Yahoo Finance Sources: ACC expected to hire Northwestern AD Jim Phillips as next commissioner
The ACC board of governors has approved Jim Phillips as the league’s next commissioner. An announcement of his hiring is expected later today. He will replace the retiring John Swofford.
For Phillips, the ACC commissioner job arrives more than a year after he came achingly close to becoming the Big Ten commissioner. Phillips was the strong choice among the Big Ten’s athletic directors and within the league office to become the next commissioner, but Kevin Warren beat him at the eleventh hour.
The appeal of Phillips to those involved in the ACC search was his familiarity with the inter-workings of college athletics. His campus experience and Northwestern’s academic sensibilities appealed to the ACC, as recent commissioner hires in the Pac-12 and Big Ten that lacked campus and conference experience have come with a steep learning curve.
During Phillips’ 13 years at Northwestern, he has emerged as one of the country’s most respected athletic directors. Among his accomplishments include the men’s basketball team reaching the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history and helping the football team to its most competitive stretch in school history. Northwestern plays Ohio State in the Big Ten championship this week, the Wildcats’ second trip there in the past three seasons.
A large part of Phillips’ legacy at Northwestern will be the building of the $270 million dollar Ryan Fieldhouse and Walters Athletic Center, which is considered the nicest facility in all of college athletics. That’s among the most creative tactics he has executed to help keep coach Pat Fitzgerald in Evanston, as Fitzgerald has turned down multiple offers from the NFL and bigger-budgeted schools to pilot his alma mater.
Phillips arrives with strong ties to the league. He worked in various roles in the Notre Dame athletic department for four seasons before becoming the athletic director at Northern Illinois. He served as Northern Illinois’ athletic director for four years before leaving for Northwestern in 2008. Perhaps most important to the current ACC, Phillips worked for Duke athletic director Kevin White, whose tree of former employees – and also his four children – is considered the most expansive in college athletics.
There will be immediate challenges for Phillips upon his arrival in Greensboro. Swofford was considered a fine steward of the ACC for his 24 seasons, but he leaves the ACC with a glaring issue with its ESPN television contract. That will become an immediate priority for Phillips to attempt to rectify. There’s extreme concern on the campus level that the ACC’s television deal, which goes through the 2035-36 season, projects as woefully inadequate.
Phillips’ television chops will be tested early, as it’s expected that it will take dynamic action to change that ESPN deal. ESPN isn’t in the business of ripping up contracts that are lopsided in its favor, which means something seismic like a membership addition would be needed to shake up the deal.
The length of Phillips’ contract isn’t known, but the job tends to be one people keep for a while. No ACC commissioner has served on the job less than 10 years. He’ll become the fifth commissioner in league history.
The ACC search began in August, and Clemson president Jim Clements was the presumptive favorite for months. But Clements’ board at Clemson rallied behind him in early December, which shifted the search.
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