ACC Commissioner On Revenue Disparity: ‘No Magic Bullet’ To Fix Issues

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips continues to maintain that he is confident in the health of the conference, now, as well as, moving forward.

At the same time, he also knows the league faces some major challenges when it comes to addressing the revenue disparity the ACC is facing when it comes to television revenue.

“I don’t know that there’s a magic bullet on this thing. I’m not sure there’s one thing you can do to address the (revenue) gap,” Phillips told ESPN. “I think you have to address it in several ways and I’m confident we’ll do that. I’m confident in the health of this league and that we’ll continue to work together.”

FSU AD Mike Alford made headlines late last week while addressing the schools BOT, noting that there is no way the Seminoles can remain competitive in the future.

“At the end of the day, for Florida State to compete nationally, something has to change moving forward,” Alford told the board of trustees. “At the end of the day, if something’s not done, we cannot be $30 million behind every year compared to our peers.”

The SEC announced earlier this year an average of $49.9 million per school distributed for the 2021-22 fiscal year. For the previous fiscal year, the ACC reported distributions between $35 million and $38.1 million, trailing the Big Ten as well with between $43.1 million to $49.1 million there.

However, that gap is expected to grow substantially with the SEC and Big Ten under new television agreements, while the ACC is locked into its deal through 2036.

The ACC currently distributes television revenue equally among all 14 members, but Alford, as well as, Clemson AD Graham Neff, have been pushing for a new model, where what each school receives is more in line with what it earns.

“I know how hard the commissioner and the office are working to provide solutions to the members of the conference to the revenue gap that we are projecting in the upcoming years to the media contracts,” Alford told ESPN. “But at the end of the day, in order to compete to the standard we want to compete in, there needs to be a change, and the status quo is not good enough.”