College Football

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips to explore all options for reducing revenue gap, opposes college athletics becoming ‘2 or 3 gated communities’

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips to explore all options for reducing revenue gap, opposes college athletics becoming '2 or 3 gated communities'


CHARLOTTE, N.C. — ACC commissioner Jim Phillips opened the league’s annual kickoff event Wednesday by saying he’s exploring all available options to reduce the revenue gap with the SEC and Big Ten, but he argued the arms race in college football risks doing critical damage to the college athletics as a whole.

“We are not the professional ranks,” Phillips said. “This is not the NFL or NBA light. We remain competitive with one another, but this is not — and should not be — a winner-take-all or zero-sum structure. I will continue to do what’s in the best interest of the ACC but will also advocate for college athletics to be a healthy neighborhood, not two or three gated communities.”

The Big Ten’s addition of USC and UCLA from the Pac-12 comes less than a year after the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12, setting up an apparent trend toward two super conferences that will far outpace everyone else in revenue.

The ACC took in a record $578 million in revenue in 2020-21, distributing about $36.1 million to each full member. Estimates of the Big Ten’s next TV deal could result in payouts more than double that tally in the next few years.

The ACC has avoided losing any of its current members, but it also has found few avenues to reduce the revenue gap and remain competitive financially with the SEC and Big Ten.

Phillips said Wednesday the league continues to analyze pathways forward — from expansion, partnerships with the Pac-12, or shifting to an imbalanced revenue distribution model that could provide more money to schools more invested in football.

“Everything is on the table,” Phillips said. “We’re looking at our TV contract. We’re in engagement almost daily with our partners at ESPN. We’ve come together to have some discussions about what would be the next iteration for the ACC. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to make a move, but all options are on the table.”

Phillips said he’s open to discussing changing the league’s revenue distribution model — an option several football powers have urged for the past few years — but said it’s “not our first option.”

Expansion remains a possibility, but several sources within the conference have said there simply isn’t another school available that would markedly improve the ACC’s bottom line — except Notre Dame.

The Irish are currently partial members of the ACC in football and have a contract with the league saying that, if they were to relinquish independence, it would be for the ACC. In the…

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