ACC Football Kickoff: Five takeaways from Commissioner Jim Phillips' press conference

Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner Jim Phillips kicked off the league’s annual football media days in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday. 

Tomorrow, Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm, quarterback Miller Moss, wide receiver Chris Bell, and linebackers T.J. Quinn and Antonio Watts will speak with the media. The press conferences will be broadcast live on ACC Network from 11-11:30 AM. 

But first, here are the main takeaways from Phillips’ press conference. 

Availability reports in four major sports 

One of the bigger revelations to come from Tuesday’s press conference was the mandatory injury availability report in football, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball. 

In the days and hours leading up to games, ACC schools will be required to submit a current injury report and update their availability status for gameday. This will be made public. 

“For football, it will be two days before, the day before, and then two hours before kick. For basketball and for baseball, it will be one day before and then two hours before tip-off or first pitch,” Phillips said. 

More transparency is needed in college athletics, and this is a move in the right direction for the conference. 

ACC cracking down on court and field stormings 

“We haven’t been as public about it. It’s time. We’re seeing more and more of that happen. I’m seeing it more and more. We’re seeing it more and more in basketball. It seems to happen a lot to Duke and North Carolina. We have to protect those student-athletes across all of our 18 programs,” Phillips said. 

Starting this season, there will be a fine structure for schools where security breaches occur, resulting in court and field stormings. The fines will start at $50,000, then go up to $100,000 and $200,000. These will accumulate and add over the course of both the football and basketball seasons; all fines will go to the Postgraduate Scholarship fund. 

The commissioner also added that they are looking unto other sports and player safety as a whole. 

League open to College Football Playoff expansion, NCAA Basketball tournament’s not so much

One of the hottest topics in college sports is tournament/playoff expansion. With recent reports suggesting the NCAA is looking to expand the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. 

When it comes to the 12-team College Football Playoff, Phillips isn’t opposed to expansion. 

“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,” he said. “I want to stay committed to access and fairness to all of college football, not only the ACC, and protect our AQ.” 

Obviously, for the ACC, that automatic qualifier is crucial. 

When it comes to the NCAA basketball tournaments and expanding the current field of 68, Phillips was hesitant and mentioned the need to “protect” the tournament.

“Basketball is the crown jewel of all of our championships,” the commissioner said. “CFP certainly is really important and draws an awful lot, ends up being a financial engine for all of us, but I think the country really enjoys March like nothing else. So we have a responsibility and obligation to protect it. It’s in a really good spot right now at 68. We’ve had the iterations from 48, 64 to 68.” 

However, if the NCAA was to add four or eight teams to the big dance, Phillips calls for a deeper look at the possibility of expansion in a thoughtful way. Adding that the conference’s men’s basketball coaches are more in favor of expansion than the women’s coaches. 

“So you can’t hastily expand the tournament if you haven’t looked at that — and player safety and number of games and what it would mean for travel…As I said earlier, I always like additional access for teams or for schools when it’s the right time and when it’s the right tournament and format.”

ACC considering nine-game conference football schedule 

In order to bolster CFP resumes, the commissioner mentioned that the league is considering expanding the conference football schedule from eight to nine games. 

“We have discussed nine. We discussed nine several times in my five years as commissioner. The group has always felt that, at the end of the day, those nonconference games have really been good for the league and we have really scheduled well,” he said. 

However, this may be at the expense of non-conference rivalries, including Louisville’s annual series with Kentucky for the Commissioners Cup. 

“Those rivalry games that we really enjoy, I think that the fans really enjoy, I think some of those go away, and it now focuses on everybody’s conference schedule than it is a mix of conference schedule and nonconference.”

Phillips “restless” with ACC basketball

There’s no secret that ACC basketball has struggled in recent years. The league has lost several hall of fame level coaches and was late to the transfer portal and NIL party. Phillips feels responsible. 

“I am restless with ACC men’s basketball, and I’m responsible for it,” he said. “I feel responsibility for it, but it’s not good enough where it is right now. I know our coaches feel the same way, and I felt like going to 18 games allowed us a chance to play two more competitive nonconference games and give us a chance to have a greater winning percentage and some of the metrics that they use to select teams.” 

This will be the first year in which the ACC will be playing an 18-game conference schedule, down from the previous 20. The new schedule gives each team an annual partner to play twice a season (Louisville’s is SMU) and then a variable partner which changes each season (Louisville’s is Duke this upcoming winter). However, each team will have an opponent that they will not face — the Cards will not face Florida State in men’s basketball in 2025-26. 

“We can always go back to 20 if we need to. We’re not going to for a few years, for sure, because we’ve got to let this thing settle in,” Phillips added. 

“We need to get back to our rightful place in men’s hoops, and that decision was absolutely intended to try to help our schools do that.”