Brown: ACC grant of rights has kept league together. This move could help ensure future

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Commissioner Jim Phillips helped usher the safe move for the ACC in adding Stanford , California and SMU a year ago to ensure some stability.

To save the league, he needs to make a move that’s so obvious he's already helped implement it on a smaller scale.

Phillips must go all in and revamp the revenue share structure. No more equal pay just for being a member. (Notre Dame only receives a 20 percent share in ACC revenue because its football team remains independent.) It’s time schools earn their share based on production. It’s the best way the league can solidify its membership in the same way signing the grant of rights continues to keep it together.

Facing two active lawsuits from its members, Phillips showed more urgency and came off a bit defiant during his annual address to the media at the ACC Kickoff on Monday.

“Forceful moments deserve forceful support and leadership,” Phillips said.

Forcing unequal revenue shares through may be harsh but is necessary.

The ACC has already embraced, albeit reluctantly, awarding a performance-based bonus to schools. That bonus will be based solely on how schools fare in the top two revenue-generating sports: football and men’s basketball.

Schools will be rewarded for participating in the College Football Playoff, finishing in the top 25 of CFP rankings and making a bowl game. In men’s basketball, the criteria are making the NCAA Tournament and advancing in it.

Phillips said between $20 million-$25 million in additional revenue can be earned by schools based on their success in those two sports.

It took a long time between the league discussing that model, which Phillips said did not have unanimous support initially, and it being approved by the league presidents in May 2023 .

“That was something that we wanted to do,” Phillips said. “I felt like we needed to do.”

Now, he should convince them to go all in.

As Phillips said Monday, “revenue isn't just there, you can’t just kind of will it.” What he can do is make the entire revenue share for member schools depend on how they compete. Establish three or four tiers of payments based on how schools finish in the Learfield Directors' Cup . Louisville finished 49th in the standings this past season, which was ninth best in the ACC.

Virginia, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Florida State were the top four schools. The bottom four were Miami, Boston College, Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh.

This would be fair because schools could always earn more by winning more.

The ACC distributed about $45 million in revenue to its schools this year, which was a league record. But the growing revenue gap in the future between the ACC and Big Ten and SEC is the key issue for Florida State and Clemson trying to litigate their way for an opening out of the league.

Changing how the ACC distributes its revenue could stop any potential exodus.

Stanford and Cal joined the league while agreeing to delay receiving a full share of revenue until they’ve been members for 10 years. SMU wanted inclusion into a major conference so much it was desperate enough to defer any ACC revenue for nine years. And Notre Dame only receives a 20 percent share in ACC revenue because its football team remains independent.

There.

The money is already unequal.

If there’s no need to share revenue equally with the newest members, then there’s no need to keep giving the old members the same amount — especially considering some haven’t brought much value to the league.

ACC schools that finish in the top tier in an earn-your-keep format could eliminate the revenue gap with the Big Ten and SEC. Teams in the middle tier would be on pace with where they are now. Teams on the lower tier would sacrifice equal payments for the good of the conference.

Without doing so, there may not be a conference left to complain about. Just consider how those revenue shares are working out for the Pac-12 this season.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com , follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his column s.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Brown: ACC grant of rights has kept league together. This move could help ensure future