ACC Kickoff 2023: Commissioner Jim Phillips addresses revenue gap, TV deals.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips Ph.D opened up the ACC Football Kickoff 2023 on Tuesday. In a sport that faces a number of unique challenges - congressional oversight, NIL, Transfer Portal, etc - the ACC finds itself in an interesting spot.

As fans of the conference are well aware, the ACC, due to a grant of rights deal that runs through 2036, faces falling well behind its competitors in the SEC and Big Ten in revenue generated by media rights. Phillips addressed those concerns during his opening statements.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips Ph.D

"In addition to our focus on our future in Charlotte, we remain in constant communication with Disney and ESPN, as there is no single business partnership in our industry that is valued more than with a conference's media rights holder. In certainly one of the most turbulent times in history for both media and college sports, I and the ACC have never felt better about our relationship than we do today. Our commitment to collaborate on way the ACC from a revenue and exposure standpoint has been unwavering.

The work that's been done over this past year, particularly in the last six months, as the Disney leadership and ESPN has been solidified, has been incredibly important to our partnership. Jimmy Pitaro, Burke Magnus, Roz Durant, Nick Dawson, and their entire team have been terrific, and collectively we have, one, agreed on a comprehensive, mutually beneficial growth and innovation strategy moving forward. And, second, put in motion several priority initiatives, the combination of which we believe will transform our conference for years to come.

Our schools and fans will immediately benefit from significantly increased ACC football television exposure on ABC and ESPN platforms. Elevated production value and innovative creative approaches tied to those ABC broadcasts. A commitment to greater integration of ACC schools across all aspects of the network: Production, programming, storytelling, sales, and marketing, and a collective mission to enhance and grow this unique and very valuable shared venture.

Meaningful new events and programming led by the debut of the ACC/SEC Men's and Women's basketball Challenges, exclusively on the ESPN family of networks. Near and longer-term initiatives include continued creative approaches across all 28 ACC-sponsored sports, especially in football and men's and women's basketball. Significant partnership on data and technology, coordinated strategies around the quickly evolving direct-to-consumer marketplace, deeper campus integrations across a range of areas, including programming and production enhancements, coordinated brand positioning, marketing and promotional programs, and most importantly, corporate sales opportunities.

In sum, a comprehensive commitment from the top leadership levels to support our shared goals to innovate, grow, and thrive competitively, holistically, and financially into the next decade and beyond.

In addition to these future initiatives, there were significant enhancements that took place this past year. In August ESPN acquired the rights to the ACC women's basketball tournament and baseball championship giving ACC an exclusive coverage to the preliminary rounds of both events.

We are also thrilled with our collective commitment to the support and advancement of women's sports, and I applaud our Disney and ESPN partners for working aggressively to foster this amazing relationship.

I will share some additional thoughts on television and the upcoming season, but let me first address some timely league and national topics.

First, I'm proud that our president and chancellors and our athletic directors continue to have healthy, honest, and direct conversations about working together as we collectively navigate the future.

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. The initiatives I just mentioned combined with future endeavors are designed to ensure that the ACC remains a healthy and vibrant conference that competes at the highest level, and is capable of winning nine national titles like this past year, if not more.

At the end of May following an analysis and discussion that took place throughout the past year, the board announced its endorsement of a success incentive initiative that will begin during the 2024/' 25 academic year. Under this initiative, financial distribution enhancements based on team performances from revenue-generating postseason competition will allow our schools to invest and achieve additional revenue.

The working group of presidents and chancellors continue to make progress, and following a full board decision in the future, we'll certainly share more details.

As I indicated earlier and in conjunction with our partners at ESPN, we have significantly increased ACC football television exposure on ABC and ESPN platforms. During the first three weeks, the ACC has scheduled a pair of games on ABC's Saturday Night Football as well as 11 appearances on ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2. In total, seven ACC contests are scheduled for national ABC broadcasts and ACC Network will also feature 13 games. In fact, of the ten full national ABC telecasts, seven of them feature seven different institutions.

We're also thrilled that ESPN's College Game Day announced yesterday that they will be live from the Queen City on Saturday, September 2nd. College football's premier pregame show will air ahead of the primetime Duke's Mayo Classic featuring North Carolina.

In addition to our partners at ESPN, we welcome the CW Network to our line-up of broadcast partners. Beginning this year the CW will broadcast 13 ACC football games throughout the regular season. Raycom will produce the games, and we are thrilled with the CW's national distribution.

Beginning in August ACC Network will embark on the third annual ACC Football Road Trip. Once again, this initiative will deliver 14 one-hour shows airing in primetime from each of our campuses.

Following this forum, I'll invite the ACC Network to come up and make an announcement. There continues to be significant excitement surrounding the future of ACCN and its football programming."

Phillips expanded on the revenue gap during the Q&A portion of the event. Those responses can be read here.