8-5 for the ACC vs the Big Ten

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Getting it right is. Listen to the podcast Supreme the Battle for Roe on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I discovered a great new show last weekend where I watched ACC live on the ACC network where Andrea Adelson and our friend David Hale, well they're both our friends, I know both, were like, I mean laying it down. I loved the show and I love the vibe of the show.

Andrea Adelson is joining us here to talk a little ACC football. First of all, thank you very much for for doing this. I do. I dig the show. I think you guys are naturals. Thank you. I appreciate that. The check is in the mail.

But really, I thought a fun snappy show. I saw a report that SMU raised a hundred million dollars in seven days to help finance their, you know, entrance into the ACC because they're not going to take any media money for the first nine years. By contract, don't they have to give half of that to Florida State? Well, hey, don't forget this is in addition to the 200 million dollars their boosters have already pledged to help them cover the difference for not taking any television money. So I'm sure at some point Florida State is going to come after it because ratings and marketability. But you know, in all seriousness, I know SMU is very thrilled to publicize as much as they can about how rich they are and about how much this money is going to help them in the ACC. We'll see though. I'm all, that's fine.

You know, celebrate what you can celebrate, right? We want, I'd love to see SMU be a good partner for the league and help raise the profile of the league and get us into new markets. All of that would be great.

The whole thing does feel Ponzi-schemish, but that's another story altogether. Andrea Adelson of ESPN is joining us here. All right, let me start with a couple of locals quickly. North Carolina, I mean, it wasn't Drake May's best. There were a lot of good things, but the two interceptions were kind of, really? But North Carolina's 3-0. They've played, I think, a very challenging opening schedule for them. And now they're going to Pitt, who has looked, I can't even explain how badly Pitt has looked through three weeks of the season. North Carolina has a chance to really get some, to start stacking wins as we get deeper into the season.

Yeah, they really do. And, you know, it's not a good thing if your opponent talks about how bad your quarterback is. That's exactly what happened with Pitt the other night, losing to West Virginia and then West Virginia basically making fun of Phil Dracovic, not good for Pitt.

And they put out their depth chart today and full Dracovic remains a top, the quarterback room. But of course, as you know, Pitt has not traditionally been an easy place to play and win. And it's a night game on ACC network. Crazy things tend to happen between Pitt and North Carolina. I don't know why, but things where you expect one thing to happen doesn't always happen. So even though Pitt has looked really bad, I'm not quite ready to just, you know, guarantee an automatic W for North Carolina in this game.

Although it appears that that is probably what should happen. But you're right. Yeah, this has been a good start to the season. Two power five non-conference wins is always good, especially one against the SEC while they continue to try and get the chemistry on offense. New coordinator, we all know that obviously the offensive line, I think has had some ups and downs and not having Tez Walker or Nate McCollum really for the first two games.

We just got our first glimpse at Nate McCollum. So I still think that offense is a work in progress right now considering the changes that they made in the off season. But you look at this pit matchup and then I believe after they've got Syracuse, which has looked good too, and then they get Miami. So more challenging, I think, as the schedule goes, but considering that the defense has looked improved, that's what we needed to see out of North Carolina to start the year. I think things are trending in the right direction for this team.

Andrea Adelson from ESPN is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Yes, UNC, Pitt, or anybody at Pitt has always been a roll of the dice, but Pitt's going to have to run the ball effectively at Carolina. Minnesota did. App State did. On the low, I'm not sure that Carolina's win over Appalachian State wasn't the best win that they've got.

I think App is exceptional. Before I get to the other local who is off to a very good start, give me the significance of eight and five combined versus the SEC and the Big 10. Well, I think if you take out Virginia and Virginia Tech, which I guess you can't really do that if you're the ACC, but the four Power Five games those teams have lost, I don't think anybody expected them to win.

So it looks a little bit better when you remove them from the equation. It's obviously significant. I was actually just having a conversation with my editor about this you know, the ACC took so many lumps throughout this offseason and has taken lumps over the last couple of football seasons because they haven't really been able to win these marquee non-conference games and then all of this realignment stuff happens and people think this league is on the verge of falling apart. So to change that narrative through the first three weeks to have good wins against the SEC, whether it's Florida State and against LSU or Miami against A&M, we all know the ACC needs those two teams in particular to be really good.

And so far, they're both undefeated. I know it's early, but that's big for the ACC. As I just mentioned, Carolina having two of those against the Big 10 and the SEC.

That's important when you've got Drake May coming back and that's a player that you know needs to be somebody to have a good season for the for the ACC. You know, this is all of course happening where Clemson appears to not be so great. I think the best case scenario is if Clemson was also really good with these other teams that are undefeated, but in terms of what that non-conference record looks like, I mean how much have we harped on the ACC's behind? It's going to be 30 million dollars per year, SEC and Big 10. Well, they're beating SEC and Big 10 teams so far in this non-conference schedule and I just think that's huge from a narrative and perception standpoint for the ACC.

Yeah, we'll see how long it takes for it to take. So, because it has been a good start and Clemson's loss, we would not be complaining had Clemson won that game over Duke. I think that Duke looks the part of a very good top 20 football team in the country. I mean, in retrospect, we may be looking back and say, you know what, Duke's just good because that's what they look like. They look like a good football team to me.

They look really good. I had them in my top 15 this week in our ESPN power rankings on my ballot that I had to submit. In my power overall ACC power rankings, I had them ahead of Florida State because they looked better than Florida State. I know who the opponent was, but shoot, Boston College and Northwestern pretty much are the same if we're talking about how those teams have played right at the beginning part of the season. So for Duke to be able to do what they did this past week, Florida State maybe not so much, but also what they did to Clemson in the fashion in which they did it. I believe this is a team that maybe people still are underrating. I think, you know, I saw Bill Connolly, our terrific stat guru for us who does this S and P and all sorts of great things well above my head.

Cause I can't like add two and two together. But you know, he ranked the undefeated teams that are remaining and Duke was fairly low compared to where I thought they should be. And again, I don't know if it's because it's hard to get used to saying Duke is a top 15 team or because they just beat, you know, an FCS and a really bad Northwestern team. And so all they have to hang their head on is Clemson. But right now all Florida State has to hang their head on is LSU. So, you know, you could make an argument that Duke has looked at the part better than anybody in the ACC right now in terms of the way they've handled their business and handled their opponents.

So, you know, it's going to be a tough road test. I know UConn lost their starting quarterback, but this is a better team. We saw that against NC State a few weeks ago and then potentially undefeated Notre Dame coming into town with undefeated Duke college game day before the season started.

I know we asked Riley Leonard in that show, give us your pitch for college game day. I saw that. So it could happen. I was surprised he answered it. I really was surprised he answered it because everybody's conditioned to not look, you know, you know, further ahead than tomorrow.

So I was really surprised that he that he answered it. Andrea Adelson, I know we have about 60 seconds left here. So let me just ask you this. We have been looking for the football brands to become football powers in this league for a while. It's been 15 years, right? Miami is off to a great start. There's no better brand in the ACC for football than Miami.

Again, the significance of that in your mind. Wait, are you gaming on a Chromebook? Yeah, it's got a high-res 120 Hertz display, plus this killer RGB keyboard. And I can access thousands of games anytime, anywhere. Stop playing. What? Get out of here. Huh?

Yeah. I want you to stop playing and get out of here so I can game on that Chromebook. Got it.

Discover the ultimate cloud gaming machine, a new kind of Chromebook. Offer valid for eligible subscribers only. Terms apply. Florida State would argue about brands in the ACC, but that's a different conversation. Obviously, because last year was a disaster for Miami, right? I mean, there was all this optimism and hope with native son, Mario Cristobal coming back and they were what pre-season choice to play in the ACC championship game. And then to go five and seven with losses to middle Tennessee and some of the other teams that they lost to not good. And a lot of questions about Miami going into this off-season, but I visited with Mario Cristobal multiple times and he was super optimistic because they were able to turn over the roster, turn over the coaching staff and bring in guys and coaches that they believe could play to their strengths.

And at least so far, again, it's early. It appears that Miami is buying in the players are working hard. They're believing Tyler Van Dyke looks like the Tyler Van Dyke of 2021. And again, we talk about what Miami could be. They're at Temple. They've got Georgia Tech. They could be undefeated going into play at Carolina in a few weeks and Carolina could be undefeated in that game too.

So that's one to keep an eye on. And it would be absolutely huge for the ACC if Miami and if Florida State continue on this upward trajectory that we've seen to start the year. We won't talk about Stanford's home loss to Sacramento State. Andrea Adelson, we'll just go back and talk more about the $100 million raised by SMU. Andrea Adelson from ESPN. I appreciate your time.

ACC Live, check it out on ACC Network. It's great. I appreciate it. And we'll talk again. All right. Thanks, Adam.

Thanks for having me again. Thank you very much. Andrea Adelson from ESPN. From iHeart Podcast, Supreme the Battle for Roe tells the story of the unlikely champions behind the landmark case Roe v. Wade, starring Maya Hawk as 26-year-old lead attorney Sarah Weddington. We're challenging the Texas abortion laws in federal court. And Academy Award nominee William H. Macy as Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. Time is not the most important factor.

Getting it right is. Listen to the podcast, Supreme the Battle for Roe on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.