Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewspapers.com
The Atlantic Coast Conference is still hearing backroom conversation about schools wanting to jump ship to what they see are better situations.
Commissioner Jim Phillips took a moment to address the elephant in the room during this past week’s ACC football media days. The matter included lawsuits by both Florida State and Clemson.
“The legal disputes within the conference were brought to resolution at the beginning of March. The ACC Board of Directors was amazing in its leadership, dedication, and patience through a challenging process,” said Phillips.
“The settlement provides long-term stability for the league with the potential for all members to benefit from additional revenue opportunities. Leading in the distribution of revenue based on success, and now with an additional revenue distribution model that is based on viewership, the ACC has been innovative in its approach to conference revenues. 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.”
Phillips said without question there’s still significant work to be done, but the conference collectively it is a better place.
“With that said, we also need congress to act. We’ll continue to push for federal legislation that will support our efforts to ensure a uniform, stable, and legally sound future. Recently a bipartisan group of congress members sponsored the SCORE Act, designed to address issues that threaten college sports, but could not be solved in the legal settlement in June. Creating a national standard as opposed to state-by-state differences codifies the student-athlete’s right to earn money for their NIL and is of paramount importance in ensuring that all institutions are operating under the same law,” he said.
On the field, Phillips pointed out ACC Football has the strongest nonconference schedule in the country with 26 nonconference games against Power 4 opponents, including Notre Dame, which is eight more than any other league.
“Whether looking at the nonconference games against teams ranked in the final 2024 CFP rankings or ESPN’s 2025 Way-Too-Early Top 25, our league is leading the way,” he said.
Phillips also fielded questions about the possible expansion of the College Football playoffs.
“Fairness and access should also be part of the equation. We have a really good playoff right now. It’s the five and seven model. I’m open to 5-9 and 5-11. I always look to our championships to try to have as much access as possible. Within reason, it has to make sense. I think 5 and 7 allows about 9 percent of those who play college football at the FBS level a chance to get into the playoff, and it goes up about a percent and a half. So I think you get to nearly 12 percent if you go to a 5 and 11 model,” he said.
