Addressed many things, like NIL
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is on the stage here in Charlotte. He hits on NIL. Wants Congress to enact standards that apply to all schools and ensures fair competition.Good luck with that.— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) July 20, 2022
The state of College football in general
Phillips said college football is not professional football. It's not NFL-lite."This should not be a winner-take-all or zero-sum structure."— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) July 20, 2022
Phillips asked if his passion for the college model seems old-fashioned with where things are going in sports these days: "We owe it to those kids. This is no time to be waving the white flag on that."— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) July 20, 2022
The revenue disparity that the ACC now faces
Phillips is looking at all options and engaging in discussions with media partners to increase revenue for the league."All options must be carefully evaluated."— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) July 20, 2022
Phillips said he doesn't think expansion is the only way to close the revenue gap with the SEC and Big Ten.Said the ACC has to "look creatively" at the situation.— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) July 20, 2022
And ND's independence
Phillips on ACC teams staying put: "I love our 15 schools and I'm confident in us staying together."Said he respects Notre Dame's independence. Feels "really good" about if Irish ever join a league that it'd be the ACC.— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) July 20, 2022
Comments
And if you're still wondering about the current state of the ACC Network
If you're wondering about the current state of the ACC Network, you've never watched it.
Those commercials! Oy Vey!
Spurtle
Hokie Spurtles - get them while they're hot!
not joking here, but if they actually sold ad time for fan-related material they might actually see a bump in revenue. I would honestly like to know the return on investment that Bell & Howell and the great makers of the spurtle have seen. Because guess what? The people that are most likely to buy your products are NOT watching the ACCN.
I mean I guess they're trying to hit on the color theme, but it's not even really close enough. I feel like they'd have better luck inlaying a VT in it. And I mean, growing up in the 70s and 80s, that thing looks like it has more functionality for spanking than any other purpose (haven't seen the commercial, but from comments on here, I think cooking?). So many misses. Also feels like a start up got money from somewhere and decided to advertise and it was kinda doomed from the start. I guess it feels like a remnant of the Fuente era, and hopefully it too will disappear.
Oh, those are just some utensils I found on Amazon that happen to have our colors, and not intentionally made for VT. My wife bought me some for Christmas last year and they very much are orange and maroon and they're great to cook with. If you can find the full set with spoons and spatulas, I highly recommend.
Also led off with saying the ACC has hired some "revenue consultants" to evaluate all options on how to narrow the gap. No concrete plans identified, but acknowledged unequal revenue sharing is on the table. Not great, Bob.
unequal revenue sharing is a non-starter for me. Even if we end up getting some of the higher end funding, it still won't be near enough to close the gap with the SEC and Big Ten, but even worse, the second you have a bad season, the financial penalty is so severe it will set you back YEARS. And that's assuming its performance based, which is basically the only thing I can think the lower tier schools would agree to. The schools that struggle with football will get so badly underfunded that they'll legitimately plummet to horrendous status, akin to Temple in the Big East days, which will just drag the conference down as a whole.
I'm assuming that there would have to be a vote among schools before an unequal revenue sharing model is implemented. But hypothetically speaking - if the ACC goes that route, could schools challenge the GoR by saying that the terms of the agreement have changed? Asking for a maroon and orange feathered friend,
If there is legitimately a path to us getting into either the SEC or Big Ten should we have the opportunity, we must vote 'no' for any kind of unequal revenue sharing. Force the conference to enact it without unanimous support, and then sue to get out from under the GoR, that has fundamentally changed from when we originally signed off on it, claiming that the ACC voided their end of that contract by forcing unauthorized changes upon us.
Who knows if that would actually work, but it would absolutely be worth a shot.
When you have unequal revenue sharing, you don't have a conference. period. Miami hasn't won the ACC in football since joining the league. Do they get more football revenue than VT? Does UVA hoops get treated like Duke hoops for revenue sharing? total bullshit. it's not a conference at that point. The moment the Big 12 allowed this for Texas, aTm did the smart thing and got the fuck out of there. smart. they werent having that bullshit.
That was...something. A good amount of CFB personalities have already shared some comical opinions about it. I mean, it's not Swofford, so that's good.
Good lord if that doesn't scream "sinking ship" idk what the hell does.
Link to the video:
Jim Phillips Press Conference
Nicely done. Very nicely done.
I expected this to be bland, but thought there might be at least a little hope-filled smoke blown up my ass. Not much inspiration there. We are doomed.
Dan Wolken going off the top rope on Jim Phillips.
I should be ok then since "I am not an ACC fan"
This is what you get when you have basketball schools trying to maintain their stranglehold on an entire conference in a football world.
The sooner we can flee this shitshow, the better
hey whats so terrifying about 1977?!
I personally think this is a 1976 speech.
Sounds to me like Jim Phillips wants the ACC to become the IVY League of major public institutions.
Which.... Yikes
Ooh, are we kicking out BC/Duke/Miami/ND/Cuse/WF?
I don't think he thought that hard about that remark.
He probably just meant we'd cut out athletic scholarships to save some cash while we're behind.
Get us out pls
Wolken being Wolken. way back in 2020 we had a collegiate model that Phillips is referring to. Not 1977. Ass
I think he's referring to when D-1A and 1AA split when the upper tier focused on athletics and revenue from tv deals and the lower division deemphasized athletics to a large extent and became clearly second tier. That's kind of the tone of Phillips' comments, that the ACC is doubling down on an academics first stance in a rapidly changing landscape.
Yea, I have disdain for Wolken too. He's the king of gotcha-moments and hot takes without common sense.
But (per Twitter reports) Phillips sounds lost
hope we all like playing richmond, jmu, odu, liberty, W&M, and VMI. we are headed back in that direction. Jump Ship at the first offer to bail!!
Live feed of Phillips at the podium this morning
Man, when even WRAL is ripping the Commissioner....
And for more reactions....
Won't someone think of the lacrosse programs in this trying time!
dcwilson dropping some facts on you right now. 1. I am a die hard VT fan, donor, season ticket holder for 30 years. 2. We are going to be in a conference with fucking USF and UCONN soon and that makes me want to jump a fucking cliff. For Fuck Sake.
^^^^^^THAT DAMN TRUTH^^^^^
I haven't watched the press conference, just following on Twitter, but...
All in all, I'm a bit disappointed by the comments being reported. Phillips seems out of touch, and focused on clinging to the past instead of innovating. Hopefully, this is the result of Twitter being Twitter and me lacking full context.
I watched a good chunk and it was indeed as bad. He also again gave a veiled threat to the schools regarding the GoR. He reportedly also did that before on the first ACC conference call after the USC/UCLA news. Instead of providing concrete plans on what they are going to do (hint they don't have any good plans), they are using the GoR as an albatross over all the schools. Poor leadership and it's akin to being held hostage. Lot of rumors floating around that they are indeed talking to UConn and USF about joining, which goes along with Phillips allegedly slipping and saying "our 17 members...excuse me 15" this morning. This just looks worse and worse.
I'm a bit sympathetic here - I think that Jim Phillips has one of the hardest jobs in college football right now.
First of all, we're basically asking him to renegotiate a contract and somehow triple our revenue despite having a (at best) subpar product - face it, ACC football kinda sucks.
Secondly, the ACC isn't exactly full of similar/likeminded institutions - it's going to be tough to get consensus here:
When Phillips was hired, the #1 goal was to get the ACCN on Comcast. He did that.
NOW his goal is basically to keep the ACC's revenue close enough to that of the B10/SEC that we can remain competitive. These schools are looking at $100m/year of TV revenue. We're looking at $30m - how do you triple that? Hell, how do you double it?
I suppose he could stop focusing on keeping the ACC together, and instead take it to the scrap yard, and try to salvage parts by 'selling' schools to the SEC or B10, but (a) you'll need concensus to do that, and he's not getting that, and (b) it's not clear how many or which teams the SEC/B10 are interested in.
All that to say... What's Phillips supposed to say today? Obviously, he's not supposed to talk about time traveling to pre-NIL, pre-TV money days, but did people really expect him to come out with a plan to keep us competitive with the SEC's TV contract?
I can't imagine UCon and USF joining. Neither bring any value in any way - not eyeballs, not TV markets, not prestige, nothing. Realignment rumors are less accurate than coaching rumors.
UConn and USF are zero value adds. UConn is a basketball school with a football program that voluntarily left the AAC because they could not compete. USF has a football program that has only existed for 25 years, has only been a FBS school for 20 years, plays in and has a team that has a combined record of 3-18 under their current head coach. You're talking about 2 schools right now that almost anyone in the ACC would schedule as an early season patsy warmup.
And we're seriously considering adding them?
Fuck me, how fucking clueless is the front office in the ACC? The Louisville, Syracuse and Pittsburgh additions were bad enough, but this would be a whole new level of stupid. They add nothing, they would lower our profile, and would drag the perception of the entire league down. If anything, it might make ESPN want to renegotiate a lower payment for diluting the product they are paying for.
Maybe I am wrong, but if two more schools join the ACC and agree to the GOR, doesn't that mean it's now even harder for other schools to leave? We would now need 9 instead of 8 schools to leave at one time in order for the GOR to no longer be effective? If so, maybe the ACC front office is playing defense and just taking the rest of the schools down with it to protect itself...
Do the current schools have to vote for expansion teams? I don't see why any AD would vote to add teams that lower our TV value.
Duke would be looking forward to UCONN joining the conference. Somebody legitimately worse at football.
Where are these Uconn USF "rumors" from? Cincy and UCF would make a lot more sense, although only UCF would add value (and not much)
Too late. UCF to Big XII next year...
They would def leave the Big 12 to go to the ACC instead, as it stands right now. Maybe not in a few years if the Big 12 expands
There is a healthy chunk of people in North Carolina that think the ACC would be better off going back to 8 teams so they can have their precious round robin play in basketball. And I mean its an overwhelming mindset down here that is shared every time realignment comes up, so I'm not at all surprised to hear that the Commissioner, who has his current office in Greensboro and future office in Charlotte, is echoing this sentiment when reflecting on the direction of college sports as a whole.
I know a person who thinks exactly this. Talks about going to the ACC tourney in Greensboro in the 80s like the halcyon days of human existence.
Where do we volunteer to exit, to help make this happen?
Acc back down to 8 teams, yes be the first to jump,off that runaway train
That was my thought.
We could probably help them out with that.
Yeah, like Carolina, or any school for that matter, will forego tripling their revenue if the opportunity is there, just so they can return to those halcyon days. Too much money has been invested and they need a ROI. Good luck with that.
What are those people smoking?
If it hasn't already happened behind the scenes, This Speech may have been the moment the ACC died. After hearing his thoughts, it is just tough to think Phillips can navigate the conference through this realignment and tougher to think that member schools have confidence in his ability to do so.
Guys! Calm down, we just have to be creative! Doing just that should give us like $25 more dollars to split amongst the rest of the schools...unless ND wants some of it...Then they get half and the rest of us get an ACC #1 foam finger if we agree to pay shipping and handling.
yeah...the ACC is f***ed. No vision. No inspiration. No idea how to navigate the changing landscape. I can't wait until VT gets TF outta this sorry league
Reminds me a lot of Whit Babcock's press conference after 2020. A whole lot of non-committal answers and some utter nonsense that inspires zero confidence. A guy who sounds like he has absolutely no idea what he's doing - there's zero chance this guy has any kind of plan or even desire to keep the ACC competitive, he's just working on behalf of the small schools who don't care about football to keep the rest of the conference hostage so they can keep getting their payday.
Make no mistake, UNC is a part of the problem here
I think it's time the Hokies and Wolfpack talked and made a deal. Honestly if VT and NCSU got into the SEC, State would probably very rapidly start overtaking UNC as the big NC brand.
If I were NCST I would be after it already. The longer they wait the more time UNCheat has time to get tobacco road to cockblock them. difficult road for the Wolfpack if SEC only grabs 4.
If VT and NCSU made a pact to become a package deal, we become extremely attractive to the SEC. Two schools who have shown a dedication to pouring money into football that would bring in a combined market that has a similar population to New York completely chock full of collegiate fans?
And, as an aside there is about to be a major renovation/overhaul of the area surrounding PNC Arena in Raleigh. The owner of the Hurricanes wants to renovate the arena itself, but a part of that is to build up an entertainment district that includes bars, hotels, restaurants, merchandise stores, hotels, etc basically in the current parking lot of the arena with intention to have it start in 2024 or 2025 and be done before the end of the decade. They're currently in the final stages of getting it figured out, but they have all the necessary approvals to make it more of a rubber stamp to get construction going. I bring this up because Carter Finley Stadium shares that same parking lot with PNC Arena, so any development for the Hurricanes would impact NCSU as well, and that whole area could very well become a major point of attraction for any conference looking to bring them in, possibly vaulting them above someone like UNC if push came to shove.
So yeah.... a VT-NCSU partnering with this could be far more attractive than you might think at first glance.
This is the ugly seedy disgusting world of huge money football. VT should do any and everything in its power to beg the SEC to join. Beg them. Leave the ACC now and take your chances in court. No court is going to force us back into the ACC. And fuck Virginia- they can figure things out on their own. We owe them nothing. We werent in the same conference for 50 years anyway. They shouldn't be a consideration. Pull any and all strings for the SEC.
That's about where I'm at at this point. Screw you, I'll get mine. And even if Tech gets stuck holding the bag in court, I feel like if we're in the SEC (or B1G) that by 2036 we'd still end up miles ahead of sticking with whatever the ACC will be paying, if they even exist by then.
Not to mention we are both Land Grant University's.
It's more likely VT+UVA and NCSU + UNC get paired together or told some version of "you both have to have a landing spot" by BoG, state legislatures (to the extent involved), etc.
Best case to me is VT/NCSU to SEC and UVA/UNC to Big10, I don't think SEC takes both from the same state. I just have a hard time seeing the powers that be signing off on one school getting a life raft and not the other
If something like that is legitimately on the table, I'm not sure there will be anyone who would object. Everyone gets into their preferred landing spot, everyone has their future secured, and everyone is happy. UNC might have an issue with Duke, but I genuinely think Duke would be perfectly happy ending up in the Big East with the likes of Villanova and Georgetown as long as UNC and Duke have a scheduling contract to play a home and home every season as out of conference games.
I didn't expect much from the presser but man I felt worse by the end than before it started. Phillips is a dead man walking alah Bowlsby after UT/OU left Big XII. I certainly hope Sands and Whit are having regular convos with President/ADs at Clem, FSU, NCST, UNC, UVa, GT, Mia about banding together to dissolve the conference and get out of this GoR. Jim Phillips, hear me fella....it's time to fold 'em brother. Figure out how you can sell 4-8 ACC teams to the B1G/SEC and dissolve the league. Maybe that type of move will give him an opportunity to be an assistant to the Conference Commish in one of those leagues, lol and he can keep making his $3M salary. Everyone and their mom recognizes the eventual outcome here. Will he stall and make this painful for ACC schools or will he dissolve this thing and at least let half the league "come up" rather than let the whole league "fall off?"
If VT, Clem, FSU, Mia, NCST, UNC, UVa, & GT are enough votes to end the GOR, why not start an new conference for NBC or CBS.
This would be a less diluted product than ESPN has rights to and should be worth more on a per team basis.
The teams could go to round robin basketball play.
I can't stand when people try to invoke the gov't into sports. What the hell are they supposed to do? And why do you want gov't involved?? Because they are so efficient with everything else??
Besides isn't that the NCAA's job, to regulate college athletics??
I want out of this league more now than I did before.
Next we are going to hear they are proposing revenue sharing based on basketball attendance percentage and ignoring football.
Checked around on other ACC schools sites and man...same vibes on today's presser. Clemson and FSU are not happy at all. If a school like UConn does get added we may have some very unhappy member institutions.
UConn will not get added to the ACC. I will bet all of my monies. These rumors are unsubstantiated bullshit.
They would be a very solid addition to our basketball schedule
UConn (quite literally) said they didn't want to compete P5 level, and chose to go independent to cut costs. They are not getting an invite the ACC (as it currently stands). If multiple football teams leave the ACC, and the ACC becomes like the current Big East, then sure, I can see it. But VT won't be in that version of the ACC. We'd move to the B12 before we stay in a conference primarily made of private, basketball-first schools.
Yeah I was joking at the fact the ACC would think basketball when this is all about football
Me:
Another note: I too am saddened by the state of college sports and how this has just gotten totally ridiculous. But let's be honest - big time college football has always been more WWE than an NCAA sport. It's all about the card and how you can sell it. Big time slobberknocker matchups, to quote good old JR. This really started to get ramped up in the 80s, and the playoff on the surface seems more equitable, but when they box out entire conferences from qualifying and essentially make it a beauty pageant, it's all about the ratings. They want Hogan vs Flair to draw the cash. And those in power will continue to make it that way.
I've always said the best thing about college football is that it's a true life lesson because some times, no matter good you are, you won't succeed because of the name on the jersey.
Look at '99 there was talk about a 1 loss team playing over us very late in the season. I was worried when Nebraska squeaked by CU. We almost didn't make it because we're not done one with the right name.
The ACC just needs to get out in front of everything and merge with the Big 12. You can break it up into four 6 team pods.
The Football pod - VT, Miami, Fla St, Clemson, NC State, & GT.
The Basketball pod, Duke, UNC, UVA, Kansas, Louisville, & Wake.
The old Big 12 Pod Tx Tech, TCU, Ok St, Kansas St, Iowa St, & Baylor.
The Big East/American Pod Cinn, BC, Syracuse, Pitt, WVU & UCF (or Houston)
Kick Nothing but Name (Notre Dame), BYU and either UCF or Houston to the curb.
It keeps or renews a lot of good rivalries and adds regional areas for viewership.
Play 8 conference games and everyone in the conference plays 1 game against a SEC opponent and one Big 10 opponent and the other two games can be whatever you need to balance your schedule. (Suddenly everyone wants to play rutgers and vanderbuilt)
That should give the ESPN/FOXsports/CBS types all kinds of content for good games and story lines for both football and basketball, and keep us relevant with the Big 10 and SEC. There's a good bit of fluff in the SEC and Big 10. They aren't as great top to bottom as ESPN would lead you to believe.
The playoffs can be the conference champion from the big 3 and an at large spot. (Limits ND's chances and forces them into a conference)
The PAC can disappear and no one would notice. The Big 10 and Sec will poach a few of them to fill out their conferences.
Ironically, the last two ACC Basketball champions are from the football pod
Houston was a #2 seed in the NCAAT this past year, and also sits in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country
I think this is where regulation can work.
.
This will allow for a more competitive games with more consistent matchups of the higher performing teams, thus enhancing the broadcast rights of the league.
This will give the bonus excitement of promotion and regulation without the untenable financial consequences.
VT needs to just bite the bullet, join the other outsiders, and realize it's just too sweet. Joining the sEc 4life.
This was poorly done and inspired zero confidence.
I think what ACC Institutions and fans were looking forward to here was a sentient plan for the future, what we got was vague illusions and empty hope that we might go back to "the way things were."
The revenue disparity is a huge issue and it was unreasonable to expect Philips to have some revolutionary update on decreasing the gap, but expecting the other conferences to be altruistic out of goodwill and the good of the athletes is silly at this point. Consolidation/realignment is about money and nothing else.
Even mentioning Congress getting involved in NIL was cringe-worthy.
I thought the ACC was in trouble before the Presser, now I'm convinced it's days or numbered.
It's one thing that he didn't reveal a solution in public.
It's something else that he made it clear that he's looking backwards instead of forwards, as it's clear that the bullies are looking to steal his lunch money.
Yeah for me this was the most damning part. He spent so much time waxing poetic about how great things used to be that it came across like we're trying to position ourselves as the 'the last great true amateur conference'. Which, hey if you want to have moral objections to the direction of college sports, go for it, but you're the head man of a conference trying to position itself as a major athletic conference now and into the future, and adopting a viewpoint is basically throwing in the towel on the entire future of college athletics and just circling the wagons on the way things used to be is absolutely not what we needed to be hearing.
And then to hear him using the Grant of Rights agreement as some sort of 'the fuck are you gonna do about it' threat to the football schools who are legitimately not happy right now was something else. It was basically an admittance that "yeah, Duke and UNC basketball control you, sucks to be you" for all of America to hear.
Definitely.
The SEC and B1G are in fast-forward and our solution to try and press Rewind.
Brilliant.
Probably a series of dumb questions, I am legitimately asking these:
What is the point of an athletic conference? Reduce travel overhead? Bundle rights together to get more media income?
If the organization is no longer helping its members do those things effectively its useless.
The race to sell media rights + NIL basically means that the schools that channel more money from media rights to recruiting get to cement their place in the top 12, top 20 or however you want to slice it.
Are high level boosters at any school that is left behind going to tolerate this situation?
What is the point of keeping the ACC alive if its obsolete?