ACC teams have wrapped up their spring meetings at Amelia Island, and things went about how one would expect. The ACC Commissioner, Jim Phillips, still has no answers on how to make the ACC more competitive with the B1G and SEC. He did an interview with ESPN's Andrea Adelson and David Hale and stuttered and stammered through the portions in the clip below.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips addresses the FSU playoff snub and the need to have multiple playoff teams in a 12+ team model moving forward. You can catch our full interview with him tonight on All-ACC at 7 on ACCN! pic.twitter.com/huhw3c8nnU
— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) May 15, 2024
He also added this in another interview about the national perception of the ACC.
"I'm not quite sure. We're looking more at that. What is that narrative, etc.? We're looking to try and change that. We're determined to do that. We're going to get some outside help" with consultation.
— Brendan Sonnone (@BSonnone) May 15, 2024
Jim Phillips on why ACC football has dealt with a perception problem
The commissioner doesn't know why the ACC has a perception problem but wants to spend money with a consultation group to figure out something everyone already knows. How can the conference commissioner be so out of the loop or naive? It's an easy problem to identify. FSU and Clemson are the only two ACC programs with the resources to compete at an elite level. They are the only two programs that have made the College Football Playoff or won a national championship in the last decade. The other programs have been average or bottom dwellers for years. Nobody else has come close to making the playoffs!
It's why FSU and Clemson have had to try to bolster their out-of-conference schedules by playing 1-2 SEC or B1G teams every year, and it's still not enough to overcome the perception of the league. Not to mention the revenue gap everyone knows exists between the ACC, B1G, and SEC. It's this lack of foresight that has the ACC where it is. He hopes multiple ACC teams make the playoffs in 2024. I didn't think the ACC could get worse than John Swofford, but that might be the case. Phillips inherited a problem he likely couldn't fix from Swofford, but how he goes about speaking about the problems shows he's way in over his head. This is why FSU initiated the lawsuit to leave the ACC because there's no future in this league if you're serious about playing big-boy football.