'Getting to 18 (teams) protects the ACC': Commissioner Jim Phillips defends conference expansion

WRAL's Chris Lea reports from the ACC Tipoff why ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips thinks conference expansion is good for the conference in the long run, plus the future of the ACC Basketball Tournament.
Posted 10/25/2023, 7:47:53 PM Updated 10/25/2023, 7:49:06 PM

This morning AC C Commissioner Jim Phillips explained the reason

for adding three more teams to the conference

Commissioner Phillips addressed the media this morning as part of

the AC C basketball tip off media day in Charlotte

WRL sports anchor Chris Lee is there and joins us

now with how local teams voted during all these expansion

talks

Hey Chris Jeff I remember being a little boy and

it was a big deal when the AC C expanded

from eight teams to nine teams

When Florida State decided to join in then it went

from nine to what we have now is 15

Next year

When we're here there will be 18 teams a part

of the Atlantic Coast conference Atlantic Coast conference adding Cal

Stanford and SMU a move that still has a lot

of people kind of scratching their heads

This morning

AC C Commissioner Jim Phillips addressed media to talk about

expansion

Some huge names in our conference were reportedly against it

like UN C

It was also reported that NC state was initially against

expansion but had a change of heart which eventually gave

the conference the vote it needed to expand to 18

Now many questions still loom about the logistics of an

18 conference

But Commissioner Phillips says that the future of the conference

in today's world really depended on that expansion

Getting to 18 protects the AC C now and into

the future schools will ultimately make the decisions that they

want

But what I keep hearing from them is they like

being in the AC C and we are making progress

and we have addressed some of the things that they've

talked about

So I I would really encourage all of you to

to go back to whatever schools that you want to

to discuss that

And another thing that was talked about and I was

asked is how would the AC C approach 18 teams

in the AC C basketball tournament It's already a long

tournament as it is from Tuesday to Saturday

Every time that is held

Commissioner Phillips says that he only wants the top 15

teams to come in that the three how bad your

record is

If you can't make it into the AC C tournament

then you just won't be there

So we'll see what happens

Ultimately the decision will be up to the member schools

inside the conference guys

All right

More seats at the table there

Chris Lee live over in Charlotte

Thanks for the update

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