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Conference Realignment UPDATES Are INSANE! Good NEWS for Miami FSU Clemson & UNC? | ACC | SEC | B1G · College Football Addiction: A Show About All Things College Football

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The two sides of this bill just publicly accused each
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: other of trying to blow up the ACC, and the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: wild part is that they're not even talking about the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: same threat. One side says that Florida State and Miami
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: are the ones trying to blow up the conference. The
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: other side says the bill is already doing that, just
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: on a six-year delay. This week, that fight finally spilled
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: into public view with real names attached and real quotes
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to go on the record. Let's jump into things here
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: on College Football Addiction, presented by PrizePix, where all new
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: users who play a $ 5 lineup and win get $ 150
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: in lineups instantly if they use code HMA. Very quick recap,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: because a lot has happened in the last two weeks.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act this week,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: 77 to 22. That's after a cloture vote a couple
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: of weeks before that. which cleared 74 to 24. It
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: was a real lopsided and bipartisan support for a bill
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: in that chamber. The expansion provision inside it went through
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: changes right up until the very end. The independent probationary
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: period for school switching conferences had already been dropped from
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: five years down to three years before the bill even
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: hit the floor. Then in the final change before passage,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Florida Senator Ashley Moody got an amendment through that raised
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the conference membership cap from 19 teams to 20. That's
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the version that passed the Senate. 170 pages. They were
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: done as far as that chamber is concerned. Now, the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: bill is sitting in the House. And according to new
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: reporting out this week from Ross Dellinger, the House isn't
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: just reviewing this bill. Members are, in his words, sharpening
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the proverbial pencils to take an exacto knife to it.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really specific. A draft letter is
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: circulating in the House right now addressed to leadership asking
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: for one thing. They want to eliminate the expansion provision entirely.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Not shrink it, not tweak the number again. They want
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: it deleted. More than a dozen House members have reportedly
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: committed to signing that letter, most of them from Florida,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: North Carolina, and South Carolina. You don't have to think
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: very long about what that means. It's not a coincidence
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: which states those representatives are from. Those are the home
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, Clemson, every ACC program
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that spent the last few years and been floated as
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: a realignment candidate. So the people pushing this letter aren't
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: trying to protect the ACC from getting raided. They're trying
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: to make that raid even easier. Even the three-year wait
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: and the 20-team cap, which already represented a real loosening
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: from where the bill started, is not loose enough for them.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: They want no restriction. They want no cap. They want
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: no waiting period. Nothing standing between an ACC program and
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: whatever conference it wants to join. which I'll remind you,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: before this bill existed, was the expectation. Florida State and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Clemson went to sue the ACC to get a verifiable
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: exit number in a dollar amount, and they got that.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: We knew what that number was before this legislation was presented.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: The ACC agreed to it and said, absolutely, you get
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: out on this day for this price, a price that
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: drops to $ 75 million when we hit the 2030 year.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: That is the actual fight, the fight to eliminate the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: provision altogether. It's not stability versus chaos. It's, Hey, we
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: already won the concessions. Now we want to win the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: whole damn thing. The idea from North Carolina and South
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Carolina and Florida is we already got our concessions. We
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: don't think they're final though. And here's the number that
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: makes this fight make sense. Even with the provision staying
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: exactly as written, the 20-team cap and all, that still
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: opens up a total of six spots between the SEC
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: and the Big Ten. You have 16-20 in the SEC.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: You have 18-20 in the Big Ten. Six seats that
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: are sitting there, available the moment this becomes law as is.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Six spots is not nothing. It's a real door. And
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: these programs still want it kicked all the way off
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the hinges instead. It tells you something about how badly
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: some of these programs want to get out from under
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the ACC. They're not fighting over whether or not there's room.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: There already is room. They're fighting over the conditions attached
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: to walking through the door. They don't like the three-year wait.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: They don't like the possibility that the cap could someday
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: tighten back up. Whatever leverage the ACC might still have
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: during that window, six open seats wasn't enough to make
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: them sit down and just wait their turn. There are
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: other issues that are floating around the house right now,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: but by every account, the loudest and the most public fight,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the one actually generating headlines and quotes with real names attached,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: is this one, the ACC versus several of its members.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I'll take a quick break real quick and just ask
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: you very briefly, go to wherever you listen to your podcasts,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: type in college football addiction and hit the subscribe button.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm asking for. Don't have to buy anything.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Don't have to sign up for anything. Just subscribe where
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. I know several of you are
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: already subscribed here, but go do it over there too.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: It will make a world of difference. Now this public fight,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: this is exactly where Randy Levine comes in because his
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: comments this week make a lot more sense. Once you
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: know which side he's actually defending. Levine is the president
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of the New York Yankees, and he's also the person
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Trump appointed to lead the administration's push on this bill.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: He is not neutral. He is not managing two sides.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: He's defending the Senate's compromise language against the House letter
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: trying to blow right past it. Here's what he actually
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: said in full to Dellinger this week. He said, what's
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: very disturbing to me. is that we have an amazing
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: bipartisan bill, which got 77 votes in the U.S. Senate,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: where the Moody Amendment was passed, and yet principally Miami
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: and Florida State continue to try and undermine the bill,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: which even they say is great for the game over
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the fact that they want to blow up the ACC
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: when the Big Ten and the SEC have told me
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: as recently as today that neither has plans to expand.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: He named names, Florida State and Miami, not some schools,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: not certain ACC programs. He's naming the two schools he
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: believes are pushing this fight, and he's accusing them directly
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: of trying to blow up their own conference. Then he
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: added in this line, which honestly might be anybody's best
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: guess as to the entire saga. He said the civil
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: war in the ACC, which has been going on for
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: a while, should not be a reason to derail this bill,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: which solves college sports' problems, including theirs. Civil war, that
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: is Levine's word. That's not mine. A presidential appointee just
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: used that phrase on record about a conference in his
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: own country's biggest sport. Now, here's where I think Levine
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: actually talks himself into a corner, and it's the same
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: contradiction that I flagged going into this story. He says
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: that the Big Ten and the SEC have told him
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: as recently as that same day that neither one has
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: any plans to expand. My question, Mr. Levine, would be this.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: If that's true, then why are you fighting it? If
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: nobody on the other side of this door is actually
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: planning to open it for the Seminoles or the Hurricanes
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: or the Tar Heels or the Tigers? If Florida State
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and Miami are pushing to eliminate every restriction on leaving
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the ACC and nobody wants them, there's no plan to expand,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: then I guess that doesn't get them too far, does it?
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: They'd be fighting at considerable political costs for a right
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: to walk through a door that doesn't lead anywhere. In
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: my estimation, that doesn't add up. Schools don't spend years
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: in court, then spend this much political capital in Congress
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: chasing a theoretical option that nobody on the receiving end
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: says they want. So either the Big Ten and the
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: SEC are telling Levine what he wants to hear in
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: a very specific conversation while maybe leaving their actual long-term
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: intentions in a lot murkier place than no plans at all.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Maybe Florida State and Miami know something or suspect something
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that Levine either doesn't know or isn't allowed to say
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: out loud. Or maybe somebody's just flat out wrong or
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: lying in this situation. I don't know. But if the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: SEC and the Big Ten aren't looking to expand, then
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: why are you fighting like hell to leave this provision
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: in the bill? Either way, somebody in this story is
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: not being fully straight about what happens once that door
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: actually opens. Now, I want to get to the response
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: because the Senate didn't just shrug this off, a Senate
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: staffer close to one of the bill's authors told Dellinger flatly,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: we are sending it over for adoption as is. It
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: is a final product. And when asked directly about the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: House letter asking to eliminate the expansion provision, a person
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: close to one of the bill's authors said this word
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: for word, we won't pass language to blow up the ACC.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: So there it is. Both sides of this fight have
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: now used the exact same phrase, aimed at each other.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Levine says that Florida State and Miami want to blow
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: up the ACC. The Senate says they won't pass language
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: that does exactly that. Two different groups, both convinced the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: other one is holding the match. And the Senate isn't
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: just saying no quietly. If the House actually does strip
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: out or water down the expansion provision, Dellinger reports the
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Senate is prepared to come back with something a lot
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: more painful in exchange. Salary caps on coaches, athletics. and
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: university presidents, a requirement that any of them sit out
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: a full year if they jump to another job, mirroring
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the restrictions already in the bill for athletes who transfer,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and reportedly something even bigger lurking in the background, language
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: that could put the university's tax-exempt status at risk. It's
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: not a counteroffer. It's a very clear and obvious threat.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: If the House wants to blow up the one thing
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the Senate is calling non-negotiable, the Senate is signaling it's
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: willing to blow up something the House cares just as
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: much about. Think about who actually gets hit by that
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: retaliation list. Salary caps on coaches and ADs, a forced
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: year off for anybody who jumps to a new job,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the exact same restrictions this bill already puts on transferring athletes.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: And it's a shot at universities' tax-exempt status, which touches
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: every school in the country, not just the ones trying
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: to leave the ACC. The Senate is not threatening Florida
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: State and Miami directly. They're threatening the entire industry those
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: two schools operate in as leverage to keep a handful
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: of House members from touching one provision. That's an enormous
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: amount of collateral damage being dangled over a fight that
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: on paper is about three years versus zero. So let's
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: talk about the timeline because this isn't a fight with
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: unlimited time to resolve itself. According to Ellinger, same reporting,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: the final day of this Congress is December 18th. There's
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: not some vague whenever Congress gets around to it line
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: that we need to look at here. We have a
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: very specific date, a little over two and a half
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: months out. And if the House does make changes, those
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: changes have to go back to the Senate for another
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: round of approval, which is Dellinger described as an elongated
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: procedural process of its own. And if it drags on
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: past December 18th, the bill doesn't just stall. It will
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: probably die. And everybody starts over with a new Congress
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: that could look completely different depending on what November's election
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: results are, which means both sides are negotiating with a
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: gun to the clock. The house wants more freedom for
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: ACC schools to leave. The Senate wants its compromise language
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: locked in exactly as written, and neither side has much
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: runway left to blink with. Remember, this isn't the bill's
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: only path to dying before December 18th. A handful of
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: House members are reportedly skeptical that this thing even gets
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a floor vote at all, regardless of what happens with
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: the ACC language, simply because it's too divisive to bring
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: up as written. So there are really only two separate
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: ways that this thing stalls out. Either the House and
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the Senate can't agree on the expansion provision in time,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: or leadership may just never even schedule a vote in
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: the first place. Either one ends with the same thing.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: No bill, no cap, no three-year window. Everybody goes back
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: to square one, waiting on whatever a new Congress will
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: decide to do with this problem in January. If you
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: zoom out for just a second, I think this is
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the part that actually matters the most for anybody who's
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: following the realignment conversation, and has been for years, not
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: just during the life of this bill. The letter pushing
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: to eliminate the expansion provision entirely coming out of Florida,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: North Carolina, and South Carolina are not random states again.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Those are the exact states that are home to the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Magnificent Seven group that first started meeting back in 2023
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: to discuss leaving the ACC together. Florida State, Clemson, Miami,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: North Carolina, NC State, you had Virginia and Virginia Tech
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: in there. Three years later, the same core is the
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: one that is driving this fight, just through Congress instead
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: of a courtroom this time. And that's not a coincidence either.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Clemson and Florida State already spent the better part of
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: two years in court trying to find a way out
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: of this conference's grant of rights before that settlement finally
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: landed earlier this year and gave everybody the sliding exit
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: fee framework that we've talked about several times. NC State
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: and Miami watched that play out closely. So did North Carolina.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: When the courtroom route gets this expensive in this slow,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Congress starts looking like a much faster lane, assuming that
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: you can get enough votes to use it. North Carolina
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: in particular adds an extra layer right now. They have
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: been part of consistent and unconfirmed rumors about a so-called
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: handshake agreement between themselves and another conference that goes back
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: for more than a year. On top of that, Bill
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Belichick's seat in Chapel Hill is reportedly getting hotter by
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the week. If North Carolina ends up moving on from
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: him at some point, while this bill is still working
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: its way through Washington, you'd have a program simultaneously rebuilding
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: its football identity and openly positioning for a new conference
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: to jump to, with reporters connecting every single dot in
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: real time. It's the kind of combination that will tend
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: to lead to headlines that nobody maybe saw coming. Now,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: nobody in the House or the Senate is assigning seats yet.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: That's not how any of this works. But on threes,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Wilson Alexander put out a projection this week of exactly
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: how realignment could shake out if that 20-team cap actually
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: became law. It lines up with almost everything that we've
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: talked about. His projection has the Big Ten adding Miami
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: and Virginia. It has the SEC adding four teams, Clemson,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Florida State, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech. Look at that
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: list again. Every single name on it is a Mag7 program.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Every single one is a school tied to this house letter.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: This isn't somebody throwing darts at a map. This is
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: a projection built around the exact same six programs that
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: we've been talking about for years on this channel. They're
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: split across two conferences, kind of like we told you
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: they would be. Now, I want to be clear about
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: what this is and what it isn't. This is one
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: analyst's projection. It's not a leak. I don't think it's
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: a source telling him that it's happening. Nobody at the
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: SEC or Big Ten is going to confirm these moves.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: But projections like this don't get made in a vacuum.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: When somebody who actually covers this space very closely lands
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: on the same six schools that everybody in Washington is
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: currently fighting over and splits them almost evenly between the
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: two conferences with real room to take them, I don't
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: think it's a coincidence. That's the entire realignment industry looking
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: at the same math and getting to the same conclusion
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: from two completely different directions. One side is doing it
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: through legislations. The other side is doing it through projection.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Both landed on the same six names. And if it's
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: anywhere close to right, it also tells you something about
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: why Florida State and Miami specifically are the two names
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that Randy Levine keeps calling out. In this projection, they
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: don't even end up in the same conference. Miami to
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: the Big Ten, FSU to the SEC, which means even
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: in the best case outcome for both of them, they're
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: not fighting for a shared landing spot together. They're each
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: fighting for their own door in two different buildings. and
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: just happened to be making that case at the exact
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: same time. So here's where all of it leaves us.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: The Senate considers this bill finished, a final product in
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: their own words. The House is actively trying to rewrite
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: its most contentious section, and the two sides trying to
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: get this across the finish line are now publicly accusing
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: each other in the very same week of being the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: ones trying to blow up the ACC. Levine is defending
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: a bill he says solves college sports' problems. while naming
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: two specific schools as an obstacle to that. The Senate
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: is threatening a whole lot that the House doesn't want.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: And somewhere in the middle of all of it, you've
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: got Florida State and Miami fighting for freedom to leave
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: a conference, fighting toward two leagues that are already telling
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Washington that they don't want them anyway. None of that
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: sounds like a bill that's gliding quietly toward passage. It
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: sounds a lot to me like a bill that's about
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: to have a fight against That's going to get a
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: whole lot louder before December 18th arrives. I'd love to
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: know your thoughts. I'd love to get your comments on
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: how you think it all goes down. We appreciate you
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: guys for tuning in to College Football Addiction. We appreciate
• 17:50
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• 17:52
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• 17:55
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• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the next one here on College Football Addiction.