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Report: Northwestern AD Jim Phillips being ‘targeted’ for ACC Commissioner job

Spenser Davis

By Spenser Davis

Published:

Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips could be headed to the ACC.

According to Yahoo!’s Pete Thamel, the ACC is finalizing an offer for Phillips to replace John Swofford as the league’s commissioner.

According to Thamel’s report, Phillips nearly became the Big Ten commissioner when that job opened in 2019.

Per Thamel, the ACC believes Phillips’ experience on a college campus and Northwestern’s academic prowess will help prep him for the job. The Big Ten’s Kevin Warren and the Pac-12’s Larry Scott didn’t have that experience before taking over, and have struggled in certain areas of the job as a result.

Phillips has been with the Wildcats for 13 years and has overseen one of the best periods of Northwestern football in program history. He was also in charge in 2017 when NW made the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

If Phillips is headed to the ACC, he’ll have an interesting last Northwestern football game to work. On Saturday, the Wildcats will face Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game for the second time in three years.

Kick off is at 12 p.m. ET Dec. 19.

Spenser Davis

Spenser is the news manager at Saturday Road and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.