ACC implementing new policies in football and basketball in 2025

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips touched upon a few new topics in his annual ACC Football Kickoff forum on Tuesday. Here are a few of the key points from his speech.

New policies

The ACC is set to crack down on field/courting storm in 2025.

“In the sports of football and men’s and women’s basketball, our conference has elevated its expectations around court and field safety,” Phillips said. “Members are required to continue developing event security plans, which will now include a review by a third-party independently, and to ensure that only participants, coaches, officials, and authorized personnel are allowed in the competition area before, during, and at the conclusion of any competition.”

The emphasis from the ACC is on player safety. He said the plan may allow fans to access the “competition area” following events but only after the visiting team and officials have left.

The fines will stack up over the course of two seasons in football and basketball. $50,000 for the first offense, $100,000 for the second offense and $200,000 for the third. That’s much cheaper than the SEC’s $500,000 flat rate.

The ACC is also implementing a policy that will drive Pat Narduzzi crazy. It will be required for teams to announce player availability before every game.

“The ACC will implement a player availability reporting policy for each conference game,” Phillips said. “In football, an institution will submit an availability report two days before each league game with updates one day before and on game day. All submitted reports will be publicly available on theACC.com. This decision is directly connected to our ongoing commitment to best protect our student-athletes and our multi-faceted approach to addressing the effects of sports wagering.”

Phillips pointed to alleviating pressure from those who are involved in sports betting attempting to receive inside information as a reason for the change.

It will be a major change for Narduzzi, who is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to revealing injuries. Since he arrived at Pitt, he has only publicly announced injuries if they’re season-ending. That’s obviously going to change now.

It will be interesting to see how he navigates the new rule regarding his players’ injuries this season. Narduzzi said at ACC Kickoff that he feels that if his team is able to stay healthy, he believes they can compete for an ACC championship.

Updated ACC finances

The ACC is often in the crosshairs when it comes to money. Obviously the SEC and Big Ten make more money, but the ACC had a record-breaking year in 2023-24.

“Financially, as most recently reported, we were one of only two power conferences to show a revenue increase in 2023-24,” Phillips said. “We had the highest gross revenue ever reported for the league at over $711 million. Over the last five years, our overall revenue is up 56%, and has more than tripled in the last 13. We delivered an average of $45 million to each school, also a league record. Once again, we are in the top three in both overall revenues generated and per school distribution, and we fully expect that to continue as we look ahead.

Those numbers don’t count the acquisitions of Cal, Stanford and SMU, and with new revenue-sharing agreements, revenue will be even higher in 2025.

The conference, as it’s constructed, may not last until the end of the TV deal with ESPN (2036), but it’s highly unlikely there will be any defection this decade. Reports of North Carolina looking to exit the conference mention 2029-30 as a potential exit point, but even then, it’s very early.

The Big Ten reached $928 million in revenue in 2023-24, and the SEC dropped to roughly $840 million in revenue. Only the ACC and Big Ten experienced increased revenue in the year.