Could Miami find a silver lining in staying in a weakened ACC after Clemson and FSU depart? Alex Donno and Brian Smith weigh the pros and cons.
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00:00 Is there a way Miami could benefit if they don't leave the ACC?
00:03 Less competition in the league. It's straightforward. I know that Miami fans want
00:10 to play the best and they by all means should. And I'm not saying I'm advocating for it. I'm
00:14 just saying it's just the easiest path. Now think about this. Whether they want to hear it or not,
00:20 the ACC is in a lot of trouble right now. That's not a newsflash. I mean, you're not going and
00:25 get an SMU Stanford and Cal for fun. I'm sorry, you're not. It's just true. But at the same time,
00:32 they know they're going to lose at least a couple of these. They're trying to drag it out as long
00:36 as they can, get as much money as they can. It's just garbage in the courtrooms. We all know,
00:41 Florida State Clemson situation. When they lose those two schools, and it's inevitable at this
00:45 point in my mind, if somebody wants to argue that, that's their business. That's two heavyweights.
00:51 The other heavyweight traditionally in the conference is Miami. So two of the three leave,
00:55 who are you going to struggle? I just look at recruiting rankings besides the Knowles
01:01 and the Tigers. Name a school that's in the stratosphere with Miami in the ACC and recruiting.
01:06 None. Right. There isn't one. Maybe Louisville is kind of teased that way. They're in that realm,
01:12 and they do a great job coaching. No offense. Would you rather have Louisville as your prime
01:17 contender? Or if you're like Georgia, would you rather have Alabama? I mean, there's different
01:22 ways to look at like Georgia and Alabama probably like it's fun, but who is Georgia going to beat
01:27 nine out of 10 times? Louisville. Who are they not going to beat nine out of 10 times? Alabama.
01:31 So you have to look at this rationally. And the way this works, fair or not, TV markets
01:38 want to include every single state as important if they can for advertisers. That's how this works.
01:44 It's terrible, but it's true. Miami is always going to be a major market. I mean, you've lived
01:49 there most of your life. You understand that they're going to have a place at the table,
01:52 but that doesn't mean the table has to be hard to get to North Carolina. I don't know.
01:58 That might lead to. So, I mean, the ACC long term may dissolve, but at least for the short run,
02:03 even if it was two or three years, there would be zero excuse for Miami not making the playoff
02:09 every single year. None. Now they may end up in the Big Ten or the SEC or something. There's so
02:14 many variables that I don't want to guess them. But if Florida State and Clemson aren't in,
02:22 how would they not make the like, they would have to fail so badly. Even by the last 20 years,
02:27 Miami's underachieved a lot, but like, come on. You could still play Florida State. It just
02:32 wouldn't be a conference game. There's so many benefits from it, that perspective. And for the
02:37 record, I'm not saying I support this because I don't think that it's good for college football
02:42 because there needs to be more balance. But like it's pretty soon, it's going to be two
02:46 leagues that matter. And that's it. Miami just might be the best program, not in one of the big
02:50 two. So they got the easiest path. It's ironic, but it's very possible. Now, I hope I hope people
02:56 do realize that Brian said he's not advocating for this scenario because there's a strong
03:02 counterpoint to that. I mean, if anybody brings up, hey, Miami would be better off maybe being
03:07 the big fish in the small pond in a week in ACC. The big problem that I see, Brian, and we're
03:13 staying in the ACC could just be an untenable situation is regardless of, you know, the college
03:18 football playoff tie in where, yeah, it could be easier to get into the playoff, the revenue gap,
03:23 it's, it's already massive. And I think it's getting even more massive. It's hard to find
03:29 the exact figures, but I know that before ESPN agreed to this new college football playoff deal,
03:35 before that even happened, schools in the ACC were set to make about 30 million less annually
03:42 than schools in the big 10 in the SEC. And I think that that mark, that gap is going to get even
03:47 wider now that in the next college football playoff TV deal, more money is going to trickle
03:53 into the power two versus the rest. So you're looking at more than 30 million less you're
03:58 going to make than teams in that power too. And yeah, listen, you may be able to get into the
04:03 playoff, Brian, but then when it, when it comes to actually competing with those power, two schools
04:07 that get there, that's where it becomes a big problem. It's, it's fascinating. We could talk
04:12 about this all day because the points Alex just made 100% true. However, and Alex and I talk about
04:19 this all the time, texts and stuff on the phone. Miami is one of the easiest jobs in college
04:23 football when they have everything lined up because of location, recruiting, recruiting,
04:27 recruiting. We can say whatever we want about Mario on game day and a lot of people pick on
04:32 him, but he ain't recruiting at a low level. Miami's talent is still sickening going forward.
04:38 I'm telling you, they're going to have another top 10 class conservatively in the one they're in,
04:42 and they've already done well so far in the class of 26, et cetera. The kids are just local. So
04:47 it's not as big a deal to them in Miami's facilities are good. They've got some elite
04:51 boosters. So they're very fortunate if they didn't have the booster situation, they did your,
04:56 your point would be even more important. But I mean, like their NIL is ridiculous.
05:02 They have like the facility that the renderings and stuff, all this stuff they've got coming.
05:05 I mean, I'm not worried about Miami. They're like, I should be, but it's a private school
05:10 with some really rich boosters. If any of that dried up, then Miami would be in a very poor place.