ACC commissioner Jim Phillips hit on many of the hot-button topics affecting college sports in his opening remarks at the conference’s football media days on Tuesday. What Phillips characterized as threats to the industry are not unique to the ACC, though. Despite challenges to college sports as a whole, the commissioner said the conference is in a good place, having settled lawsuits with marquee members Clemson and Florida State and extended its media partnership with ESPN.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips Talks Stability, Scheduling, Postseason Expansion originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
CHARLOTTE — ACC commissioner Jim Phillips hit on many of the hot-button topics affecting college sports in his opening remarks at the conference’s football media days on Tuesday. He called for congressional intervention to address outstanding issues in the wake of the House settlement and weighed in on the prospect of expanded postseasons in football and men’s and women’s basketball.
What Phillips characterized as threats to the industry are not unique to the ACC, though. Despite challenges to college sports as a whole, the commissioner said the conference is in a good place, having settled lawsuits with marquee members Clemson and Florida State and extended its media partnership with ESPN.
“I have a responsibility to make sure that our ACC schools want to be in this league, not just have to be in this league,” Phillips said. “And I think that's important.”
Phillips said one of his goals when he became commissioner five years ago was to listen, and he feels that the ACC did so “in a very fair and equitable manner” in the case of Clemson and Florida State. The conference came to a settlement in March with the Seminoles and Tigers, who have combined to win 13 of the past 14 ACC football championships, to revise the revenue distribution system and reduce exit penalties.
“The settlement provides long-term stability for the league with the potential for all members to benefit from additional revenue opportunities,” Phillips said, touting a distribution model that rewards athletic success and viewership. “As part of the modernization of college athletics, these new models allow us to maintain distributions for all ACC members that are above most other conferences while also providing flexibility for competition at the highest level of revenue.”
The commissioner also provided a handful of news items: The ACC is instituting a fine structure for field- and court-storming instances and requiring members to develop event security plans, which will be reviewed by a third party. The cost of infractions for the first offense is $50,000, $100,000 for the second and $200,000 for the third over a two-year rolling period.
“The plan may allow spectators to access the competition area following a contest,” Phillips said, “but only after the visiting team and officials have safely exited the area.”
The conference is also implementing player availability reports for each conference game in football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball, a move Phillips said is directly tied to the effects of sports betting.
Even with football at the top of mind, the topic of the NCAA Tournament came up, given recent discussions of expansion. Phillips said the men’s coaches in the ACC favor expansion while the women’s coaches are opposed. He said it can’t be hastily expanded without considering player safety, travel and even timing as it relates to a media partner such as CBS, which airs the Masters in early April.
“I like what we're doing as it relates to looking at it, reviewing it, talking to coaches, talking to student-athletes,” Phillips said. “Logistically, it has to make sense.”
As for the ongoing College Football Playoff expansion talks, Phillips said “fairness and access should always be part of the equation” and affirmed his position that conference champions should be rewarded. He called the current 5+7 model (five conference champions, seven at-large teams) “really good,” but said he’s not opposed to 5+9 or 5+11, either.
Conference scheduling is closely tied to those CFP expansion talks, given the disparity in the number of conference games played by the Big Ten and Big 12 (nine) and SEC and ACC (eight). Phillips said a nine-game ACC schedule has been discussed but cautioned there might be unintended consequences if the ACC and SEC go to nine games.
“Those rivalry games that we really enjoy, I think that the fans really enjoy, I think some of those go away,” Phillips said.
Clemson-South Carolina, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Kentucky-Louisville and Florida-Florida State are among those rivalries that could be threatened. Phillips highlighted the ACC’s nonconference strength of schedule, which bears out in those rivalry games with SEC schools and a compelling Week 1 slate headlined by LSU-Clemson and Alabama-Florida State.
“I like where our league is,” Phillips said. “I like where we're at in eight games because we're playing the type of caliber that I described, 26 really good nonconference games, but we'll adjust if we have to.”
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 22, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: General Sports
