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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Pat Forde

College Football’s 25 Most Intriguing People in Suits

Back by popular demand—or force of habit—we present the College Football Most Intriguing Lists. Previous 2023 editions have featured coaches, quarterbacks and nonquarterbacks. This week’s final entry turns away from the playing field to examine the Most Intriguing People in Suits.

How much longer will Phillips (left) be able to call Swinney and Clemson ACC members?

Ken Ruinard/USA TODAY Network

1. Jim Phillips, Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner. The shifting realignment drama has settled on Phillips’s league for the foreseeable future. The ACC won a nation-leading nine national championships in 2022–23, but in a world where media-rights revenue dominates all conference decisions this is the hot spot. Although league members are locked into their current agreement until ’36, Florida State (and likely Clemson) seem poised to attempt a breakaway. Meanwhile, Stanford and California have their noses pressed against the ACC window wanting in. Phillips, a career campus administrator with strongly held beliefs about what college sports should look like, has his hands full navigating the next year.

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