The ACC has picked Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips as its next commissioner, replacing John Swofford.
The league officially announced the hiring in a 1 p.m. news release, two hours after two sources with direct knowledge told the N&O that Phillips informed his Northwestern staff he was leaving to take the ACC commissioner post.
Phillips will begin his new job in February. Swofford announced earlier this year he would retire in June after 25 years as commissioner with the caveat that he would leave earlier if his successor was in place earlier.
Yahoo! Sports first reported the ACC had targeted Phillips as his replacement.
Phillips was considered a top candidate for the Big Ten commissioner opening that went to NFL executive Kevin Warren in 2019 and is considered a leader in NCAA governance, where he was the first athletic director to serve on that organization’s Board of Directors and Board of Governors and is scheduled to chair the men’s basketball committee for the 2022 NCAA tournament.
“I think the ACC hit a home run,” said former Boston College athletic director Martin Jarmond, now the athletic director at UCLA. “What the ACC is getting is somebody who gets the student-athlete, who understands the business inside and out, who’s a leader, who’s well respected, and who’s decisive. These are chaotic times, and you’re going to need a leader who gets all the constituents he or she has to serve. That’s what Jim Phillips is.”
A Chicago native who attended Illinois, Phillips is the first ACC commissioner to come from outside the conference, although he does have ties to Notre Dame, where he worked for current Duke athletic director Kevin White before becoming the athletic director at Northern Illinois and Northwestern.
“Jim is one of the most talented athletic administrators in the country and uniquely qualified to successfully and seamlessly take over the helm of the ACC,” ACC Board chair Kent Syverud, Syracuse’s chancellor, said in a statement. “Over the course of nearly 13 years, Jim has elevated and cemented Northwestern’s position as an outstanding Power 5 athletics program. Northwestern’s ascension in the world of intercollegiate athletics is a testament to Jim’s vision, leadership and foundational dedication to the success of student-athletes. The ACC is fortunate to have someone of Jim’s caliber and integrity lead the conference at this pivotal moment in intercollegiate athletics.”
Swofford announced in June that he would retire in 2021 after more than two decades as commissioner, a tenure that included the addition of six schools and the launch of the long-awaited ACC Network. The ACC’s search for his replacement has been conducted by a 20-person committee with the help of several outside consultants, with the final say going to the ACC’s new Board of Directors consisting of the league’s 15 sitting presidents.
Clemson president Jim Clements and ESPN executive Burke Magnus were seen as likely candidates for the position over the past six months, but both publicly withdrew this month — with a new contract in Clements’ case and a promotion for Magnus. NCAA executive Stan Wilcox, a former Duke assistant AD and Florida State AD, was also a candidate at one point.
Several likely candidates, such as West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons and South Florida athletic director Michael Kelly — both former ACC staffers — fell out of contention when the search committee made the early decision to move away from anyone with strong ties to Swofford and go in a new direction. Phillips epitomizes that.
As the league’s fifth commissioner in 68 years, Phillips face the dual challenges of navigating the financial and medical impact of COVID-19 on the ACC as well as a changing NCAA landscape, from a potential Power 5 breakaway to the liberalization of athlete rights through NIL. He will also be charged with squeezing more money out of the television deal with ESPN that led to the creation of the ACC Network.
Swofford is scheduled to officially retire in June, but that date could be moved up if Phillips is ready to take over earlier.
All four previous ACC commissioners were either ACC graduates or former ACC athletic directors. Swofford went to North Carolina and was the athletic director there; Gene Corrigan went to Duke and served as athletic director at Virginia, although he came to the ACC office from Notre Dame; Bob James went to Maryland; and Jim Weaver was the athletic director at Wake Forest when the league was formed in 1953.
While any ACC ties Phillips has are indirect, he has solid working relationships with current ACC administrators.
After graduating from Illinois in 1990, Phillips was a graduate assistant basketball coach at Arizona State while earning a Master’s degree in 1992. In 1997, a year after Kevin White became Arizona State’s athletic director, Phillips left coaching to enter athletic administration at at the school.
Following a stop at Tennessee where he was an assistant athletics director, Phillips moved to Notre Dame where he was again worked for White. With White as Notre Dame’s athletics director, Phillips worked as an assistant athletics director alongside current UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham.
In 2002, when Cunningham left his role as Notre Dame’s associate AD for external affairs to become AD at Ball State, Phillips took over that role with the Irish.
Boo Corrigan, N.C. State’s current athletics director, joined Notre Dame’s staff in 2004, the same year Phillips left Notre Dame to become AD at Northern Illinois.
“Jim Phillips is an outstanding selection as the ACC’s next commissioner,” Corrigan said in a statement. “His track record of success at multiple stops speaks for itself. He will bring the necessary vision and leadership as our conference faces a pivotal moment in time. Kudos to the ACC Board of Directors and the Search Advisory Committee on a job well done on identifying a first-class successor to John Swofford. On behalf of NC State, we welcome Jim to the ACC and look forward to our league’s next chapter.”
Phillips became Northwestern’s athletic director in April 2008. In addition to strengthening that school’s athletic program through fundraising and facility improvements, Phillips’ stature on the national stage grew when he was elected the inaugural chair of the NCAA Division I Council in February 2015. He was also the first sitting AD to serve on the NCAA’s Board of Directors and Board of Governors.
Phillips was appointed to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball selection committee in 2017.
“He has impeccable integrity, national stature and has been recognized by man in the industry for his honors, appointments and roles on committees and governing bodies,” Cunningham said in a statement. “In addition to his professional experiences and successes, Jim is an incredible husband and father. I look forward to working with him in this new capacity.”
