ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips Addresses Rumors, Revenue, More At ACC Kickoff

When news broke about the Big Ten’s acquisition of UCLA and USC earlier this summer, it lit a spark to the always smoldering conference expansion conversation. Future moves, TV contracts, college football playoff expansion, Notre Dame, and more once again dominated talk around college athletics. For fans of the ACC, much of it boiled down to a simple question: what are we going to do?

While reports of in-house conference meetings and exploratory talks – a television alliance with the Pac 12 and SMU as an expansion candidate at the top of the list – made the rounds, official word from the ACC remained limited or non-existent. That finally changed Wednesday in Charlotte when ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips addressed the attending media at the annual ACC Football Kickoff event and anyone accessing the press conference elsewhere.

Phillips’ message and subsequent question period was equal parts cautionary, hopeful, and realistic but sobering.

During his opening remarks, Phillips painted a picture of the college athletics ecosystem as one where members big and small equally shared in the benefits and responsibilities. Using neighborhoods and gated communities as his example, he said that college athletics and its participating institutions have an obligation to insure the health of all sports and the student-athlete experience and that leaders at the conferences and schools must not pay heed to just the financial district tied to the entertainment arm of athletics.

In his prepared speech, he said:

“Fundamentally we are all responsible for the greater good of the enterprise. Let me repeat that. We are all responsible for the greater good of the enterprise. 500,000 student-athletes. College athletics lives at a three-way intersection of competition, education, and entertainment, and all three must exist in a balanced way. Education matters. Winning matters. Resources matter. The ecosystem is not dissimilar to our respective neighborhoods that we live in. Keeping them healthy and diverse is a priority.

…

In times of great change, and that’s a fair description of the last 25, 15, 10 years and really the last 12 months. Any new structure in the NCAA must serve many, not a select few. This includes national governance, media rights, membership, NCAA, CFP access. The list goes on and on.

We are not the professional ranks. This is not the NFL or NBA Light. We all remain competitive with one another, but this is not and should not be a winner-take-all or a zero-sum structure. College athletics has never been elitist or singularly commercial. It’s provided countless individuals with a path to higher education and, therefore, life-changing possibilities, access, opportunity at a modern rules-based structure, should all remain a priority as we continue to evolve.”

With that said, there still remained questions about how that can be accomplished within the ACC as the financial projections attached to SEC and Big Ten expansion the past two summers continue to forecast an ever-widening revenue gap. To reduce it into simple questions. How can the ACC possibly survive if those two conferences are making twice as much money or more per school? What is the league going to do to get more money into its members coffers?

Phillips did not offer much in the way of specificity, which in and of itself will likely be the topic of many conversations for fanbases all around the league.

“Of course the recent announcement of two PAC-12 schools’ pending move to the Big Ten in 2024 set off a flurry of conversations both inside and outside of our league,” Phillips said. “While I won’t go into details of those conversations, I will tell you that while the ACC is strong, we are continually evaluating all options that could further strengthen our conference, and we are engaged in ongoing dialogue with our media partners. … There’s been a lot of rumors and speculation the last few weeks, and I understand we all want answers and certainty. With that said, these decisions will impact our member institutions and student-athletes for years to come, and all options – all options – must be carefully evaluated.”

Media members drilled down on some of the rumors and suggestions in frequent circulation.

On expansion … “I don’t know that it’s the only solution. I think you have to look creatively. We’ve been doing that over the last year. We’re going to continue to do that.”

On performance-based (and thus unequal) revenue distribution among ACC schools … “All options are on the table. When you look at revenue, you look at closing the gap, you look at generating more, you look at distribution, it all is part of a similar conversation.”

On conversations with Notre Dame about joining the conference in football … “I sat here a year ago talking about Notre Dame and whenever I’ve been asked the question, we continue to remain close with Notre Dame. They know how we feel. They know that we would love to have them as a football member in the conference, but we also and I also respect their independence. Having worked there, having two children there, going to school right now, one a student-athlete, I know what independence means to Notre Dame. So you respect it, and I know that if there comes a time that Notre Dame would consider moving to a conference and away from independence, I feel really good about it being the ACC.”

On the possibility of (or ability to) some schools challenging the Grant of Rights … “ I can just go by what history has told us with the grant of rights, including in current times. People talked about Oklahoma and Texas leaving immediately. I think that’s pretty well-stated now that that’s not the case. They’re going to wait until their grants of rights is over. Listening to UCLA and USC at the end of June, June 30, and subsequent days after they clearly are going to stay in the PAC-12 until their grant of rights is over. So you can follow the logic there. I would think that the significance of what that would mean, the television rights that the conference owns as well as a nine-figure financial penalty, I think it holds, but your guess is as good as mine.”

On whether it is realistic to think ACC schools will stand pat for the duration of the Grant of Rights contract considering that it runs through 2036 … “Everything is on the table. We understand what that means. We understand what that revenue means moving forward, but I will also say, as I look at the next few years, I like where we’re going. But, again, the window is through ’36, so we’re going to have to address it, no question. Your point is a good one. Your point is a good one.”

So as fans and media members sift through those answers, the reality of the ACC’s situation really boils down to revenue and the growing gap between the Big Ten and SEC. The best way to navigate that at the conference level vs. the viewpoint of individual school interests is to try to increase the value of the media rights without breaking or opening up the GOR contract. Clearly, that’s not an easy task or more specific plans would be announced and announced loudly by league leadership.

Ultimately, that means the ACC and ESPN, co-investors and owners of the ACC Network, must explore ways to strengthen the partnership between them and how to better monetize the conference product if possible. That’s something that Phillips reiterated Wednesday. He touted the expanded distribution of the ACC Network that began last December and highlighted the growing commitment to keep football coverage on the channel year round.

“We were able to get distribution done. We have some other things coming forward relative to what we’re going to do in partnership with some revenue consultants that I’m really excited about being able to release that maybe by the end of the month,” Phillips said. “We’re looking at our TV contract. We’re in engagement daily – almost daily – with our partners at ESPN. I openly talk about ESPN because we are 50/50 partners on our network, and so they’re motivated, we’re motivated. We’ve come together to have some discussions about what would be the next iteration for the ACC. It doesn’t mean we’re going to make a move. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to make a move, but all options are on the table.”

It all adds up to, at least in the short term, the ongoing hopes of the league to remain intact and as a prominent force in college athletics. While Phillips’ words weren’t necessarily status quo, ‘nothing to see here’ in nature, there also wasn’t much that pointed to an ACC wave of the future either. With no specific plans or revenue enhancement news in the offering, his comments likely did little to inspire fans of the varying ACC schools either.

Still, the ACC Commissioner continued to show his belief in his league.

“I love our 15 schools, and I’m confident in us staying together. That’s all I’ve heard in all the calls that we’ve had,” Phillips said. “We want to work together to try to provide more resources to our student-athletes, so we’re all on the same page.”