Is it REALLY this close to being reality??

It appears that we are getting closer and closer to being able to, as I take out my phone, use this to place wagers on sports here in North Carolina. Brian Murphy, WRAL sports investigative reporter, joins us to discuss this. I'm reading your story right now, my friend.

All right. Is it really this close to being reality? It seems that way. The House passed the bill, it seems like a couple months ago at this point, and the Senate hasn't taken it up, but they will on Tuesday. It'll be a committee on Tuesday. My understanding is that horse racing will be added back into the bill. It was taken out in the House process, but horse racing will be added back into the bill. And given the speed of which the legislature is moving on certain items, it could pass by, maybe not this week, but by the end of next week. And we're still looking at a January start date for this, correct?

Right. January 8th is the date that's in the bill right now, largely because they didn't want to start on a holiday January 1st. So that's in line with what other states are doing. Vermont just passed their sports gambling bill, and they will start in January as well. So any restrictions at all? And I was looking at the House vote, which I guess voted against it by one last year. They voted 66-45 for it this time. Are there any restrictions at all in the bill?

I mean, no. You'd be able to bet on professional sports, college sports, Olympic sports, certainly not high school sports or things of that nature. You'd be able to bet on North Carolina teams. There will be some limits as to the number of operators in the state, 10 to 12 is how many licenses they'll be given out. But they will be able to put in sports lounges at PNC Arena and Bank of America Stadium and other places around the state.

I don't expect substantial changes to most of that stuff in the Senate. The last time you and I spoke, we were discussing the potential for casinos in maybe some of the rural areas of the state. But this has nothing to do with that, correct?

Right. And casinos did not end up in the Senate budget. My sense on that is they had conversations about it, and there may not have been enough support to put it in something as important as the budget. But this bill will deal only with mobile sports gambling. It will not touch on casinos, will not touch on video lottery terminals, which there's actually a bill in the legislature to allow bars and restaurants to do video lottery terminals. That hasn't gotten much traction at this point, but this bill is going to be kept clean for lack of a better term and will not have casinos, will not have video lottery terminals in it.

So is there anything, whether it's in the budget or in the works, that would address the amount of North Carolina residents crossing the border into Virginia to go to their casinos because they could also play table games? Yeah, we have not seen anything along those lines, and my understanding is those haven't progressed anywhere past the conversation stage. The Senate leader, Phil Berger, has told me on several occasions, including earlier this week, that there have been conversations about that, but no, you know, look at that. But no, you know, legislation has been drafted at this point. So, but we will have, so if Tom Dundon, the owner of the Hurricanes, wants to open up a lounge, he can do so at PNC Arena. That would be in effect, what, January 8th?

Correct. You know, we've talked a lot about all the renovations that are going to happen at PNC Arena. I think this would, given everything that I've heard, I would imagine this will be high on the priority list and perhaps would involve, you know, moving some stuff around to make sure they got that sports lounge up and running as soon as possible. But by the middle of next season, your Stanley Cup champion, Carolina Hurricanes, could have a sports lounge at PNC Arena.

That would be great. We can all wager on whether or not they will repeat. Brian Murphy, real quick, before I let you go, at Murfsturf on Twitter, I know you wrote about the uneven distribution between ACC schools that is coming out of the spring meetings at Amelia Island.

What are your thoughts on that? How really, how, it's not going to get anybody close to the SEC in the Big Ten, but how significant could the difference be between where a Florida state or North Carolina could be in terms of performance and where kind of the middle of the pack is? So, the number that's come out of those meetings is $10 million. So, there would be up to $10 million difference in that revenue.

Right now, the teams are really flat. I mean, there's very little difference between what the top team makes and what the bottom team makes in terms of revenue. I think the best way to look at this is that money won't be coming from the TV deal, which is about 75% of the revenue. What I think, what they're looking at is, hey, look, there's going to be an expanded college football playoff.

It's going to bring in a lot more money. How about we divide that money up by how well you did. If you qualified for the college football playoff and you generated X millions of dollars, then you would get a larger cut. Or if you made it to the Final Four or won the national championship in basketball, you might get a higher percentage of the tournament units that you earned for the league.

I think it's all well and good. And maybe they'll keep Florida State and Clemson quiet for the time being. But at the end of the day, those schools, many schools, probably every school in the ACC is going to jump if they have the opportunity. And maybe that won't be until the grant of rights is fully expired.

Maybe it'll be a few years before the grant of rights has expired. But I don't think any move the ACC makes short of getting an entirely new television contract that puts them right in line with the SEC and the Big Ten is going to hold any member here. So if you're a Wake Forest or a Boston College, you might say, why are we giving these schools extra money when they're going to leave at the first chance they get? It does seem like they've gotten past that barrier in part because Wake Forest has had a lot of success. Pitts had a lot of success. And they might be the teams that get some of this extra bonus money. Well, absolutely.

If you achieve, you'll get it. And I would argue that you should always consider what the alternative is for you. And the alternative for a Wake or a BC or a Syracuse, whoever, is probably not good if the league dissolves. That's just the way I look at it. But again, none of these things, none of these little band-aids are going to keep everybody together. Common sense probably will. Brian Murphy, WRAL Sports Investigative Reporter at Murfsturf on Twitter. I thank you, man. I'll see you soon.