Sources: ACC, commissioner settling extension

9:43 AM ET Pete ThamelESPN The Atlantic Coast Conference and commissioner Jim Phillips are completing a three-year contract extension that will keep him atop the league through basically the remainder of the decade, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.Phillips has been the league’s commissioner because being called in December 2020 and taking control of in February 2021 on a five-year agreement, of which he was nearing the midway point.The ACC’s transfer to extend Phillips comes as the Big 10’s search for a commissioner is striking its late stages, with finalists expected to be interviewed today. Phillips was not formally involved in the Big 10’s process, according to sources, however he had actually been the speculative favorite.A source stated the offer for Phillips’ extension came together in the past month.”It was the perceived danger of the Big Ten coming after him,”an ACC source told ESPN.Phillips was the preferred candidate of many athletic directors in the Big 10, who strongly prefer college sports experience for the prospect because role after experiencing Kevin Warren’s steep early knowing curve adjusting to college sports.Phillips is currently the second-longest-tenured significant conference commissioner, routing just the SEC’s Greg Sankey.There have been some clear wins throughout Phillips’tenure, including attaining full circulation of the ACC Network on Comcast, which enhanced ACC Network reach to 90 million homes and bumped up revenue.The ACC was the only major conference with schools in both of this year’s NCAA competition Final Fours, as Miami reached the males

‘s event in Houston and Virginia Tech reached the females’s occasion in Dallas. The ACC was the top conference with 10 schools in the latest Leading 25 of the Learfield Directors’Cup standings and has recent nationwide titles in field hockey

(UNC ), males’s soccer(Syracuse )and women’s cross country (NC State ). Phillips’task in the wake of his new deal is to discover imaginative methods to close the profits space between the ACC and the SEC and Big 10. As those leagues get in brand-new television offers, there’s been a drumbeat in the league for ways to produce more income and/or distribute income differently.Phillips pertained to the ACC after a successful period as the athletic director at Northwestern, where he invested 13 seasons and established a track record as one of the nation’s leading athletic directors. His achievements there included Northwestern’s very first males’s NCAA tournament bid, a consistently strong football program under Pat Fitzgerald and the structure of a$270 million facility that’s thought about the best in all college athletics.