comment of the year.
Right like in Dallas, honor right through that aspect.
But like Georgia gets out of bed regularly, it still gets guys because it's Georgia.
Clemson can do that to a surgery, but you can't be like one third of the money and consistently
get guys.
Unless that kid's just a die hard Clemson fan like daddy, what the school there and all
that.
It's not going to happen.
Then when you go out of state, like Dallas, where they go, sometimes Birmingham, Atlanta,
those kids probably didn't grow up, Clemson fans.
So they have to adapt a little bit there is demo down with that.
I'm not 100% certain because again, I was told they had a completely wide open quarterback
room for a spring.
Now, maybe that was coach speak.
I still think it'll be Chris, but is anybody excited about that?
And on top of that, you talk about how Georgia gets players, Georgia, Athens to Atlanta
is an hour and a half with the way they drive 45 minutes.
So like you're, you're looking at a situation where what's the next big city near Clemson?
What are you?
What are you looking at?
Maybe Charlotte?
Maybe.
And that's Charlotte is a ways away from there and that's what I'm saying.
So you're, you're looking at, you know, selling these kids, hey, you'll be developed, but
you'll be in the middle of nowhere.
You'll be developed, but you know, we'll take care of you, but we're not going to take
care of you up front.
If you stick around here, we'll take care of you on the back end.
That's a tough sale.
That's a tough set.
And in a popcorn society, it's hard to sell people off sales.
That's just the reality of what we're looking at.
Everybody wants everything right now.
And if you're not giving it right now, you're, you're going to run into some very serious
troubles.
I don't even know if they'll have a top 15 class this year.
You can't do that year in, year out and not supplement at high level with the portal.
And I, and I'm not trying to pick on anybody.
But Deshaun ain't walking through those moors and either is blondie.
Those guys made it up for a lot of ills, and they don't have to be winds of those errors
either.
So they're good, but they ain't like that, like that two 18 D wine group is as bad as good
as we've ever seen.
You know, what a fun fact was that Clemson had more defensive player of the years from their
defensive line room over like a, there was a five year span where if you would have bet
that there would be a defensive lineman out of Clemson's defensive line room to win
the ACC defensive player of the year, you probably would have came up like six or seven
units out of betting that every year.
Like that's, that's how crazy that runs from, from Bowers, from Bowers up through Beasley.
That was an incredible run of defensive player of the year, defensive player of the year,
time and time again.
And now we're at a point where it's like who's next, who's, who's going to be the guy.
And top edge rushers, those are the types that'll tell you.
I wasted my time because they, they, the money they match it up, they can go somewhere
else and get paid two, three times as much money.
They're going away.
They ain't going to go to Clemson.
Those days are over.
Yeah.
Well, Davos on the mat, but I'm not ready to count him out just yet, but we'll see how
things go this season.
Now when we come back, let's talk ACC wide receivers.
Now Kenton took some of my guys there, Joe, Joe Trader, Chance Robinson, Florida State
still has some dudes.
I know we're down on their team, but Duce Robinson is still walking through that door.
Miami's got some dudes.
You want to keep it locked right here.
We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC.
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Thank you so much for making the locked on ACC squad.
Your first listen, Alex Dono from locked on Cains alongside Kent and Gibbs from locked
on Wolfpack, Brian Smith from locked on Semitles and the portal.
All right, so Brian, Florida state, as I mentioned, they still have a good looking receiver
core, you know, despite a lot of negativity around that program.
Where do they stack up against, you know, Miami, for example, with Cooper Barcai and Malachi
Tony?
I think their top three is really, really good.
I just don't know if Javan Boggs is going to be completely healthy.
I got to see it, but he was like the state of Florida's all time leading receiver at
a high school.
I know you're familiar with him.
He played over at one of the prominent programs in Cocoa.
That's their third guy.
And Mackay Danzy was literally the fourth fastest 400 meter runner at one point in the
world last year.
They had a really good year, and then Deuce Robinson was over a thousand yards and 56
sketches.
66220 something.
He's a mismatch.
The question mark for me is who's going to throw them the ball?
They still don't know for sure.
It's probably Ashton Daniels, but Kevin Sparry and him for battling it out.
Why does Seever Towne want me for to stay down for?
That might be their strongest position, along with running back.
Now for Miami, you and I talked about this before the show.
I think it's a top five to seven somewhere in the country, maybe top three, depending on
how you want to rank it, regardless of confidence, because you got Malachi and Tony and Cooper
Barcai to start with, because if Andrea is Jacobs, it's Joshua Moore, I don't know which
guy it will be as the third.
And I don't either for the record.
I'm counting on Tony and Barcai and the third job is up for grabs.
Yeah, and it's like, okay, I don't care.
And by the way, Vance Bafford is going to be a freshman there.
Nobody knows about him.
He's going to find his way onto the field too.
I know that kid.
He's a dude like they have.
He runs a 433.
Yeah, I mean, I've seen him run, like coming down the track, I watched him run a 435 right
at me.
I got that sucker on video.
He can fly and he's going to be a backup.
So it's going to be hard to cover them.
I think those are the two easiest ones to pick, but there are a couple others that are
really good.
JoJo Trader, former Miami guy, Victor Snow, former Buffalo guy, 62 catches and eight scores
last year.
Over there at NC State, that's that's a possibility.
And I got some other receivers to change Robinson, et cetera.
And don't forget about SMU.
Nobody ever talks about him because we forget they're in the league.
You may or not have 55 catches last year.
Yanick Smith had 44, he's 632, 10, and then the guy that's coming up the ranks was highly
recruited.
Cooper, 6285, he's going to be a sophomore.
They got a really good group.
I think they're kind of the sweetener.
And then just for a sweeper player, I don't know if the quarterback will work out, but
Aiden Green, a senior over at Virginia Tech.
Those are just some of the guys.
They're going to be really good.
We know that JKS is going to throw it around at Cal, they'll have plenty of receivers.
And I'm sure, I am sure that Brawm at Louisville will figure that out.
There's never a year where Louisville can't throw the football.
Hey, listen, don't mention Aiden Green around me.
I still got nightmares of what he did then.
He stayed last year.
As I still, I'm still sitting up here at night.
Where's Yan?
Where's 50?
But that's neither here nor there.
Obviously, Miami is the team to beat.
I mean, oh, I'm returning the two top receivers in the league in terms of yardage last year.
And one of them played with our quarterback last year.
The other was a true freshman.
Oh, we're so, everything's so good at curl gables.
We don't need to stay the amount of campus.
Because we're better than everybody else.
I'm sick of tired.
I thought we were going to Miami.
But in this, Miami is the crime delicacy, right?
Like there's no way around that.
Whatever your third player is, who else is returning the type of talent that you're looking
at with a Miami that just has to be kind of acknowledged there.
Clemson with all of their injuries last year at Ride Out, right?
If you get healthy and the best thing about those injuries is a silver lining out of last
year for Clemson.
Guys that were a little bit unheralded had to step up.
They had to step up at the bigger roles than they were expected to take.
So you get some big time departures in Williams and Brown, the company.
But you have guys who had to play last year a lot.
So you're looking at a situation where if that group can stay healthy, stay together.
And, you know, obviously get that quarterback situation figured out.
Because you ain't going to have five different guys throwing you the ball for crying out loud.
But when somebody establishes themselves as a quarterback there, they could be all right.
And ultimately, I'm going to tell you something, man.
There is no better guy that you would say he is a one man,
banned by himself than Duce Robinson.
I mean, give it to you however you want it.
He's a big, long guy, but his route running is fairly, I mean,
it's advanced for a guy of that size.
Normally, when you think of a guy that big, you think, all right, jump ball, come back.
That's all he's gotten this play.
Jump ball, come back, curl.
If you see him run anything else, you're like, oh, let me set up in my chair a little bit.
But his route running is definitely refined compared to other guys that fit
that kind of archetype that he has where this is a big body dude, long strider.
If you can't separate from you with the rob, he'll separate vertically.
So who did you get in there to compliment him?
And like, Smitty alluded to who throws him the ball.
So I think that that we could see some very high level receiver play.
Luckily for all of us, receiver is that position that every year without fail.
There's a bunch of guys that come out of nowhere.
We just look up and say a bunch of guys came out of nowhere.
You know, we, if you think about Victor Snow, he started at Nevada as a walk on.
Started as a walk on.
Then he balls out there, goes in, is a scholarship guy at Buffalo is an all conference
performer there.
Then he comes to NC State and you're saying, man, he could be something special.
Obviously, chance, the guy that we chance at Joe Joe, both of them,
a little bit unheralded at Miami.
But you're thinking with Noir Rodgers and Terrell Anderson going,
there's going to be a lot more opportunity for them to get their deal going.
And I'm going to tell you something, a guy that I talk about a lot of this show.
And as much as I don't want to talk about the dirty foot club,
my boy, CJ Sandler, fellow cast technician, he is a dynamic playmaker
wherever he gets the ball.
Be it out of the backfield, be it out wide, be it wherever.
He's a true freshman that I've got my eye on.
Even though he's going to be a champion, he broke my heart.
He broke my heart, you know, I said, hold on now.
You're going to come down today.
So you see you go anywhere else, but they're new.
It was you, Fredo, but he said dynamic playmaker.
So that's that's going on all over the count.
We're seeing guys all over the conference,
speaking to two way guys, we got one of those up in Syracuse as well.
His name is alluding me right now, but he played very high level corner last year.
Oh, yeah, the freshman.
Yeah, expect to see him more.
And they got Calvin Russell out of South Florida to join the group this year.
Exactly.
And they won't have a lacrosse kid throwing the ball around the yard.
They got to wait because we didn't think that we didn't think that would be
the case last March, either.
And they found a way they got it back up too.
They got a they got a backup out of portal.
So if, if, uh, and Zellie ain't ready yet, there's there.
But this is what I mean in that this conference is deep with receivers.
There are guys, there are dudes all over the place.
You can't throw a rock out of school in the conference.
What I was saying, like, oh, man, they got some guys out wide.
There's only a few schools I could think of.
I'm like, uh, hey, who did I go throw the ball to?
And so I see I want to say, I want to say as many.
I, you know, but there's, there's only a few teams that I'm looking at.
Like y'all don't really have the talent out wide.
And so for the most part, I'm expecting to see some fireworks from a lot of teams on the firm.
When we come back, has spending on college football and college basketball as well?
Has it gotten so out of control that like we actually need the government to step in?
Because there are college administrations and certain college coaches
who are, are pretty desperate for some help.
You want to keep it locked right here.
We're only getting started on this brand new episode of the locked on ACC squad.
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All right.
A lot of different talk out there, fellows about possible congressional oversight.
Last week, the president had a committee of 50 different various figures in the college
sports world and some of these people that are in that college sports space like the
Louisville administration has been very vocal about just wanting some sort of federal oversight
for relief that there are now allegedly $40 million football rosters out there with
LSU being accused of having that and other big spenders out there.
I guess the big concern that some folks have is if the spending gets so out of control,
it's not sustainable to be able to keep your other sports, right?
Your women's sports, your non-revenue sports, if you're spending this much on football
and I would assume basketball as well is getting up there.
Is the free market going to correct itself, Kenton, or at some point, does there need
to be some form of government oversight because you don't, players are not employees and
we don't have collective bargaining.
Maybe that's the answer if we can figure out a way to do that.
So when Pete Golding sent the pictures of the check over to the linebacker.
Yeah, Luke Forelli.
Luke Forelli.
When Luke Forelli received that picture, what was that for?
Just out of curiosity.
Some sort of above board NIL venture, I'm sure.
So just because I want to be clear, I want to shoot this thing straight because it feels
to me a lot like what Bama did when Nick Sabin was with the Dolphins or what the Dolphins
did when Nick Sabin was at LSU.
It feels very similar to me and they said, hey, you got a good setup over there.
I just want a national championship, got a number one overall pick, you got all the
things.
You know, you got the market for us with Glenn Dorsey, all that.
But does Baton Rouge compare to Miami, what do you think?
And I feel like he exercised his option as somebody with a certain set of skills that
people were willing to pay.
He exercised his option to go get that paycheck, to go get that opportunity, go do those
things.
Then when he left for Alabama after screaming at the media, I'm not, I'm not going to
wear quite asking and all that, you know, in his very Nick Sabin way, because Nick Sabin
was in the room while they were having to say, you've got to support stuff.
It seemed to me like he did a very similar thing where he saw things are souring in Miami.
I can't really get this team going in the direction I wanted to.
So I'm going to take an exit rep where I go and make what I make in lieu of whatever
these players got going on.
So my question is, why is everybody else a professional?
Why is everybody else allowed free movement?
Nobody is saying anything about the fact that Norville makes so much the university cannot
afford to fire him, despite the fact that his high school recruiting has been so bad,
high school recruiting at Florida State has not been this bad in decades.
And even toward the end of Jimbo, it was never this bad.
I was even small when that happened.
That's my point.
That's my point.
And so I'm confused as to how we never talk about how much the coaches are making.
They're making so much you can't fire them.
Yeah, it's great point.
Even when they're elected in their duties, we never talk about how much certain teams
stay injured in their training staff as all professionals.
We never talk about that.
But somehow when it comes to the players, the government has to step in.
Well, I'm fine with the government stepping in and regulating this thing, but you can't
do it from the bottom up.
You got to do it from the top down when the administrators start taking those fake cuts.
When the head coach are start taking those fake cuts.
When the assistant coach start taking those fake cuts, I'll be a thousand percent fine
with all right.
Now let's get to the players.
You raise a great point because it's a great point because nobody talks about the fact
that it's not just players making sometimes millions of dollars.
It's coaches like I mean, Brian, how many, how many years Mike, Mike Norville will be
in what year three of his new contract next year?
And it would still be almost 50 million to buy him out at the end of next season.
Like how is that okay?
It's 46.9 from what one of the guys on I think it was Neko said at the end of this season.
At the end of 2026.
And that'll be his third year on his new extension that he said.
I believe it's a 10 year gig, if I remember right, like it's just, and in Florida State's
defense, anytime you go 13 and know it, I made your lead, you're getting an extension.
Oh, sure.
That's the one.
This is crazy.
Yeah.
Even if it's eight, it's a lot, you know what I mean?
I get it's just, but every deal is a problem because there's only about this many guys
that everybody wants and it's supply and demand and those contracts are guaranteed.
Ryan Day's contract.
I don't care if it's Marcus Freeman's.
I don't care if it's Mario Krista balls, if they do something to get themselves in a
whole bunch of trouble, they got to be five.
They get paid.
Yeah.
It is what it is.
But that's my point.
There's the same way that there's only so many Mike Nervez.
There's only so many Bryce Underwoods in the world.
There's only so many Malacatonis in the world.
There's only, but so many Rubin Bades in the world, they don't grow on trees.
You don't just find, I don't just walk in Walmart.
Hey, let me get a CC Maui Noah back there.
As a matter of fact, let me get two of those.
Let me get two of those.
Wish it were that easy, right?
You got a ball one, give one half off, right?
Yeah, let me get, let me get, let me get, let me get, we did have two Maui Noah's on the
team at one point.
So I mean, what was the bogo?
But they weren't both CC.
You know what I mean?
It's a different, it's a different ball game.
That man, he got hands the size of frying pans.
You know, he, he looked like he put hands on his type of experience.
So the same way that these coaches don't grow on trees, and that's how they demand what
they demand.
The exact same thing is happening with these athletes.
Same thing with basketball.
There's only, but so many, uh, by the signings and all that, there's only so many darren
Peterson, there's only so many Kayla Wilson's.
You don't just walk out and say, oh, yeah, you six, eight, jump out the gym.
Great timing.
Yeah, let me get three of those, man, I need about three of them on my squad.
It just doesn't, it doesn't happen.
So I, I, I'm very leery of all the things that we have going on in the world.
The government feels like it's their place to come in and relegate the pay.
But again, you're not starting from the top, because no players making more than Lane
Kiffin.
No players making more than Mike Morales.
Not a single player on any roster is making more than those guys.
So, but we're talking about the players in that being unsustainable, because there's so
many of them.
But meanwhile, you know, coaches are getting paid out the behind.
And some of them, like coach Orderar, he said he got fine.
They came and told me 28 million, never come back.
I said, blah, blah, blah.
What do you need me to leave out of that's what we're looking at.
And that's he like a huge buyout at the time.
Not so much anymore.
That's hilarious, by the way, I get the ring and he gets 28 million out the door.
The other problem, what's used out as you, I don't know if you two are familiar with
this.
Mikey, obviously, made your sponsor for a lot of teams, probably the most.
I was using Nike school.
They have a new initiative at certain schools, LSUB1.
They picked 10 athletes and some of them are Olympic sports and women's where they pay
too, on top of what else they're getting.
So certain schools have a massive advantage.
How are you going to regulate that?
You're not going to put the genie back in the bottle that is Reebok, Adidas, Nike, any
of those kinds of brands, definitely not under armor, they're massive in the space.
If you tell them they can't do it, they're just going to do it under the table.
Yeah.
Exactly.
There's no way to eliminate advantage.
College football has always been very tilted.
Yeah.
That though is awkward.
No.
I'm sure that Alabama's probably got something similar either already in the books or
soon will because they're Nike and they are rivals with LSU.
They ain't going to be Nike very long, let's look at that deal.
I'm sure Nike is going to accommodate them.
These kinds of situations, I don't know what Congress does because you can only do so much
with the NIL because of that, what is the NIL clearinghouse?
By the way, that is garbage.
It's even worse than I thought it would be.
They can't keep up with all the requests, like I've heard they have like an algorithm to
accept their reject because you don't have enough like human beings who can go through
all those requests.
Yeah.
That's the thing.
It's no supply and demand.
We're a capitalist country.
Yep.
It's very awkward.
The biggest problem is still the same one.
You got to say it every show.
They don't want to pay the players because they don't want to make them employees because
they don't worry about the injuries they had all that later.
You're getting sued and all that.
That's the biggest problem.
But I don't know how that Congress is going to do anything besides, again, college football
and I trust exemption to like force it.
They'll still be touching in like those elite schools.
They're all going to look for the nighties and stuff like that to do all the bad.
And it's already going to the Supreme Court.
These cases, the reason NIL is here, this April because somebody went to some local circuit
court and like the middle of nowhere is real Kansas and won their case and I was there.
This thing went to the highest court in the land and the highest court in the land and
said, wait a minute.
They're not.
They can't get paid because of what?
Oh, no, no, no, no.
Let these folks get paid.
So now you're undermining the highest court there is to ensure that people don't get paid.
That is, you know, me and me and Jackson Hozer had a back and forth about this month ago
where I said, at the end of the day, the money's going to keep going up until it can't
anymore.
And when it can't anymore, we'll deal with the repercussions.
But it's unfortunate that people are exponentially spending more where the top quarterback last
year was like four million.
Now I was like eight million if you include the buy off the duke allegedly and all that
it.
That we're probably looking at 10 to 12 maybe 10 maybe it might be 10 already, but the
thing is the thing is we can't at some point you hit the upper left at some point, you're
okay, $40 million squad this year, $20 million Ohio State squad two years ago.
If we say it doubles every two years, that means in 2028, we'll have a $80 million squad.
That means in 2030, we're looking at 160 million dollars squad.
It can't keep going in that way.
At some point in time, the donors are going to say, all right, enough, and I can't do
more.
Right.
I physically can't.
I think what we've learned today is Congress can't fix college sports, only Kenton
Gibbs, Brian Smith and Alex Dono can.
Huge shout out and thank you to the squad.
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Locked On Syracuse - Daily Podcast On Syracuse Orange Football & Basketball

Locked On Syracuse - Daily Podcast On Syracuse Orange Football & Basketball

Locked On Syracuse - Daily Podcast On Syracuse Orange Football & Basketball
