Commissioner bullish on ACC's future with lawsuits settled

Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips said Tuesday he's never felt better about his league's future.

"We want to take another step this year," he said at the ACC Kickoff media days in Charlotte. "The league is situated nicely right now."

Phillips' sunny outlook was boosted by the recent settlement of lawsuits with Florida State and Clemson, who were suing to try to leave the ACC. The sides negotiated new exit fees that would cost $165 million in 2026 before steadily decreasing to $75 million by 2030-31.

Phillips said he was proud of the way the ACC held firm during the long litigation process.

"You didn't see us at all move this way or that way," he said. "People said a lot of things about the league, but at the end of the day, that's where we're at, and (we) exercised our partnership with ESPN -- which everybody said was not going to happen -- through 2035-36, which gives us a platform of the ACC for the next decade."

As the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten Conference continue to grow in power, Phillips said it's important for the ACC to stand strong amid the constant threat of future conference realignments.

"I have a responsibility to make sure that our ACC schools want to be in this league, not just have to be in this league," he said.

Phillips has been the ACC commissioner since 2021. Prior to that, he was the athletic director at Northwestern from 2008-21 and at Northern Illinois from 2004-08.

--Field Level Media