Northwestern Athletic Director Becomes New ACC Commissioner

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Iceland12

Iceland12

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If you’re from the Chicagoland area or have ties to Northwestern, you’ve likely heard the name Jim Phillips.

Phillips has served as Northwestern’s athletic director since 2008 and has overseen an athletic program that reached new heights in both football and basketball during his tenure. He was incredibly impressive in making the university relevant in Chicago, a professional sports city.

Phillips was named the new ACC commissioner on Monday, a job he’ll start in February. To those who know anything about how he has operated at Northwestern and, before that, at Northern Illinois University, this is an incredible coup by the ACC..

fightingirishwire.usatoday.com

ACC knocks it out of park with new commissioner

If you’re from the Chicagoland area or have ties to Northwestern, you’ve likely heard the name Jim Phillips. Phillips has served as Northwestern’s athletic director since 2008 and…
fightingirishwire.usatoday.com fightingirishwire.usatoday.com
 

I get that he is well-liked but if he was really that great I’m sure the big ten ADs would’ve pushed for him to be conference commissioner (I suppose they may have and the presidents went in a different direction)
 

Some guy said:
I get that he is well-liked but if he was really that great I’m sure the big ten ADs would’ve pushed for him to be conference commissioner (I suppose they may have and the presidents went in a different direction)
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This may have added to his appeal for the ACC:

Phillips also has connections to Notre Dame, having spent time there from 2000-2004 as the senior associate director of athletics for external affairs.
 




Zeppelin Gopher said:
We really missed the boat last year going with Warren over Phillips. Huge blunder
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#2Gopher said:
Disagree.
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I agree with your disagreement. I'm not sure why many dislike Kevin Warren. He got tossed into the craziest year for the Big Ten since at least WWII. He was mostly obligated to follow the recommendations of university presidents and state governments on football. They came back to the table, reconsidered, and at least scheduled something close to a normal Big Ten football season.

The things he could control - he allowed guys like Rashod Bateman to come back. He reshuffled the schedule to preserve the Axe game.

This year sucked, but I don't blame Warren. It should get nothing but easier for the rest of his tenure.
 

fmlizard said:
I agree with your disagreement. I'm not sure why many dislike Kevin Warren. He got tossed into the craziest year for the Big Ten since at least WWII. He was mostly obligated to follow the recommendations of university presidents and state governments on football. They came back to the table, reconsidered, and at least scheduled something close to a normal Big Ten football season.

The things he could control - he allowed guys like Rashod Bateman to come back. He reshuffled the schedule to preserve the Axe game.

This year sucked, but I don't blame Warren. It should get nothing but easier for the rest of his tenure.
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I'm shocked that Warren has the small amount of backing he actually does.

Tough situation yes, but he bungled the football season from start to finish, and his communication has been extremely poor. He's been awful thusfar
 

Iceland12 said:
This may have added to his appeal for the ACC:

Phillips also has connections to Notre Dame, having spent time there from 2000-2004 as the senior associate director of athletics for external affairs.
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They hired him with the hopes of bringing Notre Dame football into the fold? That is the ACC's wet dream, of course. Be interesting to see who (or even if) they add as a 16th full member, if that ever happens. They'd ideally love a strong football school.

Wonder if Cincinnati or West Virginia could get done? Both former Big East members.
 

fmlizard said:
I agree with your disagreement. I'm not sure why many dislike Kevin Warren. He got tossed into the craziest year for the Big Ten since at least WWII. He was mostly obligated to follow the recommendations of university presidents and state governments on football. They came back to the table, reconsidered, and at least scheduled something close to a normal Big Ten football season.

The things he could control - he allowed guys like Rashod Bateman to come back. He reshuffled the schedule to preserve the Axe game.

This year sucked, but I don't blame Warren. It should get nothing but easier for the rest of his tenure.
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Well said.

There's not a single thing that Warren did wrong, in any of this. The only people attacking him are bigots (remember, he is an African-American) who hate that the season was originally cancelled (by the school presidents) because of the pandemic. Plain and simple
 



MplsGopher said:
They hired him with the hopes of bringing Notre Dame football into the fold? That is the ACC's wet dream, of course. Be interesting to see who (or even if) they add as a 16th full member, if that ever happens. They'd ideally love a strong football school.

Wonder if Cincinnati or West Virginia could get done? Both former Big East members.
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Notre Dame is a member of the ACC for all sports except Football. Though yeah,they'd always be ready for to add it. ;)

Cincinnati tried very hard to get back in 2014, but they took Louisville instead. Just looked and the year before they added Syracuse and Notre Dame. Notre Dame without football, Syracuse without baseball.

West Virginia? They got into the Big 12 the year before ND and Syracuse got into the ACC. Travel wise it certainly would be better for them. Probably made the move because they couldn't get into the ACC? Not sure how the money would works now.
 

Iceland12 said:
Notre Dame is a member of the ACC for all sports except Football. Though yeah,they'd always be ready for to add it. ;)

Cincinnati tried very hard to get back in 2014, but they took Louisville instead. Just looked and the year before they added Syracuse and Notre Dame. Notre Dame without football, Syracuse without baseball.

West Virginia? They got into the Big 12 the year before ND and Syracuse got into the ACC. Travel wise it certainly would be better for them. Probably made the move because they couldn't get into the ACC? Not sure how the money would works now.
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I know ND is a full member minus football. That's why I said Notre Dame football.

At the time, WV was afraid that they were going to get left out of the BCS with the Big East collapsing. They struck a deal with the Big XII for one of those spots. Mitch McConnell tried to get them to take Louisville instead, no joke.

Then expansion happened, on top of realignment, and Louisville got into the ACC to replace Maryland. They were the better choice over Cincinnati, then, including in football. Not so sure now, but probably overall and basketball it still is the right choice.

But I'm talking #16 to go along with Notre Dame, if they were to decide that being football members of the ACC was the correct decision.
 

MplsGopher said:
I know ND is a full member minus football. That's why I said Notre Dame football.

At the time, WV was afraid that they were going to get left out of the BCS with the Big East collapsing. They struck a deal with the Big XII for one of those spots. Mitch McConnell tried to get them to take Louisville instead, no joke.

Then expansion happened, on top of realignment, and Louisville got into the ACC to replace Maryland. They were the better choice over Cincinnati, then, including in football. Not so sure now, but probably overall and basketball it still is the right choice.

But I'm talking #16 to go along with Notre Dame, if they were to decide that being football members of the ACC was the correct decision.
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No offense intended. Just added that if anybody else who decided to read this didn't know.

By the way. After looking at the Big 12 noticed that 12 are schools are "part" of the Big 12 Conference but in only 1 sport. Most of them for Wrestling. Knew it happens, ND being in the Big 10 for hockey is the only one I was aware of.

But 12 in the Big 12? That's a lot.
 

ND tried as hard as they could to avoid joining Big Ten hockey, where all their rivals from the old CCHA are (Michigan, Mich St, Ohio St). Tried to give it a go in Hockey East, with the hockey schools from the Big East, but fans wouldn't buy it.
 





MplsGopher said:
There's not a single thing that Warren did wrong, in any of this. The only people attacking him are bigots (remember, he is an African-American) who hate that the season was originally cancelled (by the school presidents) because of the pandemic. Plain and simple
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Ridiculous take, even by your own incredibly low bottom feeding standards.
 

Plausible Deniability said:
There is a mountain of evidence to support this assertion.
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It could be but honestly we don't know. Been leaning towards Warren getting the job because the Big Ten Presidents wanted a Commish that would implement their positions, not strike out on his own. Since the schools voted on not playing, and then playing wouldn't have made a difference anyway.

Let's see how Phillips does with the ACC and what Warren does in 2021-2022. When we're hopefully not dealing with COVID. Maybe then we'll have a better idea.
 

Iceland12 said:
It could be but honestly we don't know. Been leaning towards Warren getting the job because the Big Ten Presidents wanted a Commish that would implement their positions, not strike out on his own.
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This is without question the case. Interview panels historically select people of like-mindedness and I have no doubt this was the case here. This does not always result in the best selection, but many panels are not savvy enough to see past their internal biases
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
I'm shocked that Warren has the small amount of backing he actually does.

Tough situation yes, but he bungled the football season from start to finish, and his communication has been extremely poor. He's been awful thusfar
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80% of his job is communication and the communication has failed pretty bad
 

MplsGopher said:
If by mountain, you mean a bunch of bigotry towards the first African-American commish, then yes.
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If someone doesn't like Warren's communication per the football season can they criticize him without being an anti-black bigot?
 
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noamfromm said:
If someone doesn't like Warren's communication per the football season can they criticize him without being an anti-black bigot?
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Nope, it certainly doesn't. By the same token most, not all, people who complain about his communications skills really mean:

"He should have said that they're going play in September!"
 

noamfromm said:
If someone doesn't like Warren's communication per the football season can they criticize him without being an anti-black bigot?
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Of course (though I have no idea what you mean by per the football season).

That's not at all the fake narrative that was being presented back in Aug/Sept. People here were claiming that Warren caused the conference to cancel the season.

That's a bald-faced lie.
 

MplsGopher said:
Of course (though I have no idea what you mean by per the football season).

That's not at all the fake narrative that was being presented back in Aug/Sept. People here were claiming that Warren caused the conference to cancel the season.

That's a bald-faced lie.
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I was using it in the sense of "with respect to", but the definition is "with respect to every member of a specified group : for each", so it doesn't exactly work the way I intended.

Regardless you said that the only people attacking him were bigots, I didn't follow your line of logic that these attacks were solely based on the claim you mentioned.
 

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