WRAL's Chris Lea reports from the ACC Tipoff why ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips thinks conference expansion is good for the conference in the long run, plus the future of the ACC Basketball Tournament.
This morning AC C Commissioner Jim Phillips explained the reason for adding three more teams to the conference. Commissioner Phillips addressed the media this morning as part of the AC C basketball tip off media day in Charlotte WRL sports anchor Chris Lee is there and joins us now with how local teams voted during all these expansion talks. Hey, Chris Jeff, I remember being a little boy and it was a big deal when the AC C expanded from eight teams to nine teams. When Florida State decided to join in, then it went from nine to what we have now is 15. Next year. When we're here, there will be 18 teams, a part of the Atlantic Coast conference, Atlantic Coast conference, adding Cal Stanford and SMU a move that still has a lot of people kind of scratching their heads. This morning. AC C Commissioner Jim Phillips addressed media to talk about expansion. Some huge names in our conference were reportedly against it like UN C. It was also reported that NC state was initially against expansion but had a change of heart which eventually gave the conference the vote, it needed to expand to 18. Now many questions still loom about the logistics of an 18 conference. But Commissioner Phillips says that the future of the conference in today's world really depended on that expansion. Getting to 18, protects the AC C now and into the future schools will ultimately make the decisions that they want. But what I keep hearing from them is they like being in the AC C and we are making progress and we have addressed some of the things that they've talked about. So I, I would really encourage all of you to, to go back to whatever schools that you want to, to discuss that. And another thing that was talked about and I was asked is, how would the AC C approach 18 teams in the AC C basketball tournament? It's already a long tournament as it is from Tuesday to Saturday. Every time that is held. Commissioner Phillips says that he only wants the top 15 teams to come in that the three, how bad your record is. If you can't make it into the AC C tournament, then you just won't be there. So we'll see what happens. Ultimately, the decision will be up to the member schools inside the conference guys. All right. More seats at the table there. Chris Lee live over in Charlotte. Thanks for the update.
