What does the future hold for the ACC? If Commissioner Jim Phillips gets his way, it’s more money.
Phillips opened ACC Media Days in Charlotte on Tuesday by saying that the league is in a good place, but “good” isn’t the goal.
“Revenue generation continues to be a priority,” he said. “But let me be clear also, this league is third right now in revenue as we go forward into wherever the next TV deals are for other conferences. We’ve looked at it. We’ve had multiple TV consultants. Third is certainly a good position, but we want to gain and gain traction financially in order to close the gap with obviously the SEC and the Big Ten, who have leapfrogged everyone.”
The largest revenue generator for any athletic department is its conference’s primary media rights deal. Phillips says the ACC is committed to its pact with ESPN, which runs through 2036.
“We remain in constant communication with Disney and ESPN, as there is no single business partnership in our industry that is valued more than with a conference’s media rights holder. In certainly one of the most turbulent times in history for both media and college sports, I and the ACC have never felt better about our relationship than we do today.”
He added that now that ESPN management is in place, the conference’s TV strategy has begun to take shape. He touted increases in the number of ACC football games across ESPN and ABC in the upcoming season, the company acquiring broadcast rights to the ACC women’s basketball tournament, and the new ACC/SEC challenge in both men’s and women’s basketball.
Some members of the ACC made headlines in the spring when they began pushing for unbalanced payouts, meaning the top TV attractions would get more TV money. The frustrations stem from the major difference in rights fees the conference gets compared to the SEC and Big Ten.
Phillips says that he knows what has been said both by the schools and by the media. He also added that gripes about TV money are not new and not going to change the league’s vision.
“The bottom line is our conference is strong, and I’m extremely bullish about our future together.”
