ACC commissioner urges ‘cooperation’ between schools, conferences

In his remarks to open the ACC’s annual kickoff event in Charlotte, commissioner Jim Phillips emphasized a need for “restraint” and “cooperation” by schools and conferences as college athletics works to create a framework for the future.

Phillips said he has urged coaches and athletics departments to abide by new restrictions imposed in the wake of the House vs. NCAA settlement that allows schools to spend up to $20.5 million annually on direct athlete compensation while also creating oversight of name, image and likeness contracts — effectively putting a soft cap on what athletics department can spend on talent acquisition.

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“It’s about setting up a standard with transparency,” Phillips said. “We haven’t had that in the NIL era. Sometimes we can’t help ourselves. People know what the rules are relative to the $20.5. They know what legitimate NIL is. You can play in the gray area if you want but all that does is undermine the new structure.”

Phillips reiterated a need for government oversight, too, and said he continues to advocate for federal legislation that would, among other things, codify that student-athletes are not employees.

Phillips’ comments echoed a larger narrative he pushed Tuesday about a need for a unified vision for the future of college athletics that prioritizes both the enterprise as well as individual schools and conferences.

“I’ve always tried to be part of solutions and collaboration,” Phillips said. “We all have a responsibility to our conference, and I certainly do for the ACC, but I also know we have a responsibility to the enterprise — whether it’s what’s happening now with [the College Football Playoff] or what we do with a new governance structure or how we formulate the [College Sports Commission]. I’m pretty strong in my convictions but try to bring people together. The best way to get a deal done is maybe relent a little bit and give up a few things but keep an eye on what we’re trying to achieve.”

The potential expansion of the College Football Playoff remains one of the biggest sticking points among individual commissioners, with the Big Ten pushing for a model that includes automatic bids for the top four teams in its league, while the SEC and Big 12 have advocated for a 5+11 model that would give berths to five conference champions and 11 wild cards.

Phillips did not support a specific plan, but he said he wants to see conference championships rewarded and is in favor of increased access, suggesting he’d be open to a 14- or 16-team playoff that did not guarantee more than one berth for any conference.

Part of the playoff negotiations is a renewed focus on strength of schedule, with the SEC wanting guarantees from a playoff selection committee on specific metrics that will be utilized to ensure teams with more difficult schedules will be rewarded for playing tougher games. An agreement on those metrics could open the door for the SEC to move to a nine-game conference schedule — similar to the Big Ten and Big 12 — which, Phillips said, could force the ACC to follow suit.

“I like where we’re at with eight games,” Phillips said. “We’ll adjust if we have to, but I think some of those traditional [non-conference] rivalry games that we really enjoy could go away.”