ACC commissioner Jim Phillips doubled down on his stance against Clemson and Florida State in incendiary remarks made to the media on Monday.
In what is becoming a war of words between the three parties, Phillips added the latest fuel to the litigious fire saying the ACC is ready to fight “as long as it takes” against Clemson and Florida State Universities.
Clemson, particularly, has taken a hard line against the conference. Most recently, the ACC asked the Tigers to move the annual Palmetto Bowl rivalry game to Friday night the day after Thanksgiving, which head coach Dabo Swinney and athletic director Graham Neff vehemently refused to do.
Both schools are embroiled in multiple lawsuits, with Clemson and Florida State having filed suit against the conference in a challenge to its grant of rights agreement, both with an end game of leaving the ACC. Phillips and conference leadership have countersued to have the plaintiffs’ original claim dismissed and to keep both universities in the fold.
It was a point that Phillips reiterated during Monday’s press conference.
“We will fight to protect the ACC and its members as long as it takes,” he said. “We are confident in this league and that it will remain a premier conference in college athletics for a long-term future.”
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips
In recent days there has been unconfirmed speculation linking both Clemson and FSU to the Big12. Commissioner Phillips, in what could be perceived as a self-righteously selfish statement, proclaimed that the conference as an entire entity is more important than any of the constituent teams that it is comprised of.
He added, as part of his hubristic statement, “Forceful moments deserve forceful support and leadership. I don’t know that I’ve changed at all other than I stand by everything I’ve said from the moment on the first interview I did around the Orange Bowl on ACCN to today. This is a really important time for the conference. Either you believe in what has been signed or you don’t. We are going to do everything we can to protect and to fight.”
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips
Except the grant of rights at the crux of the six-month legal battle is an unfair contract that unevenly benefits member schools. Financially, Clemson and FSU are the bell cows of the ACC, and financially the grant of rights sets them behind major programs in the SEC and Big10 among others. In the modern landscape of college athletics and NIL initiatives, major programs need all of the financial resources they can make available, which is why the Tigers and Seminoles are looking for greener pastures in the first place.
Phillips does not see it that way and is merely trying to hold onto the last two vestiges of legitimacy the conference has left.
“This league deserves us to take this really serious issue and to handle it appropriately,” Phillips added. “What gives me promise and conviction about it? Because I understand I think these schools, I think I understand where we’re going. We’ve made some really good adjustments. The conference is bigger than any one school, or schools.”
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips
Phillips attempted to pay lip service to the administration of both universities while simultaneously taking his shots. Veiled praise in the midst of a volley of legal cannonballs being hurled by the ACC hierarchy. The commissioner even went as far as to call Neff and Florida State AD Michael Alford, as well as Clemson and FSU presidents Jim Clements and Rick McCollough “friends” and does not believe his working relationship between them has been altered.
He would be absolutely wrong in that assumption if the leaders of both schools were to be unabashedly candid.
“This thing doesn’t have to be evil,” stated Phillips. “This thing doesn’t have to be about hatred, all the other things that I think we all see kind of free flowing in our society. It’s important and we’ve taken our stance. We’ll stay on that stance, but we’ll do it in a very respectful way.”
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips
But respect has been relative since the saga began in December. If Phillips and ACC leadership truly respect Clemson and Florida State, then they will do the right thing and let them go somewhere that betters each school both academically and athletically.
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The grant of rights? It is merely a piece of proverbial paper that just as easily be run through a shredder.
The ACC has been grandstanding for too long, and for Clemson, the conference is now seen as a grand failure. It will get worse before it gets better as the case drags onward through the judicial process, and unfortunately for Phillips, the ACC, Clemson, and Florida State, there is no viable end in sight.
Full comments from Jim Phillips:
