Wes Durham & Roddy Jones // Bill Hancock // Mario Cristobal

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. With the storm coming in terms of like here's what we are going to expect. High winds, lots of rain, all options are on the table. Right. And it's like the ACC is looking at its house and wondering if it's going to be able to survive this storm. Are they going to take action on one of these many options that he continually said are on the table?

Or are they just going to close their eyes and pray? Riders on the storm. Riders on the storm. It's the Adam Gold Show. I am Adam Gold. We are at ACC football kickoff Dennis Cox producing on site.

That is Graham the new guy back in our studios making sure that you can hear us. And we got a ton going on today. I don't want to waste any time because we have guests starting in like six minutes. So we're going out of the gate right away. Dennis, is that a record for how fast we got out of the gate? Easily. It could be because I had nothing really funny to say. Oh, so easily.

I should have been more prepared when we got done yesterday, which was a little later than we had anticipated, but we got done yesterday and I walked out of the the Westin Hotel. It was a deluge of Chelsea and Charlotte Football Club things. Yeah, because they had they had a club friendly here last night. Charlotte, like all the all the international teams are on tours, preseason tours, right?

Yeah. So I don't know why storming right? I assume they put seventy thousand people at Bank of America Stadium for CFC VCFC. I heard at least forty five thousand tickets were sold. They were all in the street.

Yeah, it was literally it was looking like it was a parade. Somebody I thought somebody won the title. But then again, I'm in Charlotte.

And who would do that here? I apologize. You know, it's funny, I should have wagered on CFC over CFC. You should have. By the way, Blues rolled out a lot of their first choice players. I was I was very impressed. I wouldn't recognize any of Charlotte's first choice players.

I'm not trying to disparage, but I haven't I haven't really felt followed them. Although I know they've had a good start to the season. Mendy played was was the keeper. Tiago Silver, Reese James, Mason Mount, Marcus Alonso, Raheem Sterling came on. Kai Havertz came on at halftime. Giorginio, Christian Pulisic started for Chelsea last night.

He featured and he scored the only goal for Chelsea. Nice little slotted shot, right foot shot at lower left from the top of the six yard box. That was the only goal for Chelsea. Home team tied it on a penalty in the 90th minute. Handball in the box.

Easy call. And then they win it in penalties. You don't have ties. We'll have draws in friendlies.

What is this? It's the ultimate unfriendly thing. It's weird because you do it in regular season competition where you can't do it in a friendly. I'm sorry, we're done. Well, we're going to penalties.

OK, all right, fine practice. You know how like in the preseason hockey, they'll just throw a three on three in there for five minutes, even though the scores are right. Well, that happened last year with the Canes last preseason game. Yeah, OK. Canes lost. And we still want to a shootout. Yeah, like, OK, they did.

I think just to work on it. Right. That's what look, especially in preseason, we should probably have those at the end of each period. Speaking of hockey, Carolina Hurricanes, this is not the hurricanes. This is a former hurricane now. Nino Niederreiter, two years, four million dollars per Nashville predators. And if that was going to be where we ended up with Nino Niederreiter, I think the hurricanes would have done that on July one. Maybe not July one, July 13th.

Yeah, it's not July one. I think they would have done that if that was where we ended up. Nino wanted a long term deal. There wasn't one out there for Nino Niederreiter. So I've said this before.

I said it on Twitter. I'm not going to shy away from it. I'm OK with Nino Niederreiter not coming back. Four years in a hurricane's uniform, 43 playoff games, seven goals, 12 points that that I can't unsee that. Nino had a great year last year. And his best postseason for Carolina, where he had four goals in 14 games.

Now, what does that translate to? It's about a 20 goal season. It's harder to score in the postseason than it is in the regular season. But there wasn't really impact in the game.

There wasn't. He had moments that I really loved. But again, and he's not the only one. It's not just not about Nino Niederreiter. But I was OK with them moving on from Nino. By the way, Ethan Bear's arbitration date is August 8th. So what? Three weeks away, roughly three weeks away from seeing what Ethan Bear is likely to get paid.

If in fact he stays here, I still think that there's a chance that Carolina might trade his rights somewhere else. Espys were last night. And I'm not an SB watcher. But two things I want you to hear very quickly before we get to our first guest. And we got tons of guests. And this is how Steph Curry kind of started the show, took a little shot at a friend of his. I am the second NBA player to host this award show, which is kind of crazy to think about. LeBron James, he hosted this award show back in 2007 after losing in the NBA finals. So, yes, you guessed it.

This this feels better. Nice. Steph did a pretty good job based on everything that I have seen and read. And I watched a bunch of the videos last night after the SPs were over. And, of course, the headliner, Dick Vitale, gets the Jimmy V. Award for Perseverance. And Vitale is inspiring. He's been on this program a lot. He's an incredible human being.

Does a lot for to raise money for cancer research. And here's Vitale on the game of life. Keep chasing your dreams. Keep chasing your goals. And to me, all of you in this room are special winners in the game of life and what you've done to pursue your goals.

And remember, just remember, perseverance plus passion plus pride equals win in the game of life. It's very possible we will not have Dick Vitale doing basketball games anymore. Remember, he had surgery on his throat.

His voice may not ever hold up again. But, man, has he been important to the sport of college basketball. All right, there's a lot to talk about.

We got tons of guests. Let's start it off. Adam Golden Studio with my man Coach Pete DeRuta with the Capital Financial Advisory Group.

We're talking retirement and coach. I'm a simple guy, but I like colors. Tell me how I can color code money and get ready for retirement. I like colors, too. I like pictures. I like graphs.

I don't like just a bunch of words. And so what we try to do is we try to break down all those words on your statement, all those numbers, into three colors. Red, green, yellow. People are amazed when they come in, and most of their money is in the red category.

Yeah, I don't want that. Now, red means high horsepower potential. It also means high loss potential. So it's a give and take.

Are you willing to do that or that? Yellow means liquid money. You can get it any time.

It's not going to earn anything. Green gives you safe growth, but also gives you lifetime income. As we get closer to retirement, we need some green accounts. We need the green zone, we call it. And Baghdad green zone was important. Green zone's important for you, too.

The next 10 people, Adam, it's a $1,000 value. Golden ticket we're going to put together for you, your very own, total plan that has the green zone. It's a traffic light.

I hope it's green for you. 800-661-7383 or text ADAM to 21000 for Coach Pete DeRuta. ACC football kickoff. Yeah. Adam, Adam and Roddy Jones. Yes.

The best play-by-play color commentary duo in the industry. That's on record. That's official.

The reason I say that is because I have both your cell numbers. That's true. So, okay.

That's the bar. Okay. That's all we got to do. Can I do something here real quick? You can do whatever you want. I want to talk lacrosse.

We're going to do PLL. He's a lacrosse expert now. Fanboy. Fanalyst. Fanalyst.

He's a lacrosse fanalyst. Can I just let me say something real quick here? I want to tell you a story about something that happened and I haven't been on his show since it happened. Uh-oh. But I want to share this and I want people to hear who listen to the Adam Gold show.

I want people to hear what happened at NSMA awards weekend. Oh man. Oh gosh. You want to show us the Barkley picture? No, no. I'm not showing you the Barkley picture with me.

But I have it on the phone if you need to see it. So, Adam is the North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year for the National Sports Media Association. Congratulations. Thank you very much.

I appreciate that. And well deserved. And so, we announced state winners at NSMA and he comes across the stage.

And the coolest thing happened. So, Scott Van Pelt, another Maryland grad, is there. Had not seen him though that night, had you?

No, I hadn't had a chance. I mean, I saw him because he was at the nearby table and I hadn't spoken to him yet. Scott Van Pelt gets up from his table. Adam ends the stage. Shakes my hand because I'm board chair, as you know, Roddy.

And then turns and Scott Van Pelt is there to give Adam this big hug and congratulate him. That's awesome. That's the coolest thing. That's awesome. And we had a board meeting following that afterwards. And I said, look, you just got to remember the special moments we had.

And I pointed out that. Thank you. I was thrilled for you for the honor.

Thank you. And then, cool that I got to be a part of that. And I told Scott that night, I said, that was just really kind of touching. He said, that's my guy.

Yeah. Scott and I. Scott Van Pelt at Bentley's. Actually, I never hung with Scott at Bentley's. What we did was we lived in the same dorm. Oh, okay. Ellicott Hall, which was right across the street from Byrd Stadium.

Right. So, Roddy, you played in Byrd Stadium. I watched Georgia Tech play there when I was red shirted and hungover. Darrell Robertson had a fumble return for a touchdown and a tight loss, by the way.

We may talk no football here. Okay. So, where did you go the night before? So, I went out.

Stayed at the Greenbelt Marriott. Shocker. So, I was red shirted that year. Okay. This was 2007.

Tech goes up there and plays. I was red shirted that year. But traveled. And so, I wasn't traveling. Oh, you went on your own? And I have no idea where I went. Okay. All I know is I woke up in time to see most of the first quarter.

Nice. Was it the rendezvous? As we called it, the voo. It could have been the cellar. It could have been RJ Bentley's.

I have no idea. But I was, I mean, I was there in the 80s. You were at College Park that day?

No. No, I didn't go up there. No, I was at home. I was at home. Oh, you were at home?

I did not try. Oh, we thought you were in College Park and you're selling this thing like I was at the, you know what I thought we were getting? Breaking news. I know. He was on the travel roster. Went to College Park. That was bowl game. Broke away. That was the bowl game.

Yeah, it was. Broke away from the Greenbelt Marriott. And then he went to Bentley's.

I was thinking, this is going to be a great story about a travel guy. But you've done a bunch of games at Bird. Yes. Right?

And Cole. So, the Ellicott Hall, if you're looking from the press box. Left corner. Uh, yeah.

Right above it. Yeah. It's where the basketball players used to stay when Lefty was coaching.

It's where the football players used to hang out when I was in school. Right. Uh, the Covington brothers, Farrell Edmonds, who's now has three sons playing in the NFL. Yeah. Right.

Sean Scott had played with the Dallas Cowboys. Uh, yeah. And you and Scott Van Pelt. Uh, yeah. Scott, Scott and I, Scott and I were friends, but we weren't like, we didn't hang.

Not like now. But Scott and I knew each other because we lived in the same dorm, two floors apart. That's it. He lived in the eighth floor. That's awesome.

I lived in the sixth floor. You could see into the field. Yeah. Couldn't see the whole field, but you could see like one side of it. There you go. Sixth floor.

You couldn't see anything. I went to way more lacrosse games. Speaking of. Back to lacrosse.

Yeah. Then I went to football games. You did Maryland lacrosse a year ago. They were good. They were fantastic, man.

Actually, I have no idea. They were undefeated last year. They were under 18 and 0. They ran. They ran the table.

Yeah. I, when, when Maryland ditched their friends and went to the Big Ten, I stopped caring. Well, they were like UCLA. They were cash strapped.

They seriously were. As I said last week on 84, we always knew UCLA wanted to be like Maryland because lefty wanted to be like UCLA and UCLA is just like Maryland. They're the Maryland of the West.

They were cash strapped and looking for a home, looking for a payout. He said he sold Moses Malone. We're going to be the UCLA of the ages. Let me tell you what we're going to do. Son lefty man. Get start.

John Feinstein on a conversation about lefty drizzle. All right. All right. Let me ask you, Roddy, since you played in the league and I know Wes's thoughts on this, but, um, everything is about money.

It doesn't matter where you are now. So as a guy who played, who, who bled and sweated in this league, what are you, what are your thoughts about where this league is and where just where college sports is at this point? Yeah. Um, it's hard because so much of what's happened to me post college and what comes with age and perspective happened because of where I decided to go and the opportunity to play at Georgia Tech and the ACC meeting guys like Wes and, and I think some of those will still be there, but I don't want the student athletes to lose the perspective of, Hey, look, this is, I'm doing this yes, to maximize my value now to, to, to, you know, make sure that I'm setting myself up, but, but really it's for the future. And so I don't want to lose that. And if we get to a professionalization, maybe you do, maybe you don't, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not an alarmist when it comes to that stuff, but it does make me sad that we're getting away from some of the traditional stuff that's made college sports, college sports, what it is. Now I'm, I say that, but also on the other side, like you look at what consolidation has done to some other leagues, you get match-ups that people really want to see more often and it's good for the sport. So I hope that's where we're going without sacrificing some of what I just talked about in terms of this league.

It's very easy to feel uneasy, um, but I think the, the, the alarms are premature. Yes. The revenue grabs gaps going to continue to grow. We know that schools likely won't be able to get out.

We know that. So the conversation, if you're going to have a conversation about what does it look like for this league, it's about what does it look like in 20 years? Not what it looks like in two, right? So you know, we'll, we'll see what it ultimately ends up at. I think as you start to work with some of the leagues that aren't the big 10 and the SCC basketball becomes more important because you're looking for revenue on the margins and the ACC basketball is the ACC is basketball product. I think it'll help it.

It's survival as maybe one of the top leagues that are not those big two. So I don't know. We'll see just outside the gated community. Yes. Yeah.

I've never been in the gated community, so I feel right at home. Actually. I have a gate, but it's just to keep horses in. That's exactly why we have a game. I would offer this. I think the only development that we are going to see, there's twofold one. We're going to have to see who the big 10 second television partner is. Okay. If it's NBC, then that sparks the Notre Dame thing again. Sure. Okay. If it's CBS, ESPN, anybody else, I happen to think the big 10 ultimately is going to go three. They're going to have two TVs and one streamer.

Okay. But I think if it's NBC, that's white smoke for Notre Dame. If it's not NBC, I think that allows Notre Dame.

I think Notre Dame's independence is fiercely important to them, fiercely important to them. And don't ever lose sight of the fact that Notre Dame's board of trustees is not 26. It's not 38. It's not 50 people. It's 300 people.

300 people on the board of trustees at Notre Dame. Yeah. And remember, 25 years ago, they told the big 10 go pound sand and a lot of people haven't forgotten that.

Right. I don't think they want to be in the big 10. I think the other piece of this, the Notre Dame piece is important because I think it determines where the big 10 and the ICC stop.

Yep. Cause I think if the big 10 can get Notre Dame, then you could see them at 18 or 20. If the big 10 can't get Notre Dame, I'm not sure there's value in expanding past 16. And we've kind of gotten in this mindset where it's the big 10 and the SEC are going to eat up everybody else. I don't think the SEC moves until the ACC's grant of rights is winding down. I agree with that. If they move at all, because you get to a point of diminishing returns where you're adding schools that are not adding to the revenue that each school gets.

And that happens very quickly with the amount of money that we're talking about throwing out now. Yeah. And I think some of this stuff may be premature and we may settle with a 16 team, big 10, 16 team, SEC, and the ACC could very easily get to 16 teams and do some creative things to try and narrow the gap to, to create more value for its constituents. Here's the thing that helps the Atlantic coast conference in the here and now. Okay.

This is going to more than likely be now Roddy may feel differently. I think we've got a chance at five teams in the preseason, top 25 of the AP poll. I think there are five potential teams. Yeah. Five. Yeah. I think the other sport that America care, you and I've had this discussion for three weeks.

America cares, right? Right. About college basketball. This league is going to be an overdrive almost from the start.

It should be right. I mean, even to the middle lower third of the league, this league is going to be an overdrive. I mean, Clemson had a tough loss last week when it was announced, PJ hall won't play for whatever timeframe with a knee injury, but everybody else you can see it, right? And so football, if now the ascent of football has to continue, we need to see Florida state. They may not have to beat LSU, but it's gotta be close. I need to see Miami beat a and M Tyler and dyke can go to college station and Kyle field on a Saturday night and wire them up. That's a good thing. And Oh, by the way, I don't need missteps either. I don't need one at Boone.

I don't need one in Greenville at Western Michigan. Well, yes, that one in Boone. I mean, I won't be shocked. It's 12 noon.

It's the biggest break. Mac Brown's had his head coach since he returned to 12 noon game. And you know what I mean?

Yes. I that's eight o'clock at kid Brewer stadium, sauced, chase Bryce at quarterback, meaning to black Saturday. Look, I've been there for black Saturday when I did Marshall for 11 months and 28 days. And I'm telling you 11 months, I was there just less of a year, but I'm telling you Boone, you can't slip at Boone.

You can't slip at Greenville. Hey, look, I don't think it's going to be easy when Carolina goes to Georgia State. I would agree with that. That quarterback's pretty good. Yeah. And that football team is as tasted success. They've got more experience.

Why are we doing that? There are. There'll also be 2000 people there. Yeah. Yeah. You walk out in the parking lot. See where hanker and it's some 15. Yes, you can. Yeah.

Touch the wall. All right. So you say we had, uh, we have West Durham and Roddy Jones best played by play duo in the business, uh, because they have their cell numbers. The so bad. So you say we have, we could have five teams in the top 25.

I think so. In the preseason, where state among those five teams and can we encourage their fans buy in that Oh God, everything is set up for them. How are you not? I don't, I don't, I don't care about the NC state stuff that we keep talking about. I, this, this is the year you have to make, I'm in, I I'm probably picking them to win the Atlantic. I did seven put in your ballot Sunday. I will be a Sunday guy. My ballot went in on the train down here. I haven't.

Okay. Look, the state fans, the thing that they can hang their hat on, however cynical you want to be that defense is going to be the best defense that Dave Dorn has had, I think, and it will be not named Clemson. There are going to be three really elite defenses in this league.

It's Clemson. And I think they're separate than the other two because it's defensive line because the defensive line and like NC state defensive line doesn't take a backseat to anybody other than Clemson's like puts everybody in the backseat other than Georgia and maybe Alabama because of the top and talent that those guys have. But, but the defensive line, the line backing core is so experienced and that defense is set up for the linebackers to have success. Then when you have those three guys at linebacker and honestly the guys that played like Devin Beatty played pretty well last year. So you've got depth there too. The secondary I think is more talented than people give them credit for, particularly when, when Tanner Engel is healthy, they are different, but Shaquem Harris has really started to take off and play well.

And you've got the most important position on the field figured out, but you've got the quarterback figured out. So do you, do they have to run the ball better? Yes. Do you have to replace running backs and a first round left tackle? Yeah. Do you have the top receiver?

Yes. But at the end of the day, you've got the defensive line, you've got experience on the offensive line. You've got the most important position figured out.

So I would buy in. I love Tanner Engel too in the back end of that. Well, yeah.

Ronnie, Ronnie always liked when we do an NC state game cause we get to break down what is and isn't targeting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well he was better at that last year. I know. That's what I'm saying. He played the, and he stayed on the field. But here's the thing.

And we talk about this all the time. Sometimes he was misflagged. He was misflagged when he got brought in, he was misflagged and then they went to review and it helped him. Saved him. I'm a huge fan.

I voted for him. Pre-season last year. Oh, he's, he is a great player. Yeah. And they got great linebackers and one for Trenton Simpson at Clemson.

They might sweep. Yeah. I think I put two of them.

I think Mikelle Jones at Syracuse should get some, should get some, he wore the threat under the collar yesterday. Sweet. Now. Hey, very nice.

Front that. All right. Uh, this was fun.

Western. Roddy Joe. We didn't talk lacrosse.

Uh, go ahead. Hit him. Hit him with the fan list. What was your favorite thing about being a sideline reporter or the PLL? I think the speed of the game and Luke Kuechly and the size, Mike Bray was great, Mike Bray was fantastic. Um, but the speed of the game and like talking to those guys, I mean, they're all Ivy league educated, right? So they're fun to talk to a lot of them were option quarterbacks and very academic snobbery here from Roddy Jones.

I love it. They made me feel a little old. So Michael Sowers, who's at Princeton and then dude talking to him, he's like, yeah man, I used to watch you in elementary school. I was an option quarterback. I'm like, wait a minute. You were watching me in elementary school and now you're a professional athlete. That's a tough, that's a tough realization right there.

No question. It was a ton of fun. We got to wrap this up cause Roddy and I both have to go hug Jafari Harvey because he gave us an unbelievable play last year in Chapel Hill. He had a one hand pick six six against Sam Howell and Roddy and I were doing the game and I still can't believe he did unbelievable. And he went to the end zone and be a wide receiver and a running back to guys are trying to chase him down.

No job. Have you seen him walk through here? Yes. They're all, everybody here looks great. Jafari Harvey looks like he is, I won't say how about an auto too. He was supposed to be the quarterbacks though. Like we, and we got them most of them yesterday. Brendan Armstrong looks like like Tyler Van Dyke. So many good quarterbacks.

Those are Kovac there. I mean, they look fantastic. Remember, you know, we don't really, you know, everybody nationally outside the wall here.

I understand. We're not very good. I know we have great quarterbacks in this league.

Oh my God. Third time in five years. Third time in five years. I think this will be the best quarterback.

If you have good quarterbacks, you have a chance to win. June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the aluminum company of North Carolina. Listen now, find Canes 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcast.

Amazing. West Durham, Roddy Jones. Great play by play color commentary tandem. You'll see him or hear them all year long on the ACC network and ESPN. They'll be everywhere. Won't just be relegated to the ACC network.

And I didn't mean any disparaging way. Real quick before we break, we're gonna talk to Bill Hancock on the other side, executive director of the college football playoff. Look, I don't know the credibility of this grain of salt time, but Dennis, you forwarded me this from something called Sideline Sports Network.

No idea what they are. Could be swim swim. Might be.

Could be swim swim. But it says here it's being reported again, grain of salt sort of just demonstrates where we are in this wacky college sports conference shuffling landscape being reported that Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah will apply for Big 12 membership this afternoon. Now, I'm not anticipating this because if that was the case, then this story would have come from Oh, CBS Sports or the athletic or ESPN or Yahoo Sports, somebody like that.

So don't anticipate this being accurate today. But it's sort of like the swim swam story where, well, you know, Clemson and others are in negotiations to leave the ACC. But in the Pac 12 and in the Big 12 right now, since they're kind of cohabitation chats broke down in those two leagues, now we might have something going on.

But just kind of keep you up to date with what's going on when we come back. The executive director of the college football playoff, Bill Hancock, Bill Hancock might have the greatest job in all of sports. I don't know. I don't know how to rank these types of jobs. He is the executive director of the college football playoff. Do you have the greatest job in all sports? Second greatest right behind you?

No, stop. That is that is not true. At best, I'm fifth. But that's pretty good.

That's pretty good. I'm happy to be fifth. You're on you're almost on Mount Rushmore, but not quite. I'm visiting.

I'm visiting Mount Rushmore. Like I you know, it's funny because you and I spoke a long time ago when you were at the BCS and we were and I agreed with you your stance at the time, like, why do we need four? Two is great. Now we have four. We're going to go bigger. We all know we're going to go bigger. Where do you think we're headed? It's hard to say. And first of all, good to see you.

Thank you for having me on. And every we talked then I remember this. Every bracket increases, right? Every bracket, literally in every sport, you were with the NCAA basketball tournament for years, right?

Right. And I don't think we're done at sixty eight. I think we'll end up bigger than sixty or hope not anyway. I don't know where we're going. You know, we we we have a 12 year contract for what we have four teams and we have four more years to go on that contract. A couple of years ago, the presidents, our big board, asked the commissioners to get to work on a new format, something. And we appointed a committee. The committee came back, as you know, with a recommendation last summer to expand to 12. The theory was 12 would give us half and half half conference champions and half at large.

And the plan from the presidents was take your plan to campus and see how coaches feel, see how the players feel, see how presidents feel and faculty. Well, we came back and everybody the commissioners got back together and some of the conferences just said it's not time. We're not ready. So we put it on the shelf and we'll bring it back before too long to figure out what to do with the future.

But I think if listening to the commissioners, listening to Jim Phillips today, it won't stay at four. Oh, no. I mean.

Money. I mean, we we're we're all adults in the room. Yeah.

It's good to be. Even though I think four to me, four covered the the one thing you couldn't handle with two. That happened in 2004 with three major conference unbeaten teams. And of course, an SEC team didn't make it that year, which is bizarre. But at least four covers us for that. But 12.

OK. I mean, the other players really for it, because I don't know if the players are at some conferences came back and their players said, no, they don't they don't want any games. Other players said, well, if we can do something to make up the difference on the other end, we like playing games better than practice. We'd sure rather play games than practice. And it adds a couple more games for a couple of teams. It's not a draconian change in the number of games. But but I also think I think we can do things with the rules to shorten games, eliminate some of the collisions. Sure. None of us like to talk about the physical nature of college football, but it is a physical game.

Oh, yeah. If you can eliminate, say, 10 plays per game through letting the clock run on incomplete passes or something. I don't know.

Well, 10. Not stop it after a first down. Not stop it after a first down. Right.

Maybe something with out of bounds. I don't know. But if you can eliminate 10 or 15 plays a game, well, good grief. That's a whole game.

Yeah. Over a season. Well, the NFL games have, by and large, between 15 and 20 plays less than a college game, which really doesn't make sense if you think about it. I mean, why are college game?

Why does each team run 80 plays in college and each team runs, you know, 70 in the NFL or less? Right. Yep.

So true. So I look for us to have real changes that will help with that. And I don't know. It's 2026 is the first year of the new the new deal if there's to be a new deal. And how about this?

If there's no new deal, then like the old Mission Impossible television show, the CFP will self-destruct. I want to see the tape. I want to see the tape. You want to see the tape?

Go up in smoke. Yeah. We're aging ourselves, Adam, on that. Bill Hancock, executive director of the college football playoff, is joining us here on the Adam Gold show at ACC football kickoff. Greg Sankey has been arguing that we shouldn't have automatic qualifiers.

I don't agree with a lot of things that Greg Sankey says, but I kind of do here because regardless of what the number is, why be beholden now? I'm not trying to diminish conference champion champions. If the conference champion is one of the top 12, if that's where we're going, then they'll be involved. But if they're not all right, isn't the shouldn't the playoff have the best 12 teams? It should. It should.

You have to find a balance. You do want to make conference championships meaningful. And that's why the committee said the best six conference champions. The best six conference champions are almost always going to be in the top 12 or maybe 15. We did a lot of research on that, so we know.

And that's the right balance, I think, between rewarding the conference champions, making the conference championships games mean something and leaving enough spots for at large teams, meaning the SEC. I'm just kidding. I said that. That was Adam. That was me. Gold. Gold. And his email address is.

Yes. People know how to reach me. You could just hit me up on Twitter at a gold fan. Bill Hancock from the college football playoff is joining us. I understand that. But it almost seemed like at that point, the SEC and the Big Ten, the power conferences were sort of throwing a bone to the group of five.

Hey, as long as your conference or even the Pac 12 at that point, as long as your conference champion is in the top six of conference champions, you're good to go. But now it almost seems like there's a little bit more vindictiveness going on. No, don't say that yet, Adam.

Not yet. You might be able to say that close. But I doubt it. OK. I think the commissioners, my bosses are going to come together and make it happen.

You think in the right way. So what is a time frame for an announcement? Because you say there's four more years left of this. So at some point in the next two years, certainly doesn't a decision have to be announced, which means that this has to happen really probably within the next calendar year. My preference would be within the next year. It would be because we'll need time to finish the TV contracts, figure out where the games are going to be played, get contracts with the game, with the sites.

So my preference would be within the next 12 months. We're actually going to talk to Gary Stokken in a little bit. And he's with the Chick-fil-A with Peach Bowl, the Peach Bowl. Gary, who has just returned from St. Andrews. So he's going to be feeling that way. Yeah. Good. So Gary Stokken goes, went to Wimbledon.

And then he said, well, while I'm here, I'll just go over to the British Open also. See maybe, I'm sorry, you are second. You do have the second best job. He has the best job. Absolutely. Absolutely. Two bucket listers in the same month. My gosh. Wimbledon was great this year, obviously. Yep. And St. Andrews.

St. Andrews. I'm a Rory guy, though, so I can't even talk to him now. It's heartbreaking for Rory. I mean, I felt so bad. Heartbreaking for him.

Absolutely. Cameron Smith played at us. He did. He did. He did. I can't, I can't even talk about it.

It makes me angry. Bill Hancock from the college football playoff is joining us here. All right, so has some of the hang-up been about getting it to more than one network? The playoff, the future playoff? You know, if there's, we have 11 people on our board, so 10 conference commissioners plus Jack Swarbrick. Right. A lot of people are involved in other networks, too, right?

Some are. Fox is represented. NBC is represented. But if there's anything they're unanimous on, it is let's talk to more than one network. Not let's go to more than one, because we don't know what they're, how much, how involved they're going to be. But let's talk to more than one network. They're unanimous about that.

Final question for Bill Hancock. Who is pushing for expansion of the playoff more? What group of people? Product directors, coaches, players, or like presidents? Oh, man, what a great question that is. Thank you. Fans.

Radio talk show host. No, not this one. I'd go back to two. Except for you. I would go back to two.

I think four is fine. Except for you. That's right. Our constituents are so divided on so many things. I would guess, well, after fans, probably A.D.s, probably A.D.s. What it's about is participation. You mentioned the money. Everybody knows there's more money. There's more games. There's more money. But what it's about is adding, getting more teams to participate.

That's what it's all about. Giving that chance. Getting more conferences, Pac-12.

Let's get the West Coast into college football, into postseason football. Yeah, it's been a while. It's been a while.

Yeah, it has been. I appreciate your time. Good to see you, Adam.

Bill Hancock. We always have fun doing this. You are a great person to talk with, really. Thank you, Adam. Good to see you. When we return, the head coach of the University of Miami, brand new, a Miami guy, Mario Cristobal.

Next. One new Miami head coach, Mario Cristobal, is joining us here at Operation Kickoff on the Adam Gold Show. You're a Miami guy. Are you living the dream? I'm a Miami guy through and through every part of me.

I don't need a GPS in Miami. I know every street. I know every crack on every street. And thank God I had the opportunity to grow up with so many people that I come across on a daily basis. So I'm honored to be home. All right. Now, everybody always asks the question, is the U back?

Can the U ever get back to what it was? The U is back to work. Okay.

I don't know what people say. We have one focus, and that's getting to work. Miami has always been incredibly off the charts awesome when we were working our tails off. And the focus was that work. So we're back to work. That's what we're back to do. We all know when Miami achieves a certain level that there's nothing like it.

Our focus is on a daily basis. Just keep gaining ground towards that level. 10 out of 12 years from 83 to 94, 10 plus wins, four national championships. And your coach, Butch Davis, looked like he was turning it back into that with a bunch of 10 win seasons.

Then Larry Coker was undefeated. What has been missing from that? I mean, I think they worked hard, but what has been missing over the last decade and a half? That's it. You? No, no, no, no, no. That's not it. I've been gone. So I never comment on something that I wasn't around for or was able to take part in.

I think that's the ultimate form of disrespect, and I wouldn't disrespect anybody at Miami or any other place. Right. I know that we have implemented a regimen and a blueprint that's very demanding.

That brings a lot of physicality with it that requires every ounce of everything that you have on a daily basis. And how you do anything is how you do everything. So that's going to bring us some really, really positive progress. When you combine that with development of players and then the schematic use of players as well, our personnel use, you're going to see a lot of progress at the University of Miami. But make no mistake about it. We're not going to tweet about it. We're not going to proclaim it, put it on the T-shirt or hashtag it.

We're just getting to work. People look at Miami and sometimes you'll watch a game and half full stadium. People don't get what Miami was and the brand that it can be. How do you explain what Miami football is about?

Everything that goes around with it. Well, Miami set a standard that was really just a different level standard back in the day. And I think that's the best thing that we can do, even in this interview now, is just keep bringing back the fact that we were a part of that.

We understand how that got there. And Jimmy Johnson explained the other day, he talked about how people probably don't define the word swagger correctly. Swagger wasn't talking, wasn't pointing fingers. It was confidence due to time invested in work done. And that's what the focus is on. That is strictly, and so I'll be the most boring interview you've ever had, because all we're going to talk about is the fact that we got to grind, man.

We got to get to work. This football stuff, this isn't warm and fuzzy, and it certainly isn't very forgiving, especially if you don't do the work. It always shows what you did.

It's a truth teller, right? Come September, October, and especially November, if you haven't done it, it's going to tell exactly what you did or what you didn't do. Mario Cristobal, Miami head coach, is joining us here in the Adam Gold show. The one thing that we all know, because we've seen it before, about the players who play and the players who used to play is that everybody goes back. Talk about how that community of ex-players can help you get to where you need to be.

Well, it's just a swoon of momentum right now. These are guys that I played with, had a chance to coach, the guys that I watched scoring up as well. Used to go down the Orange Bowl and watch these guys play, and a lot of them are the reason why I went to Miami. And the combination of that, the combination of throwing, having played at Miami, worn that helmet, the way the community, the way the city responded, the way that that stadium was rocking every single weekend, and the fact that everybody wants that again, right?

Well, I went away for a long time, a long, long time to learn under some of the best and to go out there and cut my teeth and get to meet a lot of people and network with a lot of people that we have put together to bring back here to Miami to get things going in that direction again. Let me ask you about your quarterback, because Tyler came on mid-season and just electrified everything. He plays with a lot of that swagger that you were talking about, is a very confident guy, but he's also incredibly talented. So the confidence, he can back up the confidence.

What does he bring, especially since he really was only a starter for about half a year? Well, he's confident because he knows what he's doing. He understands scheme offensively. He understands what the defense is doing. You know, he doesn't get duped in a bad decisions and he's very decisive. He understands leverage, he understands coverages, he understands this guy's coverages. He knows where he's protected, where he's not. He knows if a guy's misaligned and he could fix him or if a guy should be on the ball and he's not, that he could prevent us from getting a penalty. He has complete command of the offense and the complete trust of everybody on the football team. Let me ask you about a, like an issue that is a lot of coaches have been talking about it. What, what your thoughts are about name, image and likeness and what impact it has been having over? Cause it's really just happened for the last year.

It's a brand new thing. I'm of the mind that we just need to let it settle. But your thoughts on it, has it been bad? Does it need to be reined in? Where are you on it?

And I know I didn't want anything. Everyone wants clarity and everybody wants a playing field where everybody understands how it can and should operate, you know, it's a constitutional right and that is what it is. I mean, when people have their constitutional rights. So it's, I think it's been positive for the most part. It's hard to comment on what actually was great and what was not so great because the regulations surrounding it are so vague, right? Teams that have recruited well are still recruiting well, right? Right.

Well, I don't know if that's moved the needle one way or the other. Players are now getting compensated for the name, image and likeness. And the biggest, one of the biggest hopes for me is that we truly are educating guys. That financial literacy is really a thing and not just a fancy term that we're talking about, you know, how to handle your taxes, how to save, how to invest, creating portfolios, right?

How this in creating cash flow, right? Because at the end of the day, it's, it treated a certain way it could, by the time you finish graduate, you'll have things that you and I never had. Right? Yeah. And may never happen.

I mean, I think I got a big mac and fries for like my graduation. So these guys could really take advantage of it. I like it for us because we live in one of the more prominent cities in the world, you know, and Miami is ascending, you know, the city, our university is ascending, you know, where we're going is, is a very strong place and we're going to be postured very, very well.

Not only for name image and likeness, but just as a place as a hub for business around the world and around the country. So for us, I see, I see only positives coming with it. Have you been in, uh, gone for a ride in Tyler's car?

I have not. I I've been there long enough at some point, you know, final, final serious question. Are you at all concerned about the shifting landscape of conference affiliation?

I'm not right now. You know, I think we have a lot of smart people that are taking input from other smart people and I think coaches are involved in themselves and giving suggestions and there's a lot of iron clad contracts that prevent a lot of things that are being speculated out there. So are things changing and moving? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Are certain brand names and conferences really strong where they shouldn't be concerned? I probably should feel that way. Should everyone be proactive or at least having their, you know, their hands and their finger on the pulse to understand when and if there is to be made a move? I think everyone's doing that.

So I personally, I don't, I'm not concerned. You ready to get to immerse yourself in Miami FSU again? I immerse myself in every single day and every single thing that we do and I never looked past it. Is Miami FSU the ultimate rivalry?

A hundred percent. Anyone that ever put on a uniform for either one of the schools knows that that's the ultimate rivalry. So when I was early in this business, first Saturday in October, it was every year.

First Saturday in October, typically at high noon at the OK Corral. No question about it. Mario Cristobal. Thank you very much. Great luck to you. Thank you.

Appreciate you. How good would the ACC roster of games be if Miami, Florida state returned to being must see television? Because for about 20 years, that was arguably other than Ohio state, uh, Michigan or, uh, Notre Dame, USA, other than some of those types of rivalries, I don't know that there was a better game.

And honestly, that might've been the best game anyway. Miami FSU first Saturday in October. That's what the ACC needs those two teams to get back to that kind of a rivalry. When we come back, Duke's head coach, Mike Elko, and then the commissioner of the ACC, Jim Phillips, ACC football kickoff. June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997, with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Cane's Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the aluminum company of North Carolina. Listen now, find Cane's 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcasts.