By Brian Murphy, WRAL

Charlotte, N.C. — Impassioned and defiant, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips defended his league amid ongoing court cases with members Clemson and Florida State, vowing to continue the fight to make the schools live up to contracts they signed.

“We will fight to protect the ACC and our members for as long as it takes,” said Phillips, in his fourth season as commissioner. “We are confident in this league and that it will remain a premier conference in college athletics for the long-term future. These disputes continue to be extremely damaging, disruptive and incredibly harmful to the league.”

Florida State and Clemson — the league’s top football brands — have sued the conference in their home states, seeking clarity around the league’s exit fee and grant of rights agreement. The ACC filed suit against both in North Carolina. All four cases are ongoing. The ACC agreed to turn over redacted copies of current and past agreements with ESPN to end a lawsuit from the Florida attorney general.

“Every member of this conference willingly signed the grant of rights and unanimously and, quite frankly, eagerly agreed to our current television contract and the launch of the ACC Network,” Phillips said.

Known for his commitment to students and academics and an, at times, old-fashioned notion of college athletics, Phillips didn’t hold back in Monday’s annual address to media at the ACC Football Kickoff.

He defended his predecessor John Swofford, who has been maligned by Florida State in its legal filings for his handling of the league’s television negotiations. The ACC set a record in 2022-23, the last year for which tax forms are available, with more than $706 million in revenue. Each football-playing school received $44.8 million from the conference, also a record.

Florida State and Clemson argue that the league’s long-term television deal with ESPN — a commitment made to get the ACC Network launched — undervalues them at a time when the Big Ten and SEC are set to significantly increase their revenue lead over the ACC.

“Forceful moments deserve forceful support and leadership,” Phillips said. “… This is a really important time for the conference. Either you believe in what has been signed or you don’t.”

He said there is not a day that goes by that he doesn’t think about the legal cases. They could take many more months, even years, to resolve.

“This has been a league that started way before me — 71 years ago — and it will be a league that will be around a long time after I depart,” he said. “This league deserves us to take this really serious issue and to handle it appropriately.”

Added Phillips: “This conference is bigger than any one school — or schools.”

Departures by Clemson and Florida State before the grant of rights agreement ends in 2036 could destabilize the entire league, setting off a collapse of the North Carolina-based conference that was founded in 1953. The Pac-12 suffered a similar exodus when its top brands departed. It’s one reason that former Pac-12 members Stanford and California, along with SMU, are now ACC schools.

“Disruption is kind of common now,” said SMU athletics director Rick Hart.

That disruption is being driven by television dollars. Leagues are growing (and collapsing) based on television revenue, making ESPN the ACC’s most important partner.

The ACC earned more than $481 million from its television contract during the 2022-23 school year. That’s up from $288.6 million in 2018-19, the year before the ACC Network launched.

Phillips thanked top ESPN executives by name at the top of his address and said, as he often does at this event, the relationship is stronger than ever. ESPN can exercise a nine-year option on the television deal to extend it to 2036 by next February, a detail that emerged from the lawsuits.

“We’ve had significant positive discussions and progress on one component of the contract,” said Phillips, without going into specifics. “Our partnership with ESPN is not going away. It’s not going away. And we have talked with them about additional resources and how to monetize it.”

The ACC ranks No. 3 in revenue and climbed back to No. 3 in distribution, edging ahead of the Big 12. Phillips repeatedly pointed out that just three leagues have conference networks. While Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has publicly embraced the possibility of private equity investment in the league and the selling of naming rights to the conference, Phillips was less direct about those opportunities.

“Nothing’s for free,” he said. “That’s probably the most important piece of this thing [private equity]. Yes, influx of cash allows you to do some things, but do schools want to do that individually? Collectively? Do they not want to do it at all?”

In part to appease Florida State and Clemson — and, to be fair, others — the ACC created a success initiative to award unequal revenue to teams that win in football and men’s basketball. Phillips said top-end payments could reach $20 million to $25 million based on reaching the College Football Playoff, finishing in the final top 25 or reaching a bowl game as well as winning in the NCAA Tournament.

That’s on top of regular distributions.

The additions of Stanford, Cal and SMU — all of which will accept less than a full share of television revenue distribution — created the success pool.

“Revenue isn’t just there,” Phillips said. “You can’t just kind of will it. What we did with expansion, with three new schools, I think really will help our conference. Then what we’re doing with success initiatives. This is before the litigation even began. That was something that we wanted to do. I felt like we needed to do.”

Despite his strong words for Clemson and Florida State, Phillips said he has maintained strong working relationships — and even friendships — with their presidents and their athletic directors.

“The moment that first lawsuit happened in December, I grabbed the staff and I told them that we are not going to treat any school any differently because student-athletes have nothing to do with this, coaches have nothing to do with this, a lot of administrators don’t,” he said. “This is just a separate piece.

“We owe these young men and women at those two schools the very best experience possible. This thing doesn’t have to be evil. This thing doesn’t have to be about hatred, all the other things that I think we all see kind of free flowing in our society. It’s important and we’ve taken our stance. We’ll stay on that stance, but we’ll do it in a very respectful way.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com