My man Chip, appreciate your time as always. So I've already seen several mock drafts and before we get to not a mock drafts, so to speak, but thinking about, you know, players for the NFL draft. What was the data this year? The SEC had, I believe, 114% of the players drafted this past week.
Correct? But like, so here are the two things that I can take away because every single year it is part of the NFL draft content machine that we are going to tell you how many picks per conference, how many picks per team, and I've been tracking this. So the SEC had the most draft picks for 17 straight years, but not every year is the same.
That was not the case this year. The big 10 had 55 and the big 10 has been running second to the SEC for the last six NFL drafts. And so this really indicates for those inside the big 10 that they are closing the gap in terms of the SEC's dominance on the NFL draft.
Now, what's interesting about talking about the second place here is that that role that the big 10 is occupied. It used to be the ACC 14, 15, 16, 17. Those were years that the ACC was the league that was really nipping on the heels of the SEC in terms of top draft picks.
That was not the case at all. The SEC more than doubled up the ACC this past season. And so you start to look at what we've seen in terms of the larger trends, the SEC and the big 10, as you and I have discussed a lot, pulling away in terms of the finances. Well, now, at least in the scoreboard this year, they're also pulling away in terms of NFL draft picks as well. Do you think those two things are, I mean, connected, the amount of money the SEC and the big 10 gets and what we're seeing in the NFL draft numbers?
Only, this is what I would want to dive deeper into this and have a couple sources to back me up. But to answer your question, yes, because of coaching and not just because of head coaching, but because of the money that you're willing to invest in your assistant pool, because of the money you're willing to invest in recruiting. I guess you could also talk about facilities, but a bunch of ACC football programs have state of the art facilities as well. So the connection that I would draw is the money that you were able to pay, not just for head coaches, but for assistant coaches, how that goes into the recruiting process and the development process. And when people are really trying to game it out down the line, that's why there is a little bit of a fear from those in the Pac-12, the Big 12, and yes, even the ACC, that there's going to be those two leagues pulling away on the field as well, because they're going to be able to pay to get the best coaches. They're going to be able to pay to keep the best coaches. They're going to be the most attractive spots for assistant coaches to go, player development, other general staff members. More of that is going to go where the money is, and the money is in the SEC and the Big 10. Well, yeah, there's no question the money's there. But just like Brighton, doesn't mean you can't have a good squad and then just develop for somebody else.
I apologize for even bringing that in. Looking ahead to next year, who is the ACC team that will provide most for the NFL Draft? I think it's Florida State, because Florida State has, you know, we talked about Mike Norvell using the transfer portal to really, you know, build up that roster, and I think last week we talked about the depth that they have along the offensive line and the defensive front. They had a lot of guys who were not going to be first round picks, but could have been NFL Draft picks and had decided to come back for another year.
It's a veteran laden group. And so I think that Florida State is going to find itself up near the top. I mean, it's almost one of the scenarios where you look at Florida State, the 10 win season they had, and how few NFL Draft picks they had. And in that sense, if you're a Florida State fan, you're probably encouraged because you know you were so good, you only lost a few of those very good players and you're bringing pretty much everyone else back. So I think that Florida State is probably going to end up finding itself near the top.
There are a couple of interesting ones that might not be as realistic. Like, for example, I don't think Miami is going to compete for an ACC championship. I don't think Miami is going to be a 10 win team, but Miami does still have a couple of individual players that I think are very good and could find themselves, especially up near the top three rounds of the NFL Draft. It might only end up with like, you know, four or five players total max, but those are going to be players, whether it's James Williams at defensive back, Leonard Taylor along the defensive line.
Zion Nelson is still there, a very highly touted offensive lineman. I think that there are going to be some potentials that you see come out of that Miami program that aren't necessarily going to line up with the wins and losses at the end of the season. A lot like a Boston College or like some of these other programs that seem to just continually turn out NFL Draft talent. Speaking of Boston College, did I see this correctly that they are the third highest producer of NFL Draft picks from the ACC over the last, I don't know what the time frame is, but like the last 10 years. Yeah, you know where most of them are flowers, flowers is the anomaly. They flowers is the exception because they have not been putting a whole bunch of wide receivers and they definitely have not been putting quarterbacks into the NFL.
Not now, they used to. Well, I mean, of course, Matt Ryan, and of course, we can take it back even further than that. But this time frame that we're talking about for Boston College has been at the line of scrimmage. It has been the offensive line, especially, but also the defensive line.
Also linebacker. They've had a couple pretty good defensive backs, but those have been guys that have just been able to catch on into the league. And I think that that's where Boston College has developed a reputation similar to Iowa, where I think NFL scouts really trust the development there. And they know that they're going to be able to go and get players that are not necessarily your game breakers, but because of the way that they've been brought up are just going to be really solid backups really solid special teams contributors.
So I'm not super surprised. I just draw the disconnect between Boston College has had a lot of NFL draft picks. Why haven't they been better? And the answer to me is that a lot of the players who have gone to the NFL from Boston College have not been a part of explosive offenses or just like really like knock you over over the top defensive talent for the most part.
Of course, there are a lot of exceptions to that. Yeah, I mean running backs, they've had they put some running backs in the league and offensive lineman, obviously, but Zay Flowers is the anomaly there. There aren't explosive offensive players that add to points, but man, they have put a lot of defensive lineman linebackers DB. It's incredible what BC has been able to do while at the same time. Not really winning a lot chip Patterson is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show to just more on this topic because I am fascinated by this because I think it really is the most glaring thing that if the answer is not Clemson as to who was putting all of these players into the NFL that would worry me if I were a Clemson fan.
It's a hundred percent. Hey, look, Brian Brzee had some injuries and didn't quite ever put it together with the way that he was projected coming out of high school. Miles Murphy, maybe the opposite where he got a lot of buzz and then you never really felt like he was truly dominant at Clemson.
You've got players coming up. I guess, you know, if you look at Barrett Carter, if you look at the obviously will Shipley will have an opportunity to be able to go in the NFL draft. There are a good number of high-end players, but Jordan McFadden didn't wow a lot of people the offensive line, which I know is something that you pointed to for the Clemson Tigers last couple years has been really underwhelming. This is definitely a moment where you know, they had a couple of years where obviously they were complete competing for National Championship, but they were also competing to be top 5 top 10 draft. I mean top 10 5 top 10 signing classes in the 24 7 sports team rankings and now they've fallen back into kind of that 10 to 15 range and yeah, you can get into the Dabo Sweeney.
Okay G's our kind of guys, you know, we look for the program fits but I mean for a little bit there a program fit meant that you were a future Pro not just a really solid college football player. And so it's it'll be interesting with all of the coaching turnover, you know, Brent Venables leaves but so does the defensive line coach in Todd Bates. So you promote internally for your defensive coordinator you bring in a former Clemson player and Nick Eason like there's there's a lot of moving pieces beyond even just the offensive coordinator and the defensive coordinator. This is a program that is absolutely sort of recalibrating right now and I think we're seeing that in the NFL draft results as well. What is the impact of what the Big 12 is likely to do we're talking with Chip Patterson of CBS Sports.com where they're talking about bringing basketball games and football games to Mexico.
Man Brett your mark is he's a dreamer, huh? Is that what you get from working with Jay Z and rock nation you just you just really believe that you can do anything. I think that the big big 12 expanding its basketball products as much as possible is a smart decision because the Big 12 basketball brand is so strong right now and you just want to capitalize on that as much as possible. I know they want to get the Rucker Park thing going and that is something that you know to me seems like a lot of you know, this the general idea of when you've like when you've used all of the all everything you can get financially out of the games themselves the broadcast rights the tickets everything else.
You just go create other events. So I understand financially why Brett your mark is trying to be creative because he's recognizing that his media rights deal which of course they just signed is not going to get any better. He is not going to close the gap with the SEC and the big 10 on media rights alone. So what I think he is doing is he is creating these other revenue stream.
Now will they be successful. That depends on how well they are executed, but that to me is the real motivation behind Mexico behind Rucker Park behind all of these other ideas is that it is trying to create a revenue stream where there is currently money because the big 12 has tapped out what they are going to be able to make from the traditional ways the conference makes money. So in terms of non-traditional ways that conferences make money or that schools make money when when will we be comfortable having advertisements on uniforms. I would say first thing I would do if I was Commissioner first thing is it just like all ACC teams are going to have the Adam Gold Bank Pat. Yeah, go sell it going to be able to generate all this money. I would say that the reasons why schools would vote against it is because it would hinder their ability to strike up their own deals where you know, if I think if I think that I am, you know, the athletic director and university president at Clemson and my relationships with the Clemson community are going to be able to bring in more money.
Why should I be held back by the exclusivity that comes with someone else? Then do it individually then it doesn't have to be at a conference level. But if I'm Jim Phillips, I'm telling every school in my league.
Hey, go put a go put an advertisement on your uniform. I look I don't think that it's a I don't think it's a bad idea and I would not be surprised if we end up in that place is the the only people who would be against it would be the people who would be trying to make money from that company's competitor. I just think it's first of all, it would set a trend and other leagues would also do it and because of the ACC football brand might be better in basketball. I don't know but you might ultimately fall further behind but all you're really trying to do is get more money.
It doesn't really matter. You're not going to bridge the gap. You're not going to completely close the divide between where the SEC and the Big Ten are and where the ACC is but if it brought you in I don't know. Ballparking it five million dollars a year. Well, that's five million dollars a year. The athletic department didn't have so you should know you should do the why they'd have to pay the players who wear the logos anything not to pay the players.
Well, I figured it out Adam. The reason they don't put patches on the jersey is because then the schools would have to pay the players last thing that the schools want to do is pay the players. That is a very true statement. What if we did this? What if we just slapped they do this anyway slap a logo on the field slap a corporate. I think they do this anyway, no matter what but you know put look I'm not necessarily endorsing the company here but Food Lion and not just like a little logo but like the whole field is a Food Lion like sign. Well, listen, if we're going to put the Food Lion logo on anything we're going to put it on the basketball for the ACC tournament because real ones know that that Food Lion basketball every single March it bounces a lot but it is something that you want to get your hands on because it is a commemorative item in a right of spring across the great state of North Carolina. Do you think you think ACC fans especially from down here are like in a way kind of put off by the fact that it's been the New York life ACC tournament because it's been like they're kind of beating their heads against the wall hating the fact that this conference has shifted further north, which I'm not I'm like not not knocking it. I'm not saying these people are crazy. I understand why they would feel that way and then it's the New York life like we're at we've had enough of New York.
I don't think so. Just because I don't I think it almost comes across like adults do and Charlie Brown like it's a whoa ACC tournament. You can put almost any you can put almost any company and I think that especially longtime ACC fans the thing that is jarring is the ACC logo in Yankee Stadium that is John's and I don't know what the crossover is of people who are watching the New York Yankees home games and ACC basketball fans, but the ACC logo in Yankee Stadium is incredibly jarring more. So to me a lifelong North Carolina resident then then necessarily the fact that New York life sponsors the ACC tournament look look I'm a Mets fan. I hate the Yankees. I think it's awesome that there's an ACC logo.
I think it's amazing that is there. All right real real quick. Mack Brown came on the show on Monday and I asked him about did he like the new format where we're going we get rid of divisions were stacking 1 through 14 and Mack came out and said nope don't like it told him I didn't like it. They didn't care. He likes the to be able to win a division was Mack just saying well, I'm not going to win the division anymore. We don't have a division to win. I'm not going to be in the championship game.
What was that about you think? Oh, it was I mean that is the argument that I've heard is that you want to be able to have trophies and you want to be able to make rings and you want to be able to have celebrations for your guys and and have something to say that you are a champion of and have that be something that you can sell on the recruiting trail. It can be a reason that you are able to, you know, build up a lot of confidence in what you got going on. I think that there's probably some credence to that from a coaching and a leadership standpoint that no one really gets behind the idea that it was like, yeah, we were a runner-up. When we were a coastal division champion, that's something that you can probably like sell to your own roster in terms of success on the season. That was you don't you don't feel as much of like a first loser as you might in the divisionless format, but that said the issues that the divisionless format resolved in terms of improving the quality of the ACC championship game in terms of improving the ACC's position in the final college football playoff rankings and creating a more equitable schedule all 1 through 14 in terms of how often everybody plays each other. Those issues to me are more important than what is going to be more of a leadership challenge for coaches who can't sell a division championship anymore because as Don Draper told Peggy Olson, that's what the money's for like you are being paid incredibly handsome salary to be a college football coach.
And yes, did it get a little harder to lead because you can't fire your team up over a division championship. Yes, but equitable schedules better positioning for the college football playoff and a better championship game. Those to me are more important and that's what I'm looking forward to with the new ACC football schedule me to divisions or hope trafficking there to me.
They're false. No offense to to the teams that win divisions. It's not about that. If you're one of the top two teams in the conference, you get to play in the conference championship game. And if both if those two teams happen to be in the same division, those two teams should be playing. I don't care if they play back-to-back weeks.
None of that matters to me having the best two teams play for it is what every League should strive for. Chip Patterson, you're the man. I appreciate your time and I'll talk to you next week. All right. Sounds good. You'll be well.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-03 14:28:53 / 2023-05-03 14:36:36 / 8
