Latest / College Football Addiction: A Show About All Things College Football / REALIGNMENT Source DROPS BOMBSHELL! FSU Miami Clemson & UNC On the ATTACK! | ACC | PCSA

Transcript

REALIGNMENT Source DROPS BOMBSHELL! FSU Miami Clemson & UNC On the ATTACK! | ACC | PCSA · College Football Addiction: A Show About All Things College Football

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yesterday, it was an anonymous letter. A dozen House members,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: mostly from Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Nobody's name
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: necessarily attached to any specific task, but today it is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: four real signatures. Names, letterhead, and it was sent straight
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to the Speaker of the House. The presidents of Florida State, Clemson,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: North Carolina, and Miami just put their own names on
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a request letter. to rewrite the most contentious part of
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the Protect College Sports Act. This is TJ Pittenger, and
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: this is College Football Addiction, presented by PrizePix. We hope
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: that you are subscribed and locked in. Typically, I don't
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: do a lot of realignment videos during the season, but
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: it is heating up, and we'll continue to talk about
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: this and all the other biggest stories in college football.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Once you see what these four programs are actually asking for,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I think the people calling this an attack on the ACC... Mayo,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: those four schools, an apology. Let's jump into things. A
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: quick reminder of where we left off because this does
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: move pretty quickly. I will link yesterday's video at the
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: end of this. If you missed that, go back and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: watch it, but I don't want to recap the whole thing.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: The Senate passed the PCSA 77 to 22 in Section 205.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: The expansion provision exists. It caps power conference membership at
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: 20 schools. It makes any school switching conferences sit out
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: for three years as an independent first. Now that we're
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: caught up, Yesterday, we got comments from a gentleman named
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Randy Levine. He's the guy that Trump put in charge
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of pushing this bill. He stood up and basically called
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Florida State and Miami, the two schools that are trying
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: to blow up the Atlantic Coast Conference over that provision.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: He said it by name to a reporter. He's still continue.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: To go on other shows and do other interviews, continuing
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: to parrot that narrative.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Now we've got new reporting.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: John Lowe said, Tomahawk Nation obtained an actual letter addressed
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: to Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and Majority
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Whip Tom Emmer. And this one is not just anonymous
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: House members anymore. It's signed by Benjamin Ayers, the president
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: of Clemson, Richard McCullough, the president of Florida State, Lee Roberts,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the chancellor of North Carolina, and Joe Echevarria, president and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: CEO of Miami. Four schools, four signatures on one letter.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Here's what they're actually asking for, because this matters a
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: lot more than just another pressure campaign headline.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: They want two things.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Raise the conference cap from 20 to 22 and remove
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: that three-year independence requirement entirely.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: That's it. That's their whole ask. Notice what's not on
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: that list.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: They're not asking Congress to kill Section 205. They're not
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: asking for the cap to disappear or for conferences to
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: be unlimited. They explicitly call this a compromise in the
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: letter itself. They write that the coalition worked together to
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: identify a compromise that addresses their concerns while also supporting
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the broader goal of advancing a durable framework for college athletics.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I think that's a very different letter than the one
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: that we talked about yesterday. Yesterday's version from House members
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: wanted the whole provision gone. This one from the actual
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: university presidents with their names attached to it is asking
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: for two specific bounded changes and calling.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: It exactly what it is.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you'll look at this and don't
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: just say, hey, this is a compromise. And here's something
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: that's probably worth sitting on before we even get into
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: some kind of a financial argument. Go back and look
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: at what Levine actually said yesterday. He named Miami and
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Florida State. Those are the two schools he called out
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: specifically as trying to blow up the ACC. Clemson and
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: North Carolina were not in that quote at all. But
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: today their president signed the exact same letter anybody. Nobody
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: made Ben Ayers or Lee Roberts attach their names to this.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Clemson and UNC weren't the two schools getting called out
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: in the press yesterday. They stepped into this fight publicly
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: on their own standing next to the two schools who
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: were already.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Taking the heat.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: That tells you that this isn't just a Florida State
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and Miami fight who are maybe trying to manage their
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: own PR problem. It's four schools deciding the ask is
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: worth the exposure.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: They decided that together, and the two didn't even have to.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Worth doing the math on that 22 number, too, since
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: we spent a pretty good chunk of yesterday's video talking
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: about the cap. Remember, going from 19 to 20 opened
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: up six total spots between the SEC and the Big Ten.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: You push that cap to 22, and the SEC could
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: theoretically add six themselves to The Big Ten could add
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: four instead of just two. So now you've got 10
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: combined openings on paper if both conferences ever decide to
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: use every seat available. Those four presidents are not asking
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: for a number that guarantees them a landing spot. They're
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: not asking for a super conference. They're asking for a
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: number that keeps the doors theoretically open just a little
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: bit longer. which is a very different thing than demanding
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: entry into a specific conference. Now, here's the line in
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: that letter that I think should end the entire argument,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: because it's the part Levine conveniently never brings up. The
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: schools write that the three-year independence requirement would impose a
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: significant additional consequence on an institution seeking to change conferences,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: particularly when conferences and their members have already negotiated the
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: financial terms surrounding an exit. Take that out of lawyer
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: speak for just a moment. Florida State and Clemson already
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: went to court over this. They spent the better part
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: of two years fighting the ACC's grant of rights, and
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that fight ended with a real settlement, real numbers attached
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: to it, a sliding exit fee. that started at 165
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: million for the first year, and it goes down 18
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: every year after that until it's just 75 million flat
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: once you get to the 2030-2031 season. On top of that,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: any school leaving has to give the conference notice by
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: June 1st of the year before that it is actually
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: going to be gone the following June. That's a 13-month
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: minimum just to walk out the door. before a single
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: dollar of that exit fee even gets paid. I think
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: that's already a pretty enormous price. It's real money. It's
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: real time. It's already been negotiated. It's already signed, and
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: it's already binding. And it's not just the exit fee.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Part of that same settlement gives Florida State and Clemson
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: veto power over the ACC's own bylaws. The conference can't
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: change those fees. They can't change its revenue distribution model.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: They can't touch their own rulebook without Florida State and
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Clemson signing off on it first. There's even a provision
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: in there for six or more schools to leave together
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: for a single sport league at half price. The ACC
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: didn't just let those two schools negotiate an exit. It
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: handed them real structural leverage inside of the conference itself
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: as part of the price for keeping them around for
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: a few more years. When you put all of that together,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: you start to see how much these two schools have
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: already given up, how much they got just to reach
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: a settlement without blowing the ACC apart in open court.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: They didn't walk away. They stayed. They took on a
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: fee that's still well over $ 100 million for the next
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: couple of years and then accepted a 13-month notice window
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: before they can even start that clock. That's the opposite
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: of a conference getting steamrolled. That's two sides negotiating hard
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: and landing somewhere both could live with. So when these
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: four presidents say that they've already negotiated the financial terms
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: surrounding an exit, they're not spinning anything. They're telling the truth.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: FSU and Clemson paid actual dollars for the right to
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: eventually leave on their own terms. And now Section 205
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: shows up and tries to tack on a separate second term.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: federal waiting period on top of the price that they've
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: already settled and agreed to? On top of the price
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: that the ACC agreed to? The ACC obviously supports this
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: as an extra measure to what they've already agreed to.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: The ACC is hoping that Congress and the federal government
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: will do their work for them because they regret the
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: way that Florida State and Clemson bent them over in
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: public court and through this negotiation. We don't have four
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: schools that are trying to blow up anything. We have
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: four schools that are pointing out that the ticket has
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: already been bought once and somebody's trying to make them
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: pay for it twice. Calling that an attack on the
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: ACC is frankly ridiculous. These schools gave up real revenue
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: sharing concessions and real money to get this settlement done
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: without blowing up the conference outright. turning around and treating
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: their ask to not get double charged in Congress as
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: some kind of a bad faith sabotage is not a
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: fair reading of what's actually happened here.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: It's the opposite of bad faith.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: It's four schools asking Washington to not undo a deal
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that they already worked out like adults. Now, before we
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: go on, there is actual football happening this weekend. So
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: since I've made you listen to this for about 10 minutes,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give you some picks for this weekend.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I love this lineup. I know it's hard to pair
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: four things together and be right, but I'm doing it.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I'm pulling the trigger. I like CJ Carr's passing touchdowns.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I think he goes off against UNC. Sorry to the
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Tar Heels that are watching this. I think he has
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: at least two. I love Jaden Ball's rushing total. I
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: won't take any line against that guy until he proves
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: me wrong. I like Darren Mensah for the Canes fans
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: that are in here to get at least more than 1.5
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: passing touchdowns, two on the road at Clemson. I think
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: he's going to have all day to throw. I think
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: he gets the two there. The running game or the
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: weather kind of worries me some. I also like Tony,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: over 59.5 receiving yards. Get over on the PrizePix app,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: use my code HMA, play a $ 5 lineup, and get
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: $ 150 in lineups instantly if it's your first time using
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: that code. Go set this lineup up. Ride it out
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: with me. Let's see how we do. I'll either brag
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: or eat some crow after the games happen. And that
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: brings us back to Levine, though, because this new letter
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: makes his contradiction from yesterday even harder to ignore.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Quick refresher.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Again, I covered this at length yesterday, so I won't
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: go through the whole thing. His whole case for keeping
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Section 205 exactly as written rests on one line, that
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the Big Ten and the SEC have told him they
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: have no plans to expand. If that's true, we've already
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: asked you why the cap matters at all. Today's letter
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: adds a second problem on top of that one. Because
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: it's now not just why do you need the cap,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: it's why are you calling a bounded, self-described compromise.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: An attack on the ACC?
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: When the people making that compromise just showed you your math.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: The four presidents did not ask to blow way past
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the cap. They asked for two specific numbers to move.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: And they told Congress exactly why. They cited a settlement
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: that two of them have already paid real money to get.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: treating that like a sabotage while simultaneously insisting that none
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: of this matters because nobody's expanding anyway, is Levine arguing
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: both that the stakes are low and that the response
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: needs to be this aggressive. You got to pick one
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: side or the other. There's also a detail about who
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Levine is actually in this fight that's worth pointing out.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: He's not an outside analyst. He's the vice chair of
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Trump's Saving College Sports Roundtable, the body pushing this exact
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: bill through Washington, sitting right alongside Florida's own governor, Ron DeSantis,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: who holds the other vice chair seat, a Florida governor
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: and a bill backing vice chair on the same commission,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: while Florida State and Miami are publicly saying that the bill,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: as written, charges them twice for freedom that they already
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: settled and paid for. Levine isn't refereeing this dispute from
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the sideline. He's one of the people who wrote the
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: rule being complained about, and he's defending his own work.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about what happens next for a moment, because
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: this isn't the only letter sitting in front of House
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: leadership right now. You've got yesterday's letter from a dozen
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: or so House members wanting the whole provision eliminated, and
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: now you've got this one from four sitting university presidents
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: asking for a specific letter compromise to take place instead.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: You've got two different letters. You've got two different asks,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: both landing on Speaker Johnson's desk in the same stretch
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: of two days. It's not a sign that this fight
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: is cooling off. It's a sign that it is stacking.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: The House was already having to mull over whether it
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: wanted to touch Section 205 at all. Now they've got
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: a more radical option on the table from anonymous members,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and at the same time, they have a more moderate
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: name-attached option from the actual schools impacted, both pulling at
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the same provision from different directions. And remember, from yesterday,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: the clock has not stopped moving. The final day of
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: this Congress is still December 18th. Every one of those letters,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: every quote, every new signature is eating into the same
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: shrinking window we talked about yesterday. If the House decides
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: to touch this provision at all in either direction, that
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: change still has to go back to the Senate for
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: another round of approval before that date where the whole
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: bill dies and starts over with a new Congress in January.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: So now, The House doesn't just have a political problem.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: It has to make a choice between two competing versions
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: of the same complaint on a deadline that isn't moving
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: for anybody. And think about the position that that puts
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: individual House members in. A lawmaker who was comfortable ignoring
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the An anonymous letter from a handful of colleagues now
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: has to explain why he's also ignoring a letter signed
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: personally by the sitting presidents of four major universities with
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: real constituents and real alumni back home that are paying attention.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: I think that's a much harder letter to wave off
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: in some press conference. requests like the one that we
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: got yesterday get buried in a pile. A letter with
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Florida State's president's actual signature on it, Miami's president's actual
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: signature on it, Clemson and North Carolina's, that tends to
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: get some things moving.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: There are a few things that I think are worth
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: watching here.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Whether any of the other magnificent seven, Virginia, Virginia Tech,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: NC State, would they decide to put their own names
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: on something similar? Now that four of the seven have
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: shown that it's pretty survivable to go public. I want
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: to see whether Speaker Johnson's office responds to this letter
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: at all or just lets it sit the way that
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: leadership let the anonymous one sit. I want to see
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: if Levine adjusts his language or not. He's been called
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: out tremendously for the idea of why do you need
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: a cap if nobody wants to expand anyway? You can't
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: have it both ways. You can't be that much of
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: a hypocrite. And right now he is.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: I'm interested to see how the ACC may respond.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Because now they've been called out for publicly supporting something
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: that contradicts what they agreed to in a settlement with
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Florida State and Clemson. Here's where I land on all
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: of it. You've got four university presidents that did not
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: send a letter demanding chaos. They did not send a
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: letter demanding that the ACC be ripped to shreds. They
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: sent a letter asking to not be charged twice for
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: a freedom that they already negotiated and already paid real
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: money for in settlement fees.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: I think that's a reasonable ask.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: It's laid out in very reasonable language with real signatures
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: attached to it. Calling that an attempt to blow up
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the ACC is not at all an accurate description of
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: what is happening here.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: It's a talking point. And it's a.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Talking point coming from someone who, by his own admission,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: is defending a rule against a threat that, in his
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: own words, does not exist. If the Big Ten and
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the SEC genuinely have no plans to expand, then there's
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: no reason Section 205 needs to stay as written. And
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: if there's a reason it does need to stay as written,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: then somebody needs to explain what that reason is. Because
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: trust me, nobody's expanding doesn't really hold up when you're
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: fighting this hard to keep the door locked anyway.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: I'd love to know your thoughts down in the comments.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: I promise this weekend and next week we'll talk a
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: whole lot more football than we will realignment, but I
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: would love to know what you think about all of
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: this going on. Does the letter from Florida State, Clemson, Miami,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: or UNC change anything? Should the house hold the line
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: exactly where it is? Does the concept of some of
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: these programs having to pay twice to get out of
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the ACC make sense?
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Because it doesn't to me, but clearly I'm biased on this.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: We appreciate you guys for tuning in.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: We hope you're subscribed here to College Football Addiction and
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: all of our affiliate channels, Big 12, Big 10, ACC,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and SEC Football Addiction.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: And we'll see you on the next one.