CHARLOTTE — Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips, speaking Wednesday for the first time since the league’s decision to add Cal, Stanford and SMU, reiterated why the league opted to expand — but did not preclude additional future movement.
“Getting to 18 protects the ACC, now and into the future,” Phillips said at ACC Tipoff. “Schools will ultimately make the decisions that they want.”
As The Athletic previously reported, in the ACC’s first vote regarding expansion, four schools — North Carolina, NC State, Clemson and Florida State — voted no, before NC State flipped and gave the league the majority needed to proceed. The three schools that voted “no” are considered the three most desirable brands in the ACC, and the ones that would be most attractive to the SEC and Big Ten in any future round of conference realignment. Earlier this summer, Florida State’s board of trustees even said publicly that under the league’s current financial model, it would be forced to consider leaving the conference.
Thus far, the ACC’s Grant of Rights — its media rights contract with ESPN which runs through 2036 — has prevented any current members from departing.
But asked how he has handled the league’s three dissenting members since the expansion was…
