Jim Phillips addresses potential for ACC basketball changing number of league games in future

The ACC currently has a 20-game league schedule for basketball, a format that it has used since the 2019-20 season. That could soon change, according to Jim Phillips.

The ACC Commissioner joined the ACC Network on Thursday during the league’s Tipoff event and discussed the future of the conference.

Phillips shared that the league is considering either adding more conference games or less conference games in the future.

“I think we’re looking at both of them, higher or lower,” Jim Phillips said. “We wanna go through the year. I wanna listen to the coaches. Some believe we should play 18. And if we did that, we’d have some kind of measurement of you’d have to play games 19 and 20 as a certain level of team, right? You couldn’t just dumb it down and play a Quad 4 or two Quad 4 teams.

“And then there are some that think maybe we should go to 22 or 24, whatever that number is.”

The league is exploring its scheduling format in large part due to a lack of success with getting teams into the NCAA Tournament in recent years.

ACC teams have performed well once they get into the tournament, with NC State, Clemson and Duke reaching the Elite 8 last season. However, the league had only five teams make the Big Dance in 2024.

Jim Phillips wants to see how this season goes for the ACC before making a decision on the future.

“I think it’d be best for us obviously to take this season, take a look at it, see how it all plays out. This is a big number, as you’ve indicated,” Phillips said of the 20-game league schedule. “I don’t wanna hurt rivalries. We don’t want to do that. We only want to enhance that. But I also believe we’ll start to create some new rivalries as we get these three new schools integrated more fully.”

It remains to be seen how many teams the conference will get into the NCAA Tournament in 2025, but everyone in the league is clearly frustrated with the ACC getting a lack of respect.

Clemson head coach Brad Brownell blamed the lack of respect in part to other conferences, such as the Big 12, manipulating the NET rankings.

“A couple of things that folks don’t understand, you can manipulate the NET. … And there’s a strength of schedule dynamic where the Big 12 has managed it with their scheduling. Their nonconference scheduling, they’re playing 300 level teams and winning by 40 and 50 points to increase their offensive and defensive efficiency numbers, which is a big part of the NET tool,” Brad Brownell said last season. “So that’s why you see teams trying to win at the end of games by 30 or 40 points instead of putting in your walk-ons.

“So the Big 12, they’re playing eight nonconference games, seven nonconference games against low level teams and increasing their NET. Then when they all get into the league, their totals are higher, their NET rankings are higher. And so their teams are perceived to be a little better than they are.”