Jim Phillips' third-place remark will make FSU, Clemson want to leave ACC even faster

It's a weird time in college athletics. The Pac-12 just died, even though Oregon State and Washington State are still in denial. In the meantime, what is ACC commissioner Jim Phillips talking about over in Charlotte? In the midst of the Power Four arms race, the ACC is coming up dead last. It's the Big Ten and SEC duking it out for first, with the Big 12 running away with third. Where's the ACC at?

Although Clemson and Florida State's potentially abrupt departures in a few years may not sit well with the rest of college sports, I would want to leave the ACC too after hearing what Phillips had to say at the podium. The league is locked into a financially punitive television contract of its own doing, resulting in every other Power Four league lapping them every time they go to the renegotiating table.

The instant Phillips said the word "third", I started planning my schedule around a future ACC funeral.

“We are not chasing third. By any metric of significance — CFP appearances, national championships, having our own network, revenue generation, academic prowess — I’m comfortable where the ACC is: inside that top three."

The ACC may be the most established brand and may make more money than the Big 12 ... for now.

“The ACC is one of the top three conferences in overall revenue generated and distributed, and we fully expect that to continue and grow.”

Phillips is overseeing a house of cards, one that is propped up by North Carolina and Virginia loyalty.

Jim Phillips' third-place obsession will make Florida State, Clemson leave

The ACC may have been built on the backs of basketball excellence on Tobacco Road, but it is college football that drives the bus in major college athletics. The two biggest brands in-conference in Florida State and Clemson are fed up with getting taken to the cleaners financially, especially when their SEC in-state rivals continue to clean up in terms of their revenue sharing model. It is a problem.

I feel with everything that has happened in the most recent waves of conference realignment that the ACC has been reactive, as opposed to proactive. Yes, they picked up Cal and Stanford out of the Pac-12, but that league was dying. Yes, they added former Group of Five contender SMU, but they have not won diddly poo since the NCAA sentenced the football program to death back in the mid-1980s.

As far as the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC's additions are concerned, they came from a point of strength. The Big 12 is in a far better position in the years since it was known that they were losing Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC. They added Group of Five powers BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF last year and just picked up the Pac-12's Four Corner Universities this year. That is how you survive in all this.

In truth, I want the ACC to survive because I think having four Power Four conferences sitting atop the best sport in the world is good for college football. We need a larger governing body separate from the NCAA to make sure college football doesn't tear away at the fabric of what makes it so great completely. Unfortunately, we are in the midst of a game of Risk. You will lose by not playing the game.

If you are trying to finish in third place, you ain't first, you're last! Ricky Bobby would never tolerate this.