'Bullish about our future together': ACC commissioner positive in face of challenges

By Brian Murphy, WRAL

Charlotte, N.C. — ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, heading a league beset by questions about its long-term future and facing questions and lawsuits over his leadership while at Northwestern, pitched an optimistic vision for the conference's future.

During his address at the annual ACC Kickoff event in Charlotte, Phillips touted the league's partnership with ESPN and Disney and said the internal strife of the spring has put the ACC in a better place.

"I'm well aware of the narrative and stories surrounding the ACC and our members as well as the frustrations of some of our schools on our financials, but these are not new," Phillips said.

"The bottom line is our conference is strong, and I'm extremely bullish about our future together."

Seven ACC schools, dubbed the "Magnificent Seven," held meetings to discuss their long-term futures in the league amid an accelerating revenue gap with the SEC and Big Ten. North Carolina and NC State were among the schools meeting, along with Clemson and Florida State, schools that have been more public in their disappointment with the league's financial picture. The schools discussed, among other items, if it was possible to get out of the league's lengthy Grant of Rights agreement.

Media reports about the group surfaced before the ACC's spring meetings, leading to awkward but candid conversations among school leaders.

"I really believe it helped us. I do," Phillips said. "It was painful to go through. Nobody liked it, but it really started to develop this honesty and candor. Not that it hasn't been an honest group before, but more candor than anything else about, 'Hey, here are the issues we have or here is what we're concerned about.'"

The league moved quickly to finalize the framework of an unequal revenue distribution plan based on on-field success in certain sports to begin in 2024-25. Phillips said he and leaders from each school have scheduled weekly meetings throughout the summer and sometimes meet more than once a week.

"They're attentive," he said. "They're aware. There's lots of discussion going on. At the end of the day, I think you turn a tough situation into a positive one.

The ACC generated a record $617 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30 and distributed around $40 million to each of its 14 football-playing members. The payouts ranged from $37.9 million to $41.3 million. But the overall revenue figure was more than $180 million less than the SEC and Big Ten generated — and those leagues are about to get even richer as expansion and new television deals go into effect.

"Revenue generation continues to be a priority," Phillips said. "But let me be clear also, this league is third right now in revenue as we go forward into wherever the next TV deals are for other conferences. We've looked at it. We've had multiple TV consultants. Third is certainly a good position, but we want to gain and gain traction financially in order to close the gap with obviously the SEC and the Big Ten, who have leapfrogged everyone."

To that end, he detailed the league's close relationship with ESPN and its parent company Disney. The ACC and ESPN are partners in the ACC Network and the sports television giant owns the ACC's media rights through 2036. He said he's never felt better about the relationship between the network and the league.

"One of the presidents said it best: Are we chasing a dollar amount or are we chasing success?" Phillips said. "I think there's a difference there. If you are chasing a number, it takes you down a different path. If you are chasing success competitively in football and basketball and all of our sports, then I think every institution has an idea of what they need. ... I think people are missing it when they're not paying attention to the results of how well the conference has done."

The ACC is second among Power 5 conferences in College Football Playoff appearances and titles, Phillips said. The league's schools won nine national titles in 2022-23 and 16 over the past two years, both tops nationally. But the league was left out of the four-team CFP in 2022. No football-playing member outside of Clemson and Florida State has made an a CFP.

Phillips touted the league's early season nationally televised games, including North Carolina vs. South Carolina and Notre Dame at NC State, as opportunities for the league to showcase itself and its depth.

"We have a bunch of others that can also get off to a good start and show that the league is a really, really good football league," he said.

Northwestern lawsuits

Phillips, who served as Northwestern's athletic director from 2008 to 2021, is a named defendant in at least two lawsuits by former Northwestern athletes concerning hazing allegations and other mistreatment. Phillips addressed the situation briefly at the end of his prepared remarks, repeating part of a statement he issued last week and declining further comment due to ongoing litigation.

"During my 30 years, highest priority has always been the health and safety of all student athlete," said Phillips, who signed a three-year extension in April to remain commissioner until 2029.

NIL legislation

Phillips called for congressional action or "national solution" to help the NCAA enforce its rules around name, image and likeness. Some states have passed laws that prohibit NCAA enforcement on the issue, which Phillips called "a race to the bottom."

"The ACC remains strongly in favor of our student-athletes benefiting from the use of their name, image, and likeness," he said. "The framework that we continued to advance includes preempting the patchwork of inconsistent state laws through federal legislation is critical to providing clarity for our student-athletes and institutions. There's a need to reaffirm that the student institutional relationship is just that. Our athletes are students, not employees."

He said college administrators are working on a "Plan B," if federal legislation does not pass. Duke coach Mike Elko, UNC coach Mack Brown and NC State coach Dave Doeren called for Congress to act on NIL at last week's Pigskin Preview event in Cary.

On Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, and Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, introduced federal legislation that would require athletes to disclose how much they money make from NIL deals, regulate collectives and put restrictions on transferring players. A trio of other senators have produced other draft legislation on the NIL issue, too.