Paul Finebaum explains why Jim Phillips is the best option available for the Big Ten

With Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren off to the Chicago Bears as the team’s new president and CEO, Paul Finebaum suggested Jim Phillips as the next man up.

The current ACC commissioner is the best fit for the expanding Big Ten, according to the ESPN host. Based on what he accomplished with the ACC and how he operates, Finebaum said Phillips would be the logical choice based on what the Big Ten wants to do.

The conference announced the additions of USC and UCLA beginning in the 2024 season, bringing the “super conference,” as some would call it, to 16 teams across the board.

“I think Jim Phillips might be the best choice,” Finebaum said on McElroy and Cubelic. “Because he’s invested in the league. He went to school in the league. He’s been an AD at Northwestern. He nearly got the job the last time and while some of these approaches have been criticized at the ACC, in terms of running the league from a day to day basis, he might get their bill better than anyone else.”

Finebaum further evaluated what Phillips, who’s served as ACC commissioner since 2021, could bring to the table.

“I think what’s happened to Jim Phillips, he’s made a couple of comments, because he’s a traditionalist, he believes in this stuff,” Finebaum said. “I really like him a lot. I’ve had a couple of things to say about him, just based on comments that he’s made … He would be good for this job. Because they don’t need somebody to run the operation day to day, they don’t need a grand standard. And in some ways, that’s really what Kevin Warren was. 

“I mean, he hit some big home runs. But man he missed a lot too. Jim Phillips is a guy, for those who don’t really understand the minutia that we’re talking about, Jim’s predecessor made a terrible deal with television networks primarily to get the ACC Network on the air to keep up with the SEC Network. 

“And I think we can all speak to the prowess of the SEC Network. We don’t need to beat our chest, it’s self explanatory. And, he was swimming in some of that trying to move the league forward and quite frankly, he got there at a rough time for the ACC but that’s why I think he would be attractive. Not that I’m on the committee but I would hire Jim Phillips. I think he’s the best choice available.”

Warren joined the Big Ten in 2019 as commissioner-elect and officially started his tenure as commissioner in January 2020 — two months before the COVID-19 pandemic shook not only the sports landscape, but the entire world.

As the uncertainty around the pandemic rolled into football season, Warren opted to cancel the 2020 Big Ten season. However, as other conferences decided to play out their campaigns, the league moved to implement a conference-only eight-game schedule. That year, Ohio State made it to the College Football Playoff behind, appropriately, Justin Fields, who’s gearing up for his third season in the NFL with the Bears.

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Despite the tough start to his tenure, Warren helped put the Big Ten in position to be one of the top conferences in college football. The league recently signed an seven-year, $7 billion media rights deal and is preparing to add Pac-12 powerhouses USC and UCLA to the league in 2024.