Jim Phillips not concerned by reports, ‘encourages’ schools viewing Grant of Rights terms

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips was not concerned about the schools that reportedly examined the Grant of Rights. In fact, he encouraged it.

In a world of college football realignment, Phillips expressed desire to improve the ACC in all facets. In reality, there’s a gap between the SEC and Big Ten and the rest of the Power Five.

Phillips was well aware and focused squarely on his conference.

“I’ll probably start by first just addressing, which I know is top of mind for everybody about, you know, the report this week etc,” Phillips said. “Regarding some of our schools having conversations about the future. I mean that that just isn’t news to me per se. There’s not a conference in the country and there (aren’t) institutions in the country that haven’t talked about conference expansion and landscape and what’s best for my individual or our individual institution, what’s best for our conference, etc. 

“So I appreciate that and understand it and understand the attention to it. It’s no different than when folks come to Greensboro and kind of take a look at the grant of rights and our media rights and those types of things. I encourage them to come. I really do. I mean, we feed them and all the rest of it. So that’s not a warning sign to me, from a standpoint of you know, something bad may happen, etc. These are schools that are under a lot of stress and a lot of pressures and I understand that, I really do.” 

Phillips pointed out where the ACC stands among the rest around the country.

“The reality is our conference is third in the country and distribution,” Phillips said. “Third. And as we look at the projections, at least in this decade, we’re going to continue to be there. Now we want to close the gap, we need to close the gap between the top two conferences that have started to run away from us.”

Phillips dove into the ACC’s plans to close that gap with the SEC and Big Ten. Whether the conference gets there is a different story.

“We have this success initiative plan which I’ve told you about before,” Phillips said. “How do we distribute revenue differently, potentially differently in the future? So we have multiple ways we’re trying to attack this and again, as you’ve as you’ve heard from me, I don’t think there’s one silver bullet or one move that you make that you close that financial gap. So all that being said, you know, the league is strong. The league has been successful. Five national championship titles this year, seven last year, the most of any conference in the country. 

“The academics are off the charts. When you look at the things our kids are doing on our campuses and community service and social justice and all the rest of it, it’s as good as anywhere in the country. So the group is strong, the league is strong, the league is producing, the league has been successful and the rest of it. 

Finally, Phillips talked about the meetings with the coaches around the conference. Football is the biggest item, in terms of what the coaches want to see.

“I’m really supportive of a few things right now that our coaches are kind of wrestling with one on a national governance structure for football,” Phillips said. “We have to continue to refine and modernize FBS football power five football in the ability to get things done in the governance structure.”