Jim Phillips addresses the ACC's working relationship with Florida State, Clemson

ACC Media Days kicked off on Monday in Charlotte and were immediately met with conversations regarding Clemson and Florida State‘s ongoing lawsuits with the conference. Both currently in litigation with the ACC regarding their Grant of Rights agreement in a signifier that both programs want to leave the conference.

ACC commissioner Jim Philips was asked a multitude of question regarding the elephant in the room that’s loomed over media days from the very start as the future of the conference seems to be in question. Specifically addressing how is working relationship is between the ACC, Clemson, and Florida State amid litigation.

“I think very highly Rick McCullough, I think very highly of Jim Clements. I’d say we’re friends. I think very highly of Michael Alford, I think very highly of Graham Neff,” Phillips sad referring to the presidents and athletic directors of Clemson and Florida State. “It hasn’t changed my working relationship with them at all because of how I’ve tried to address it and how I’ve asked the staff to address it.”

“And that is the legal piece will be the legal piece, and we’ll do what we have to do just like they’re going to do what they have to do.”

The SEC and Big Ten have surged forward and generated a revenue gap between themselves and the remaining Power Four conferences. Revenue that brand name schools like the Tigers and Seminoles want a piece of but are bound to the ACC through their Grant of Rights agreement signed in 2013.

But despite both programs now actively fighting in court against the ACC and the GOR in a likely pursuit to depart from the conference without penalty, Phillips declared that the focus is with those who matter most within the conference in his eyes.

“But the moment that first lawsuit happened in just in December, I grabbed the staff and I told them that we are not going to treat any school any differently. Because student athletes have nothing to do with this, coaches have nothing to do with this, a lot of administrators don’t. That is just a separate piece,” Phillips explained.

“We owe these young men and women at those two schools the very best experience possible so this thing doesn’t have to be evil, this thing doesn’t have to be about hatred, and all the other things that I think we all see kind of just free flowing in our societies,” Phillips said. “It’s important and we’ve taken our stance, and we’ll stay on that stance but we’ll do it in a very respectful way.”

Florida State helped kick off ACC Media Days on Monday while Clemson will arrive in Charlotte on Thursday to close out the event. But both school’s lawsuits between the conference will definitely continue to hang over college athletics long after it’s a wrap at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown.