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Friedlander: No more Mr. Nice Guy … it’s about time Jim Phillips took the gloves off and started swinging
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CHARLOTTE, NC – The battle lines were drawn even before Florida State filed suit against the ACC and its restrictive media grant of rights last December.
The school’s Board of Trustees fired the first salvo in the ACC’s fight for survival by airing its financial grievances against the conference in an open meeting around this time last year. And Clemson has since picked up on the narrative and joined the fray by initiating legal action of its own.
Although the ACC has done its part to hold off the challenge and keep its membership together by countersuing its dissident members, it has been far less aggressive and vocal in its own defense than those representing the Seminoles and Tigers.
Until now.
On Monday, in his annual forum at the ACC’s preseason Football Kickoff media event, commissioner Jim Phillips finally took the gloves off and came out swinging.
In a rare and long-overdue show of emotion regarding the dark cloud hanging over his conference, the usually understated Phillips called the effort by FSU and Clemson to leave the ACC “extremely damaging, disruptive and incredibly harmful to the league.”
He chided the Seminoles and Tigers for trying to get out of a contract they “willingly and enthusiastically signed, twice” and defended his predecessor John Swofford, who has been portrayed as a villain for entering the ACC into the long-term and long-outdated television rights deal with ESPN that is the root of the Seminoles’ and Tigers’ dissatisfaction with the league.
And Phillips vowed that the conference will fight “as long as it takes” to protect its members and remain relevant amid the rapidly changing college sports landscape.
“Forceful moments deserve forceful support and leadership,” he said in response to a question about his uncharacteristic combative attitude. “This is a really important time for the conference. … This league deserves us to take this really serious issue and to handle it appropriately.”
Jim Phillips on the ongoing lawsuits.
Full video pic.twitter.com/XVNbmWVIIj
— Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) July 22, 2024
Forceful isn’t a word often used to describe Phillips in his public statements advocating for the league. Fair or not, his understated style has created a perception of weakness, especially compared to the approach taken by the ACC’s adversaries.
Their rhetoric has whipped their respective fan bases into a feeding frenzy of disdain for the conference and the internet realignment conspiracy theorists into a school of sharks sensing blood in the water.
But while the ACC’s long-term future is anything but secure, Phillips’ statement that the league isn’t going anywhere anytime soon is anything but wishful thinking.
Let’s start with the fact that FSU and Clemson have indicated that they don’t plan to file a notice to withdraw from the conference on or before the upcoming Aug. 15 deadline, meaning that they’ll be committed to the league at least through the 2025-26 academic year.
Even then, it’s doubtful that any of the 3 dueling lawsuits – filed in 3 different jurisdictions – will be decided by then.
Let alone the inevitable appeals by whichever side gets an unfavorable ruling.
And if you’re waiting on ESPN to use the upcoming “look-in” to opt out of its contract with the ACC and effectively dissolve the league, you’re also going to be disappointed.
“Our partnership with ESPN is not going away. It’s not going away,” Phillips said, repeating himself for emphasis. “We have talked to them about additional resources and how we monetize it. We’re 50-50 partners on that. They’re as motivated as we are to generate more revenue for the overall television deal.
“I’m very optimistic about where we’re going with them. They understand the importance. I’ll just leave it at that.”
Nothing Phillips said Monday, including his commitment to exploring additional revenue sources while promoting the ACC’s new performance-based distribution incentives, is going to change the contentious climate that exists between the league and its 2 unhappy members.
But his comments have, at least, begun to change the narrative of the fight.
It’s uncertain what brought about the change in the commissioner’s tone. Perhaps it’s the realization that the battle for the ACC’s very existence has reached a critical stage. Or maybe he’s just had enough of all the negativity being thrown toward him and his conference.
Either way, it’s about time he shed the Mr. Nice Guy act and began fighting back.
“This has been a league that started way before me, 71 years ago,” he said. “And it will be a league that will be around a long time after I depart.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
But if the scourge of conference realignment finally does catch up with the ACC and sends it to its ultimate demise, Phillips’ new-found forcefulness is a sign that at the very least, the league won’t be going quietly into the good night.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
