Northwestern AD Jim Phillips to be the next ACC commissioner

[CarolinaCuse]

 

[Cusefan69]

Hmmm...going to have to read up on this guy further. At first blush kind of surprised I guess.

 

[jgeorge322]

Is he the guy feeling the other guys tricep or the guy enjoying another man fondling his tricep.

 

[MSOrange]

Is he the guy feeling the other guys tricep or the guy enjoying another man fondling his tricep.

He's the guy on the left. The other guy is Pat Fitzgerald.

 

[MSOrange]

More about his background

Sources: ACC eyeing N'Western AD as commish

Jim Phillips, who has had a successful run as athletic director at Northwestern, has emerged as the leading candidate to become the next ACC commissioner, sources told ESPN.

www.espn.com

Phillips had strong support from Big Ten athletic directors to become that league's commissioner after Jim Delany's retirement in January.

Other ACC commissioner candidates included ESPN executive vice president Burke Magnus, Clemson University president James Clements and Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir.

Phillips spearheaded several major initiatives at Northwestern, including the $270 million Walter Athletics Center, the lakeside home of the school's football team and other programs. He also led the overdue renovation of Welsh-Ryan Arena and a standalone facility for the basketball programs. Phillips also held several major leadership positions with NCAA groups, among them serving the inaugural chair of the Division I council from 2015 to 2017.

Before Northwestern, Phillips served as athletic director at Northern Illinois for four years. Although he never worked in the ACC, he spent time as an associate athletic director at Notre Dame prior to the school's joining the conference in all sports except football.

Phillips came up under Duke athletic director Kevin White, working for him at both Notre Dame and Arizona State.

 

[sufandu]

I don't know anything about him beyond what I just read here, but I like that he isn't some carolina good ole boy.

 

[MSOrange]

I don't know anything about him beyond what I just read here, but I like that he isn't some carolina good ole boy.

Yeah I was almost guaranteed by this board that it would be someone from Carolina. Weird...

 

[elimunelson]

ND Connection is interesting at this juncture in time. I suspect his big accomplishment will be getting ND in full time in the next 5 years.

 

[orange79]

Well, that's a name I never expected.

 

[MSOrange]

Well, that's a name I never expected. View attachment 192901

If you woke up tomorrow with your head sewn to the carpet, you wouldn't be more surprised than you are right now?

 

[Cusefan69]

I guess my surprise comes from the fact that I was not expecting the position to be filled by an AD. I do like the fact he is not part of the Carolina south old ACC mindset. The connection to ND is nice but does a former associate AD at ND bring the kind of juice needed to persuade ND to fully come on board? The article suggests the renegotiation of the contract with ESPN will be front and center. Not sure if that is true or not but if it is, what in this ADs background is the expertise to drive that discussion? Again as more information comes out maybe it will seem like a better hire but again kind of surprised here. If the Clemson guy was the primary but he bailed once the Clemson BoT sweetened his deal, I would think that they would have tried getting Swofford to extend through 2021 as the replacement committee re-evaluated the market.

 

[jr4750]

I guess my surprise comes from the fact that I was not expecting the position to be filled by an AD. I do like the fact he is not part of the Carolina south old ACC mindset. The connection to ND is nice but does a former associate AD at ND bring the kind of juice needed to persuade ND to fully come on board? The article suggests the renegotiation of the contract with ESPN will be front and center. Not sure if that is true or not but if it is, what in this ADs background is the expertise to drive that discussion? Again as more information comes out maybe it will seem like a better hire but again kind of surprised here. If the Clemson guy was the primary but he bailed once the Clemson BoT sweetened his deal, I would think that they would have tried getting Swofford to extend through 2021 as the replacement committee re-evaluated the market.

I thought the same and then remembered that our AD has some experience there and might be able to leverage it for the benefit of the conference as well as to generate good rapport with the new Commish. I know JW has in the past been an asset to the ACC on this front and likely will be so again. I really like that they are bringing in an outsider who has experience in another conference to lend perspective.

 

[Alsacs]

The ACC has trend lightly when trying to renegotiate with ESPN.
The Big XII as well.
The money gap between the SEC and ACC is going to be there always. Just keeping the bottom line for the members good enough that it’s not like 50 million vs. 20 million per member a year.

Getting the ACC to like 30-40 million a year should be the goal. Let the SEC get the extra 10 million and then use NCAAT credits and sponsorship deals like CPI/Bojangles/that pizza company fill in some more of the difference.

If TV negotiations were the most important thing Wildhack should just be asked to be more involved. He knows the ESPN thought process and will be able to smoothen negotiations.

This next Commissioner needs to be able to smoothen egos of Clemson and just make the bottom football teams continuing investing in football to get better.

Notre Dame is not joining the conference unless of chit like this year or the rules dictate it.

 

[Cusefan69]

I thought the same and then remembered that our AD has some experience there and might be able to leverage it for the benefit of the conference as well as to generate good rapport with the new Commish. I know JW has in the past been an asset to the ACC on this front and likely will be so again. I really like that they are bringing in an outsider who has experience in another conference to lend perspective.

Agree. JWs prior corporate ESPN experience will be very beneficial to those discussions. No doubt. I am with you on that one.

 

[sutomcat]

More about his background

Sources: ACC eyeing N'Western AD as commish

Jim Phillips, who has had a successful run as athletic director at Northwestern, has emerged as the leading candidate to become the next ACC commissioner, sources told ESPN.

www.espn.com

Phillips had strong support from Big Ten athletic directors to become that league's commissioner after Jim Delany's retirement in January.

Other ACC commissioner candidates included ESPN executive vice president Burke Magnus, Clemson University president James Clements and Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir.

Phillips spearheaded several major initiatives at Northwestern, including the $270 million Walter Athletics Center, the lakeside home of the school's football team and other programs. He also led the overdue renovation of Welsh-Ryan Arena and a standalone facility for the basketball programs. Phillips also held several major leadership positions with NCAA groups, among them serving the inaugural chair of the Division I council from 2015 to 2017.

Before Northwestern, Phillips served as athletic director at Northern Illinois for four years. Although he never worked in the ACC, he spent time as an associate athletic director at Notre Dame prior to the school's joining the conference in all sports except football.

Phillips came up under Duke athletic director Kevin White, working for him at both Notre Dame and Arizona State.

The fact that the B1G ADs wanted him to be the next B1G commissioner is strong testimony to his abilities.

They would want the best person possible to maximum profits and grow the conference.

I wonder if this news might make the B1G presidents freak out a bit?

They appear to have bungled their choice for commissioner (an outsider who couldn't save them from themselves), then completely bungled their handling of COVID. I would think this group of boneheads will next look to blame all their issues on the new commissioner, and make him the fall guy for their mistakes.

And hire the guy all their ADs wanted in the first place.

It would be hell of a thing if they saw him go to one of their biggest rival conferences and lead it to greatness while their conference slowly continues to deteriorate. Quite fitting I think.

 

[Cuse69]

ND will never join the ACC, it's never going to happen.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[Alsacs]

Is Philips’ son the crying kid from that Northwestern-Gonzaga NCAAT game years ago?

 

[elimunelson]

ND will never join the ACC, it's never going to happen.

I would think it's most likely going to happen at some point. Players want to play for championships. This season proved it's easier via a conference. It may not happen for 15 years but inevitably society is changing whereby one team won't be able to stand idle anymore. It's just not the way things happen. They'll lose their leverage competitively and it will force their hand. Not saying they want it but it's going to happen

 

[qdawgg]

Interesting hire. I would have thought someone with experience in TV rights deals, negotiating, etc would have been a major need. I don’t know that he doesn’t but I don’t see anything suggesting he does. On the flip side, he can always hire people and consult with people to help with that. If he’s the best fit for the job then he’s the best fit.

 

[kcsu]

Fantastic choice

 

[CuseLegacy]

 

[gbo]

I don't know anything about him beyond what I just read here, but I like that he isn't some carolina good ole boy.

This fact here is really the only thing I care about at this point...

 

[UpstateSM]

How much do these guys make

 

[Whitey23]

Twitter people were excited about him.