CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Halfway by his fourth yr as ACC commissioner, Jim Phillips has one overarching objective guiding most of his decision-making:
“That we have now a sustainable mannequin for faculty sports activities, that has an opportunity to be wholesome,” Phillips informed The Athletic this week, “and has the possibility to have longevity to it.”
If solely issues have been so easy. As an alternative, faculty athletics’ already unstable basis is rising shakier by the day. The Large Ten and SEC will meet in Nashville this week to debate, amongst different issues, automated Faculty Soccer Playoff berths for his or her leagues, additional exacerbating the rising hole between the proverbial Energy 2 and each different convention — the ACC included.
Elsewhere, a number of tremendous league proposals have emerged that problem the prevailing convention mannequin altogether and should hasten extra widespread adjustments to the infrastructure of faculty sports activities. And as if that weren’t sufficient, on Monday, Decide Claudia Wilken gave preliminary approval to the proposed Home v. NCAA settlement, which can permit faculties to share income immediately with faculty athletes for the primary time — and as early as subsequent yr.
Lots of these points are outdoors of Phillips’ direct management, however not all of them. It’s Phillips’ job to prioritize issues that can preserve the ACC’s positioning throughout the present faculty sports activities hierarchy — most notably, the league’s upcoming “look-in” interval with ESPN in February 2025 relating to the ACC’s media rights contract.
To this point, that “look-in” interval has been considered nationally as one thing of an inflection level for the ACC. Have been ESPN to not choose up the choice on its cope with the ACC, in principle, the league could be again on the media rights market in 2027 … or, more likely, vulnerable to a brand new wave of convention realignment — particularly with the league’s two current soccer powers, Clemson and Florida State, already suing with designs on getting out of the league. However that whole notion seems to be primarily based on a false impression, or no less than a misunderstanding of what February’s “look-in” interval really entails.
That’s as a result of the ACC really has two media rights offers with ESPN: one, its “base” deal, which was initially signed earlier than the ACC Community was introduced in 2016, and which focuses on ACC programming on Disney’s foremost networks (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and so forth.); and one other, signed in 2016, which offers particularly with the ACC Community. Why does that discrepancy matter? As a result of solely the “base” deal is a part of February’s look-in interval; the second, ACC Community-specific deal already runs by 2036 — which has not beforehand been reported — and overlaps with the ACC’s bigger grant of rights.
Translation: Even when ESPN, for some unknown purpose, opted to not finalize an extension of the “base” deal by 2036 — to be clear, it’s Phillips’ and the business’s expectation that the extension will probably be picked up — then the ACC would nonetheless have a media rights cope with ESPN that runs by 2036, which might seemingly defend the league from any Energy 2 poaching. And what incentive would ESPN have to say no the ACC’s premier stock?
(In FSU’s lawsuit towards the ACC in Florida, the college claims Phillips unilaterally moved the “look-in” interval again from 2021 to its present 2025 date.)
As an alternative, Phillips and the ACC are approaching the “look-in” as a method to negotiate within the margins of its base deal and maximize worth for each the league and ESPN. Phillips mentioned that might embrace negotiating for (amongst different issues) higher time slots for ACC video games; placing extra ACC video games on the community’s high channels, as an alternative of the ACC Community; and discussing “ancillary” income splits relating to areas like promoting and carriage charges.
“We now have had very, very, excellent conversations with them,” Phillips mentioned, “and I absolutely anticipate that to get carried out.”
Whereas Phillips spends this week in Charlotte as a part of the ACC’s preseason basketball occasion, his fellow convention commissioners will probably be having their very own shindig.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Large Ten commissioner Tony Petitti will probably be in Nashville as a part of bigger talks between the Energy 2 leagues and their athletic administrators. Excessive on their record of debate subjects, in accordance with The Athletic’s reporting, is the prospect of a number of potential auto-bids for each leagues within the expanded Faculty Soccer Playoff. The present CFP construction, which is in its first yr of growth, is locked in till 2026.
Depend Phillips amongst those that wish to see the system in motion earlier than any additional tweaks are made.
“We’d all be finest suited to simply let it play itself out, and let’s watch what occurs this yr, as a result of we all know we have now this mannequin the subsequent two years earlier than we go to some new sort of construction,” Phillips mentioned. “I really feel like we’ve made vital progress, and wherever I’m going, persons are actually excited in regards to the 12-team Playoff, and permitting these 4 conferences to have an opportunity to have their champion in it, after which the Group of 5.”
Phillips — who was appointed to the NCAA’s Board of Governors this week, the lone convention commissioner who was designated — had a commonly scheduled name with Sankey, Petitti and his fellow commissioners Tuesday morning. And whereas he pressured the SEC and Large Ten’s get-together in Nashville this week is “not any totally different than a number of the different one-offs we have now at totally different occasions,” he’s additionally a powerful advocate for leagues working collectively, slightly than unilaterally.
“The extra collaborative we might be,” he mentioned, “actually I’m in favor of that.”
As he did in July on the ACC’s preseason soccer occasion, Phillips pressured the league’s ongoing place in its litigation towards Florida State and Clemson. The ACC is presently embroiled in 4 separate fits in three separate states (Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina) towards the Tigers and/or Seminoles, who’re contemplating an exit from the league they’ve gained a mixed 11 occasions within the final 13 seasons.
“There’s three paths to this,” Phillips mentioned earlier this week. “One is, you litigate and win. One is, you litigate and lose. And the opposite is, you might have some kind of reconciliation. And so it’s important to proceed to consider all of these avenues.”
The circumstances are shifting slowly however progressing nonetheless. On Friday, Florida State and the ACC have a digital listening to set within the Leon County Second Judicial Circuit Court docket. They’ll focus on the convention’s movement to pause Florida State’s lawsuit pending assessment by Florida’s First District Court docket of Attraction.
The ACC’s lawsuits towards FSU and Clemson stay pending. Each faculties face Tuesday deadlines to file briefs within the North Carolina Supreme Court docket.
In July, chatting with reporters on the ACC’s preseason soccer occasion, Phillips was as outspoken as at any level in his tenure, emphasizing the league will battle “for as lengthy it takes” to keep up its grant of rights in courtroom. That determined tonal shift comes within the first yr since current growth took impact, together with the ACC’s formal addition of Cal, Stanford, and SMU.
Phillips was much less brash in a Charlotte convention room on Tuesday than he was months in the past, however his sentiment hasn’t modified.
“I anticipate a long-term sort of litigated battle, and so it has ebbs and turns to it,” he mentioned, “however I’m assured in our place legally.”
Contemplating Phillips was talking at a basketball-specific occasion, it’s value mentioning his place on the state of ACC males’s basketball.
Which is that, principally, the league hasn’t gotten its honest due the previous couple of seasons.
“From high to backside, this league has been undervalued,” Phillips mentioned in his public remarks Wednesday, “nevertheless it stays clear that the competitors throughout the ACC prepares our groups for postseason play.”
5 ACC groups made the boys’s NCAA Event in every of the final three seasons, with no less than one crew advancing to the Remaining 4 in every occasion: North Carolina and Duke in 2022, Miami in 2023 and NC State final season. However these 15 mixed bids have been the league’s fewest in a three-year stretch since 2012-14, when the league solely earned 14 invitations — and even then, the eight top-four seeds the ACC produced from 2012 to ‘14 are twice as many because it has the final three seasons.
In consequence, Phillips mentioned the ACC carried out an “in depth statistical evaluation” this spring to guage the league’s scheduling and different methods to reinforce its positioning for NCAA Event consideration. That resulted in direct conversations with the league’s groups and coaches about aggressive scheduling, particularly in nonconference play.
“Whether or not we prefer it or not, the narrative begins to get set in November and in December within the nonconference video games,” Phillips mentioned. “It’s important to carry out at a larger stage.”
One potential tweak Phillips talked about publicly was in regards to the ACC presumably dropping again to 18 convention video games from its present 20. The league hasn’t carried out so but, particularly as a result of “our TV companions like 20 convention video games,” however Phillips mentioned the league stays engaged with ESPN about future scheduling flexibility. One thought was that if the league did drop to 18 convention video games, the 2 newly obtainable video games might include sure situations that must be met — particularly to appease ESPN, and ensure the community isn’t dropping two high quality video games’ value of stock.
“Might you mandate that they must be towards one of many three or 4 or 5 finest basketball conferences? It must have a sure, possibly, NET rating the yr earlier than,” Phillips mentioned. “I feel you would construction it in a approach the place it wouldn’t go the other way.”
Lastly, Phillips mentioned he’s nonetheless open to the thought of NCAA Event growth, though not in a sweeping approach.
“Perhaps it’s time for average, slight growth to the match as a result of I really feel like we’ve been a type of conferences that’s had one or two groups yearly that have been on the bubble that fell on the mistaken facet of the bubble,” the commissioner mentioned. “I do need us to proceed to take a look at that.”
(Photograph: Lance King / Getty Pictures)
