ACC commissioner Jim Phillips addresses what he'd fix first about college football

College football is a bit of a mess right now, in the wake of sea change on several fronts that has created a turbulent period. Many athletics administrators hope to see things settle down in the coming months and years as more regulation is put into place on various fronts.

Until then, many fixes remain pie in the sky pipe dreams. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips was asked about his thoughts on a simple way or two to fix college football during the ACC Football Kickoff.

“I would say a couple things. As we look at the sport of football, I’ve been really adamant about this 365-day calendar,” Phillips said. “I’m worried about the health and safety of our student-athletes, the number of contact plays, etc., and with that comes a variety of residual areas, whether it’s some rules within the game, whether it’s what we’re doing in the NIL space, what we’re doing in the transfer portal.”

Time demands are something that have come up in the coaching ranks quite a bit, particularly with the implementation of two transfer portal windows that cause coaches to be on constant guard while the college football portal remains open.

Rosters can shift underneath your feet if you’re not careful, with players here one day and gone the next.

But there are important questions underneath the surface of all the changes with the transfer portal and with NIL. Namely the entire idea that college athletics are amateur and therefore school is equally as important as sport.

“At the end of this, and I think all of us agree, this is about academics and athletics coming together,” Phillips said. “It’s about making sure our student-athletes aren’t just great football players but they’re getting great degrees and if they have a chance to play at the highest level and play in the NFL, fantastic. But I want us to make sure that we don’t, with all of the things going on, the volatility in college sports, that we don’t lose sight of what the mission of all of this is.”

With those things in mind, Phillips and his executive brethren will continue to look out for ways to enhance the college football experience whenever possible.

For his part, Phillips is also pulling hard for the ACC.

With a Heisman Trophy favorite in North Carolina‘s Drake Maye and several other contender-capable teams like Clemson and Florida State in the league, the conference’s potential for a strong season remains high.

“I want us to get off to a good start this year. I really do,” Phillips said. “I think we have some marquee games. And as I’ve said before and you all know this, I think people sleep on the ACC. I just do. It doesn’t match up with the performances. It doesn’t match up with the number of CFP appearances and national championships, and the number of great NFL players that have come from the ACC.

“But we have a chance to do something about that this year.”