College Realignment: It may not be damaging the sport, but it surely isn’t helping the students!

I believe that was Greg McElroy who was on SportsCenter and why would Notre Dame join the ACC? Like any of these moves being made, which on the surface really don't make any sense, fear, survival. I mean there's really no reason for the ACC to add Cal or Stanford or SMU, right? We admit that. Just like there was no reason for the Big Ten to add Southern Cal and UCLA.

I mean everybody's just looking out for survival because we need stacks on stacks on stacks of money to survive. I'll point this out and I want to get to something positive about this because there is a lot of negativity and I am leading the charge of the negativity because I think all of this is bad ultimately for, not for the product. I keep stressing this to people, college football ain't going anywhere. It's just going to get stronger and bigger and more important and drive more revenue.

It's just going to be its own thing. It's the second most popular sport in the United States, college football. More than baseball, pro baseball, pro basketball, pro hockey, golf, tennis, pickleball, all of that.

College football. And I'm not knocking it. It's a great game, great game is tremendous drama, incredible environments. We've got great environments here, right?

But as they chase the dollar, it's just getting too big for everything. Anyway, it's about fear. So Pete Thamel of ESPN and for, he had some comments I want to play, and he doesn't believe that you're going to see ACC schools leave.

Here's Thamel. As of right now with that deadline a week away, Christine, the sentiment coming out of the ACC is that there is not an expectation that Florida State or any of the other aggrieved schools like Clemson, like Miami, North Carolina are going to test that deadline next week to leave before the 2024 season. And that is a long complex conversation that can be distilled to two quick things. One, Florida State has nowhere to go, nor does anyone else have anywhere to go. And two, there's $120 million exit fees and a legal unwinding of the grant of rights. So there's no certain path forward, just like there really hasn't been the last two years this has been explored. But everyone around the ACC is still holding their breath August 15th to see if they could push through. So then they at least know there'll be two seasons as the ACC is currently constructed moving forward. So one of the things that Pete Thamel referred to in there that we've talked about before, they don't have anywhere to go, meaning Florida State.

And that is true. Greg Sankey today said there's nobody out there that would essentially benefit us. In other words, Florida State is of no benefit. I question whether or not Clemson would be. But Florida State is of no benefit to the Southeastern Conference. Florida State is of no interest to the Big Ten. So where is Florida State going?

That's my question. Where is Florida State going? Unless the ACC dissolves as a league, and I guess it could, the Pac-12 certainly did, unless the ACC dissolves as a league, there's no place for anybody to go. So ultimately, the ACC is fine, at least for the next seven, eight years, until we get closer to the end of this television agreement, which doesn't end until 2036.

In which case, the penalty, the financial penalty for leaving will likely not be as harsh. But right now, if you leave, it's going to cost you, I think, minimum a half billion dollars. Where are you getting that?

Where are you getting that? No school's got a half billion dollars. So, and to me, that's really the, you'd only leave if you were leaving for one of the two money makers, the Big Ten or the SEC.

So if you're not leaving for that, just stay where you are. Ultimately, Florida State will make, I think the ACC will top out around 50 million. I don't think Florida State, rather Stanford, Cal and SMU are gonna throw in that much more money. So I still think optimistically about the future of this league, but it is kind of sad what happened to the Pac-12. Now, we could talk about leadership all you want, but the Pac-12 is as draped in college sports history, even though at one point it was the Pac-8, as any of the other major conferences. The Pac-12 is as heritage as the Big Ten, the ACC and the SEC, arguably more so. And it is simply a sad day that that league is dead. Dead!

It's amazing to me. Greg Sankey, we'll play his comments later, but he expressed sadness. Just miss me with your sadness, because the corporate rating is what caused this. The SEC, for no good reason. They didn't seek out Texas and Oklahoma, but they also didn't say, you know what, it wouldn't be that much better for us and it really would be damaging for the sport, for the institution as a whole. So we're going to say no.

We're going to pass. It's not like anybody can get in. The SEC could have said no. The Big Ten could have said no to USC and UCLA, but nobody cares.

They don't. So miss me with your sad song about how sad it is to see the Pac-12 go away. The Big Ten didn't have to add Oregon and Washington, but we already added Southern Cal and UCLA, might as well. The whole thing's gross. But once the games start, hey look, I've got my Phil Steele college football yearbook like everybody else. I'm excited for games. I'm excited for all of it. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about all the games, because the games are fun. But everything else about it, everything else about it is tiring.

It's just exhausting. So that's ACC, well that's NCAA football in a nutshell. Here's my question though. So North Carolina had a wide receiver transfer from Kent State, Tez Walker. And by all accounts, people thought that he would be an all-conference player going into the season. I don't think I'd put him on the first team, because he's coming from Kent State. I voted for three other players. Regardless, it doesn't matter.

What do I know? But he had his waiver denied by the NCAA. Why? Why did, why was his waiver denied? He's a Charlotte kid who initially committed to East Tennessee State, I believe had a knee injury, missed his entire first season, and then transferred to NC Central. Central, in the COVID year, canceled sports. Doesn't play. Transfers to Kent State.

Plays two years at Kent State, is excellent. Now transfers to now transfers to North Carolina. According to the NCAA, you get one free transfer.

The second one, you basically have to buy. You have to prove that there is some hardship that you need to be closer to home. Remember, he's a Charlotte kid.

He claims to have, and I'm not, I can't confirm nor deny that he has a grandmother who raised him who is in ill health. Well, whatever the argument was, didn't move the NCAA at all. Which is unfortunate for the player. It's unfortunate for North Carolina. And it occurred to me that had we simply stopped calling these transfers, if we simply called this player realignment, the NCAA wouldn't have anything to say about it. Because the NCAA, I understand they don't have power, but what would stop Charlie Baker from coming out and saying, what all of you people are doing is awful. But nope, we're on Capitol Hill lobbying for guardrails so players are limited in what they can earn. Trying to get an antitrust exemption, trying to get Congress to basically deem that players can never be employees. That's all the stuff that we're worried about. Players being closer to their families, nope, can't have that. Can't have that. What a joke.

No leadership, zero leadership at the NCAA level. Why am I on a warpath today? It's okay, you're coming in hot today. It is hot outside, so it makes sense.

Why am I... I'm sorry. Well, you're just making up for lost time, too.

All of this stuff was definitely percolating. By the way, I didn't know if I said this before, you can't bet on the Literally World Series. Oh, you can't? No, you can't. Yeah, you can't. Which to me, there's still hope for humanity, as long as... I mean, I'm kind of ticked off that it's...

I get... I used to watch the Little League World Series, the championship game, all the time as a kid, when there was one game on TV. So it's the USA versus Taiwan. That was it. Every year. North and South Dakota or whatever. Every year. Now we've got regional semi-finals on.