ACC commissioner has been focused on football. This weekend is a big one for league
From Pittsburgh to Durham to Boston to New Orleans to Atlanta, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is going to get his miles in this weekend, trying to get to as many of the league’s 12 football games spread over five days to start the season as he can.
He still wants to fit in a trip to Syracuse on Saturday night for the first conference game of the year, against Louisville, but the travel gods have not been kind.
“It’s been a bear trying to figure that one out,” Phillips said.
It’s no less of a task trying to figure out ACC football, a huge part of Phillips’ mandate when he became commissioner in February 2021. Football success drives television revenue in today’s media marketplace, and the ACC’s results on the field haven’t been good enough, especially from one-time powerhouses like Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech.
Phillips has pushed for upgraded coverage on the ACC Network not only in the fall but around the calendar — don’t be surprised if there’s a live ACC bowl-selection show in December — and his staff will undertake a school-by-school assessment of football resources this fall.
“You don’t have much control over what happens on the field so what you try to do it is support it off the field as much as possible,” Phillips told The News & Observer on Wednesday. “I feel really good about what the first 20 months or so have been as it relates to supporting and showcasing football. When you look at the foundation of what we have to showcase and promote football, it’s our network. ... I’ve been incredibly pleased. More work to be done, but it’s a good start for us.”
This fall, with five teams in The AP Top 25, the ACC is starting the season in a good position this time around, even if what matters is how you finish. That said, even if the opening weekend is only one among many, it goes a long way toward shaping season-long narratives, which puts a lot of pressure on N.C. State and North Carolina, both opening on the road against in-state rivals, and even more on Florida State against LSU in New Orleans.
Thanks in part to the ACC’s arrangement with Notre Dame, seven ACC schools will play two Power 5 opponents and the other seven will all play at least one, so the league will have plenty of opportunities to demonstrate any improvement.
“When we’ve gotten off to a good start it’s carried the day and rode us through to the end of the year,” Phillips said. “It doesn’t mean if you don’t get off to a fast start that you can’t, but it puts you behind. I just like the games we’ve decided that we were going to play this year.”
On other ACC matters:
▪ Phillips said he continues to discuss ways to grow revenues with ESPN, a 50-50 partner in the ACC Network with the ACC. Phillips also said the timing of the league’s hiring of revenue consultant FishBait was unrelated to the Big Ten’s move to add USC and UCLA earlier this summer.
“We continue to really appreciate the ongoing conversation and leadership by Disney and ESPN, especially (president) Jimmy Pitaro and (exec) Burke Magnus,” Phillips said. “It’s a critical relationship and we’re talking often about ways to monetize the network and create additional value.”
▪ With ESPN being cut out of the Big Ten’s television package starting in 2023, the future of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge remains uncertain. Phillips said both conferences are contractually obligated to the challenge in men’s basketball through their deals with ESPN — the women’s version is an agreement between the leagues — but it’s too soon to say what will happen when ESPN is no longer in business with the Big Ten and Fox controls those rights.
“We’ll have to evaluate and discuss internally what we’d like to do,” Phillips said. “It has to be addressed, and we will address it.”
▪ Phillips said discussions continue on the future location of the conference office, with remaining in Greensboro and moving to Charlotte or Orlando all remaining potential options. North Carolina’s most recent budget included a $15 million stipend for the conference to remain in North Carolina. The ACC first announced its intention to explore a move away from Greensboro, where it was founded in 1953, more than 13 months ago.
“The process continues to be ongoing,” Phillips said. “It’s been incredibly comprehensive, inclusive. No decision’s been made by the ACC board of directors. Without question, these projects take on a life of their own. When you’re dealing with state legislators in two states, and senators and economic development individuals and mayors, it just is what it is.
“The state of North Carolina’s proposed legislation, signed by Gov. (Roy) Cooper into the budget, that’s a significant piece of information and the board wanted to see whether that would take place or not. We’re continuing to move forward on it and feel great about it. These kind of decisions, though, I don’t think you ever want to say it’s going to be done in ‘X period’ of time.”
▪ The ACC men’s basketball tournament is set for Greensboro in 2023 and Washington in 2024, with no sites scheduled beyond that. Phillips said a request for proposals would go out this fall with a decision on the next few tournaments likely “within the next year.” ACC basketball commissioner Paul Brazeau said earlier this summer, and Phillips reiterated Wednesday, that the league would consider both frequent sites like Greensboro, Charlotte and Washington as well as potential new locations like Boston and Pittsburgh.
“We would declare maybe three or four new sites,” Phillips said. “Then I want to pay attention to the 75th anniversary of the ACC men’s tournament (in 2028) and make sure we’re treating that appropriately.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 5:19 PM with the headline "ACC commissioner has been focused on football. This weekend is a big one for league."
