ACC Insider: Three Biggest Challenges That Admins See for League

With the ongoing NCAA conference discussions, ACC administrators highlight what they think the current commissioner Jim Phillips needs to focus on.

Following USC and UCLA leaving Pac-12 for Big Ten, conversations around the future of NCAA conferences continue to transpire, especially for Pac-12, Big 12 and ACC.

David Teel of the Richmond Times-Dispatch spoke with various current and former ACC administrators about what challenges they think current ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who is only in his second year in the role, needs to focus on. They narrowed it down to three major ones.

The first challenge is “manage simmering resentment among some members and lean on the ACC’s long-term grant of media rights to keep his current group intact.”

Media rights and money were part of the reason why USC and UCLA left the Pac-12, which was struggling to sign a deal. The conference has since claimed they are immediately looking into new negotiations for media rights. One of those options is the Pac-12 and ACC going into a broadcasting partnership with ESPN, per Sports Illustrated. ESPN already owns the ACC Network in a contract that expires in 2035–36. This translates to around $30 million each year in TV revenue.

However, SEC and Big Ten are expected to give their programs around $100 million in revenue per year due to the recent additions and media deals. This is about triple the amount that the ACC offers.

The second challenge is to “cement the ACC’s access to the College Football Playoff by pushing aggressively for the 12-team model, complete with automatic bids to the six highest-rated conference champions, that he and others delayed after its June 2021 unveiling.”

This would give the ACC teams a better chance to compete in the College Football Playoff, which is heavily dominated by SEC and Big Ten teams each year. Having more involvement in the national title playoffs would allow the ACC to stay stable, in the commissioners’ opinions.

In the last 25 years, the SEC and Big Ten had 10 of the 13 programs to win the national title. The other three teams happened to be ACC teams: Clemson, Florida State and Miami.

The last proposed challenge is as follows: “In concert with ESPN, determine if there’s a way to markedly enhance ACC revenue, through outright expansion or a television partnership with the Pac-12.”

As previously mentioned, this partnership is still in the ongoing discussions phase.