Commissioner Jim Phillips on the ACC's Financial, Academic, and Athletic Success
COMMISSIONER PHILLIPS: Good afternoon and welcome to the 2024 ACC Football Kickoff. Let me begin by thanking each of you for joining us in Charlotte. To look out and see so many familiar faces is terrific.
To the media in attendance, thanks for your coverage of the ACC, our championships and events. To our television partners, we are so appreciative of your continued support and exposure. I want to especially recognize and thank Jimmy Pitaro, Burke Magnus, Ros Durant, Nick Dawson, Dave Roberts, Michael Schiffman, and Jeremy Michaels, and the entire ESPN and ACCN teams.
As a league, we are fortunate to have the most amazing partners, and many of them are here today, including Eric Poms of the Capital One Orange Bowl, which has been the home to the ACC.
In addition I'd like to recognize lieutenant general Richard Clark who recently began his tenure as the new College Football Playoff executive director. As well as bowl season executive director Nick Carparelli, who has done a fantastic job in that role since 2019.
I'd like to take a minute to thank my staff. They have been amazing and have worked tirelessly to support this league each and every day. There's no better representatives for the ACC than this group of exceptional people.
Since my first ACC Football Kickoff, the ACC student-athlete advisory committee has conducted its summer meetings during this event. There's no group of individuals more important to our conference. I'd like to have them stand and give them a round of applause.
Again, we are extremely pleased to have you here in Charlotte just blocks away from our league headquarters on the 12th floor of the Legacy Union building. We look forward to hosting you tomorrow for the reception in the lobby of our building.
At this time last year, we were preparing move into our new offices. This year I can confidently state that our first year in Charlotte has exceeded all expectations.
There's great excitement and anticipation surrounding the year ahead for our conference, and this is a tribute to the exceptional leadership at our institutions, specifically the ACC board of directors and our directors of athletics.
We're thrilled to have Cal, SMU, and Stanford join the ACC. With our 18 world-class member institutions, the league's profile is only enhanced academically and athletically.
Our footprint is now national, spanning coast to coast. The ACC has a presence in each of the five most populated states in the country. No other Power Four conference is in more than two.
In addition, the ACC footprint now includes four of the 10 largest DMAs.
In February, I began my fourth year as commissioner. It's hard to argue that there has been a time in college athletics that has seen more change than what's currently transpiring in our industry.
As a leader in college sports, the ACC is well positioned to positively affect and embrace future change. In a time of great change, what remains constant is the greatness of the ACC. National championships, prestigious academic institutions, tremendous student-athletes, and a remarkable future.
This past year the ACC won seven NCAA titles for the first time in ACC history; seven different schools won national championships. Over the past three years, the ACC has won a combined 23 national titles by nine different schools.
The 23 NCAA titles lead all conferences in sponsored sports.
The ACC has won seven or more national titles in each of the last three years, the best run in ACC history.
Beyond athletics, our member institutions continue to be the national leaders in all academic metrics, including U.S. News and World Report, best colleges, NCAA graduation success rates, and academic performance rates. Those things matter.
Financially, as reported in the most recent conference 990, from the 2022/23 fiscal year, the ACC surpassed $700 million in total revenue for the first time in league history with a 14% increase with distributable revenue from the year prior.
Each ACC school received an average of $45 million in annual distribution, a league record. We expect those numbers to only grow when the 2023/24 revenues and distributions are released.
The ACC is one of the top three conferences in both overall revenue generated and per-school distribution. We fully expect that will remain in the years to come.
As a conference, we continue to aggressively focus our daily efforts on exploring innovative opportunities related to revenue, technology, television, data and analytics and more.
To give you a small sampling of what has transpired in the past year, the ACC generated an estimated $600 million in new incremental revenue over the term of the existing media agreements through expansion.
Added Dr. Pepper as the newest official sponsor as part of a new multi-year agreement with the ACC and Disney advertising. Enhanced our efforts in the areas of video highlight technology through a conference-wide adoption of WSC Sports, which utilizes AI to generate automated video highlight clips available to each of our institutions.
Exploring data opportunities across all consumer low latency live events and sports performance, all intended to add value to our member institutions and to the conference.
Also as announced last week, the new collaboration with Apple will allow coaching staffs to have more access to information that will enhance game strategy.
Tripled courtside seating and hospitality offerings at the men's basketball tournament. We'll further expand on that this year at Charlotte.
Implemented new ticket and hospitality offerings at our ACC championship events.
Extended our partnership with Sirius XM that provides a 24/7 satellite radio platform to our fans, one of only three conferences in their portfolio.
And extended our conference-wide office contract with Nike.
We have also partnered with Integrity Compliance 360, which provides each ACC member institution access to integrity monitoring technology, in-depth analysis of the betting landscape, and allows our schools to opt in for additional resources.
The ongoing emphasis in college athletics surrounding revenue generation and financial prioritization has never been greater. As a conference, we have been and will continue to be aggressively evaluating all areas that potential enhance our of conference financials for immediate and long-term future of the ACC.
As has been reported, our board of directors formally adapted an innovative and progressive new revenue distribution model to begin this year.
ACC schools that achieve success by participating in the College Football Playoff, finishing in the top 25 of CFP rankings, participating in bowl games, and receiving a bid as well as advancing in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, will be financially rewarded.
What this equates to is a range of $20 to $25 million in revenues that can be earned this coming year by any school based on its success, and is in addition to the annual per-school distribution for any member of our league.
It was truly a remarkable year for the ACC, financially, competitively, academically, and beyond. We will only build on these successes and priorities in the future.
As ACC commissioner, father of multiple college student-athletes, someone who has spent his career as a servant to college athletics, tireless advocate for student-athletes, the opportunities ahead of us are exciting and critically important.
The ACC has played a vital and leading role in national discussions and in finding solutions and resolutions to a myriad of issues, including the proposed settlement of House and the related legal cases.
As the ongoing legal process is hopefully brought to its conclusion and a new stage will we build a more sustainable college athletics, the ACC remains in discussions regarding implementation of the proposed settlement.
Those discussions have and will continue to include coaches, administrators and our peer conferences.
I would like to recognize NCAA president Charlie Baker in his efforts to modernize college sports. Not an easy assignment, for sure.
Over the next year we will be laser focused on the proposed new model, providing clarity to our schools and student-athletes, and ensuring ACC memberships not only compete, by thrive in the future of college athletics. Creativity and innovation will be a key and the ACC will be leaders in this new frontier.
Staying on the national landscape, I remain directly involved in our Congressional efforts in Washington, D.C. in March I participated in the NIL college sports roundtable with Nick Saban, Senator Ted Cruz, and the Cavinder twins, among others.
While the proposed resolution of the House case is one step, we must remain steadfast for federal regulation. This includes actively discussing with Congress a national solution that will create a fairness and clarity around student-athlete NIL opportunities. A declaration solidifying our athletes are students, not employees. And narrow liability protection so we may continue to modernize college sports without the threat of ongoing lawsuits.
We must stay proactive with those in Congress who understand the immense value of access to higher education that is provided by college sports, and that it is necessary to provide these opportunities to all student-athletes, not just a few.
As I turn my attention to the year ahead, I must directly address the ongoing disputes with two of our members about the contracts they each signed twice and whether they will honor those agreements.
With multiple ongoing legal cases, there are limits to what I can say. But I can state that we will fight to protect the ACC and our members for as long as it takes. 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. 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 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. That will continue despite these disruptions.
We intend to continue to fight every day for the ACC and its members, and to do so in a way that I hope makes our membership proud. Where there are disagreements or disputes, I intend to continue to deal with them in a respectful and honorable fashion.
The ACC deserves nothing less.
The ACC will remain a healthy and vibrant conference that competes at the highest level.
This is a monumental summer for the ACC, which kicked off with the July 1st celebration as the ACC became an 18-member conference. This past weekend we held our third annual ACC Unity Tour.
It was an honor to once again be part of this important initiative which was held in Charleston, South Carolina. We will remain committed to prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as they are important to our past, present and future.
At the end of this week, we will all turn our attention to one of the world's brightest stages with the start of the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris. Overall, more than 290 student-athletes and coaches representing six continents and 54 countries will compete for our now 18 schools. The U.S. Olympic team will be represented by 97 current or former athletes with 40 returning and 57 first-time Olympians.
On multiple U.S. Olympic teams, rosters are comprised of a significant number of athletes from current ACC institutions. This includes anywhere from 25 to 60 percent of swimming, women's soccer, field hockey, fencing and others.
I hope you are all as excited as I am to root for our ACC student-athletes and coaches. We certainly wish them all the best of luck.
Before I turn our attention to the exciting upcoming football season of ACC football, let me take just a moment to talk about our extraordinary television partners.
We appreciate our ongoing partnership with Disney and ESPN. We are collectively focused on working together for the long-term future.
Our relationship has never been stronger. We are proud to be aligned with the most innovative and forward-thinking partners in the business.
As one of only three conferences with a dedicated fully distributed national network, ACCN is a differentiator. Eight years ago the announcement about the future launch of ACC Network took place at this same event here in Charlotte. It was a time of great celebration as representatives from ESPN, administrators and coaches from each of our campuses and the leadership from the conference were all on-site and participated in the announcement.
This was an enthusiastically celebrated event across the entire membership as well as the media leading into the official launch of ACC Network on August 22nd, 2019.
This August ESPN, Disney, the ACC Network and the ACC will recognize the fifth anniversary of the ACC Network with a celebration in Bristol. This is just another significant milestone for our collective partnership that only continues to prosper.
From achieving full distribution, to the combination of new corporate and title sponsors, to the creation of Road Trip, taking the huddle on the road, countless other initiatives and resolutions including the integration of our new schools in the states of Texas and California, we really look forward to what's ahead.
As you are aware, we enter the first season of a historic 12-team expanded College Football Playoff. Over the 10-year history of the four-team CFP, we have won the second most national titles, and we're only one of two conferences to have a .500 or better winning percentage in CFP games.
As the commissioner of the ACC, I was at the table with my fellow colleagues as we hammered out the structure and logistics for the next two seasons. Beginning this year, the enhanced CFP provides opportunities for several ACC teams to annually earn a spot in the CFP field.
To be sure, there are still details to be worked out with the CFP beyond the next two years, and I look forward to working collaboratively with my fellow commissioners.
What we do know is beginning in 2026, the ACC champion will an automatic entry into the Playoff. The expanded CFP is a good thing for the ACC.
At this time I want to showcase ACC football starting with a quick video.
(Video Shown.)
COMMISSIONER PHILLIPS: There is significant anticipation surrounding ACC football and our 17 football programs will all look to accomplish greatness.
With 33 days until week zero, we know the focus will be on what's ahead for this year. ACC football has the toughest non-conference schedule in the country. 27 games against Power Four opponents, including Notre Dame. Nine non-conference games against teams ranked in the final 2023 AP top 25 poll; 10 non-conference games against teams in the ESPN's 2024 Way-Too-Early top 25. All of these are the most of any conference. We have elite coaching leadership, six ACC head coaches named to the 2024 Dodd Trophy pre-season watch list. No conference has more.
Two of the three active coaches in the country to win a national title reside here in the ACC: Mack Brown and Dabo Swinney.
The combination of our proven veteran coaches combined with our dynamic young coaches is incredibly powerful.
The ACC is the conference of quarterbacks. 13 enter the season with over 20 career touchdown passes and 3500 career passing yards.
Eight quarterbacks are projected to start week one in the 2024 NFL season; 25% of NFL teams.
And since 2018, at least one quarterback has been drafted in the first round in five different drafts, the only conference that can state that claim.
ACC football has the nation's top returning passer and receiver in yards per game last year in Cam Ward of Miami and Caullin Lacy of Louisville. Plus the second returning rusher in Omarion Hampton from North Carolina.
Additionally, when you look at the CFP top 25 rankings over the last four years, there are only seven programs that have been in each, with Clemson and NC State representing the ACC. No conference has more teams that can state that claim.
The combination of our preeminent players and elite leadership only furthers expectations on what's ahead for our individual teams and conference. There's not a more exciting collection of teams in the country than in the ACC.
On the football innovation front, the ACC remains committed to embracing the use of technology to elevate performance of our student-athletes, teams, officials, and more.
Between our state-of-the-art ACC Game Day Operation Center and working with apple to bring iPad technology to the sidelines and our coaches' booths, we are proud of our unparalleled prioritization of technology and the positive impact it will have for our league.
Finally, the season kicks off in week zero. SMU will open against Nevada, while? Florida State and Georgia Tech will meet in the Aer Lingus Classic in Dublin. I will head to Ireland and anticipate there will be many of our partners on that flight, as ESPN's College GameDay will broadcast live before the ACC's first league game of the year, marking the first time the pregame show will travel outside of the United States.
Upon returning from Ireland, we will immediately jump into week one, which features all 17 teams competing; 15 non-conference games will be played Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before leading into our annual Labor Day Monday night game.
The ACC regular season undoubtedly will be one of fierce competition as teams contend for the opportunity to play in the annual ACC football championship game right here in Charlotte.
As announced last week, the game will again be televised in primetime on ABC before our teams head to the College Football Playoff and represent the ACC in our strong lineup of bowls as part of bowl season.
Make no mistake, I am extremely confident and enthusiastic about ACC football. I'm hopeful I was able to address what I knew would be some of your questions. I'm happy to take any of those questions from the floor.