Here's the ESPN story on the ACC extending Commissioner Jim Phillips for three more years. The news comes as the Big Ten search is coming to a conclusion. "It was the perceived threat of the Big Ten coming after him," an ACC source told ESPN. https://t.co/UL1m7ZAuey— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 11, 2023
Keep in mind, when he took over on 2021, he signed a 5 year deal, so this locks him in til the end of the decade.
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
m'eh. I don't think the ACC could do better (or worse) so this news does basically nothing for me. Wake me up when the ACC will get compensated on or near the same level as the B1G and SEC
Prepare for the forever sleep
He has been here since 2021 and is the second longest tenured conference commissioner after the SEC's Sankey.
No strong opinions either way, just more and more angst/nervousness.
He's done some good things like getting ACCN on comcast (HUGE) and has built/mended relationships with ACC football coaches (he presented to Pry & Co at a coaches' retreat, dabo spoke highly of conversations with him, etc).
On the down side, he's said some... bizarre things (See ACC Media days 2022). Tough to say if this was out of incompetence, or if he was politicking or managing expectations, or something else?
All that said, he's fighting an uphill battle. There's not much he can do right now (due to GoR). 2024 is the big year - every thing changes then (two 16-team conferences, 12-team playoff). There will be an adjustment period for everyone after that. But if we're giving Phillips 6 years after the 'new reality' to implement his vision... that's a long time.
My sense is that Phillip's comments probably echoed the sentiments of the majority of ACC presidents. Think about the whole "Alliance" bs talk last year that really didn't amount to anything. ACC presidents on the whole are going to be dragged kicking and screaming into the new reality of major college athletics. Even entertaining the idea of a merger or scheduling arrangement between the ACC and leftover PAC 12 schools so we could play Stanford and Cal Berkeley probably really excited the academics but makes no sense logistically. I think Phillips may not be a bad Commish, but he's only as good as what he has to work with. And the ACC has just been a slow reacting sleepy country club for far too long. Remember, our league presidents willfully and fully agreed with and signed this horrendous GoR last decade.
Yeppp this is exactly where I am. Even if you put the GoR to the side, the ACC is so diverse. There's private schools and public schools, football schools and basketball schools, land grants and liberal arts, etc etc.
Exactly. And because of this diversity of vision, you're going to have a lot of factions within the league but probably never a clear majority to drastically shift the conference one way or the other. So you're left with basically gridlock/doing nothing.
Meh, dude isn't a forward thinker. He's going to sink the league.
Whats-his-face already sank the league. Phillips is just the second mate after the captain jumped ship
A wise man once told me (and a couple hundred others who joined me in Mcbryde 100), "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten".