Five questions with new ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips
Editor's Note: This interview was conducted while news of Oklahoma and Texas potentially leaving the Big 12 for the SEC was still developing. So that topic was not discussed.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- During a brief break in the action at this week's ACC Kickoff, new ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips took a few minutes to talk with Warchant about topics related to Florida State athletics.
Phillips, who has been on the job for about five months, spoke about the push to get the ACC Network on Comcast, his call for the conference leadership and member schools to make football their No. 1 priority, his spring visit to Tallahassee and more.
Here is that conversation:
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Q: I know you didn't work directly with Florida State in your previous position (at Northwestern), but you were obviously aware of Florida State. Knowing that they can be much more than what they are right now in football, what does that mean to the ACC in terms of just the possibilities?
A: I'm bullish on where Florida State is going. I think the world of [athletics director] David Coburn, and I think you have great presidential leadership. Infrastructure is there. I saw it firsthand [this spring]. I had been there several times, but I hadn't been there in the last couple of years. It's amazing the work that's been done. It's a great university, and so I think they're going to continue to rise within the ACC. I think they're a great ACC school. Great academics, great athletics. They fit the culture of the ACC so well, and I think that there's ... I think Coach [Mike] Norvell just needs some time to get the program structured the way he wants.
These assignments are hard in the sense that there's no quick fixes if you're gonna do it right. It's gonna take time, take a lot of energy and commitment. In this particular case, you know, we talk about Florida State football, it's one recruiting class after another after another. But I'm excited about where I see Florida State going nationally.
Q: With the Comcast issue, and you talked about it yesterday, it's obviously a huge pressing issue for people in Tallahassee to get the ACC Network on their cable provider. It sounded like you were hopeful ...
A: I am. That's the right word, yeah.
I know Disney, their deal with Comcast is coming up in the next year or so, is the ACC Network part of the bigger picture in regards to that?
A: Yes, and that's part of why we loved the relationship with ESPN is the ability that this is a huge, kind of, conglomerate of incredible networks together under Disney. This idea that we're part of that family. And I can't thank Jimmy Pitaro and Burke Magnus and the folks there about just my visits with them in the first four or five months and their belief in the ACC and their commitment to the network. And they understand, too, distribution will help them as well. So they're eager and excited about taking care of places like Tallahassee.
I felt a lot of frustration -- I knew it -- and when I went down there and we talked about it that afternoon and got around campus: "How can we not be showing the Seminoles in their home city and home area?" So, it is. I am hopeful. These things always take time, but we have a really good plan. We've got some really good indication that we're headed in the right direction. But it's never done until it's done, and there's always a little bit of conflict that you've got to kind of work through with the cable providers and the distributors. But I think we're headed in a really good direction.
Q: You made the comments during your address Wednesday about football needing to be elevated in the conference. Have you started to see some schools embracing that, even in the short time here that you've been here?
A: I do, yeah I do. I don't see any schools not embracing it, really, and I think our basketball coaches have embraced it. They understand. I've talked to them about it. Some of the things that we're doing, this kind of kickoff before the season, we're going to be on all 14 of the campuses with the network, and we're going to do a feature on each of our 14 schools. That's necessary. That's a commitment by our network to football. That's a commitment by the office to make that a priority. People understand the importance of football in this league, and that's what is going to drive us into the future.
Q: I know there's still some uneasiness about COVID and what policies will be in place this fall, but just having this event in person, how gratifying is it?
A: It is. How about for you? Right, isn't it great? There's a sense of normalcy, interaction. We're really in the grand ballroom together with five, six hundred people. You and I are together. We were in masks the last time we were together, right? So, yes. I'm so prayerful and so hopeful for the fall because I think you and I both know what college football means, college sports means. Even our other sports that are so excited -- the soccers and such that are playing in the fall. Volleyball. We need a little luck, and we need science to continue to work in our favor. But we need our Saturdays back for people to tailgate and get into our venues and celebrate and enjoy the sport that brings us together.
Q: When you came to Florida State in the spring, I heard the student-athletes you met with were so impressed that you gave them your number and wanted them to reach out to you. Why is that important?
A: I love the question, it is a great question. When you peel back all of the issues in college sports, positive and negative, you peel back the pageantry, the optics on it, at the heart of it are these 10,000 kids and our commitment to supporting them at a really important time in their life. They're really at a critical juncture. And to support it in a way that's facilitated through education, they're coming to Florida State because they want to get a great education and play a sport. And we have a responsibility -- I have a responsibility -- to do everything I can in order to support and promote that type of experience for them. That's why I want to personalize it with them.
I want them to know who the commissioner is. I want them to have access. I have a couple of my five children that are student-athletes in college right now. I live it at home, I see it at home, and I want to know that they're being taken care of and they're in good hands. It's never going to be perfect, right? There's going to be bumps and challenges along the road. But, in the end, that's why we all do what we do.
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council