Jim Phillips: The ACC's partnership with ESPN 'is not going away'

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips was asked if the conference’s relationship with ESPN was as strong as he suggested.

The question came up when Mike Krzyzewski’s name was brought up, considering the former Duke basketball coach said “FOX was at war with ESPN.” The original ESPN contract with ACC runs through 2036 but there’s an opt out coming up.

Still, Phillips mentioned the relationship with the network won’t go away.

“We have a great relationship,” Phillips said at ACC Media Days. “I’m not just saying that. We have a great relationship with ESPN and the ACC Network, all of rest of that. We’ve had significant positive discussions and progress on one component of the contract.

“Our partnership with ESPN is not going away. It’s not going away. We have talked to them about additional resources and how do 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.”

Jim Phillips stands firm on ACC relationship with ESPN

Phillips opened up more about the ACC’s deal with ESPN in terms of kickoff times compared to the SEC. He piggybacked that answer when he was asked about college football roster sizes.

“Let me go in kind of the reverse order,” Phillips started. Roster sizes, what I’ll say is we’ve had too many — not too many. We’ve had an awful lot of conversations with our schools, with our ADs, SWAs, coaches, the rest of it. If the settlement goes through, this is not a reduction of scholarship opportunities. This is scholarships in addition to what we’re currently giving. This is going to be good for our sports as it relates to equivalency sports.

“Right now baseball is at 11.9. You can’t have a baseball team with that. It will go up exponentially. I feel like we’re in a good place there. I can’t really say much more. We’ve met as commissioners probably once a week for the last six weeks on it. But getting information so that collectively we can get to a number that feels right. It’s a little bit like the teeter totter principle. If you push on one sport, the male side, it drops the women on the other. You’re trying to make sure, again, there’s equity, Title IX is met and some of those kind of things. But feel really good about the progress we’re making.”

As far as the ACC’s standing when it comes to kickoff times with the networks, Phillips was pleased with where things stood.

Phillips also said that the product on the field will dictate the positivity when it comes to television exposure.

Your first part of the question. We have talked about time, situating the ACC in really good spots both on ABC and the ESPN channels, as well as our own network,” Phillips said. “I feel good about it as we look into the season. I feel good about what I’ve seen in the month of September where we’re going to be.

“But they understand fully. I also know our teams are going to play well. When you play well, you get rewarded.”