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ACC commissioner Jim Phillips: ‘All options on the table’ to grow the ACC

Scott German
jim phillips
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips talks with reporters at the 2022 ACC Kickoff. Photo by Scott German.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said Wednesday “all options are on the table” for the conference as the turmoil of conference realignment driven by football continues to dominate the news.

Phillips was addressing the nearly 700 gathered media at the ACC Football Kickoff preseason event here in Charlotte. It was Phillips’ first chance at public comments since UCLA and USC jumped ship from the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten for the 2024 season.

Phillips said that while the future moves of UCLA and USC have created “a flurry of conversations” for the ACC, he does not believe as though the conference is now operating from a much weaker position.

Almost a year ago to date, Texas and Oklahoma fired the first shots in the latest saga of conference realignment with the announcement that the two schools would be leaving the Big-12 to join the SEC. That announcement came practically at the same time as Phillips was being introduced as the new ACC commissioner.

Phillips said that while he believes the conference is strong, discussions are always ongoing on how to grow. “I will tell you that while the ACC is strong, we are continually evaluating all options that could further strengthen our conference,” noted Phillips.

“There’s been a lot of rumors and speculation the last few weeks, and I understand we all want answers and some certainty. With that said, these decisions will impact our member institutions and student-athletes for years to come. All options must be carefully evaluated,” said Phillips.

What we know

Texas and Oklahoma will leave the Big 12 and join the SEC in 2025, a huge shift last summer to the college sports landscape that to some extent makes sense, both geographically and financially. The jump by the Longhorns and Sooners was simply the catalyst of the latest round of realignment and the rumblings that have gained warp speed in the highest level of college sports.

UCLA and USC moving to the Big Ten may not please geography buffs, but it does make sense financially. Both the SEC and Big Ten project to pay out more than $70 million per team with their latest projected television deals in the next few years and could potentially top the $100 million mark in the next decade.

By comparison, the ACC should pay out about $40 million per school in the approaching years, and $50 million to $55 million by the end of the decade. The revenue disparity between the ACC and the SEC and Big Ten will only get larger under the ACC’s current partnership with ESPN.

“Revenue is certainly one piece and a big piece as we move forward, but we need all communities healthy. When you think about where we’re at right now, we’re probably in the gated community,” explained Phillips.

How do you stay in the gated community, and at what cost?

While TV contracts and the dollar value of college football have grown to be a huge factor in the college sports industry, Phillips spent a significant amount of time boasting the ACC’s wealth of sports offerings among other conferences.

“Among our peer conferences, no league will sponsor more sports,” he said.

Phillips took time at the podium to highlight a visit that a conference party of more than 45 people – athletes and administrators from the league’s 15 schools and office staff – took last weekend to Selma Alabama. The contingent emersed themselves into learning about the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

From that message, Phillips moved to addressing concerns as conference realignment and immediate concerns of the growing revenue gap between conferences.  The crux of Phillips response: why can’t we all play nice?

“We are not the professional ranks,” Phillips said. “This is not the NFL or NBA. We all remain competitive with one another, but this is not and should not be a winner-take-all or a zero-sum structure.”

Ouch. Those remarks while made generally were seemingly directed at the SEC and the Big Ten, maybe specifically the Big Ten, which violated the framework of the Alliance formed last summer between the Big Ten, Pac-12 and the ACC to minimize the conference realignment threat.

The SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 currently reside in the gated community, but it’s clear the SEC and Big Ten would like to “clean up the neighborhood, maybe tweak the covenants a bit at the other current resident’s expense,” Phillips said.

The possibility looms that, soon, in time, the SEC and Big Ten will become superconferences, absorbing schools from other conferences such as the ACC and reduce or eliminate the rest of Division 1.

That said, Phillips understands that closing the gap on the Big Ten and SEC is a high urgency matter that he gives daily attention to.

How does the ACC generate more revenue?

The ACC increases revenue by becoming more valuable to ESPN. How do you accomplish this? Phillips said that regarding revenue opportunities, “everything is on the table,” sponsorships, ticketing, and most essentially increasing TV money.

Sponsorships are nice, packed stadiums are nice, but the real money comes from TV and the value the conference has to its television partner, ESPN. “When you look at revenue, you look at closing the gap, you look at generating more, you look at distribution. It all is part of a similar conversation.”

Phillips went further to say that he felt “really good” about the ACC being the landing spot for Notre Dame if the Fighting Irish were to abandon their heritage of football independence. That was probably a wishful or foolish answer. Recent leaks have Notre Dame on the cusp of reaching a new TV rights deal with its current TV partner, NBC, in the neighborhood of perhaps $75 million annually.

Reading those tea leaves – the Fighting Irish aren’t moving anywhere.

Addition and subtraction

Adding TV sets to the ACC’s footprint is a clear path to opening the possibility of “renegotiating” the current TV revenue deal with ESPN. There simply aren’t many schools that bring to the table what the ACC needs, including academic standing, market size, geographic fit.

Southern Methodist University located in Dallas is perhaps the only fit. SMU is in Dallas, the nation’s fifth-largest TV market with nearly 3 million TV sets. That will get the folks in Bristol’s attention. And Dallas is in Texas, perhaps the most hallowed of all ground for football, from little league to the NFL. And SMU is a solid academic university, ranking #68 in the US News best national colleges and universities rankings.

Another possibility of increasing revenue to some programs would be to alter the conference’s distribution formula so that the schools with the best performance receive a larger share of the pie, a move that could reward schools that draw more viewers.

On Wednesday, Phillips made no attempt to discount the urgency to increase the ACC’s revenues. Alongside that he also balanced a “tightrope” that all schools and conferences work together for beneficial solutions for everyone.

We can only hope the other neighbors are listening.

Scott German

Scott German

Scott German covers UVA Athletics for AFP, and is the co-host of “Street Knowledge” podcasts focusing on UVA Athletics with AFP editor Chris Graham. Scott has been around the ‘Hoos his whole life. As a reporter, he was on site for UVA basketball’s Final Fours, in 1981 and 1984, and has covered UVA football in bowl games dating back to its first, the 1984 Peach Bowl.