Phillips: ACC open to expansion if it makes league 'better and stronger'

By Brian Murphy, WRAL

With the rest of the Power 5 conferences expand, shrink or dramatically alter their conference membership in the next two years, the ACC's roster of schools has remained unchanged since 2014.

You can credit — or curse, depending on your outlook — the league's lengthy Grant of Rights for the near decade of stability.

It was the end of respective Grant of Rights deals in the Big 12 and Pac-12 that triggered the coming moves of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC and USC and UCLA to the Big Ten.

Now Colorado, another Pac-12 member, appears headed to the Big 12, threatening to set off another round of conference moves.

Will the ACC, which has 14 football-playing members plus Notre Dame in all other sports, remain untouched by realignment again? Or does the league find a creative opportunity, perhaps out west, to deliver more revenue?

"The ACC has been and remains highly engaged in looking at anything that makes us a better and stronger conference now and into the future," ACC commissioner Jim Philips told WRAL. "We have spent considerable time one expansion to see if there is anything that fits into what I just described — a better and stronger conference."

The ACC generated record revenue totals in each of the last two years, but is falling further behind the SEC and Big Ten. The revenue gap is a source of near-constant conversation and consternation, particularly among schools that could fit in the SEC and Big Ten.

The ACC agreed to an unequal revenue distribution earlier this spring to reward teams for postseason success in certain sports, in part, to placate some members. Phillips said earlier this week at the annual ACC Kickoff in Charlotte that he was "bullish about our future together" while acknowledging the

"The whole concern is finances," UNC coach Mack Brown said. "The thing that we've got to do in the ACC is keep looking at how we can make more money."

Notre Dame is the obvious first answer for the ACC. The Irish were a football member in the 2020 pandemic season, but remain steadfast in their preference for independence. Notre Dame plays about five ACC games per season as part of a scheduling agreement.

"We've had a lot of conversations, let me put it bluntly, with Notre Dame, and they've been very clear they value their independence, and I think they feel strongly that that will continue well into the future," Phillips said. "If they ever have the desire of joining the conference, they know that we would welcome them with open arms."

A less conventional solution: A partnership of some sort with the Pac-12 that allows the ACC Network to expand its reach and generate higher paying carriage agreements along the West Coast.

ESPN owns the ACC's television rights through 2036, a long-term deal that brought with it the creation of the ACC Network. The television giant and the league are 50-50 partners in the ACC Network. Phillips said earlier in the week that "I and the ACC have never felt better about our relationship (with ESPN) than we do today."

Additional revenues for the network means more money for the ACC and ESPN, at a time when the cable company has been cutting costs.

The Pac-12 does not have a television deal after this season, despite long-running negotiations. The lack of a deal could spur more movement from its current members.

A cross-continent conference is not ideal for travel purposes, but it does have benefits for television. The Big Ten will stretch from New Jersey to California beginning next year. The Big 12 is trying to increase its footprint into four time zones.

An partnership with a bulk of the Pac-12 could solve the scheduling issues, while giving ESPN access to more television windows.

It would, however, bring other problems. The 12-team College Football Playoff will give automatic qualification to the champion of the six highest-rated conferences. The Pac-12 schools no doubt would want to have direct access to the playoff.

"We really like our institutions, but if there was something that made us better we would absolutely be open to it," Phillips said.