The ACC Plays On

It is a Tuesday drive, and in the last two hours, Big Ten presidents officially voted to postpone the college football season to the spring, the Pac-12 has followed suit, and even went a step further, canceling non-conference men's basketball games until January. But here in the South, it seems like the ACC and SEC, at least for now, are more interested in finding solutions rather than kicking the can further down the road.

And I think there is a solution on the horizon that Power 5 schools should implement right now. On campus bubbles, that is the answer for college football, but it's the answer that nobody really wants to say right now, or at least not out loud. You see, I think Larry Scott actually just said in a webinar that's still going on right now for the Pac-12, college sports cannot have a bubble. It's the one sport that cannot operate in a bubble.

I think it's not cannot, I think it's you will not. Nobody wants to say it because again, it's expensive. It's going to expose contradictions in the amateurism model. But Dabo Sweeney last night, he essentially said yesterday that, eh, we're kind of looking at a bubble.

The solution kind of is a bubble. I don't know why this clip isn't getting more play today, but if you missed it, this is Dabo last night when he was meeting with the media. Athletes they are not just students, they're student athletes. That's part of why they came and we've always been on campus as long as I've been in college athletics before the student body.

We've always had camp, we've always been on campus for a month or so before the students get here. This year is just a little bit few weeks longer, but they're student athletes and, and yes, it's a unique year, but we can, they can do the student part on, we can still all be students online, but you can't be an athlete online. We can still all be students online.

We cannot be athletes online. It's true. We've got to finally accept what we've known to be true for a very long time now that power five football players are different than regular students. It's tough for the pay for play crowd to accept. The fans that say they shouldn't get paid because my college tuition costs so much, they don't really value what they have. They don't realize how much the education's worth.

I've been spending the last decade trying to pay off my student loans. This is breaking news if you're one of those people. The athletes are more special than you. They're more special than me. They're more special than Robert. They just are. And we've known this for a long time.

What Dabo said is true. Athletes show up when no one, none of the other students are there. Football players, they do this and they've done it forever. In March, they go, basketball players play in the NCAA tournament and they're not there essentially the entire month when they're advancing through. Athletes, they are different than you or I. They get a scholarship and the academic scholar, they deserve it as well.

But the difference between the academic scholar and the athlete is that there is not really a function similar in academia to paying customers, a hundred thousand of them paying to watch these athletes the same way that we celebrate, of course, the academic achievements of students. They're just different. And they're also more disciplined, which means I'm going to give them a shot to get this right.

I've heard this argument a ton. How can we expect college kids to do the right thing? Right? When I was 18 years old, I was just beer bonging and I was doing some keg stands and I went out and I didn't go to class. Odds are you weren't a successful division one athlete in the power of five because these guys, they're more disciplined than normal students.

Sam Hartman, he told us yesterday, he was quarantined in his room for two weeks, didn't walk outside. I mean, come on, they want to play. Keep them away from the other students. If you keep them away from the other students, have the student athletes do virtual classes the way that Dabo suggested right there, then you would create an on-campus bubble. But you might be thinking, oh, Josh, how is this fair to the athlete? The athletes over the weekend in a chorus said how badly they wanted to play. They are begging to play right now. They want to get on the field. They want to have fun. They want an escape. They want to prove themselves to scouts. They want to further their career. They don't want it cut short. They enjoy it.

Here's a crazy thought. They enjoy playing sports. Athletes, they're begging to play.

Now let's tell them how. This would be the number one question I have to an athlete. Would you be willing to take classes online and remain in a football only bubble or a student athlete only bubble?

Would you be willing to do that? I have a feeling, maybe this is a hunch, I have a feeling over 80 to 85% of those student athletes would sign up for that. The same ones we saw on social media, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, all these guys, the ones we saw over the weekend, Sam Hartman, Wake Forest Football. They would say sign me up if that was the question. If that was what was asked of them and we'd have a season. When I look at what really turned the tide and making the NBA bubble work, it goes back to that phone call.

That conference call with Chris Paul, with LeBron, with Dame Lillard, all those guys are on the call and they said, listen, we're going to play. That's what we want to do. We want to play. We want to make the bubble happen.

That's why the bubble happened. If that call never happened, I'm convinced we're not watching NBA basketball right now. Major league baseball, they're in the middle of the labor dispute. The turning point, when players said, when and where.

What do you say in response to that? If you're Rob Manfred, when and where? You just tell us how. And when they did, baseball games started happening magically.

This past weekend felt like to me, the when and where moment for college football. Athletes saying we want to play, tell them how we can make that happen. Bubbles are proving the work.

They're proving the work. And every single scientific study I've read, and again, there's so much out there that changes and things can get conflicted at points, but what I'm reading and my understanding is, scientists and epidemiologists, the disease experts are not worried about athletes playing on a field together. That's not their concern. Their concern is what happens outside of the facilities and everywhere we've seen. When athletes are testing positive, it's not inside these facilities.

You can easily contact trace to figure out where they've been. Will Healy, he joined us last hour and he said, Oh, it was some guy moving in a teammate of his that he got COVID. One of the guys that tested positive for them, the Cleveland Indians. Look what's going on with them right now. The Miami Marlins. It's when they left the protocols.

That's where the trouble is. The ACC, they're pushing forward as they should, I believe. They seem to be full speed ahead when you consider President Hatch was at Wake Forest's practice yesterday saying he was going to fight for the players. Scott Satterfield, everything he was told, he said, we don't care what the other conferences are going to do. We're going to play.

Then you have Cameron Wolf, Dr. Cameron Wolf at Duke, who is the chair on the ACC's medical advisory team saying this to Sports Business Daily, quote, we believe we can mitigate it down to a level that makes everyone safe. Can we safely have two teams beat on the field? I would say yes. Will it be tough? Yes.

Will it be expensive and hard and lots of work? Sure. But I do believe you can sufficiently mitigate the risk of bringing COVID onto the football field or into the training room at a level that's no different than a living as a student would on campus. But this is the kicker here. This is the part that the Pac-12 and the Big Ten need to consider. Pushing to the spring, what really makes you think the circumstance is going to be a lot different? You're banking on a vaccine?

Is that what this is? During flu season, on the back end of flu season, you think it's going to get better? Because I don't really buy that. I think you have to find a way to make things work for now. I think you need to find a way to coexist with the virus. And Dr. Wolf agrees with this, saying, quote, the virus isn't going away. We have to coexist with COVID. I like saying that because it summarizes the reality that the virus isn't going anywhere.

While it ebbs and flows, we're not going to see it ebb and zero anytime soon. So I'm glad the ACC is pushing forward. It's way too soon to punt.

It's too soon to punt. And it's disingenuous to all the people you told last week you were putting out a schedule and you were doing so in good faith, including the student athletes who started practicing a week ago. Let's go to Dwight in Winston-Salem who wants in on the subject. Dwight, what do you make of on-campus bubbles and trying to get this college football season in? I certainly think they can get the football season in.

I will say that I'm a little concerned that trying to do the online classes, because you know computers have viruses too. So I would want to try to avoid that. I think Carolina has shown us the way to do this and just have no-show classes. Right. There you go. There you go, Dwight.

Great papers and do things and the students, they can just go to practice. George Costanza, you go out on the high, Dwight. You had the great virus joke.

Go out on the high. Thanks so much for the phone call. It's appreciated.

Okay. We hope to catch up with David Hale in just a little bit. 336-777-1600 if you have thoughts on what's happening in college sports right now, which is quite a bit. I'm an optimist. I think they're really going to try and get these games in. The ACC is feeling really good about where they're at right now. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Big Ten has a new commissioner and he's having difficulty with leaks, with Nebraska wanting to play football somewhere else. Football coaches saying they want to play yesterday after the rumors got out Sunday night, this disjointed announcement, and then the Pac-12 just following suit, following suit like a lap dog. These are not the leaders in college sports.

They're not. Let's go to Tyler in Greensboro before we get to the five things at five. Tyler, what do you got for me on what's going on in college football? Well, one thing I'm interested about is that hopefully we've stopped with all of the teams that are, or the conferences that are no longer going to play. But my question is, if you have the ACC, SEC, and Big 12 playing in the fall, but you have the Pac whatever in the Big Ten playing in the spring, how do you determine a national champion? Do you have two national champions? How do you determine who, if the fall winner plays the spring winner? How do you determine that?

Easy answer. Thanks for the question, Tyler. They're not going to compete for a national championship. They're going to compete for a Big Ten and Pac-12 title, which again has been kind of what it's been for the last five years, hasn't it?

Like, I mean, it's the joke. What do you think the playoffs going to look like this year? Do you think it's going to look a lot different without the Pac-12 or Big Ten schools?

I'd probably say no. Oh, I get Ohio State's great, but I think in the six year history of the college football playoff, you only have two Big Ten schools that have made it. Ohio State and Michigan State.

Those are the two. Michigan State got drubbed 31 to nothing by Alabama. Ohio State, they won the title in 14 with their third string quarterback, but then got dragged by Clemson 38 to nothing and beaten down.

Okay, not beaten down, but beaten by Clemson again in the most recent playoff. So I think we're still going to have an accurate read on who the championship, who the champion is if we're lucky enough to get a season in. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPCM Burlington, WMFR High Point. Those signals make up Sports Hub Dryad. David Hale expected to join us in 15 minutes. We got an NFL trading card war this hour as well. There's so much breaking news going on right now. Kind of like that earthquake over the weekend, it just feels like the college sports world is shifting beneath our feet as the Big Ten officially announces that they're going to be postponing fall sports with the hope of playing in the spring. The Pac-12 following suit going a step further in canceling non-conference men's basketball games. David Hale has so much expertise on all things college football at a David Hale joint from ESPN.

He's spending time out of his busy day to join us, so we need to get to the most important thing first. The Carolina Hurricanes are facing the Boston Bruins tonight, and it had me thinking about Boston-themed movies. What is the best Boston-set movie according to David Hale? Hmm, I would probably lean Good Will Hunting, right? That's the choice I have, and Adam Long agrees with you. The departed has to be up there just for a sheer Boston-y.

Do you count The Social Network as a Boston movie? Hmm, let me make sure we got you on a good connection here. David Hale with us from ESPN. Let's actually get to the important stuff. What's the best answer we have today? The best answer you've heard for why the Big Ten and Pac-12 are acting now to postpone the season?

I mean, the best answer might imply that there's a good answer, and I think that is a frustration. No one—it's a lot like when they made the scheduling decision last month, and it kind of came well ahead of when everyone else was sort of expecting. It's not that anybody disagreed with what they were doing or kind of assumed that their league would go the same way. They just wondered why the urge to do it so quickly.

I think that's sort of the response here. The overwhelming situation is that there's just so much unknown right now, and I think that was the biggest fly in the ointment for the Big Ten in terms of, do we go forward or do we not? It was just a matter of, they don't know what to say for sure, and so let's err on the side of caution.

But when you're talking about the unknown, it certainly would seem like time is your best asset, and giving more time to learn more things seems like it would have a benefit. Now, I will say, one of the things that I think has been a problem is the sort of will they, won't they situation that has really infiltrated probably every locker room in the country. This has been hard on the players to kind of have to deal with this sort of daily yo-yo of whether or not they're going to play.

So there's something to be said for ripping the Band-Aid off and not letting that continue if you already know what the answer is. So I think that's really where they ended up, is that enough voices were in the room that were going to vote in a certain way and were not going to change their mind about it, that there was no sense in delaying the inevitable. I don't think that's the case around the country, but I think within those rooms with those presidents, that's what it was. You were on a call with Dabo Swinney, Trevor Lawrence, and Darion Rincher last night, and Dabo said something I'm surprised isn't getting more attention today when he was talking about how student athletes are different than the rest of the student body.

Let's hear the clip before we react. They are student athletes. They are not just students. They're student athletes.

That's part of why they came. And we've always been on campus as long as I've been in college athletics before the student body. We've always had camp. We've always been on campus for a month or so before the students get here. This year is just a little bit few weeks longer, but they're student athletes. And yes, it's a unique year, but they can do the student part. We can still all be students online, but you can't be an athlete online. David Hale with us from ESPN.

I hear the players over the weekend, Trevor Lawrence included, Sam Hartman on our show yesterday. They're begging to play. So could the administrators counter by saying, okay, this is how we do it. We essentially have a bubble on campus where you're taking all the classes virtually?

I think that is the way that it should have been done probably from the beginning. But the problem is what Dabo is telling you is 100 percent accurate, but it's a tough sell when you're also trying to sell amateurism. You know, the the student athlete moniker is a thing that the NCAA came up with in order to sort of get around the idea of athletes. They always wanted to put the emphasis on the student part. Now Dabo is saying, let's not forget the emphasis also being on the athlete part.

And he's, again, not wrong. You know, if you're a physics major and you've got to be off campus for a year, well, that stinks and it's probably not helping your education any. But you can come back in 2021 and pick up right where you left off. If you're an athlete, you need the training, you need the nutrition. And quite frankly, you can't, like Dabo said, you can't take football online.

You've got to play it in person. So I think he's right. And I think the way to do it is, you know, what we're seeing with professional leagues. But the difference, of course, is that these aren't professionals.

And the NCAA and administrators and presidents and ADs and coaches, for the most part, all will go out of their way to ensure that we don't have enough gray area to say that they deserve to be paid. And so that's where we're at with it. Grace Rainer described Clemson beat writer, award winning writer from The Athletic, who covers Clemson, said yesterday that, Trevor, this has been the summer of Trevor Lawrence finding his voice. And he said a lot over the last few days. Did anything Trevor said surprise you?

No, I wouldn't say surprising. I think it's, it was very interesting to ask that the two of them that were on this call yesterday, Darian Rancher, who is, I'm sure not a name that is super familiar for folks outside of Clemson, but former walk on running back and probably Trevor's best friend on the team, but also one of the legitimately smartest guys you'll ever run into. But him and Trevor have really been kind of hand in hand and a lot of the the outreach that they've done this year on social justice issues and then on this, but what was invariably when you start talking about a Players Association, what's invariably going to come up after that is a players union and a union fighting for revenue sharing and, and things like that.

And you can almost kind of tell that Trevor was not entirely comfortable going down that road. I think that is sort of the, the area that he doesn't want to get into, because he knows he'll be a guy who's making plenty eventually anyway. But it was interesting to hear that, you know, he views this organization that they're trying to put together as the start of something that can be lasting, and it will be fighting for, for athlete rights for other things down the road. Now, he didn't say I specifically endorse players getting paid, I specifically endorse, you know, name image likeness, blah, blah, blah. But he didn't say he didn't. And, and especially coming from a player at Clemson, I think that is saying something.

And that's clearly I don't think any of them have any, you know, part of them that doesn't understand that when you say Players Association, whatever you intend that to be today, the long term implication of players assembling together in one voice is going to inherently lead you down that path. Add a David Hale joint, read his stuff on ESPN. David Hale, kind enough to spend time with us today. Somebody on Twitter politely points out that you left Ted off your list of best Boston based movies. Now Ted's fine, but I would hardly put that in, you know. Ted in Goodwill, honey.

I mean, Ted 2, that's a whole other story, but you know. You're the best, man. Thanks for doing this. All right. Talk to you later. There you go. That's David Hale, college football writer for ESPN. Can I tell you something that makes me feel really good?

We need reasons to cheer up. Do you know what Jose Altuve is batting this year? 420? I have no idea.

183. It's amazing that he seems to struggle finding the baseball. Hmm? Don't you think it's kind of strange that he doesn't seem to have the same timing and he doesn't seem to have a similar jump on the baseball that he normally had? Is there like a World Series slump, like there is a Super Bowl slump? A World Series slump? I'd probably say the Dodgers haven't won since 88.

That's a big one. I want to know what the biggest slump is now. No, I mean like after you win the World Series, there is a slump. Well, they haven't won since 2017 and they shouldn't be crowned that champion anyway.

They should have that stripped away because Jose Altuve, when he knew what was coming, he was one of the best hitters in baseball. Now that we know they're not cheating, 183. They should just start cheating again. They stink when they're not cheating. That's right. It's a lot harder when you don't know what's coming. Yeah, so why not cheat? It makes all the sense in the world to me.

That's kind of their thinking. This A's player that charged the Astros bench got six games. Here's what also cheers me up. The Astros hitting coach that started it got 20. That's like a third of the season, right?

That's right. Love it. Hate, hate to see it. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.

Hate to see that. We don't spend a lot of time talking about baseball because I still don't have any confidence that baseball is going to continue the way that they're continuing. Like if you look at the standings, I'm not sure the last time you looked at the standings, I know you're a huge Colorado Rockies fan now. Oh, so huge. The biggest.

There could not be a larger fan of the Rockies in the world. The St. Louis Cardinals have still played five games. They played five. You want to know how many the Atlanta Braves have played? How many is that? 18.

Look at them. Yeah, they played 18 games. You got the St. Louis Cardinals playing five. That's why I'm not talking about baseball. Like what am I supposed to do with that?

Talk about Charlie Blackmon. Guess what he's hitting? Probably like 280.

469. Nice. Nice.

That's right. It's time for our weekly NFL trading card war. It's one of our favorite segments. And now, on with the show. Showtime.

You're on the drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. It's about time for our weekly NFL trading card war. But before we do that, can I ask a really stupid question?

Is that all right with you, Robert? I don't see why not. So one of the discussions I hate in sports that happens every year, can the best college football team beat the worst NFL team? Or the best college basketball team beat the tanking NBA team?

And I've never thought that was realistic. A good friend of mine, Steve Logan, who coached in the NFL, coached in college, coached in NFL Europe, said any of our NFL Europe teams would beat the best college football team you'll find. But somebody asked on Twitter if you combined the best players from the entire Big Ten Conference. So not just one team, Ohio State being one of the best teams in college football, set to be one of the best this year. And you put them up against, let's say, the Jacksonville Jaguars this year with Gardner Minshew at quarterback. What would be the score of that game?

How would that game go? Because while it is a stupid question, and we can never get definitively the answer, I do like the idea of all these Big Ten players trying to piece together friendlies against NFL teams as kind of like an all-star team. Justin Fields playing quarterback. You got all those dudes on defense from Ohio State. And I don't know what Michigan will bring to the table, but probably something. Wisconsin always has a running back. Iowa always produces really good offensive linemen.

All of it together, kind of like a Frankenstein-like operation. What would be the score of that game? I don't know, but the Jags would beat them, if that's who you're saying the worst team in the league is. Would it be decisive?

Yes, it would be very one-sided. Because the Jags know what they're doing. All these dudes on other teams have no idea what the play call is.

How long do they get to practice before this? Even if we're not going that deep into it, the Jags, they would just mollywop this Big Ten whatever dream team you're making. Mollywop? That's not very nice. All right, let's open up a pack of cards, get set to go for our weekly NFL trading card war. This means war!

You're a tough little guy, aren't you? This means war! Hey, hey!

It's cool, it's cool! This means war! What?

Does it have to? Did it mean something else? Okay, you dirtbags! This means war! Finish him! All right, Robert, it's time for the weekly NFL trading card war, opening up a pack of cards and trying to put them into specific superlatives, kind of like you would have in your yearbook. Here are the five superlatives you need to place the players in your pack of cards in.

Most likely to be remembered for something non-football related. Most likely to sing a Cardi B song alone in their car. Most likely still owns a Blockbuster card.

Most likely to order a bottle, to order a water with a lemon, but if it doesn't come back with a lemon, raise a stink about it. Wow. This is tough, Robert. How do you feel about the pack of cards you got in front of you there? I got a lot of work to do. What's the first one we're starting off with?

Will be remembered for something non-football related. That is the first one in the pack and I'm trying to fill out some of the other places here. Okay. Raise a stink about it.

I don't know who would raise a stink about anything. I'm trying to remember. All right. I think I got, I think I feel pretty good about what I have here.

All right, go for it. Most likely to be remembered for something non-football related. I got Richard Sherman.

Okay. From Stanford. Outspoken about unionizing and seems to be very worldly.

Palo Alto, Seattle, interested in a lot of different things, involved in a lot of different projects, really good on television too. Richard Sherman's my pick. What would he be remembered for? That's not sports related. That's not football related. I think he could do whatever he wants. He's from Stanford. Uh, he's really good at television. Like he could be an entertainment. I feel like all of that television stuff would be football related.

I don't know about that. I mean, Michael Strahan, probably more people know Michael Strahan today for the, for Good Morning America than know him as a football player. I genuinely believe that they're two different people though. I don't think Richard Sherman could be a Good Morning America. I think he could, you think his aggressive ass could be a Good Morning America host?

No way. Either way, I'm going with Tom Brady because he is going to be remembered for kissing his sons on the mouth. Not even just a pet kiss.

Like it was a very long kiss. He's going to get remembered for these UGG commercials. He's going to get remembered for being married to a supermodel and he's going to get remembered for a bunch of things that are non football related. I got Tom Brady.

I believe that. All right, so you've got Tom Brady. You're up one to nothing.

Most likely to sing a Cardi B song alone in their car. Who do you have? I got Cam Newton. Cam has no fear. Cam is not afraid of anything. His perception, anything.

So I don't think that it would matter whether someone was in the car or not, but when someone's not in there, he's definitely singing. I think I got you beat man. Michael Bennett. You always do this.

I think I got you beat man. Josh says some guy that definitely should not beat who I said. Michael Bennett man. How could Michael Bennett beat Cam Newton for singing Cardi B? Have you heard, have you heard his mic'd up where he's always singing Michael Bennett? This guy is such an entertainer.

He would be great. I bet he's singing right now. Whether or not there are people in his car or not. Michael Bennett being a singer is like the fourth or fifth trait I think for him. How many traits do you list off before you get to Cam singing? I don't know, but I feel like Cam would be more likely to sing in a car.

It would be closer to an entertainer trait than just a bad ass bully. You're forgetting a detail. Sing alone in their car. Cam's not alone in his car. Cam's always with people. Michael Bennett, he's still, he is this interesting dude who does a lot of stuff.

He's entertaining, but he's also like, he has this comic vibe to him where it's all, he's still introverted while being this person who could be wildly entertaining. You're not going to flip this around on me. It's singing the car by themselves.

Cam is in the car at some points by himself. If you want to win this, you can win this. I don't care. You can have Michael Bennett. I didn't even open a pack of cards.

I just grabbed a bunch of random ones and shuffled it. So that's cool. You got Michael Bennett one and one, even though anybody in their mama would pick Cam over Michael Bennett.

Either way. Most, you're only doing that because it's the quarterback thing. More people know quarterbacks than know Michael Bennett.

I can't help this. We just, you know who Michael Bennett is. I do know who he is, but my mama doesn't. Your mama ain't decided. Well, she probably should. Mama's wrong.

Pick a little fair. Most likely still owns a blockbuster card. I don't know how you're going to beat me with this. I got Drew Brees. That's fine.

He's the oldest person. I have no one to beat that because I didn't get a pack of cards. I got random cards. I'm going to have Juju Smith Schuster. You would have beaten me with Tom Brady.

I had to play Tom Brady for the remember thing. I wish you could see all the cards I cannot use over here. I have four usable cards. I'm going to raise Juju Smith Schuster here because he's a nerd. He likes things that are shiny.

He likes things that young kids like, and maybe he would think it was a hipster thing to have a blockbuster card. So I got Juju. All right. I just realized that I only said four things. I only have four written down here. So we need to add a superlative. You're not going to do this after I've already chosen three of my good cards.

And then you're going to add something. Well, no, I think we only have four superlatives that I named Robert. I forgot to write two.

I got one, three, four, and five written down. I'll let you pick it. I again, I'll let you pick the superlative that we need to pick for this. I don't know.

I w what do you want me to say? Uh, most likely to eat finger foods with a fork. I would put Tom Brady here, but I've already put Tom Brady down. So one, you got the win with Tom Brady. I would, I would have put something else down for me to remember it. I would have put cam down. So most likely to eat what finger foods with a fork finger foods with a fork. I would have put Drew Brees there.

Uh, okay. That's our next one here. Most likely to eat finger foods with a fork. I'm going to go with Derek Carr.

And why is that? Um, Derek Carr is a guy who on numerous occasions has thrown the ball away on fourth down. And that seems like there, if you're doing the Venn diagram, quarterbacks who throw the ball away on fourth down and people that eat finger foods with a fork, there's some middle ground there there. I think Derek Carr is in the middle of that Venn diagram. Uh, I'm going to raise Noah Fant because Noah Fant, doesn't that name just stick with you as a dude that eats finger foods?

No, it should stick with you as a dude who shouldn't have a professional football card made. Why do I have Noah Fant? Noah Fant is going to have a big year. He's going to be good with Denver.

Noah Fant have a good year this year. Yeah. All right. Last one still already did still owns a blockbuster card. Orders wander with the lemon, but if you, if he doesn't get the lemon will create a stink. Who are you going with here?

I didn't even think we were using this one. Um, I guess I'm going to go Jared Stidham because he just strikes me as a, a water and lemon guy, water and lemon. He took over for a dude who probably ate lemons as some kind of health cleanse. And now he thinks he has to do that.

So the orders water without a lemon, he just got to have it. I'm going Jamal Adams. He raised, he rose to stink the jets and then ended up being a Seattle seahawk. Well guys, it just wasn't in the cards for you this week, my friend. Oh my God. And then you hit me with a terrible card pun. And that is the NFL trading card war. Give it up. Everybody give it up for Josh. Robert does it.

Robert does not handle losing. Well, the deck just wasn't stacked in my favor. Oh, everybody give it up for me. Oh, I mean maybe next time you could turn them around.

All right. Everybody great show today. We got Nikki V tomorrow. Uh, maybe my mom will be on the show.

Who knows? Um, I hate this game so much. You hate it when you lose. I hate it when I don't get a fair hand. Everybody give it up for me. Uh, people are mad right now that you didn't get the win on cam Newton. You know, actually some are saying that you should have flipped Tom Brady with cam Newton and you would add a better shot to win. So it's why we really need an intermediary for this game because then Robert can accept the result even though he didn't really accept the result when we did have somebody in here.

He's just a poor sport. That's fine. Let's go to John and Clemens. John, you're on sports I've tried.

What do you got? Robert didn't lose that. He didn't lose such a whiner, whiner about everything. Hold one sec, that'll beat you. Hold one sec, John.

I've lost this game for a month straight. Listen to the way that he was just whining for the last five minutes. I'm the whiner. He wasn't whining. He was telling the truth. He beat you. All right, John. My guy. Get out of here, John Clemens.

That's my stomping ground. You heard John whining. I mean, did you not just hear that assortment of sounds?

What part of the assortment of sounds was Robert telling me how it was? It's kids, kids. It's okay.

Hold one sec. Even if you did get the one that you objected to, I still would have won, but then you didn't have enough table or you didn't have enough superlatives at the beginning. So it wasn't a fair game.

So then I couldn't accurately stack my team up against yours. I don't know how many times to say it, dude. It just you you you shuffled the deck.

How does that not qualify? I'm sorry. I just trampled all over your card. It wasn't even a good card joke. Please come on. This house of cards is tumbling down, Josh.

We can't we can't do this. Yeah, this segment's been a real house of cards. The ACC just put out a statement about this game. I knew they would be on my side. I knew the ACC would get it.

The Pac-12 said you won and that it just makes all the sense in the world. The ACC says they're going to continue making decisions based on medical advice inclusive of our medical advisory group, local and state health officials, and do so in a way that appropriately coincides with our university's academic missions. The safety of our students, staff and overall campus communities will always be our top priority. And we are pleased with the protocols being administrated on our 15 campuses. We will continue to follow our process that has been in place for months and has served us well. We understand the need to stay flexible and be prepared to adjust as medical information and the landscape evolves. You'd like the way the ACC said our 15 campuses?

Notre Dame, fitting in nicely to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Do you want to hear about what Joey Sly had to say today? Sure. We caught up with the Panthers kicker and my biggest takeaway from our conversation, kicker, the least affected position group by COVID. A lot of people coming back kind of asked me like what the changes were for me this off-season compared to all the other off-seasons I've had where I hadn't really won.

But like just how my work ethic and everything had to change compared to COVID. But I was lucky enough to kind of have some situations where I had a gym that I could work out in because I worked there as an employee prior to coming to the NFL. So I had access there and then I was able to get on a couple fields of kick. So for me training was pretty regular and then obviously just staying inside, self-quarantining away from everyone else and eating right, working out, training well.

So I've been prepped for this pretty well coming in this year. Joey, just curious, how does a kicker get their swings in during quarantine? For me, I was lucky enough to get on a couple fields back in my hometown that I had some private access to and was able to work on my own work just off sticks. And then we had a couple places here that we were able to get on just due to knowing the athletic directors in the area.

We were able to get clearance for it and stuff like that. So the kicking coach that I was working with, we were just able to get some one-on-one time there. That's Joey Sly, Panthers kicker.

That has to be the least affected group by COVID. It's either punters, long snappers, or kickers, the specialists. And we'll see if quarterbacks are put in bubble wrap the same way in isolation that they usually are at football practices. It was the right time to move off Gennell. I think Gennell is a better kicker, but he's not worth what he's getting paid in comparison to what you got from Sly last year. Sly leading the NFL in 50 plus yard kicks. He's younger, cheaper as I mentioned. And Carolina, they're already first in the NFL in a dead cap.

So you might as well just throw it on the trash heap of dead cap you already have. So that's Joey Sly. Robert, what do you got in ticket to the house today?

An Airbnb, an Airbnb that is sure to bust your blog. That's next on the drive. Josh Graham loves to talk sports.

He also loves to accentuate his long lashes with mascara. You're a good looking man. Thank you.

Very pretty. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. I got bad news and good news.

I say bad news first because I always like starting with the bad news. The big 10 has postponed college football for the fall looking towards the spring. The PAC 12 has followed suit with the new information I have for you. The PAC 12 has also canceled all non-conference men's basketball games until January. Why are they making that decision now on August the 11th?

I don't have an answer for that. We'll see if Larry Scott does, but that's some news that just came down. The good news is we've got PGA tour golf in the triad later this week as it's going to be the Wyndham championship at Sedgefield country club starting Thursday morning. We are now being joined by someone who's going to be participating in that tournament, Adam Long, who's been riding high a bit in recent weeks.

Finished second in the 3M open a few weeks ago and he made the cut at the PGA championship in San Francisco this past weekend. Also happens to be a Duke alum as well. Adam, welcome on in the triad. How are you? Hey, great.

Thanks for having me on. So what excites you most about playing in Greensboro roughly an hour from where you're with the school? Yeah, I love it. Well, typically you have some familiar faces out here. Some people either Duke fans or people that I know from the school would come over and watch a little bit and it's a good time.

This is obviously going to be a little different experience this year with no fans on site, so it'll be a little more quiet. But I love the area. It's one of my favorite areas in the world and I love coming back here and it brings me back to some good memories I had at school at Duke.

So looking forward to another good week. What do you know about the course? I just played nine holes this afternoon and it's in awesome shape.

Wow, the greens are perfect and it's in fantastic shape. So you have to use every club in your bag. You have some long holes you need to hit a good drive on and you also have some tight, shorter holes that you need to make sure you hit the fairway. So you use every club in your bag.

You have some short par threes but you have some nasty long ones too. So it's a great test. One of my favorite spots to camp out on when of course it's normal circumstances is number 10. But 9 and 10 always seems to be a really interesting one.

12 and 13 as well. What do you view to be the biggest challenge about this course? I think you're going to want to hit the ball in the fairway honestly. I think the rough is Bermuda. It's on the long side, especially for a Tuesday where you hit a lot of drives in the rough and it's just going to be hard to get it close. But if you're in the fairway you can be pretty aggressive. I think the greens have got a couple thunderstorms recently so I think it'll be a little on the soft side which usually you can be pretty aggressive at. But if you're coming out of the rough it's going to be hard to be aggressive and you're going to be hitting some conservative shots into the greens. So I think hitting fairways will be the number one thing. Being joined by Adam Long on the PGA Tour, his second year on tour, getting set for the Wyndham Championship later on this year. He has a really easy to remember Twitter handle that I appreciate.

At a long shot you can shoot Adam a follow. Since you graduated in Duke, I read, at Duke in 2010 I've got to ask, where were you when the Blue Devils beat Butler in that national title game back in 2010? Thanks for asking. I was in Cameron Indoor actually. We had some guys on the golf team and some others got together and they had a nice viewing set up on the Jumbotron and all that.

So we watched it there. That morning though we actually watched the practice rounds at Augusta National for the Masters. We played a tournament in Augusta and that finished on Sunday and Monday we got to go to the practice rounds at Augusta. So we walked around the golf course for a while in the morning and then we all were anxious to get back to campus to catch the national championship game that night. So we drove back up to Durham and took a quick shower and headed out to the pregame stuff and man that was a pretty awesome memory. But it was definitely quiet when that ball was in the air.

That Hayward ball was in the air. We went nuts afterwards though and had the fires on campus and burning the benches and the huge celebration that seemed to last all night. Did you ever paint up?

Sorry? Did you ever get painted up at a Duke basketball game? No I don't think I ever. I definitely never had my shirt off that's for sure. But I don't know if I did face paint it might have been early on my freshman year I didn't know any better but I went to every game. I was a big fan and it was definitely a religion and I got pretty swept up in it and I still am.

I don't miss any games to this day. It's Adam Long with us here. Duke graduate if you couldn't tell.

Competing in the Wyndham Championship later on this week in Greensboro. You know when I talk to non-basketball Duke athletes they always tell me Duke is such a small campus you run across all the athletes and you get a chance to know each other. It's a tight-knit group. I think Daniel Jones before he got drafted by the Giants told me that he was playing one-on-one against Luke Kennard one time and it's just regular that you'd run into these guys every now and then. Is that the same experience you had? Did you ever think about having one of the basketball players on the golf course or vice versa? Definitely. You know being a small school you end up overlapping on campus or in some athlete functions or you know around the town or having the same classes or whatever so you definitely get to know them.

Now they live a different life than we do. They have a lot more priorities or they have a lot of other things going on that they have to attend to that other athletes didn't but they're definitely treated maybe a little differently, looked at a little differently like it just is but you know my class I had John Shire and Gerald Henderson who I probably knew the best. Gerald is a good golfer and we always talked about trying to get together and tee it up but he left school early on me so he didn't stick it out so we still have a social media relationship a bit. We'll message each other a little bit on there and keep in touch a little here and there and I know he's a still a good player and you know maybe one of these days I'll get I think he's in Charlotte still so maybe I'll get over there and get around in with him soon but I did not on campus I didn't ever get to play golf with anybody. Alright it's Adam Long with us here.

PGA TOUR on Twitter at a long shot. The Carolina Hurricanes are facing the Boston Bruins tonight in a playoff series. We're excited about it and in honor of that I listed off my five best Boston movies. You got to let me know which of these five movies is the best Adam. I got The Fighter, The Town, Spotlight, The Departed, Good Will Hunting. Out of those five movies what's the best to Adam Long? I got to go with Good Will Hunting.

I mean that's just a classic that be around forever. There's so many good one-liners in there and I'm gonna go with that but those are some good choices. Yeah and if you don't win this weekend remember it's not your fault. I got a number.

That's fantastic. Adam Long we're gonna be rooting for you this week. Thanks for spending the time with us it's appreciated.

Yeah absolutely thanks for having me on. There you go shoot him a follow on Twitter at a long shot joining us former Duke golfer. I'm trying to think what sport would be if you're a basketball player what sport do you think that would translate best to? Like if you were gonna try a hand at another sport which one do you think it would be? Football? Probably bowling. A lot of patience. A lot of touch. Yep gotta be able to spin the ball and they're used to doing that on their fingers so I would think they could hop right into bowling. Do you think every basketball player just spends time spinning the ball on their fingers?

Oh yeah like walking to class isn't that what they always do in the movies? I'll be honest man I'm struggling I'm trying not to be distracted by the fact that Pac-12 basketball games have been canceled. Oh no. What are we doing? Why are non-conference basketball games being canceled right now? Like I want to picture Dick Vitale right now how upset he is at this. In fact we're not gonna have to imagine that long Dickie Vee is gonna be with us at about this time tomorrow but the Pac-12 canceling non-conference basketball games on August the 11th like who is that helping?

I mean I get wanting to get rid of pay games buy games that's fine but really today? If you want to look at it from maybe a better point of view who did you give a rip about seeing play in the Pac-12? I mean it's a good point. I can't think of anybody Oregon with Coach Altman.

I mean we you had to think like two minutes to figure it out. Yeah. We don't care. Is Carolina playing? Is Duke playing? Cool we'll be fine. Wake's there awesome.

State too? You know this puts pressure on all these schools though. We suck.

It does. Man it's just tough. Can you play something to cheer me up Robert like the Hurricanes are playing the Bruins tonight I just want something to cheer me up if you have something at your disposal there that Mike can do so that might get me excited for tonight's game. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Hurricanes are going to the next round of the playoffs. A-ho, terra vining, and having the time of their lives, oooh, see that team, it's the Bruins, they're gonna- what? Oh god, the Bruins? Didn't they sweep the Hurricanes last year? I think this is gonna be a tough game, I don't know what I- SIKE BITCH! Oh hell yeah, the Hurricanes, they've got the Bruins in the playoffs now, and we didn't forget, we didn't forget what happened last year, well, I forgot because I never knew, I didn't know they got swept because I don't know anything about hockey, but the Real Canes, they didn't forget, and you know what, after dealing with the Rangers, we've already got our brooms out, and we're gonna take care of this because it's a mess, tell em' Marty, now there's no Marty, but I digress, Pittsburgh to Steel City, and after you get done playing the Hurricanes, you're gonna be another town that STILL can't get over Rod's hot bod. And then the Bruins, what actually is a Bruin? I had to look it up, it's a bear, have you seen their mascot? He looks like the bear from the Revenant got with a Looney Tune. At the end of the day, you guys are just gonna keep thumping your Stanley Cups, and keep playing the nut rock, but the one thing you need to remember, 316 says the Canes are gonna whip that ass.

I feel so much better. Was there a campaign reference in there? Marty Huggins.

It is a mess. I'll never forget when Kentucky fans, one Kentucky fan, thought that it was Oh a Western Carolina jersey. A Western, actually I don't even think it was a Western Carolina jersey, I think they thought it was like West Virginia, like it was just ridiculous, and they got the actor wrong too. I don't know how you mix up Zach Galifianakis with anybody. Are there any other red-headed actors, comedians? No, but I do try to draw their name out of my brain a lot, I'll be like, oh who is the guy? Went to State, and I'll mix him and Danny McBride up, just occasionally.

Not because of the way they look like each other, but just because my brain is stupid. Clearly isn't. That piece of art you just put together. Coming up! The next big solution on the horizon for the ACC, SEC, and maybe even the Big 12 if they want to listen, and it's not postponing. This is a Tuesday Drive.