ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips has strong words for Clemson and FSU

Jim Phillips took Clemson and FSU to task in his opening remarks at the ACC Football Kickoff. (Photo: Jim Dedmon / USATODAY)

David Hood - Senior Writer - Monday, July 22 2024

CHARLOTTE, NC – Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips says the ACC is bigger than any school and will carry on despite members looking to leave.

Phillips, speaking during the Commissioner’s Forum at the ACC Football Kickoff, was asked about the ongoing lawsuits between the league and Florida State and Clemson and about his time at the helm of the conference.

“Forceful moments deserve forceful support and leadership,” Phillips said Monday. “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 the league because I see a group of student-athletes there. We now have 12,200 student-athletes.

“This has been a league that started way before me, 71 years ago, and it will be a league that will be around a long time after I depart. This league deserves us to take this really serious issue and to handle it appropriately. 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. This conference is bigger than any one school, or schools.”

Phillips said he is proud of how the league has handled the “disruption” since FSU filed the first lawsuit earlier this year.

“We've had six months of disruption. I think we've handled it incredibly well,” he said. “So I think it's important for me to lead our group in particular, not only our staff but more importantly our schools, to compartmentalize the legal piece of what's happening and not let it distract us or take us away from what we're all trying to do. That is to provide great experiences for our student-athletes, teams, coaches, put the focus back on the fields and areas of competition.

“But I will tell you there isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't spend some time on the legal cases. I don't think that's going to change. We're really fortunate to have hired Pearl Houck, our first internal GC [general counsel], and have great legal teams in a myriad of places. We have proven that you have to move forward even with these types of distractions and really important issues that are part of your daily lives.”

Despite the strong words for the Seminoles and Tigers, Phillips said he still has strong working relationships with the leadership at both schools.

“I think very highly of (FSU President) Rick McCullough, (Clemson President) Jim Clements. I'd say we're friends. I think very highly of (FSU AD) Michael Alford, (Clemson AD) Graham Neff. It hasn't changed my working relationship with them at all - at all - because of how I've tried to address it and how I've asked the staff to address it.

“And that is, the legal piece will be the legal piece. We will do what we have to do just like they are going did to do what they have to do. The moment that first lawsuit happened in December, I grabbed the staff and I told them that we are not going to treat any school any differently because student-athletes have nothing to do with this, coaches have nothing to do with this, a lot of administrators don't. This is just a separate piece.

“We owe these young men and women at those two schools the very best experience possible. This thing doesn't have to be evil. 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.”