Does it matter what the ACC thinks about the next iteration of the College Football Playoff?

It’s cute that the media there on the scene in Charlotte for the ACC Kickoff bothered to ask Jim Phillips his thoughts on the College Football Playoff, as if it matters what Jim Phillips thinks on the College Football Playoff.

The SEC and Big Ten hold the cards on the next iteration of the CFP, whether it remains at 12, or bumps to 14 or 16.

Phillips, as the ACC commissioner, is a bystander to the discussion of the future of college football.

But anyway, let’s pretend that it matters what he thinks.

“I’ve always believed in rewarding conference champions. If you’re in a really good conference, like we have across the P4, and you’re also part of the G6, conference championships matter, and that’s been consistent in my five years, that they should be rewarded,” Phillips began his answer, given during a Q-and-A at the ACC Kickoff on Tuesday.

The ACC, Phillips said, is open to the 14- and 16-team models, with five bids guaranteed to the five highest-rated conference champs, and either nine or 11 at-large bids.

That’s where the SEC is; the Big Ten wants four bids guaranteed to itself and to the SEC, with the ACC and Big 12 each getting two bids, the G6 one, and three at-large spots.

Let’s just say it here and move on: the Big Ten ain’t gonna get its way with the modeling.

The real question isn’t, 5-9 or 5-11 vs. 4-4-2-2-1+3, but rather, 14 or 16.

“Fairness and access” should be part of the equation, said Phillips, but again, what he says about this matters about as much as what you or I would say.

Which is sad.

The ACC got outflanked – back in 2016, when it signed that 20-year TV deal with ESPN, locking in low payouts in exchange for the stability of a TV partner that values the SEC a helluva lot more.

Such is life.

I felt bad for how Phillips had to end his answer on the CFP.

“I want to stay committed to access and fairness to all of college football, not only the ACC, and protect our AQ,” Phillips said – the AQ reference being to the conference’s automatic qualifier, the ACC champ, and its ability to have a guaranteed spot in the CFP.

“I look forward to our ongoing conversations,” Phillips went on, again, as if – as in, as if it’s a conversation that he’s actively involved or, or just gets to watch from one of the folding chairs set up away from the table, where the SEC, Big Ten and ESPN folks get to hold court.