What’s going on with these NC schools?

There's Chip, and he's got his Carolina Hurricanes sweater on, or sweatshirt on.

Chip Patterson covered three podcast moderator. All right, we're going to prove to people that college football still matters here. We're going to talk, I got a couple of college football items and then we'll slip in the hoops. Maybe you can diagnose what's wrong with NC State or the entire league in general. What do you mean with North Carolina? NC State? I'm sorry, yes, I apologize. No shame in losing at JPJ when Virginia is trying to, you know, get the screws tight. That was a disappointing defeat, sure, but nothing like what we saw from the target. Yes, NC State made you think, they might come back here in the second half.

All right, so let's deal with a couple of things first. Pac-12 thinking about adding SMU and San Diego State and then take their conference to the market to get a TV deal. SMU brings you into the state of Texas. San Diego State keeps you in Southern California. They still don't have Southern Cal in UCLA. I realize it's the only thing in the West Coast, but how powerful is that? It is only a survival move and it is an inventory move because I did not take a single math class in college, Adam. Not one? Not one. Shout out to Broughton High School, my AP stat grade on the AP exam checked me out of all the math I needed to to finish my communications degree.

Very nice. I could be wrong, but when you have 10 teams in a conference, as the Pac-12 will have after USC and UCLA leave, you have less conference games than when you have 12 teams. So when the Pac-12 is going to try to split up, because here's our own Dennis Dodd, big game Dennis Dodd on cbsports.com reported that the belief right now is that it will be ESPN and a streaming service. So you're already trying to divvy up a certain amount of conference games. Inventory is the word that the TV nerds use to be able to describe this and that's why I say it's a matter of survival because the Pac-12 just needs more inventory.

They need more things to sell and so adding two more teams on a very basic level that allows them to do that. You mentioned the Texas market somewhere where the Pac-12 is not, the Southern California market somewhere where the Pac-12 is losing to the Big Ten, but I also think that if you want to talk about the product itself, you are getting healthy programs. You are getting competitive programs, ones that have been in recent history getting investment from their local universities and at San Diego State, there's just so much pride in the San Diego State football that if I was George Klyavkov, the commissioner, and I was looking at all the pieces that are left on the table knowing that I had to pick two, these are sensible selections for me to say, but does it make the Pac-12 anywhere close to where they were with USC and UCLA?

Absolutely not. Does it make it a stronger conference? No, but I think that in order to survive, in order to give themselves the opportunity to keep that conference together, they just need to be able to beef back up so they can sell more games and make more money between ESPN and a streaming partner. Feels to me like they're delaying the inevitable. Streaming partner, they might be better off just going entirely to a streaming partner and doing a revenue share.

The one thing that I think the Pac-12 does have an advantage over is that at least west of the Mississippi, the time zone difference is not egregious and there are still a lot of people who live out there who are Pac-12 fans or Pac-10 fans. I guess it's going to be 12 again. So leaving Fox though, correct? Just completely ditching their deal with Fox and going to ESPN and a streaming service, correct?

That's the belief right now. None of that is official, but the belief within the industry according to Dennis Dodd is that it will be ESPN and a streaming partner and make no doubt, ESPN wants to be in this because ESPN wants to have live football to show at 10 30 p.m. Eastern Time. I mean the reason why this isn't all a streaming service play is because ESPN has a lot of motivation. Between all of the family of networks, there are a lot of places for ESPN to be able to put games that are going to be kicking off at 7 30 p.m. local time on the west coast and so those are going to be the spots where ESPN is still going to want to part and that's one of the Pac-12's best selling points right now is to try to stick with ESPN. Now in the ESPN Fox war, which continues as Texas and Oklahoma is being stuck in the Big 12 for an extra season. Yeah, I want to talk about that. That's where it becomes interesting on the Big 12 side of this because I posted Tom Fanelli on the Cover Three podcast today. All right, does this mean it's done? Does this mean that all of our talk about the Pac-12 trying to take some Big 12 teams or the Big 12 trying to take some Pac-12 teams you know for a little while there they were standing at odds these two new commissioners each sort of threatening the other in a cold war of conference realignment and I said okay so now Pac-12 gets its Texas it doesn't get the Texas that it wants but it gets into Texas you're able to get the Southern California hopefully you sign this new deal it keeps the league together and Tom pushed back he was like look I mean the Arizona's Colorado and Utah that is the attractive move for the Big 12 and the Big 12 is a stronger conference than the Pac-12 after the recent round of realignment if if what the Big 12 is saying is like yes we lost Texas and Oklahoma but we went and got BYU we went and got Cincinnati we went and got UCF we got into Florida and we were able to strengthen our hold in Texas by getting Houston right that conference even after losing Texas and Oklahoma is stronger than the Pac-12 will be after losing USC and UCLA even if it is able to replace them with San Diego State and SMU so I I thought that this this means that we're done for a little bit I think Tom brought up a great point that the Arizona's Colorado and Utah that is the package that is very attractive to the Big 12 I heard you say earlier delaying the inevitable it might be delighted that's the way I look at it I'm not I'm not sure the Big 12 isn't also delaying the inevitable uh but I don't think both of those leagues will survive as power leagues I know the Big 12 right now is playing great basketball I'm not even uh not even arguing uh that the Arizona schools to me are outliers Arizona University of Arizona football has never been all that good I've always thought Arizona State could be I think all the bones are there for a program that could be good and then you have Oregon and Washington in the Pacific Northwest that I mean the rumors had the Big 10 going after them but I don't know that that's uh that's going to happen we've kind of joked that the ACC should just have an ACC West and it'd be the Pac-12 but I just don't know if there's enough out there to make the numbers work for the Atlanta coast conference yeah I don't see I college football playoff expansion ultimately was the thing that kept us from racing ahead to Pac-12 dissolves Big 12 dissolves ACC's apart and we're into this two conference mega world and that is the way the conversation was going I don't think so in July and early August you know yeah because everybody was mad everybody was mad about uh all the uh all the people were mad that Southern California was somehow going to be in the Big 10 so we were all mad oh these two teams these two leagues are going to just swallow everybody up it's going to be you know 40 or 50 teams from two different leagues and that was going to be it and I just thought we're all mad but everybody needs each other just to a certain extent the college football playoff expansion which is driven you know like by the college football's power brokers of which Greg Sankey appears to be a part Greg Sankey not appears who is a part he's one of the strongest powerful people in college athletics but Greg Sankey has said multiple times in multiple places that he thinks his vision for the sport which is an important vision since he's at the steering wheel is that there's maximum involvement that is not consolidation like his vision for the sport is to be able to have a Pac-12 a league that's going to be able to produce a champion to go and play in the college football playoff for the Big 12 for the ACC for for this not to be ultra consolidated into two mega conferences an AFC and an NFC kind of like we had spelled out in the doomsday scenarios back in the summertime and so as we continue to look at the 12 team model that we're going to have for at least two years and even the potential expansion to 16 I I just think that that product is better served by having multiple conferences agreed but he doesn't control the Pac-12 or the Big 12 and it's hard to look at the Pac-12 and take it seriously as a football product and I realize I say that as an ACC fan I I realize that we order it in Washington like you've you can very quickly start to fill out your your roster at the top and be like all right so who's who's getting it done at the high level because they're Pac-12's got some uh even after losing USC and UCLA Pac-12 still got some very very healthy strong well-funded serious football programs state universities yep that big state universities matters that's what they have over the SEC which is or rather the ACC which is half small private institutions uh all right Chip Patterson here let's uh let's get to the the Big 12 part of this because uh Tex and Oklahoma are going to have to wait an extra year before they leave and meanwhile BYU Cincinnati Central Florida Houston all showing up wait a second that league looks bloated we went from 10 teams to like 110 what's going on there all right so the the team show up from the American Athletic Conference we always knew that there was going to be uh a one year of awkwardness as Texas and Oklahoma have to run through the gambit but it's actually it's more than likely going to be two they've been trying to negotiate a way to join the SEC in 2024 that's very important to the SEC because that is when the college football playoff the new model debuts most importantly that's when the SEC and its new contract which is all ESPN is going to debut they would like to roll out their all ESPN uh new 330 is no longer on CBS 330 is on ABC and they like you guys won anyway they they would like to have Texas and Oklahoma uh in that group but Fox which is in the Big 12 was like nope when we cut our check to the Big 12 in this new media rights deal we were doing it because we want to have Texas and Oklahoma all the way through the end we want to get every year and so yeah two more years two years of awkwardness of games between Texas and Oklahoma and the newbies uh BYU Cincinnati Houston and UCF right here's my my spin on this and uh I imagine that there's a decent round of Longhorn and Sooner fans here but I know you're excited about you know joining the Southeastern Conference but it's better to stay it is better of course for Texas and Oklahoma to stay with these newer coaching staffs and continue to build up because one thing that I'm seeing and hearing from the recruiting trail is that they're able to win recruiting battles by selling the SEC and they don't even have to start playing the SEC yet this is the best time for Texas and Oklahoma because you are building for the future without actually having to play an SEC schedule and so the SEC really wants Texas and Oklahoma in now if I'm Brent Venables I stay till the very very end because I would like to continue to stack these top 10 classes but then take those classes to go play against a Big 12 schedule and guess what you've got a better chance at getting into the college football playoff from the Big 12 I said this I said this when the decision was announced two summers ago that Texas and Oklahoma this is a great idea until you start playing in that league because what you have been allowed to do and frankly only Oklahoma took advantage of it Texas did not the the ultimate wake-up call for for Texas Longhorn football is going to be seven and five the ultimate wake-up call which is I guess basically where they've been anyway I was going to say the Charlie Strong Tom Herman late back around here like unfortunately Steve Sarkeesian went five and seven yeah maybe it's going to be worse maybe they're going to be like three and five in league play year in and year out Oklahoma it's going to be a total different totally different animal but at least for a couple years maybe well maybe probably just one they'll just trade games the Fox will they'll trade games and do something like that in an ESPN and the Big 10 trip they've tried to make an offer oh yeah the ESPN the Penn State Purdue game for example this year was a a flip for for something else but an offer has been declined like bucket Aikman it was to get bucket Aikman we trade yeah we'll give you a Penn State Purdue game you give us bucket Aikman so right now right now basically saying like no run we're running the price up they're they're making it not like it does not fit on the trade chart the trade machine is saying the trade is unsuccessful and Fox is saying like nope we want to run the price up right now uh we're gonna make ESPN really really want it and again if I'm Texas and Oklahoma I kind of think you're in the best position possible to wait out the contract it'll be awkward to play the 2023 and 2024 season in this bloated Big 12 conference but you've got a better chance at making the college football playoff and you've got a better chance of stacking more wins and for those coaches who were both hired in the last three years you want to build up as much success as possible before that wake-up call is that is sec Saturday so the Big 12 which will at some point have 12 teams again has been playing with 10 but next year and maybe for two years we'll have 14 uh we can't you need a scorecard for all of this all right chip Patterson tell me why North Carolina is not in danger of being a number one seed in the NIT North Carolina is in danger of being a number one seed in the NIT um North Carolina gets it comes out with a you know big pep talk about you know we need to you know get our enthusiasm back we need to get our energy back we need to get back to our identity and what we do well and to which I ask what do you do well because I have seen North Carolina for stretches of basketball this season do things well but there is not one core identity of this team there are times where everything should run through Armando Bacott there are times where everything should run through RJ Davis you know there are times where you've got a group that has sneakily been pretty good on the defensive side more so than they are on offense and then you just live with the highs and lows of Caleb Love I mean it is all over the place it is a Jackson Pollock of x's and o's like it is nothing that you can wrap your arms around if you take the very very best cut ups from an entire season of play then yes you've got a team that not only is going to be in the NCAA tournament but has a chance to go on a deep run just like they did a year ago but the the lack of consistency and the way that that identity is shape-shifted throughout the year that's what's going to make it really tough here for the final stretch is that they've got to find something they do they need to commit to it and that needs to be the paths of success in my opinion I'm not sure they have a deep run in them I'm I'm I'm more skeptical of that than I am I mean I think they can get in and I think that unless they lose basically all of their maybe not all but most of their quad one and quad two opportunities and they have a bunch of them especially a few at home unless they go like one and four against that group I think they'll they'll find a way to get in but I just don't think that that good I I think you know it's weird they'll go as far as Caleb Love takes him right that that's it if he blacks out then I mean he blacked out against UCLA right yeah he did there's there is an elite there is an elite eight potential when everything clicks into pieces when you take all of the best of North Carolina and you put it together but you've just haven't had that for most of the season they what they need is a guy on the team who looks like the Philadelphia Flyers mascot they need gritty I'm sorry Brady Manic we're we're the further we get away from Brady Manic the more we realize how important he was to the entire equation but yeah last last night was disappointing see what they uh what they do coming up this weekend their next two games are home against Clemson home against Miami I don't want to say that they have to win those two games but I think they got to win those two games both of them but to reach back I know we're into extra time all right but to reach back to the beginning of the season this team was competitive against Iowa State and Alabama and those are two teams that we talk about as being elite eight final four kind of teams right they don't win any of them though their their best win is NC State right but I wasn't arguing the resume I'm talking about competitive like what does the ceiling look like from a competitive standpoint they they stood on the court with teams that we believe are among the best in the country and they were not obviously outclassed I think no I think North Carolina right as they are currently construed can get into the NCAA tournament as a 10 as a 10 seed and give a seven seed a run for their money and and then go home right now as they are as they are currently playing they have that in them but I don't see them making plays to beat them their defense disappeared against Wake Forest yesterday it was just it looked super disappointing I thought I watched the Duke game again Duke against Miami on Monday was defense optional and last night was defense optional they got all their grind out over the weekend they got no grind left North Carolina played a rock fight and then all of a sudden they're like we've got no grind left we got no grit left all of our rocks they are left in Durham and we don't have anything left hope these 30 footers go down chip patterson at chip underscore patterson uh I appreciate your time man I'll talk to you later sounds good y'all be well