CHARLOTTE – The ACC is in a better place than it was a year ago and is better for having gone through some public discourse a couple of months ago.

That was the tone of the messaging from commissioner Jim Phillips on Tuesday to begin the league’s three-day preseason media event. Phillips spoke publicly with the ACC’s media for the first time since the conclusion of the spring meetings, which were conducted amid reports that seven schools were gauging how to leave the conference.

“I really believe it helped us, I do,” Phillips said. “It was painful to go through. Nobody liked it, but it really started to develop this honesty and candor.”

The ACC announced shortly after those spring meetings that was implementing a success incentive initiative, which goes into effect for the 2024-25 academic year. In the simplest of terms, it’s a way of rewarding the performance of schools whose teams advance deep in postseason play and/or win national championships with more money.

The financials of the league are under scrutiny because SEC and Big Ten’s schools already make more money under TV rights contracts, and that gap is expected to widen in the coming years.

“I'm well aware of the narrative and stories surrounding the ACC and our members as well as the frustrations of some of our schools on our financials, but these are not new,” Phillips said. “The initiatives … combined with future endeavors are designed to ensure that the ACC remains a healthy and vibrant conference that competes at the highest level.”

Phillips championed the ACC’s nine national championships last year — none of which was in football or men’s and women’s basketball — as proof of the ACC’s strength.

“The bottom line is our conference is strong, and I'm extremely bullish about our future together,” Phillips said.

It was last year in the same building and for the same event that Phillips’ remarks were met with baited breath amid the latest tectonic realignment shift. That was when the Alliance between the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 was shattered by the Big Ten’s announcement it was adding USC and UCLA.

The most-anticipated aspect of Phillips’ time at the podium came at the end of his opening statement.

Phillips was the athletics director at Northwestern from 2008-21 and has been named as a defendant, along with other university leaders, in two lawsuits stemming from the hazing scandal that’s enveloped the school’s athletics program.

In addressing that situation Tuesday, the ACC’s commissioner since Feb. 1, 2021 reiterated a statement issued last week that his “highest priority has always been the health and safety of all student-athletes.”

“This is a very difficult time for the Northwestern community, and my heart goes out to any person who carries the burden of mistreatment or who has been harmed in any way,” Phillips said on Tuesday. “During my 30-year career in college athletics, my highest priority has always been the health and safety of all student-athletes.”

He added that because of ongoing litigation, he would have no further comment on the matter.

Here were a few other aspects addressed by Phillips both during a 30-minute opening statement and about 20 minutes of a Q&A period:

- The relationship between the ACC and ESPN remains a constant focus, as ESPN owns and operates the league’s network.

“We remain in constant communication with Disney and ESPN, as there is no single business partnership in our industry that is valued more than with a conference's media rights holder,” Phillips said. “In certainly one of the most turbulent times in history for both media and college sports, I and the ACC have never felt better about our relationship than we do today.

“Our commitment to collaborate on way the ACC from a revenue and exposure standpoint has been unwavering.”

- The ACC’s move to Charlotte is not yet complete. The league announced in September that it was moving from Greensboro, where it’d been headquartered since it was founded in 1953.

“Since announcing our relocation back in September, there has been a lot of positive energy between the city, the conference, and our membership,” Phillips said.

- The ACC’s 14 teams will combine for 25 non-conference games against Power 5 opponents this season, 11 of which are games against teams that finished the 2022 season ranked in the Associated Press Top 25.

There’s a caveat here: Six of those 11 games are against Notre Dame through the league’s arrangement with the independent program. No ACC team has beaten Notre Dame in the regular season since 2017.

Phillips was asked whether he’d had recent conversations about Notre Dame joining the ACC as a full-time member. He said that he was putting it bluntly by saying, “We've had a lot of conversations … with Notre Dame, and they've been very clear. They value their independence, and I think they feel strongly that that will continue well into the future.”