Wednesday ACC Commissioner Jim Philips spoke on a variety of topics concerning the future of the ACC. I thought he was transparent, honest, and he spoke at length on revenue and realignment.
Here’s what some people wanted to hear… and it seemed to be across the board.
Giglio: Phillips’ devotion to antiquated collegiate model will ultimately cost the ACC https://t.co/SKhW1NfOIz
— WRALSportsFan (@WRALSportsFan) July 20, 2022
This is a totally inaccurate statement, and frankly I’m not sure what press-conference some folks were listening to.
Did he talk about the collegiate model, yea sure but that wasn’t the focus or the plan to move the ACC forward.
It was revenue, revenue, and revenue. He said it several times. It’s clear what’s he’s working on. So what if he polished things up with some flowery language? At every turn he talked about working on revenue options.
From @ADavidHaleJoint on his ESPN piece on Philip’s comments.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips opened the league’s annual kickoff event Wednesday by saying he’s exploring all available options to reduce the revenue gap with the SEC and Big Ten, but he argued the arms race in college football risks doing critical damage to the college athletics as a whole.
He’s not wrong… A SEC Big 10 world is not the NFC and AFC, it is the NFC South and AFC East and it leaves out everyone else.
“Everything is on the table,” Phillips said. “We’re looking at our TV contract. We’re in engagement almost daily with our partners at ESPN. We’ve come together to have some discussions about what would be the next iteration for the ACC. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to make a move, but all options are on the table.”
That doesn’t sound like someone who isn’t aware of the current landscape in college athletics.
And from TomahawkNation that has a complete transcript of Phillips speech.
A year ago we were talking about the same thing, and so truly over the last 18 months it’s been my primary focus. We were able to get distribution done. We have some other things coming forward relative to what we’re going to do in partnership with some revenue consultants that I’m really excited about being able to release that maybe by the end of the month.
What could this mean? Is the conference expanding or is there a merger of some sorts in the works? It’s anyone’s guess, but if you came away thinking Philips is simply relying on the collegiate model to help the ACC you weren’t listening.
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2 pings
mike says:
July 21, 2022 at 8:53 am (UTC -5)
You are conveniently overlooking other parts of his speech. The metaphor of neighborhoods and gated community was just sad (as well as a bit confusing). He came off at times like he was saying to the SEC and B1G “come on guys, can’t we all get along?” It was pathetic.
Last year he seemed to get that football needed to be emphasized by the programs in the league more than it had. This year, in the face of even more dire stakes, he equivocated on that.
Maybe there wasn’t much he could say but the whole of what he said was depressing. Unless you are of the view that maybe we should step back from trying to be top tier in football and go back to the good ole days of being the best basketball and academic conference and thus feel better about ourselves.
Jfann says:
July 21, 2022 at 10:20 pm (UTC -5)
I agree he waxed poetic for bygone era, but he knows he’s on his own to work on the ACC, and it’s all about revenue.
Thanks for the comment and the read!
Let’s see what’s happening with this announcement.