ACC's revenue gap deficit to SEC and Big 10 concerns league commissioner

Phillips covered a variety of topics at the ACC spring meetings, including the league falling even more behind peers on revenue. (Photo: Matt Cashore / USATODAY)

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Fri May 13 08:00:06 GMT-04:00 2022

All of the hot topics in college football right now center on one thing: money. And when it comes to team and conference payouts, the Atlantic Coast Conference is not in the same league as the SEC and the Big 10. According to ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, that revenue has the potential to be a problem for the league.

Just ten years ago, the ACC generated $50 million less than the SEC, and $93 million less than the Big Ten. In 2020, the ACC generated about $500 million in revenue. The Big Ten generated $769 million that same year, and the SEC soared to over $800 million.

Both of those leagues will enter into new TV contracts in 2024 while the ACC’s deal with ESPN is scheduled to run through 2036. Add in the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, and there are projections that each Southeastern Conference school will eventually be making roughly $50 million more than schools in the ACC, Pac-12 and Big 12.

“It’s top of mind,” Phillips said during Amelia Island’s ACC spring meetings. “I think we have to do a better job with revenue within the conference office, and I think you’ll see a Chief Revenue Officer at some point be part of our new structure after we find our new location, whether we stay in Greensboro and another facility in Greensboro or we go to two (Charlotte, Orlando) of the other finalists. So the overall organization needs to have somebody each and every day thinking about revenue.”

A good start would be restructuring the grant of rights deal with ESPN.

"We talked with ESPN at length today about some really, I think, high-level opportunities from a sponsorship standpoint to help generate, and they’re as motivated as we are because we’re 50-50 partners,” Phillips said. “So we’re going to have to continue to find every way that we can resource the conference, championships and locations of championships and the rest of it.

“We also are a conference that next year will sponsor as many (sports) in any of the major conferences, and besides the Ivys (Ivy League), I think we’ll be right at the top with 28. Women’s gymnastics will be added at Clemson, it will be the 28th that we’ve sponsored. That’s been in the bloodlines and the DNA of the ACC for as long as the ACC has been around.”

That number of 28 is the most in the Power 5, which Phillips wants to leverage.

“And so moments like (when a reporter) was asking about with Title IX, that matters in the ACC and those student-athletes matter. And so we believe in broad-based programming and there’s a cost to doing that. And we want to address that and close that as often and as quickly as we can. But I’d also say at the same time, just because you have the most money doesn’t mean you win all the time, either, depending on whatever sport you look at. And that’s not an excuse not to try to close the revenue gap, but I also know that we’ve done a really good job in our schools of taking the resources that they’ve had and using them to have success.”

Another interesting tidbit from Phillips and the meetings deal with the NCAA. Phillips told Ken Seguira of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the idea of FBS football being governed separately from the NCAA should be explored, saying that now is the time to consider it.

“I’ll just say this,” Phillips said. “I think it’s time to look at alternative models for football. If we’re ever going to do something, and I hear about the future of football, and taking care of the sport of football, this is the time to do it. This is the time to do it, when you’re reorganizing a structure like the NCAA, what are you doing with the sport of football? Does it need to be managed separately? Do you need to have a governance structure? Those are questions we should be asking ourselves.”