ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said the “league is strong” and the “healthiest that we’ve been in my tenure.” Phillips, speaking during the ACC spring meetings in Amelia Island, Fla., said, “The league is well-positioned. The league is healthy. It’s thriving. It’s flourishing. It’s helping the league nationally. I think we’ve embracing creativity and innovation, and we’ve had a progressive mindset.” Phillips noted ACC football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball will continue to air on The CW as part of a four-year extension. He added the network has “been a really beneficial partnership for us.” Phillips also noted the ACC has added a sponsorship with Allstate. The agreement through Disney Advertising sees Allstate become the official insurance sponsor of the ACC and ACC Network and the title sponsor of the ACC Women’s Softball Championship and ACC Men’s Lacrosse Championship. Phillips said it is a “really big moment for us,” as they “worked on that deal for a considerable period of time.” Phillips noted this was the first year of viewership incentives and second for success initiatives as part of the conference’s revenue sharing model, and it is “working as intended” (SBJ).
EXPANSION PUSH: Phillips said of the ACC’s support for CFP expansion to 24 teams, “When you’re leaving national championship-contending teams out of the playoff, you don’t have the right number. We lived through it, we suffered through it with Florida State, when the field was four.” He added, “I know other schools have suffered for it. Notre Dame was a CFP-worthy team last year and you saw what happened to the last team that got invited with Miami” (ON3, 5/13).
CREATIVE SOLUTION: Phillips said that he is “fully supportive” of Duke’s “‘creative’ plan for generating new revenue” in its agreement with Amazon to broadcast three non-conference men’s basketball games next season. Phillips reiterated that ESPN and the ACC were “fully aware and supportive of the deal, and both parties had worked closely with Duke throughout the negotiating process.” Phillips: “I’m not worried about it at all. ESPN was in every one of those conversations, and to Duke’s credit, they came up with something creative and brought it to ESPN and to us.” However, ESPN.com’s David Hale noted the move by Duke “immediately raised eyebrows among college administrators who saw broader implications for media rights packages.” The Big Ten also claimed the rights to the Duke-Michigan game included in the package (ESPN.com, 5/13).
RAISE THE FLAG: Phillips said the ACC has “had some preliminary and exploratory discussions” about women’s flag football. USA TODAY’s Mitchell Northam notes the NCAA added the sport to its Emerging Sports for Women program in January, and more than a dozen D-I institutions have announced they are adding the sport at the varsity level. Phillips said, “We’ve had some conversations just on the surface. ... It’s a great game. It promotes the sport of football. It’s another women’s sport -- you’re in a room here with a commissioner and staff that believes in that.” Northam notes nine ACC members -- Cal, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State, Pitt, Syracuse and Virginia -- currently have women’s flag football teams at the club level. Phillips is “expecting to have more talks about flag football within the conference in the future.” Phillips: “I’m open to it and I think some of our schools are open to it. We’ll get a little bit deeper into those conversations and see where it may take us” (USA TODAY, 5/13).
