Gary Stokan, Peach Bowl CEO & President, and Garth Knutson, Cheif Marketing Officer at Aflac

Welcome back to ACC Football Kickoff.

We are in Charlotte at the Weston Hotel, and we have two guests here. Gary Stokin, you know. We'll talk to him about football in a second. And Garth Knudsen is the Chief Marketing Officer of Aflac. I think maybe you could hear it. That was the Aflac Duck. It said Aflac, but very low. Are Deion Sanders and Nick Saban anywhere around here? They are not here today, but I can confirm they will be back with another Aflac campaign. What about the marching band?

The marching band is not back this year. But the Aflac Duck will certainly be there with those two. He's everywhere.

Literally, he's in this room. Before I talk football with Gary, and I'm not saying that you don't know football. I don't know football like Gary knows football.

Nobody does. But I know about the expenses health insurance doesn't cover, and that Aflac can help with that. Why did Aflac want to get involved? You guys have been present in sponsorship of college football probably for 15 years, it seems.

At least. Probably closer to two decades with the Aflac trivia. Of course, everybody knows the Aflac Duck.

I always get those trivia questions. We know that Americans love college football. What's more American than college football? Our target audience also indexes high as college football fans. That's strategically why we're in the game. The kickoff game now, the Aflac kickoff game is the biggest way to kick off the season this year.

That's when our new campaign will launch. It goes deeper than that. The Peach Bowl Inc. is the most charitable bowl organization in college football.

It's the best bowl. They have a $20 million commitment to the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorder Center, founded by Aflac. I thought you were personally taking credit for it for a second.

He pointed to himself. That would be our chairman, Dan Amos, and his wife, Kathleen. We, over the years, have now given 168 million, so two like-minded organizations with a commitment to helping and supporting families dealing with cancer.

It just makes a lot of sense. I'm going to come back to you in a second. Let's talk about the game. It's an ACC game. It's Georgia Tech. I like the duck.

These ducks, which would last two seconds in my house with two dogs, because they like ducks. Talk to me about, this is a conference game. It's a great way to start the season. Friday night, Unopposed TV on Friday night, prime time number one. Conference game number two.

Two new coaches. Be a sold-out atmosphere. To have a new partner like Aflac kickoff game is a great way to start the season.

We're very blessed. As Garth mentioned, we kicked off college football last year at the New York Stock Exchange, starting a new tradition, ringing the bell. We're going to do the same this year in Mercedes-Benz Stadium virtually. Ring the opening bell. I met Virgil Miller, the president of US for Aflac last year.

As Michael Jordan has said, you only miss the shots you don't take. I took a shot with Virgil and said, hey, you've given $160 million to start the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorder Center in Atlanta Children's Healthcare. We've given $20 million. We're the number one most charitable organization in the country. We now have 12 trials with 37 kids in them at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorder Center, from neuroblastoma to leukemia. We're trying to find cures that will one day eradicate childhood cancer.

That's our mission. To be a part of this with kickoff for a cause is just a wonderful way to start the season. Garth Knudsen, who is the chief marketing officer of Aflac, and Gary Stokken from the Peach Bowl, Peach Bowl Inc. Can I mention Chick-fil-A? Chick-fil-A, Peach Bowl? Sure, Chick-fil-A, Peach Bowl.

Chicken sandwiches everywhere. So, can we expect more trivia? Can we expect events surrounding Aflac as we get closer to this game the Friday of Labor Day weekend?

Absolutely. We will have in-game trivia. We'll have, like I said, our new TV campaign debuting that evening. We'll have events at the Fan Fest outside for those who are there in person. But really, we see this as a national event, even though it does take place in our backyard. The biggest games of the year happen here.

Just such a great way to get out the message of our commitment to cancer with the Cancer and Blood Disorder Center and our cancer products, which we've been offering since the 50s. Any new stars in these commercials that you can hint? We'll just have to wait. ESPN, September 1st, 730 p.m. Eastern. What a tease, huh?

That was fantastic. All right, we heard a lot of stuff about expanded college football playoff, Gary. And you and I have talked about the bowl system now as it fits into the college football ecosystem for a long time. So, where are you in this? We're still a year away from an expanded college football playoff and how the Peach Bowl fits into that and what it means for the entire bowl system.

Well, Adam, you know. So we'll start the season in the Aflac kickoff game with Georgia versus Clemson. Two top 10 teams to start the season. Then we'll host the first quarterfinal game of the CFB playoff. And then at the end of the year, we'll host the national championship game. So are you confident that Clemson and Georgia are going to be top 10 teams? Almost definitely.

Of course they are. And then in 25, we'll host in the Aflac kickoff game. I get a royalty every time I do that. Do you have to personally pay him for that? Yeah.

So I'm up to about a dollar now. So, you know, with having two games in 2025 with Virginia Tech versus South Carolina and Tennessee versus Syracuse, then we'll end the season with the semifinal. This year we had the semifinal 24 and a half million viewers in the top 20 all time of cable TV broadcasts in the history of TV. So these games, these kickoff games, our bowl games have been viewed by tremendous amounts of people. The two games last year, Clemson against Georgia Tech and Georgia against Oregon, were in the top 20 broadcasts through week 10 of college football. The beginning of college football, people are starved to watch TV.

They're starved to go see it. And we've been the benefactor by having these great Aflac kickoff games. Do you have a pick for the game? He just wants triple overtime. I would like a triple overtime. That's exactly right.

Why do you want millions and millions of viewers? I thought maybe like the Ducks come out and they run the two point conversion plan. I like that. Well, we will have an app. We used to have what the Bud Bowl, right? Well, the beer bottles come out on cows to ducks from Chipotle to now go with primetime and Nick Saban is very and who knows who will have an Aflac. Of course, that call during the game, of course, you will be given. I want you to do it.

I want you to do the tens of thousands of other things about Nicole. I'm in the commissioner talked about Gary Stokin from the Peach Bowl and Garth Knutson from Aflac, the chief marketing officer. What did you what did you make of some of the commissioners comments about what the state of college football is in with the portal and NIL and Gar?

Look, I'm a I'm a progressive. I mean, to the nth degree in college football, right? I think as much as we try to stay married to the past, it's separate from the reality of the future.

So what are your thoughts about where we're going and what it's going to look like when we get there? Well, that's a great way to put it. I mean, I don't think there's been a time since Teddy Roosevelt started the NCAA in the 30s that college sports, let alone college football, has been in a more interesting time. We have to get this right. We're the second most favorite sport in this country behind the NFL.

And so to get the NIL, I know I've talked to Tommy Tommy Tuberville a lot. He and Joe Manchin are trying to do a bipartisan bill. That's another one. We have we already have two of them federal legislation. I think we'll get something done and I'll to keep it from being pay for play. I think we've got to go back to why we're in the intercollegiate athletics to give a kid a scholarship.

Number one is great to get him a degree is what we should be about. And all these collectives and these donor monies that are going now to pay 17 and 18 year olds pay for play to come to school. They should be there for the 98 percent of the kids that aren't going to play pro football to give them a job afterwards.

That's where we've got to get to back to intercollegiate athletics, getting a kid degree and then getting them a job afterwards. My counter to that is, but that isn't the reality that pay for play, whether legal or not, has been there since we've had recruiting. And that's why the NIL is important. If we can get the NIL regulated with guardrails throughout federal legislation. So every state doesn't have different rules. We can we can get pay for play out of the picture.

What about no rule? Then all of a sudden the collectives now can focus on being a part of that answer after kids get their degree to give kids jobs afterwards. Well, not to belabor this and I don't want to monopolize your whole day, but the sport is professional sports. Unfortunately, college football with it has become a billion dollar industry. It's professional sports and they're treating it.

The administrators are treating it like professional sports. I mean, to me, it's kind of foolish to think that the product, which is the players, wouldn't also be like I think we're headed towards unionization. I mean, I don't there I think players will be declared employees. I don't think so.

I don't think we get there. I think, well, the courts are going to decide that. I think we I think the kids should get NIL money.

They should be able to monetize their name, image and likeness. I think right now the kids are getting Alston money. They're getting Pell Grant money, right? They're getting cost of scholarship money.

I mean, kids on average are probably with some money, probably about forty thousand dollars a year. That's not bad right now. Well, for most of the kids, that's good. Right.

Right now. But not for the kids. Not for the kids. The guys.

Yeah, they're good. They should get NIL money relative to their ability to monetize their name, image and likeness. I think everybody agrees on that. I don't think we want to move to unionization or employees because then you're dealing with contracts. Then you're dealing with firing kids.

Then you're dealing with all kind of unionization problems that you deal with. I think we need to stay with intercollegiate model, but get NIL regulated, get the transfer portal handled, get the signing date handled if we get those three things done. Now we've got a better sport. And I think that's what everybody wants in the end.

That's Gary Stokken from the Peach Bowl. You and I could not be on more opposite sides of this issue. We'll talk about it more. Now, you can you can go back to the boardroom at Aflac with the Ducks. Still can't make it audible for people. And you could have that conversation in the boardroom. Like you should have seen Gold and Stokken go at it over.

And we were pretty tame over how to compensate athletes. I appreciate your time. And congratulations for the association. Now, do you have a trivia question for me? You don't have a trivia question.

I get it. I got a Pac-12 trivia question. Give me a Pac-12 trivia question. Who won the 2002 Apple Cup? The 2002 Apple Cup was won by Washington State.

Wrong. I was at 50-50 try. At least I got the two teams. I knew it. At least he knew it was in the Apple Cup. He plays me. He surprised me with that. I'll tell Coach Neuheisel who's around here somewhere. Oh, is he? Is he here? I think he's here. Oh, we got to talk to him. Does he have his guitar?

I don't know. Oh, he has his guitar. He can come play a song and we could play his guitar.

Two years ago at our Beach Bowl Challenge golf tournament. He's a good guitarist. He and Dave Doran. Dave Doran is a very good guitarist. Got to talk to Dave.

That's right. I do know that about him. So is Gary Patterson. Look at everybody's playing. Now I want to play the guitar. Do you play the guitar?

I don't play the guitar. Gary Stockin and Garth Knudsen from Apple. Where has this gone? I don't know.

It's going to a commercial break. We'll be right back here at ACC Football Kickoff. Thanks Adam. We are volunteers, partners, communities working together, living together. Bringing our experience, passion and joy to building a better world together. From tackling climate change in Mexico to keeping kids healthy in Kenya.

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