‘This conference is bigger than any one school’: ACC commissioner talks FSU, Clemson lawsuits

Jim Phillips tried to keep the conversation steered toward the positives during his hour-long media session to kick off the Atlantic Coast Conference’s media days on Monday.

But the ACC commissioner knew one major topic — lawsuits against the conference by two of its member schools, Florida State and Clemson — was going to come up frequently.

Phillips attacked the subject head-on, saying the “disputes” have been “extremely damaging, disruptive and incredibly harmful” to the ACC.

But then he also added that he remains confident the ACC will “remain a premier conference in college athletics.”

Why?

“This conference,” Phillips said, “is bigger than any one school. Or schools.”

Both lawsuits are challenging the ability of the ACC to enforce its grant of rights, which were originally signed in 2013 and bind the revenue generated from ACC schools’ home athletic events to the conference through 2036, even if a school departs for another conference. FSU was the first to file a lawsuit, doing so in December. Clemson followed in March.

“We will fight to protect the ACC and our members for as long as it takes,” Phillips said as part of a two-minute statement near the end of his opening remarks. “We are confident in this league and that it will remain a premier conference in college athletics for the long-term future. These disputes continue to be extremely damaging, disruptive and incredibly harmful to the league, as well as overshadowing our student athletes and the incredible successes taking place on the field and within the conference. People feel passionate about athletics, and they feel particularly passionate about college athletics at their respective schools. This passion is what makes college athletics so special. But this passion can also lead to personal attacks.

“John Swofford [who served as ACC commissioner from 1997 to 2021] is a decent and honorable man and is widely respected in our industry. He led this conference with a steady hand for over two decades and did so through consensus and compromise. The fact is that every member of this conference willingly signed the grant of rights and unanimously — and, quite frankly, eagerly — agreed to our current television contract and the launch of the ACC Network. The ACC, our collective membership and conference office, deserves better. The support for our student athletes, coaches and programs is extraordinary. And that will continue despite these disruptions.”

Here’s everything else Phillips had to say Monday regarding the lawsuits:

▪ On how he makes sure they’re not a distraction as football season begins: “We’ve had six months of disruption, and I think we’ve handled it incredibly well. I think it’s important for me to lead our group in particular, not only our staff but more importantly our schools, to compartmentalize the legal piece of what’s happening and not let it distract us or take us away from what we’re all trying to do — and that’s provide great experiences for our student-athletes, teams, coaches, and put the focus back on the fields and the areas of competition.

“But I will tell you there isn’t a day that doesn’t go by that I don’t spend some time on the legal cases. I don’t think that that’s going to change. We’re really fortunate to hire Pearlynn Houck, our first internal [general counsel] and have great legal teams in a myriad of places. We have proven that you have to move forward even with these types of distractions and really important issues that are part of your daily lives.”

▪ On if he feels he needs to change the narrative surrounding the lawsuits, given his more forceful and emotional tone discussing them: “Forceful moments deserve forceful support and leadership. I don’t know that I’ve changed at all other than I stand by everything I’ve said from the first interview I did around the Orange Bowl on ACCN [ACC Network] to today. This is a really important time for the conference, and either you believe in what’s been signed or you don’t. We’re gonna do everything we can to protect and to fight for the league. We now have I think 12,200 student-athletes. This has been a league that started way before me — 71 years ago — and will be a league that will be around long after I depart. This league deserves us to take this really serious issue and to handle it appropriately.”

▪ On if the lawsuits have impacted his working relationship with FSU and Clemson: “It hasn’t changed my working relationship with them at all — at all — because of how I’ve tried to address it and how I’ve asked the staff to address it. The legal piece will be the legal piece and we will do what we have to do just like they’re going to do what they have to do. But the moment that that first lawsuit happened in December, I grabbed the staff and I told them that we are not going to treat any school any differently. Student-athletes have nothing to do with this, coaches have nothing to do with this, a lot of administrators don’t. That is just a separate piece. We owe these young men and women at those two schools the very best experience possible. This thing doesn’t have to be evil. This thing doesn’t have to be about hatred. ... It’s important that we take in our stance, and will stay on that stance, but we’ll do it in a very respectful way.”