How did this guest come out HOT, throwing LIV shade early?!

Brett Friedlander is going to join us now. Saturday Road ACC columnist, he joins us.

Appreciate your time, sir. I can't even see, if you're watching the video stream, I can't even see your Hawaiian shirt. I'll see it a week from today. All right, let's talk about what I've just kind of led into here, and then I want to ask you about some actual football matters. I'm sure you saw what Greg Sankey had to say yesterday. I'm anticipating similar things from Jim Phillips because he has said it before, so your thoughts on needing the federal government to bail out the colleges and the conferences?

Well, first of all, I'm saving the Hawaiian shirts for Charlotte. I'm wearing something a little more conservative today, but yes, I do expect him to pretty much echo the company line because they coordinate, but I just think it's a matter of nobody wants to deal with this. Everybody wants somebody else to deal with it, and Congress right now has got a lot of other things to deal with than NIL and college sports. Nothing's going to get done until the NCAA or the conferences or somebody decides to have the backbone to stand up and say, let's do something, because right now it just kind of seems like everybody wants to pass the buck. Tell me that this wouldn't work, because I talked about this about an hour ago.

Tell me that this particular line of thinking would not work. The NCAA simply eliminates it being a violation to have something financial be part of the recruiting process, which is what used to be against the rules. Now they've sort of made it legal, except, well, they don't want the NIL to be part of the recruiting inducement, but it's always been part of the recruiting inducement. It just wasn't legal then. If we just got rid of that rule that it's a violation, then we're good, right?

Perfect. And you look at Tennessee and all the things that they did, and no postseason ban. I mean, so basically the infractions committee is a joke anyway, so just get rid of it. You're right.

I agree 100%. But the thing about it is though, if you're going to do that though, you have to have some kind of a uniform set of rules that govern this, because right now different states, different conferences, different schools have got different rules. And so nobody's playing on a level playing field. So if you're going to do that, say, okay, this is it. This is how it is for everybody. So what if we had no rules?

That's perfect. Because then you're playing on a level playing field. That's my point. We don't need any rules. We don't need any laws. I don't need another dog and pony show on Capitol Hill. We seem to have one once a month. We had one regarding the PGA Tour and Live last week. We don't need that. We didn't need college sports being part of, which actually was dragged into this PGA Tour thing last week because of the, I mean, wonderful ramp all was one of the dumbest things that ever hurt. But the, we don't, we don't need any of that. The only, as I said before, the only reason we needed a law was to shake the NCAA out of an era that no longer exists.

All right. The whole, the whole premise too, that it's going to be the wild, wild West. It already is. I mean, LSU, look at what they did to get the national championship in baseball. Look at the SEC and football.

I mean, it already is going on. So you might as well, like you said, just get rid of it all and let it be the wild West. I mean, it is look, there's a larger issue about revenue sharing that I don't think we're that far away from having in college athletics with all the money that is created just from television. And the players are the product. I think we're at some point, we're going to see the players get a share of that revenue and maybe the players will organize in some sort, maybe not in an outright union, but in some sort of an association similar to what the PGA tour players are with the, with the, I guess the governing body of their sport, their league. And Adam, that more than anything is why the big 10 and the SEC are so intent on building such a war chest and why it's a big deal that the ACC is lagging behind because when these players do start getting money from the schools, whoever has the most will be able to bring in the most, the best players. You're right. You'll be able, your share, the share, the player's share of the revenue will be higher in those leagues than it would be in the ACC.

Here's my fix before I ask you about a football matter, Brett, live ACC football. So the public investment fund that is spending oodles of money and losing money in every other spot they invest, there was actually a great article in, I'm trying to think where it was. I think it was The Intercept about how every investment, including in industry that the public investment fund makes is a money loser. They have lost $11 billion investing in companies like Google, like Microsoft, like Apple. They have lost money. They don't care. It's not, they have $700 billion.

It doesn't matter to them if they have lost money. So live ACC football, put it down. I'm on board with that. We'll, we'll deal with the, the human rights violations. I'm being facetious people. I hope people understand. There's something to that though. I mean, you know what? You go get the money.

The money has to come from somewhere. Right. I mean, look, people would be really upset if they were very anti.

If you, if you were anti live golf because of the investment from the Saudi Arabian Royal family, you would be really annoyed if you found out just how many aspects of your day to day life are touched by Saudi investment. All right, let me get to some football matters. I'm going to make a crazy statement to you. Drake may, may be the best quarterback in the ACC. I'm not going to argue that.

I say Riley Leonard is the second best quarterback in the league. Is that crazy? Uh, I have no argument with that. Oh man.

I thought we were going to fight. No, I mean, look what he did last year and look what, what's surrounding him too. Everybody's back. So, uh, you know, there, listen, Jordan Travis is going to be, uh, you know, a great quarterback this year. He's, he's in a position and with a team that he's going to get a lot of, uh, you know, attention and, and, and he's going to have a good year. But Riley Leonard, I, I, is as good as anybody.

And my, my, my boss at Saturday road asked me this question, uh, just yesterday about a potential column. He asked me, when was the last time two triangle quarterbacks were taken in the first round of the NFL draft? And I couldn't remember, and it may never have happened and it could possibly happen next year if Riley Leonard does what he did last year and then improves on it. Yeah, look, I've never, I haven't looked at Riley. I know he's a big kid. Um, he's a great runner. Uh, he's, he certainly had a very good year throwing the football. I have not thought about Riley Leonard as a potential first round pick, but then again, he's a quarterback. So if you're even borderline competent and you're a quarterback, heck, he can go in the top eight. So that's the way the NFL, uh, NFL works. Is it crazy? Look, I know everybody wants Florida state to be back, really back, not Miami back, but Florida like legitimately will compete for the championship.

Is it a year too soon? We'll find out very quickly. Uh, first of all, the ACC needs Florida state to be back. I mean, Florida state back. Uh, but they play LSU in Orlando on Labor Day Sunday, and they play Clemson at Death Valley in week four.

We will know by then whether they are actually back or they're not. Right. Um, I think they have every opportunity to be, because in addition to having, you know, Trey Benson and Travis, uh, you know, Jordan and Johnny Wilson and all those guys back on offense and Jared verse back on, on, on defense, they've brought in the number one transfer class in the country this season. I mean, they've got Fentrell Cyprus from Virginia and they've got all kinds of, you know, talented, they brought in, uh, Michigan state's best, uh, receiver from last year.

I believe his name is Keon Campbell, maybe. Okay. Um, so listen, they're positioned to do it, but, you know, saying that they're positioned to do it and actually going out and doing it are two different things. And, uh, you know, like I said, those first five weeks, those first four weeks are going to tell the tale. The hardest thing to do. I think in when we get to, when we're talking about major, whether it's college or professional sports is when you are expected to be great, the hardest thing to do is to do that. It's easier when you are like, we're kind of under the radar, Florida state was under the radar last year. They are in the spotlight there. They are right in the cross hairs this year.

So yeah. The other thing about Florida state last year is look who they beat in those last five games of the season. The teams that were the best teams on their schedule, they lost too.

Okay. I look, I'm not, and we go back to the beginning of the season, that Florida state LSU game, that was a poop show that that whole, the way that game played out before they probably should have lost the game. It was, it was no good. And neither team was really expected to be great. Both teams got better as the year went on.

They could have easily for the same price have lost that game. Matt Brown, and we'll close on this, Britt Friedlander, and I'll see you in a week in Charlotte. It'll be a race to see you ask Jim Phillips about what happened at Northwestern. I hope somebody else does, cause I don't want to be the one, but I will be. Come on, come on. I'm hoping Jillio or somebody like that beats me too. No, no, I'm ready.

I got my hand up. I can, I can, I can do it in a nice way. See, the thing about it is I don't think Amy's going to, uh, uh, pick, uh, she's going to come across her. Cause she knows what's coming.

She's going to David Teal is going to have the first question anyway. Um, all right. So let me, let me ask you about, um, this idea. We have to raise revenue, right? When the ACC needs revenue, what about, I mean, widespread ads on uniforms. And I'm not talking about a patch. I'm talking about front of the uniform.

Chevy. What's wrong with that? They do it in the NBA. They do it in the, uh, baseball now, but they're, they will eventually do it. I mean, they do it in soccer.

Yeah, man. Do you think, do you think Charlotte FC's big fans of Ally, the bank? Hey, they don't care. They're taking the money. I'm an old get off my lawn kind of guy, but, uh, but here's the thing. If you're the ACC and you have to stay viable, you do anything and everything that you possibly can to, uh, to, to, to raise capital.

And if that, that's what it takes, then that's what it takes. Live ACC, Brett Friedlander, Friedlander. What did I just say? Brett Friedlander, Saturday road, ACC columnist, be free to ACC on Twitter. Uh, I'll see you in however many hours there are between now and next Tuesday.

Sounds good. Always, always a pleasure, Adam. Thanks, man. Uh, that's Brett Friedlander here on the Adam Gold show.