A few days before Clemson was set to face Tennessee in the Orange Bowl in Miami, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips found himself spending a few quiet moments with his sons in South Florida. Phillips and his family were in town to watch the Tigers, the champions of the ACC, take on the resurgent Volunteers.
It’s been another challenging year in college athletics with conference realignment, College Football Playoff expansion and transformative change in the NCAA.
But Phillips has been pleased with how the ACC has maneuvered its way through it.
“I’m proud of the year that we’ve had,” Phillips said in a wide-ranging interview with the Orlando Sentinel. “A lot of credit goes to our schools, our coaches and our student-athletes for the success on the field and in the classroom.”
On the field, ACC schools competed in five national championships and took home three titles (women’s cross country, field hockey and men’s soccer). The conference finished with nine bowl-eligible teams, although the ACC found itself out of the Playoff semifinals for the second consecutive season.
“We’re one play away from being in the playoffs,” Phillips said. “Clemson loses 31-30 to South Carolina, and if they make one more play, they will be in the playoffs at 12-1 as conference champions.
“All of that combined, it’s been a fantastic year, but no one is satisfied; we still have a lot of work to do.”
CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT
Conference realignment continued to create a long-reaching seismic impact throughout college athletics.
The news of UCLA and USC’s defection from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten in 2024 sent some university presidents and athletic directors into panic mode. Two months later, the Big Ten announced a new media rights deal to generate $1 billion annually. The deal, coupled with the SEC’s media rights deal, propelled the two leagues ahead of the rest of the Power Five conferences.
The ACC, which sits squarely in the No. 3 spot in annual revenue among the P5, has been quiet with the 15 member schools locked into a grant-of-rights deal that runs through 2036. The contract would cost schools interested in leaving the league an estimated $500 million.
“For 100 years, those kinds of movements have been going on,” Phillips explained. “But what was very apparent to me is that we had a very cohesive group [of schools]; a group that loves being part of the league, believes in the league and believes in the future of the league and being together.
“As you look into the future, it has stability, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to increase resources, revenue and distribution. We’re constantly looking at ways that we can do that.”
Phillips sees the ACC in a position of strength regarding realignment.
The league hired FishBait Solutions as the league’s chief revenue and business consultant to generate more revenue opportunities. Phillips sees other opportunities with its television partner ESPN as part of the ACC Network.
“We continue to have a lot of conversations with ESPN as we both want to monetize the league to a higher level,” he said. “But we’re in a good position when you look against the FBS or Power Five.”
Even so, any speculation of unhappiness among ACC members who might someday challenge the grant-of- rights deal has been overblown in Phillips’ mind.
“Some of that demise of the league, tends to be exaggerated at times,” said Phillips. “That’s disappointing because the league has been around for 70 years and all our schools are incredibly excited about the future.”
Even with realignment slowing down, Phillips believes the ACC will remain proactive regarding its membership.
“However, sometimes the best decision is to stay in our current position of strength,” he added.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF EXPANSION
Phillip’s schedule also included being a part of the College Football Playoff management group, which was recently charged with working on an expansion of the current 4-team model to 12 teams.
It was a process that lasted nearly 18 months as commissioners from the various 10 conferences and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick debated the viability of the expansion model. There was plenty of back-and-forth about pushing through a 12-team playoff before the current contract expired in 2026.
It wasn’t until the Playoff Board of Managers, composed of university presidents, stepped in this fall and approved the expansion pact.
The ACC and a few other conferences voiced concerns over the initial plan, citing the need for more time to clear up what was a chaotic time in college athletics with the uncertainty over realignment, the transfer portal, name, image and likeness (NIL) legislation and the NCAA undergoing transformative governance change.
Even so, the new 12-team playoff will debut in the 2024 season, with Phillips and the rest of the management group working to figure out the final logistics.
“Certainly, there were a few bumps along the way,” Phillips said. “But that happens in most cases when you’re trying to move something that’s been established for some time.
“But I’m proud of the collaboration you witnessed across the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame to expand the playoffs to give more teams a chance to compete for a national championship.”
The management group will meet in Los Angeles during January’s national championship game to discuss some crucial points. One could be moving up the start of the regular season by a week, with everyone starting in Week Zero.
“We have to look at it,” Phillips said. “There’s a compression of games if you leave the season the same way. You’re going to have to have some relief, either on the back end of the season or at the front end of the season, so that’s part of the ongoing discussions and it needs to all be on the table.”
Phillips believes there is good movement from the group to find a solution that works well for everyone involved, but he isn’t sure if all the details can be worked out by early in the year.
TRANSFORMATION COMMITTEE
Phillips is also a member of the NCAA Division I Transformation Committee, which has been charged with identifying ways to modernize college athletics. It’s a tall order for an organization known to lack forward-thinking ideas.
Some of the committee’s goals involve modernizing rules and enforcement, exploring the transfer portal and working to create a streamlined DI model.
“As we all know, college athletics history has changed dramatically over the last several years, so you have to stay ahead of it,” said Phillips. “You must continue to ensure that the structure reflects modern-day college athletics.
“The transformation group has done some good work and worked diligently together over the last 12 months. People care about college athletics and we are the guardians of this incredible enterprise, so it’s worth fighting for her and that’s what we’ve all tried to do.”
The NCAA recently announced that outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker would be the organization’s new president. He would replace Mark Emmert, who announced he was retiring after 13 years leading the group.
“It’ll be exciting for all of us to work with President Baker, who is coming into his new position in March,” said Phillips. “He’s already reached out to several of the commissioners and I know he’s going to be at the NCAA convention [in January], so we’re looking forward to getting together with him at that point.”
Even with so much uncertainty surrounding college athletics, Phillips remains hopeful that change can occur.
“I’m optimistic even with all the challenges we have in college athletics,” he said.
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osmattmurschel.
