Syracuse Orange: The ACC has 'never been stronger as a league,' commissioner says

For the upcoming 2024-25 season, the Syracuse Orange and its peers in the Atlantic Coast Conference have seen their membership ranks expand, with the additions of California, SMU and Stanford.

The ACC's commissioner, Jim Phillips, is quite bullish on the conference's future, even as two league members, Clemson and Florida State, are engaged in legal battles with the ACC, as I discussed in a separate column on Thursday.

“We’ve never been stronger as a league,” Phillips said during a recent appearance on ESPN's SportsCenter, per an article from On3 national writer Barkley Truax.

While that may be true, the ACC is clearly lagging behind the two powerhouse leagues in collegiate athletics, the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten Conference. Depending on who you talk to you, the ACC could also be in the No. 4 spot nationally, trailing those two leagues as well as the Big 12 Conference.

Regardless, as Syracuse football and other Orange sports commence their fall seasons with three new ACC members on board, it's still encouraging to hear from this Phillips, given the ongoing chatter about conference realignment, the possible exits of Clemson and/or Florida State, and the ACC's long-term financial stability.

The Syracuse Orange and its ACC peers are starting their fall sports campaigns as we speak.

The explosion of conference realignment has left four power conferences in college football. The Pac-12 Conference crumbled, while the Big Ten, the SEC, the Big 12 and the ACC have expanded.

Much of the cause for this, naturally, centers on television revenue, college football and even college basketball, but to a lesser degree. According to many media reports in recent months, the Big Ten and the SEC have media-rights deals that are far superior to that of the ACC, the Big 12 or any other conference.

The ACC has a grant of rights media deal with ESPN that expires in 2036. Florida State and Clemson have ongoing lawsuits with the ACC, as those two schools try to get out of this grant of rights deal, and avoid potentially big-time exit fees, should they try to bolt for another conference.

Phillips, lately, has acknowledged that the ongoing legal fights with the Seminoles and the Tigers are an unfortunate circumstance and distraction, especially as the college football season is nearly here. With the College Football Playoff growing to 12 participants, ACC schools, including Syracuse football, are hoping to get an invite later this year.

"I am totally bullish about the future of the ACC," Phillips said. "We will work through these legal issues. But that can’t continue to be the narrative. It just can’t be. Because I think people are missing a really good story called, 'ACC sports. ACC football and success that everyone’s having.'"

Phillips added, "if you take a look at results - when you take a look at the financial results, we distributed over $700 million, a record, to our institutions. We won more national championships over the last three years than any conference in the country. We have some of the elite academic institutions, again, across the United States and across the world. We have also been very innovative. We have a success initiative plan this year that will allow teams that do well in the league in the sports of football and basketball, to have additional dollars distributed to them, in an unequal fashion for the first time."

One other thing that's important to mention here. Earlier this month, reports, including one from On3 writer Nick Schultz, stated that ESPN appears to have an "option" to end the ACC’s media-rights deal in 2027.