“We understand where those two leagues are,” Phillips stated throughout the begin of ACC soccer media days. “No one is ignoring that. We’re all trying to find ways to close that gap, so I know where our 17 — or our 15 schools are. We are really aligned to try to find some solutions to that revenue gap.”
Phillips’s momentary slip underscored probably the most urgent considerations dealing with the embattled ACC, which he indicated is exploring growth in addition to different avenues to enhance earnings after the SEC introduced it might be including Texas and Oklahoma in 2025 and the Big Ten gaining UCLA and Southern Cal in 2024.
The ACC distributed greater than $578 million throughout fiscal 2020-21, in accordance to tax paperwork, a rise of 16.4 % and a report in gross income for the convention thanks partially to the ACC Network. That determine, nevertheless, nonetheless lags nicely behind the SEC and Big Ten.
During the identical fiscal interval the Big Ten generated almost $680 million whereas the SEC reported in extra of $833 million, with every convention producing a superior total soccer product elevated by extra established convention networks.
Apart from Clemson, the ACC’s dearth of illustration within the nationwide soccer panorama has been an albatross, significantly since conventional powers equivalent to Miami and Virginia Tech, every with a brand new head coach this season, and Florida State have regressed significantly.
Not even the ACC’s long-standing achievements in its different highest grossing sport, males’s basketball, have been sufficient to quell discussions concerning the convention’s survival throughout an unprecedented interval of tumult through which it continues to search a brand new headquarters in a course of that has dragged for a 12 months.
“All metrics, we are one of the leaders in the country in all of those areas I talked about, except the revenue piece of it, and that’s been brought to light with the recent move of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten,” Phillips stated, including the ACC is partnering with income consultants to attempt to improve earnings. “I love our 15 schools, and I’m confident in us staying together.”