The national media spotlight centered it’s attention to Charlotte, North Carolina last week for the 2021 ACC Kickoff. The highly anticipated two day event ended a nearly two year hiatus due to Covid-19, and also served as the unofficial debut for the new ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips. As expected; Commissioner Phillips, the coaches, and players in attendance fielded questions regarding the plethora of issues that are currently intertwined with college athletics such as; Covid-19 protocol, the NIL court ruling, playoff expansion, and potential conference realignment.
After hearing new ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips answer questions last Wednesday and Thursday; I am convinced that his lack of a stance or game plan regarding Covid-19 protocols will become a major issue for the Atlantic Coast Conference. This is not about which side of the issue that Phillips is on; it is simply an observation that he does not have any kind of plan, stance, or the ability to provide concrete answers when asked about the issue. While addressing the crowd on Wednesday Phillips said, “Personally, I believe vaccines are critical to the protection of all and achieving the goal of eliminating COVID-19 and its variants,” he then goes on to say, “but I also deeply respect that it’s a personal choice”. Regardless of his stance or lack thereof; I think a more confident and concise answer would have garnered a better reaction from the public.
Once again this is not about what course of action is taken regarding Covid-19 protocol, that is a completely different discussion for a different day. This is an issue pertaining to the inexperience of former Northwestern Athletic Director Jim Phillips, and if he can be a competent commissioner for the ACC. I think you can chalk it up to an experience issue, because Phillips indecisive attitude towards Covid-19 and vaccination is only a month removed from the uproar caused by N.C. State being disqualified from the College Baseball World Series, due to positive Covid-19 test. It is clear that he did not take into account, or pay close enough attention to the backlash from the public over the N.C. State disqualification. Sudden changes and uncertainty obviously does not sit well with ACC fans, but Phillips failed to get a handle on that in June.
Phillips would go on to double down on not having a plan by saying “(the ACC) will wait a couple of more weeks” before finalizing decisions on scheduling changes, forfeiture of games for COVID reasons”. Given the fact that there are around 40 days left before the first ACC team kicks-off their 2021 season, I think that Commissioner Phillips lack of a plan puts himself at risk of mismanaging the entire 2021 college football season. With that being said; my overall takeaway is that Phillips should have taken a page out of Greg Sankey’s playbook and decided on a plan to tell the media. In fact, it has most certainly worked in favor of Sankey with the news breaking on Friday that Texas and Oklahoma were leaving the Big 12 in an attempt to join the SEC.
This is relevant in the case of Phillips because of his attempt at courting Notre Dame to join the ACC. When discussing Notre Dame’s conference allegiance, Phillips ironically said “The old kind of quip is, Notre Dame loves two things: one is being Catholic, second is independence. Sometimes those things get in reverse order. Sometimes they like independence even more than being Catholic. After the events of the past week I do not see Notre Dame completely committing to the ACC, especially if there are other commissioners that have a plan moving forward.
To sum it all up, I think that ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips unofficial debut at the 2021 ACC Kickoff raised more questions, than answers. The tumultuous landscape of college athletics today; leads me to the conclusion that no matter what course of action he decides to take, he needs to act swiftly, or there could be a potential state of emergency in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
