CHARLOTTE, N.C. — During college football’s summer months, when each major conference holds a centralized event to showcase the strength of its members, league commissioners most always use that opportunity to tout how great their conference is.
Jim Phillips’ statements Tuesday were no different.
On the opening day of the 2023 ACC Football Kickoff, Phillips stumped for the ACC and doubled down on how successful the league has been, is and will continue to be.
“The last two years the ACC leads all conferences in NCAA titles. All 15 schools won an ACC regular season or championship title this past year. Academically there are no better collection of schools and our student-athlete experience and support beyond athletics and academics is second to none,” Phillips said. “The bottom line is our conference is strong, and I’m extremely bullish about our future together.”
Phillips, recently under fire because of his stint as Northwestern’s athletic director during a period in which the football program has been accused of allowing serious hazing allegations, gave opening remarks which lasted about 30 minutes. He spoke about conference titles, national titles, name, image and likeness legislation and unspecified plans for increased financial revenues to help the ACC keep up with the Joneses.
The commissioner did say the league’s relationship with ESPN, a new television deal with The CW and an eight-point plan with FishBait Solutions, which is a sponsorship marketing agency, all will help the conference’s financial standing. Although he guarded against becoming too money-happy.
“Are we chasing a (dollar) amount or are we chasing success?” Phillips said.
Hired in February 2021, Phillips also reemphasized the conference’s backing of an expanded College Football Playoff while also expressing concern for the number of athletes, across all sports, who go in and out of the NCAA’s transfer portal. The latter issue, for Phillips, goes hand-in-hand with the new era of NIL.
The commissioner insisted he will continue to be committed to making sure ACC players are as informed as possible about their opportunities.
“We must act to develop guardrails to ensure that student-athletes have access to NIL opportunities untainted by inducements, as well as reliable information about legitimate NIL opportunities and value,” he said. “The recent unprecedented transfers of student-athletes are tainted by inducements disguised as NIL money. Too many student-athletes enter the transfer portal based on rumor or bad advice, only to find they have no place to go. It’s the ultimate game of musical chairs.
“This is detrimental to their education and future and must stop. We can assist student-athletes by providing as much transparency as possible regarding NIL.”
Phillips welcomed Georgia Tech first-year coach Brent Key, as well as Louisville’s first-year coach Jeff Brohm. Those two and their teams square off Sept. 1 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a showcase game for the ACC.
Phillips said he plans to be attendance for that matchup, one of 12 games in five days during college football’s opening weekend.
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