Longtime commissioner John Swofford is now retired and in his place at the head of the ACC is Jim Phillips.
Phillips has moved into his new position during a call for expansion of the four-team College Football Playoff and recently the new ACC commissioner has gone on record saying that while he isn’t against expansion, it’s something that needs to be looked at thoroughly before making any decisions.
“Here is what I would say about expansion, and I’m not against it,” Phillips said. “I want to have the conversation, and I want to do it really thoughtfully. I don’t want to just rush into, ‘Yes, we have to expand.'”
Phillips said he was very aware of the sizeable change that expansion would bring to the sport and that he thinks there are some questions that need answering before moving ahead.
“I want to know more, and I think others deserve to know more before we make a sizable decision,” Phillips said. “But what does that look like? How many more games is that? Is that one more game for two teams? What does that do from a student-athlete perspective? How does it affect our calendar academically? How does it affect our calendar with regular season? Are we playing too many games? If you count nonconference, conference and then into the CFP and or bowl system.”
The College Football Playoff is heading into its eighth season of a 12-year contract. Any expansion ahead of the end of the contract would require a unanimous agreement from all parties involved.
Any expansion could also have a major impact on postseason bowls, something Phillips said he thinks is worth saving.
“The bowl system, it’s worth saving. That’s something we can’t turn a blind eye to — it’s not just four, six or eight or whatever the playoff would look like. It is about we have a responsibility to the greater good of college football, and those bowl experiences are really important to the campuses across the NCAA that play FBS football.”
Either way, don’t expect any changes in the immediate future.
“I think we’ll get to the right place, but that’s not going to happen in the next six months,” Phillips said. “It’s going to take some time, and we need to do a thorough assessment before making any major decisions.”
