ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips talks league expansion, scheduling possibilities 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s been almost two months since the ACC announced the addition of Cal, SMU and Stanford, and while it wasn’t a unanimous decision to admit those three programs, league commissioner Jim Phillips was positive of the outlook of the conference

Phillips said he has “never been more confident” in the league than after what the ACC went through with the additions of the three universities not located in the conference’s historical footprint. 

These megaconferences have become commonplace in college athletics, and Phillips noted that it was a necessity for the ACC to join in on the larger league format. 

“We are a national conference,” Phillips said at the ACC Tipoff on Wednesday morning. “We’ve been a regional conference. Two years ago would we have done this? Probably not, but times have changed, and you either get on the offensive or you don’t.”

While it’s been documented that NC State and North Carolina voted in different directions in the ACC’s expansion — the Wolfpack for and the Tar Heels against — Phillips brought up the history of the league where a similar situation occurred. 

Phillips mentioned the early 2000s vote that admitted Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech into the league, but UNC and Duke were against it. The split vote this year is not unique, but the commissioner was optimistic in the additions since 80% of the league was in favor of it.

“At the end of the day, we had a high threshold,” Phillips said. “You’re talking about 80 percent of the league voted in favor of that. I’m not sure in this world you can get 80 percent of vote on anything, on any issue.”

He added that the league will “move forward together,” and he said he does not feel any “hangover” from the schools that were not in favor of the west coast expansion.

This is uncharted territory for the ACC, but Phillips said the league will be able to learn from previous attempts at national conferences, as well as what the other Power Five leagues do with their large contingents of programs as well. 

“I think we’ll learn some things from history,” Phillips said. “And it won’t be perfect. Travel won’t be perfect. Scheduling won’t be perfect. But being proactive and making sure that we have set this ACC up for now and into the future, the ability to have success, I don’t think there’s any question about that.”

Phillips opened up on some of the scheduling possibilities that the ACC has looked into for its sports with the three new schools. The commissioner used basketball as an example for the travel, and noted that it will be one west coast trip for the current ACC schools every other year. 

That trip would include playing both Cal and Stanford on the same trip to the west coast, and there would be two east coast programs in California at the same time. For example, if Virginia and Virginia Tech went out to play the two new programs, they’d each play one game and then travel to the opposite school, either Cal or Stanford for the next game a few days later. 

Phillips said he has not heard from a coach that was not in favor of the west coast travel. 

“They’re excited about it,” Phillips said. “They feel, as I just described, this is a chance for them to bring their programs and their brands out to different markets that are national cities and have a media presence.”

For Cal and Stanford, the teams will have four or five trips to the east coast during basketball season in league play. Phillips noted there could be the possibility of starting conference play earlier than usual — maybe before the holidays — to ease the travel. 

But with 18 teams, the basketball tournaments — both men’s and women’s — might not feature all of the conference’s programs. Phillips said he likes the current schedule of the ACC tournaments, which will be hosted in Greensboro (women) and Washington, D.C. (men) this season. 

That means there could be programs that miss the conference tournament, but Phillips said he will leave that up to the member institutions to see what they would like to do.

“I think you’ve got to earn your way to play in I think the most prestigious postseason basketball tournaments in the country, and if you don’t get to a certain threshold, then you just don’t make it that year,” Phillips said. “We’ll see.”

He added that the ACC is close to finishing next season’s football schedule, which will feature protected rivalries with the addition of Cal, SMU and Stanford. 

Other notes from Phillips’ press conference

** The women’s tournament will be held in Greensboro this season, but Phillips was not committal about its future at that site. He said there will be an announcement in the coming months about its location across the next few years. Charlotte appears to be a frontrunner to be a host for it as well.

“Here in the state of North Carolina, there were some commitments that we made to the state in order to stay here and receive some funding,” Phillips said. “We’ll honor those commitments contractually, et cetera, but this is a really nice place for us, Charlotte with some games in Greensboro.”

** Phillips said the ACC is “healthy” and it is his job to keep it that way for another 70 years — the expansion is a part of that.

“I feel great. I really do,” Phillips said. “I’ve never been more bullish. I can’t say that I felt that way a year ago.”