An early college football kickoff, Thursday edition of the Roundtable!

Your long wait is over. The college football season is here. Two ACC games tonight. Wake and Elon will play, yay.

But on CBS Sports Net, not necessarily part of the ACC family of money-making networks, assuming that they make money, it'll be the Wolfpack and the Connecticut Huskies from stores. And it starts four Thursday, Friday, Sunday, five, it's math, five straight days of ACC football in prime time with some big time matchups. So let's play round table. Should we play round table? Camelot.

It's only a model. We've got Brett Friedlander, Saturday road ACC columnist and my friend, and Mark Ennis from ESPN Louisville. I appreciate both of you gentlemen doing this and consenting to it. We have three people on a TV screen. I don't know if it's the first time we've done this or not, but I'm amazed at technology all the time. Hey, thanks both of you. I do want to ask a specific question contained in this of Mark and the University of Louisville and where they are in terms of coming back, not just in football, but in basketball as well.

But I'm going to hold that for just a couple of seconds. But first, big picture, and I'll start with you on this, Mark. The league, because of what happened in North Carolina on Tuesday, has tabled a conversation furthering the addition, the pursuit possibly of Cal, Stanford, and maybe SMU. Where are you in terms of what the ACC should be doing or will be doing? Well, I don't know where anyone is on what they will be doing, but on what they should be doing. I guess I probably don't know what they should be doing either.

I just know it's not this. Just to be completely transparent with both of you, I've been fully on board with the ACC doing something, but this ain't it. Especially the SMU part, it's just odd to me how the parameters about who adds value or who doesn't suddenly don't apply.

When you have sort of the gates just open and you can add whoever the hell you want. You want to add SMU. It's very weird to me how this move is... I think I heard someone describe it as the ACC basically trying to pull off a Ponzi scheme. We're basically going to take from SMU, Cal, and Stanford and just funnel it to the rest of us until somebody leaves. I don't like the idea at all. So I hope that somebody gets talked out of it between now and whenever they vote. I think that's a good point. Good comparison.

Ponzi scheme, it does seem to fit in this case. Brett, you and I have not talked about this, but I know enough about you to know that you hate this and then I will blow both of your minds in a second. Brett, where are you on this? Well, it doesn't really matter where I am on this because it's going to happen and the reason it's going to happen is because SMU is going to come in and play for free and Cal and Stanford are going to basically come in and play for like 30% and they're going to give all the money to Clemson and Florida State to make them happy for seven years. But my take on this is if they're going to do it, then bring in Washington State and Oregon State also, and just have a Western division and this way you don't have to do anything in the other sports besides football and maybe men's basketball and just do it that way. Or if you're going to do it, maybe go after UConn and Memphis or something that makes a little bit more sense, you know? Okay, so I mean, Brett, you and I are probably a lot closer on this.

I would also throw San Diego State into the mix. At this point, it's all stupid. Can we all just agree that all of it is stupid? And I think the mistake that we make, and I talk about this a lot, the mistake that we make is treating these like college conferences because they stopped being that years ago. They're like banks. So I'm a bank and I have a big bank in North Carolina and there's a little bank in Texas that I buy and now I'm in Texas.

So I get to reap the benefits of having branches in Texas or in California. So to me, that's what this is about. This is not about, and it long since long time ago stopped being about college sports. And I think if you think about these things as college conferences, ultimately you lose because that's, I mean, honestly, why is Southern Cal and UCLA, why are they in the Big Ten? There's no reason for them to be in the Big Ten other than money. I mean, the Big Ten could have said, no, that's stupid because it's stupid, but they didn't because money.

So it ain't about anything other than money. And even if we're not going to get all the way to where the SEC and the Big Ten are, and I would submit that even adding Notre Dame wouldn't bridge the gap completely. Why are we, just add a little money because I do think that you're better off with more teams. Now, I think what you guys are talking about, like maybe these are not the right teams to add, but you know, academics and academics are, because I do believe, I've read this, that the tiebreaker for the college football playoff is going to be Quiz Bowl. So I think Cal and Stanford as part of the mix will certainly improve the ACC's chances of getting a second team. So we're bringing in ringers is what you're saying. Exactly.

You don't know, I mean, I don't know what SNB, but coming for free does matter. Plus, wouldn't it be great to have John Elway as an ACC legend? Eric Dickerson as an ACC legend? Wouldn't it be amazing? The other thing is the ACC can claim Stanford's Volleyball National Championship as their own and claim, hey, we won another title.

Galaxy brainbread Friedlander. All right. Mark Ennis, where is Louisville on the comeback trail? The only thing, when Louisville was added, football was a big deal. They have one of the wealthiest athletic departments or at least highest budget athletic departments.

I don't know if it's, what the right way to phrase it is. Basketball was at a pretty high level and obviously neither are great right now. Basketball might be a mess that we can't come back from or at least not. We don't have to talk about basketball if we don't want to.

Okay, that answered the question. Where are we in the football comeback, Mark? Oh, I think we are. This has been an agonizing off season for folks just dying for it to get here. It's really hard to express the folks outside this area, just how long and how hard people have wanted and waited for Jeff Brown to be the coach at Louisville. This is something that should have happened five years ago. It should have happened two years ago and it's finally done and I think having to wait all the way from the bowl game to now for Jeff Brown to finally be the head coach at Louisville, it's a dream a lot of people have had by including Jeff Brown.

Well, people are incredibly excited about this. All right, now how does it translate when we start when they start tomorrow night? Hey, Carolina Panthers fans, Chris Lee and Dennis Cox here. We're excited to offer you all the inside information on your team with the newest member of the Capital Broadcasting Podcast Network Panthers playbook twice a week. We'll keep you updated on your Carolina Panthers. We're talking about locker room insight, exclusive interviews, and of course, in-depth looks at all of the Panthers wins. Touchdown Carolina Panthers playbook.

Download and subscribe today at WRL sports fan.com or wherever you discover your favorite podcasts. I don't know. I think this is, uh, people are talking about, you know, uh, Colorado and their roster turnover and that sort of thing. Mobile had an enormous roster turnover, but not because of the same reasons. I think it's just Jeff's preferred style of play, very different from Scott's.

And I think that there was a Jeff looked at this, like I get to do the whole roster of makeover in one off season. And I think they expect to hit the ground running. And I think the biggest reason for that is the fact that they know they're walking into a schedule that creates opportunity for them. They don't have to really be a whole lot better than they were a year ago when they went eight five. If they're just marginally better than they were a year ago on a couple of things, they're going to win like nine, they're going to win like nine games and maybe make it to Charlotte because they don't play Florida State Clemson or North Carolina. They only have three they only have three real road games. They get Kentucky and Notre Dame at home. I mean, the opportunity to do something big without having to be dramatically better.

You can't waste it. I'm with you. The people don't think the schedule matters. The schedule absolutely matters.

I mean, I rail about it all the time. And one of the games we're not going to pick is Virginia at Tennessee. Cause I don't know why Virginia has agreed to play this game for the life of me.

I don't understand it. But Michigan's non-conference schedule is so bad. I say this, but I'm not poking at ECU. ECU is by far the best team that Michigan will play in their non-conference schedule by miles.

And Michigan's going to get away with it as long as they do well in the big 10, which also on the low, isn't all that great beyond Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. Um, Brett, how big a game for the league is North Carolina, South Carolina? It's a big one. It's not as huge as LSU, Florida State, but it is a big one because any chance, anytime you get a chance to beat an SEC team, it makes a statement. Even a middle of the road SEC team. And it also is one of those, uh, referendums on Drake May as well.

I mean, he's going to be in the national spotlight. And so it's, it's a big one. And for all the, you know, we deserve to, you know, to be in that same conversation with the big 10 and the SEC, here's your chance to prove it. Beat an SEC team. It's an enormous opening weekend and really the first few weeks for ACC football.

Very, very important. So, uh, isn't it funny with Matt Brown and North Carolina, I'm sorry to jump in, but isn't it funny how, you know, the Texas tenure, you have the Vince Young national championship and then the majority of the time there, people kind of give him a hard time for never getting quarterback, right. And then in North Carolina, he's basically primarily just gotten quarterback, right. And had issues elsewhere that he could sort of find some happy medium of those two tenures.

That'd be pretty damn good. If they had to talk about Jeff Brombery tooling that roster, uh, that defense is totally different. I mean, he's, he, he went out and cleaned house in the secondary. He went out and got Amari Gaynor from Florida state as a pass rusher. He's got good linebackers.

It's year two of gene Chiswick. I mean, there's no excuse for them to be the worst defense in the ACC again this year. And even if they're just like you said, marginally better with that offense, they got a shot to be back in Charlotte. They do my here's my problem with UNC and you guys will both understand this man. When the lights go on where they like scurry, they they're like rats, they leave and we have not seen them win that game. They even lost to Georgia tech at home last year.

I mean, it's just an inexcusable, inexcusable outcome. Um, so I'll be interested to see how they react, uh, slight favorites. And we're going to talk about that. We're going to pick the game in a minute, but slight favorites against South Carolina.

Just, just two and a half. And you know that the Gamecocks are looking at, look, they're ranked. We're not, we did more at the end of last season.

They didn't do anything, man. There's a, there's a built-in chip on the shoulders of the South Carolina Gamecocks. And I know Brett, I know you are, uh, you're a South Carolina Gamecock at heart. Uh, so how do you feel about your guys coming up on Saturday? I think the Tar Heels are going to win that game. I think Drake May is going to put up a huge number and I think they're going to be decent enough defensively, uh, to get it done.

It's going to be a, it's going to attract me. It's going to take 40 points to win it and it'll be fun. But I think the Tar Heels win this, even if, even if Tez Walker is not eligible. I just think that Chip Lindsey, uh, what he is bringing in offensively, uh, kind of incorporating the running game a little bit more, some of the improvements they've made upfront. I just, I just think Carolina, excuse me, North Carolina is the better team.

No, no, no, no, no. Carolina, don't, don't, don't play this just because you went there. Carolina versus South Carolina.

And you know, that's like, okay. How about this Carolina versus USC? No, they're not USC. They're not USC either. God, such a Gamecock.

Um, big picture. The, is this the year that the ACC that we're not getting to the SEC and the, it's hard to overcome, uh, the big 10 machine, but what is the, what is the best case scenario Mark for the ACC getting back to being respected as a league? The best case is to, is to hope that this is something close to what we had in 2016, where you had a national champion and then you had somebody else who had the Heisman winner and move out of the Heisman winner.

Clemson wins a national championship before the state goes to the orange bowl, wins the orange bowl. NC state was very good in 2016. Virginia tech was really good in 2016. I think that's what you've got to hope for is that Clemson and Florida state are as, as advertised Carolina is the best taste version of themselves. Louisville is the best case version of themselves. And then somebody else, Miami, what's going on, uh, some, somebody else, uh, Virginia tech, please start moving back towards what you were for, for a while there. Both Virginia schools.

I know, I know. And you, you joked about the Virginia Tennessee game. I don't know why they're playing that game.

And we, and we go to Charlotte every year and we could, we, we pat ourselves in the back for having this great non-conference schedule as a, as a league. And I don't know what it gets you. It doesn't get you anything but more losses. So schedule down until you're good enough for it to matter. Otherwise you're just absorbing losses.

You can win some of them. That's allowed. No, it is.

It is absolutely allowed. So like North Carolina, they have two non-conference games against FBS opponents, right? Right. Or maybe it's three off the top.

I don't even remember anymore. I think it, no, it's two. So those are good games. Those are winnable games. They're both loseable. They could lose to Minnesota at home and they could lose that South Carolina, but those are okay for North Carolina. Yeah.

Go ahead. Play those games for NC state. I love what they did with their schedule. Like, okay, Yukon's an FBS school.

That's fine. Notre Dame. We're done. We don't need another power five school on our non-conference schedule. That's the way you should do it because that's the way everybody does it in the SEC. We go one. You mentioned, you mentioned Notre Dame. I'm sorry. Just to jump in here. Something else the ACC could do to help stop losing to Notre Dame.

That would also be really helpful. It would be. And maybe this is one of those years where it, where it does, where they, cause we don't have to go back that far to where Duke went to Notre Dame and won, right? We don't have to go back. Absolutely.

It is a, it is very possible. The dark days of the Brian Kelly era at Notre Dame lost at Carter Finley stadium, which made hurricane a week too early. But it didn't even come here. We didn't have anything here. I mean, Brett, you know, you live here. We didn't have anything here. We had, we had everything.

All right. Before we get out of here, is there a surprise coming this weekend? We have Mark Ennis and we have Brett Friedlander.

Is there a surprise coming this weekend? Brett? I think, I think Duke can be Clemson. I think that if you're going to get Clemson, get them early before Clubnick and, and Garrett Riley get on the same page. Duke has got an offensive line that is physical enough to be able to at least keep that, you know, Clemson defense off of Riley Leonard. They've got a lot of offensive weapons around him. I think they can win this game.

If they can score enough points, they can win this game. And if that happens, that's the absolute worst case scenario for the ACC. Unless Duke goes undefeated, stop. I mean, keep winning Duke. Keep winning, Duke.

Mark, is there a surprise this weekend? I'm fearful that the best opportunity for there to be a surprise is going to be in Atlanta tomorrow. I think, you know, there's no guarantee that Louisville's going to beat Georgia Tech. They played well down the stretch. Louisville's, I mean, Jeff Bums went pretty tight. It's been a long time since Louisville played really well in the opener.

It was kind of the bane of Scott's existence. They didn't play well three years ago against Ole Miss in Atlanta in the opener, last year against Syracuse in the opener. It's, I think there's a quiet fear in a lot of people's minds about another kind of dud in the opener on a neutral field like this to start, but that seems like the best candidate. Duke being cleansed up, boy, that really would be rough for the league though. You're right. It would be bad for the league.

No question. Best case scenario for the league is that Duke actually puts a scare in to the Tigers. Tigers still win and then roll from there. Who is your matchup and your winner in Charlotte when we're all done here, Mark? Yeah, I think North Carolina's going to win too.

I think they're a lot better off. Okay, you think North Carolina, the ACC championship game. Yeah, North Carolina's going to beat South Carolina. Of course they are.

I think they are too. Yeah, at the end of the year. Yeah, I think Clemson will make it again and I think Louisville's going to take advantage of not having to beat anybody all that good to make it. Clemson over Louisville.

Brett, who you got? I got Clemson as well and part of me says that it's going to be Florida State, but there's just something about them and the hype that kind of leads me to believe that it's not going to be them and I think it's going to be the winner of the Pittsburgh North Carolina game in week four. Whoever wins that game I think goes to play Clemson and Charlotte and loses to the Tigers. Yeah, Mac Brown complained about the end of his schedule.

The beginning might be more of a problem for Mac Brown. That trip to Pittsburgh is going to be real. I appreciate both of you guys jumping on today. ACC football is here. Brett Friedlander at Beef Read ACC, Saturday Road ACC columnist and Mark Ennis from ESPN in Louisville 9939 the Ville. I don't know how to say it, but I know Mark and Mark's great at Mark Ennis on Twitter. Thanks, gentlemen.

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