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Conference Expansion: Stanford, California and SMU Join the ACC

CaptRenault said:
Some thoughts on Phillips' remarks at the ACC "Football Kickoff":
  • Can't the ACC afford to rent or own a teleprompter? Phillips read his entire 25 minute speech while occasionally looking up only for a brief moment. It was uncomfortable to watch his awkwardness as a public speaker.
  • Seeing his name on the screen with"Ph.D." after his name was amusing. Like "Dr. Jill" Biden, Phillips has a Ph.D. in education, which is by far the least worthy doctoral degree in the universe. It's even worse than all those disciplines that end in the word "studies." Professors with degrees in serious fields in the sciences, humanities and social sciences have no respect for people with doctoral degrees in education. There is a disturbing number of bureaucrats with education doctorates on college campuses (including WFU) and they are mostly a source of malevolence for faculty, students and other staff.
  • Of course he said nothing about the Northwestern scandal because of the usual excuse of the scandal being "under investigation." I guess nobody really expected him to say anything substantive.
  • He had nothing reassuring to say about how the ACC can catch up to the B1G and SEC in TV revenue. His mention, in this context, of the new contract with the CW network only served to underline how far behind the ACC is.
  • His many mentions of all the titles won by ACC schools in non-revenue sports will do nothing to make the 7 rebel schools from Amelia Island any happier about the ACC's financial prospects.
  • He mentioned how wonderful it was to move the ACC headquarters from Greensboro to Charlotte. Fine, but the move changes nothing in the big picture of things.
  • He also frequently mentioned how he wants the federal government to come to the rescue of the NCAA and its member schools by making up a bunch of new laws and regulations to keep college sports from committing suicide due to the chaos spawned by NIL. (I'm all in favor of NIL but why should Uncle Sam be in charge of the rules for NIL?)
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It’s better than an Ed.D.! But I agree. 90% of the administrators at my institution have a degree in education. They are also the only people that insist everyone call them Dr.
 
CaptRenault said:
Some thoughts on Phillips' remarks at the ACC "Football Kickoff":

  • He had nothing reassuring to say about how the ACC can catch up to the B1G and SEC in TV revenue. His mention, in this context, of the new contract with the CW network only served to underline how far behind the ACC is.
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The same CW network that broadcasts LIV golf? Impressive!
 
So, Jim Phillips is the punching bag of the day now?

Have no clue if he's the worst commissioner in the world or the best, but he inherited the ACC/ESPN TV contract which has caused all of the current revenue issues. Also, the reason why the terms of the TV contract sucked was because the schools that the ACC invited to join, most notably Miami and VT and to a lesser extent FSU, have not been factors on a national level in a long time. Barney Fife could be the commissioner of the ACC, and if Miami was in the CFB playoff every year or even every 4 years since they joined the ACC, the league would not be in this spot. Miami has been an anchor around the ACC's neck as they get hyped before every season and then spectacularly crash and burn every year. Hilarious that Miami thinks that they are leaving the ACC for the SEC or the Big 10. If the Canes left the conference, perhaps C-USA might be interested. In assessing harm to the ACC's fortunes, Miami is a 100 and Jim Phillips is a 2.

Also, if there is a plan to keep the ACC viable and strong, no commissioner is going to reveal the ACC's strategic gameplan at a football media day. Do you think Greg Sankey revealed the plan to lure Texas and OU at a SEC media day? Same with USC/UCLA to the Big 10. Those plans were backchanneled for years.

I get it. People don't like Phillips, he's not Mr. Charisma and now he's got the NW scandal chasing him. With the ACC lagging, he's easy to blame. So, maybe he gets fired; maybe he quits; maybe he stays; regardless, he's not the problem for the ACC. Maybe he's not the solution either, but for those getting their rocks off stoking the fire to dump Phillips, the key questions are:

who do you want to hire and what is your plan?
 
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CaptRenault said:
An improvement-yes, but not huge. At least CW is carried on YouTube TV, unlike Bally.
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CW is a national network. Bally’s is a regional cable station.

Phillips either knew about hazing and did nothing or it happened under his watch.
 
Phillips sucks, but I find it hard to watch what's going on with the Pac-12 and not marvel at how terrible George Kliavkoff has been at his job.
 
@Pilchard is right. There's really nothing to judge Phillips on as a commissioner at this point. He has a bunch of schools that are locked into an long term contract that he didn't negotiate or sign. All of the schools are disgruntled to different degrees, some for different reasons, but almost all of that is out of his or those schools' control.
 
Biff Ochocinco Tannen said:
@Pilchard is right. There's really nothing to judge Phillips on as a commissioner at this point. He has a bunch of schools that are locked into an long term contract that he didn't negotiate or sign. All of the schools are disgruntled to different degrees, some for different reasons, but almost all of that is out of his or those schools' control.
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Captains of sinking ships always get judged for the ship going down even if they didn't construct the ship.
 
Pilchard said:
So, Jim Phillips is the punching bag of the day now?

Have no clue if he's the worst commissioner in the world or the best, but he inherited the ACC/ESPN TV contract which has caused all of the current revenue issues. Also, the reason why the terms of the TV contract sucked was because the schools that the ACC invited to join, most notably Miami and VT and to a lesser extent FSU, have not been factors on a national level in a long time. Barney Fife could be the commissioner of the ACC, and if Miami was in the CFB playoff every year or even every 4 years since they joined the ACC, the league would not be in this spot. Miami has been an anchor around the ACC's neck as they get hyped before every season and then spectacularly crash and burn every year. Hilarious that Miami thinks that they are leaving the ACC for the SEC or the Big 10. If the Canes left the conference, perhaps C-USA might be interested. In assessing harm to the ACC's fortunes, Miami is a 100 and Jim Phillips is a 2.

Also, if there is a plan to keep the ACC viable and strong, no commissioner is going to reveal the ACC's strategic gameplan at a football media day. Do you think Greg Sankey revealed the plan to lure Texas and OU at a SEC media day? Same with USC/UCLA to the Big 10. Those plans were backchanneled for years.

I get it. People don't like Phillips, he's not Mr. Charisma and now he's got the NW scandal chasing him. With the ACC lagging, he's easy to blame. So, maybe he gets fired; maybe he quits; maybe he stays; regardless, he's not the problem for the ACC. Maybe he's not the solution either, but for those getting their rocks off stoking the fire to dump Phillips, the key questions are:

who do you want to hire and what is your plan?
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I agree that Phillips is not responsible for the ACC's inferior TV contract. The blame is on the previous commissioner, John Swofford and the ADs and presidents who were in office when the contract was signed in 2016.

However, Philips is responsible for developing a strategy to handle the problems spawned by the contract, especially the dissatisfaction of the magic 7 schools from the Amelia Island meeting. When Philips took the job, he knew that the ACC TV contract would cause problems so he can't just pretend that he can't do anything. His job is to lead the conference and face up to whatever problems he inherited.

I wonder who were the other candidates for the job when Philips was hired. Was Big 12 deputy commissioner Tim Weiser considered? He has better experience than Philips because he has served as both an AD (K State) and an executive in a major conference.

I like what Weiser said publicly about the motivation of Texas for departing from the Big 12:

“I continue to maintain that the choice Texas made wasn’t a financial one, because we all know what Texas’ resources are like. I think theirs was more about affiliating with a group of schools that on a given Saturday, they would rather get beat by Alabama than they would Kansas State. Or Florida than Iowa State. That, I think, is what drove what they were looking at down the road.”

I doubt that anyone will agree, but I wouldn't mind seeing the ACC dissolve the grant of rights and allow any school that wants to leave, to leave. In a manner similar to what Weiser said about Texas, the ACC could tell Clemson, Florida State, Miami and Carolina that if they would feel better getting beat by Alabama and Georgia than by NCSU and WFU then they are welcome to leave. Let each school go wherever the hell it wants to, if it can get an invitation. Figure out which schools really want to stay in the ACC and then find some others to make up a new ACC.

That's my plan--just blow up the ACC and then rebuild it. :D


 
CaptRenault said:
I doubt that anyone will agree, but I wouldn't mind seeing the ACC dissolve the grant of rights and allow any school that wants to leave, to leave.

That's my plan--just blow up the ACC and then rebuild it. :D
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I'd prefer to have basketball and football firing on all cylinders for five to ten years before playing musical chairs
 
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