Jim Phillips provides positive prognosis for the future of the ACC, explains how CW deal got done

Jim Phillips is happy with the state of the ACC. On Tuesday at the 2023 ACC Football Kickoff, the conference commissioner discussed his thoughts on its status and how he hopes to improve it.

“This league is healthy. It just is. And certainly, there are rumblings again. We all saw what happened in the springtime. But the group has come together in a way to me that demonstrates they want to work together to find solutions,” Phillips said Tuesday.

“The ESPN partnership is really strong. And ESPN and the ACC are completely motivated together to generate additional dollars. You see that the conference presidents and chancellors have initiated the Success Initiative and Success Incentive Initiative, which is going to distribute dollars in a disproportionate way. We’ve never gone down that road before in the ACC, and I’m not sure many conferences have. And so, revenue generation continues to be a priority.

“But let me be clear also, this league is third right now in revenue as we go forward into wherever the next TV deals are for other conferences. We’ve looked at it. We’ve had multiple TV consultants. Third is certainly a good position, but we want to gain traction financially in order to close the gap with obviously the SEC and the Big 10, who have leapfrogged everyone.

“One of the presidents said it best: ‘Are we chasing a dollar amount? Or, are we chasing success?'” Phillips continued. “And I think there’s a difference there. If you’re chasing a number, it takes you down a different path. If you’re chasing success competitively in football, basketball, and all of our sports, then I think every institution has an idea of what they need. So again, I feel really strongly about this league.”

Fans will have more opportunities than ever to watch the ACC. The CW Network will show 50 ACC college football and basketball games through 2026-27. The conference announced the deal earlier this month.

Phillips is excited about the partnership.

“All of you understand distribution and eyeballs and being able to be visible in all of the regions that our schools are. But, across the country, and that was one of the things when I came almost two and a half years ago. The frustrations that we had about, ‘I can’t find my team. I can’t find some of the games,'” Phillips said.

“[The CW] came in and took the place of Bally, who we appreciate the relationship that we have, and Raycom will produce the games, and they’ll be distributed on the CW, and CW is getting into sports, etcetera, and they have LIV Golf, and that’s getting a lot of attention for different reasons. But we are really excited about that.”

The first ACC game on the network will take place on Saturday, Sept. 9, when Pitt hosts Cincinnati. Games will air every Saturday throughout the college football season during the afternoon and in primetime.

On3’s Matt Connolly also contributed to this article.