ACC commissioner intent to fight lawsuits from Clemson, FSU in assertive stance for future
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Commissioner Jim Phillips firmly believes in the future of the Atlantic Coast Conference amid the uncertainty of realignment and the wholesale changes to the model of college athletics itself.
He was ready to tell everyone why, too, as the league opened its preseason football media days Monday.
Trading his typically reserved comments for a more assertive message, Phillips touted the gains made from years of working to improve the ACC’s financial standing. He promised the league will fight “as long as it takes” in legal cases against Florida State and Clemson as those member schools challenge the league’s ability to charge hundreds of millions of dollars for leaving the conference. And he came bearing specifics, from dollar amounts to recent national-title counts.
“This league is better than the narrative that it’s getting right now because people want to talk about what may happen instead of about what is happening,” Phillips said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The league opened its four-day “ACC Kickoff” event Monday in an expanded format after the additions of California and Stanford from the Pac-12, and SMU from the American Athletic Conference. Phillips, preparing for his fourth full season leading the ACC, pulled back the curtain a bit on a league that he described as “aggressive” in battling a growing revenue gap behind its Big Ten and Southeastern Conference peers.
“Our M.O. has not been to do this in the public eye," Phillips told the AP. “Ours is to do it internally, to be aggressive, and to look at every avenue possible for us to grow the revenue.”
Phillips said the league's addition of the three new schools will create $600 million in additional incremental revenue gains through the ACC's current ESPN deal running through 2036. Additionally, a league that has long leaned on equitable distributions has Cal and Stanford taking reduced payouts (around 30%) through the first seven seasons before gradually increasing those amounts to a full share in the 10th season, while SMU is forgoing nine years of TV money.
Additionally, there's this season's launch of a success-driven incentive model with schools able to keep more money based on their own postseason success. Phillips said that could amount to $20-25 million in additional payouts for schools based on success in the College Football Playoff, bowl games and the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
Throw in corporate partnerships and sponsorships, and Phillips is pointing to multiple revenue streams to enhance the bottom line.
Overall, the ACC ranked third behind the Big Ten ($879.9 million revenue, $60.3 million average payout) and SEC ($852.6 million, $51.3 million) in the most recent filings, and ahead of the smaller Big 12 ($510.7 million, $44.2 million).
Still, Phillips knows the league faces challenges beyond money.
He called the lawsuits filed by FSU and Clemson “extremely damaging, disruptive and harmful” during his annual forum. Most notably, those schools are challenging the league’s grant-of-rights media agreement that gives the ACC control of media rights for any school that attempts to leave for the duration of its ESPN deal. League schools signed that agreement in the lead-up to the ACC Network's 2019 launch.
The league has also sued those schools to enforce the agreement in a legal dispute that has no end in sight and leaves everyone likely locked in position.
“I can say that we will fight to protect the ACC and our members for as long as it takes,” Phillips said emphatically during the forum.
Asked later about his comments, Phillips told the AP: “It’s important for our membership to know, as well as the country, where we’re at.”
