ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips Comments on Conference Realignment

The 2022 ACC Football Kickoff began on Wednesday in Charlotte with remarks from ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips. Following his speech, which included comments on several topics related to the collegiate athletics landscape and the Atlantic Coast Conference's place in it, Phillips was asked several questions about the most hot-button issue in college sports today: conference realignment.

Here's a transcript of everything Jim Phillips had to say about the ACC's efforts to navigate this increasingly-perilous era of conference realignment in college athletics:

Q. How confident are you in the ACC's place right now in this landscape when you make comments about a two- or three-gated neighborhood, considering where the revenue gaps will continue to grow and where the ACC is right now?

JIM PHILLIPS: I want to maybe level-set it. The last 20 minutes I think you got a sprinkling about where the ACC is nationally. All metrics, we are one of the leaders in the country in all of those areas I talked about, except the revenue piece of it, and that's been brought to light with the recent move of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten.

A year ago we were talking about the same thing, and so truly over the last 18 months it's been my primary focus. We were able to get distribution done. We have some other things coming forward relative to what we're going to do in partnership with some revenue consultants that I'm really excited about being able to release that maybe by the end of the month.

We're looking at our TV contract. We're in engagement daily -- almost daily with our partners at ESPN. I openly talk about ESPN because we are 50/50 partners on our network, and so they're motivated, we're motivated. We've come together to have some discussions about what would be the next iteration for the ACC. It doesn't mean we're going to make a move. It doesn't mean we're not going to make a move, but all options are on the table.

Revenue is certainly one piece and a really big piece as we move forward, but I will say it again, we need all communities healthy. When you think about where we're at right now, we're probably in the gated community as one of five. Maybe people have a different line of demarcation about who is in there. It really doesn't take away from. We're going to continue to try to find new ways to generate revenue for our conference.

Q. Jim, how concerned are you that the growing revenue chasm could turn the Power Five into a Power Two with the Big Ten and the SEC way ahead revenue-wise of the ACC? Is expansion the only real solution to cutting that down?

JIM PHILLIPS: I don't know that it's the only solution. I think you have to look creatively. We've been doing that over the last year. We're going to continue to do that.

All neighborhoods need to be healthy. It's not good for college athletics if we're not, and, again, you heard my reference earlier. We understand where those two leagues are. No one is ignoring that. We're all trying to find ways to close that gap.

So I know where our 17 -- or our 15 schools are. We are really aligned to try to find some solutions to that revenue gap, but it can't be at the expense of all the other things that we're doing. So there's I think a really good plan for us as we move ahead. Again, considering all of are our options. In these kinds of times you have to do that. This is unique what's happened over the last 12 months.

Q. As wild as the last 12 months have been and the unexpected departures of big-time programs to other conferences, how confident are you that you will be able to maintain your current membership of all your schools in the ACC that they will not defect? And also, isn't it important to re-evaluate and potentially try to talk to Notre Dame about joining the conference in football to help strengthen the ACC going forward?

JIM PHILLIPS: I love our 15 schools, and I'm confident in us staying together. That's all I've heard in all the calls that we've had. We want to work together to try to provide more resources to our student-athletes, so we're all on the same page.

I sat here a year ago talking about Notre Dame and whenever I've been asked the question, we continue to remain close with Notre Dame. They know how we feel. They know that we would love to have them as a football member in the conference, but we also and I also respect their independence. Having worked there, having two children there, going to school right now, one a student-athlete, I know what independence means to Notre Dame. So you respect it, and I know that if there comes a time that Notre Dame would consider moving to a conference and away from independence, I feel really good about it being the ACC.

Q. Just two questions: Based on your confidence that you can keep your current membership together and the conversations you've had with the presidents, does this mean you're also confident the grant of rights will not be challenged, as has been speculated by many over the past couple of weeks? And then, secondly, in the next few years, of course, media rights are coming to an end. There will be negotiations. We've heard a lot about Fox and ESPN. Do you sense another network or networks being involved in the conversation with the ACC in some way?

JIM PHILLIPS: So I can just go by what history has told us with the grant of rights, including in current times. People talked about Oklahoma and Texas leaving immediately. I think that's pretty well-stated now that that's not the case. They're going to wait until their grants of rights is over.

Listening to UCLA and USC at the end of June, June 30th, and subsequent days after they clearly are going to stay in the PAC-12 until their grant of rights is over.

So you can follow the logic there. I would think that the significance of what that would mean, the television rights that the conference owns as well as a nine-figure financial penalty, I think it holds, but your guess is as good as mine.

As it relates to TV partners, again, I don't want to speculate about what anyone else has done. We have a deep relationship with ESPN, a valuable relationship, and they're the ones that created the network with us. They're the ones we partnered with. I give so much credit to Commissioner Swafford for all of his work. We'll stay close because in the end it has to add value to your conference, and you can define value in different ways. You can define value from an academic standpoint. You can define value about athletic success and competitiveness. Are they an AAU research institution? You can also define it by money and does it have value to your conference? Would it have value to your conference?

That's the same exercise that I think has been going on for college athletics for a long, long time. Hope that answers your question.

Q. Your sincerity in the belief in the collegiate model is obvious. I don't think anyone can question that, but in fairness to you, we are going to be critical of that because it does seem a bit old-fashioned. Do you think this attitude still works in 2022 and that it will still work in the next five to ten years for the ACC as you get lapped financially by the Big Ten and the SEC?

JIM PHILLIPS: We owe it to those kids, Joe. This is no time to be waving a white flag on that. I'm not trying to be Pollyannish about it, because I live in the real world and the real time, just like all of us do, and times change and move, but for us to ignore the affordability and access and opportunity that it provides to young people, I think that would be a huge mistake, huge mistake.

I'm okay with living in different neighborhoods. That's not my point about, you have to be in the gated community. My point is the community is best when all neighborhoods are healthy. All of them. Some will never reach $25 million or $30 million in revenue to provide for their athletics department, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve to be a part of it, part of the system, part of championships at times. We're talking about different levels within Division I. We're talking about subdivisions and those types of things in the transformation committee.

If we take that path that it's only going to be about football and basketball, that's shame on all of us. It just is. I understand. I understand the criticism that comes with that, and that's okay. I think it's up for public debate and opinion about what's right. I know, I understand about getting lapped. I do. I get it. I've been in those conferences. I worked in the Big 12 -- or Big Ten for 12 years. I was in the SEC. But I was also in the Mid-American Conference, and I know what those kids did at Northern Illinois. The only thing that was different was the name on the jersey and the colors. They were just as committed to having a great experience as those coaches were just as committed. It was a situation where I left Notre Dame to go to Northern Illinois. I digress a little bit. I had people tell me, why are you leaving Notre Dame to go to Northern Illinois? You're leaving the brightest of all bright lights for a directional school. My first AD job.

I started to question it before I took the job. Did I just make the right move? Three, four, five, six people: Northern Illinois? Where is that? Northern Illinois?

I was on campus for about three hours, and I knew I exactly made the right decision. The neighborhoods look different, but are we going to really try to do what we can to keep the community healthy? That's a question we'll all have to answer.

Q. With regard to the grant of rights, you just referenced UCLA, USC, Oklahoma, and Texas. Due respect, Commissioner, they had two to three years left on the grant of rights. The grant of rights here lasts another 14 years. Do you really anticipate the conference and the university standing pat for that long?

JIM PHILLIPS: Everything is on the table. We understand what that means. We understand what that revenue means moving forward, but I will also say, as I look at the next few years, I like where we're going. But, again, the window is through '36, so we're going to have to address it, no question.