CHARLOTTE — ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips held a press conference Wednesday morning at the ACC Basketball Tipoff.

Phillips was asked about the three schools that voted against expansion – Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina.

“I cannot control individual decisions on campus, and we can’t,” Phillips said. “We have absolutely listened. I’ve tried to be a really good listener. It hasn’t fallen on deaf ears. We’ve been proactive. The distribution of dollars with success initiative is part of what I’m hearing, and maybe a majority of what I’m hearing from some of the schools that have been vocal about it.

“Getting to 18 protects the ACC, now and into the future. Schools will ultimately make the decisions that they want. But what I keep hearing from them is they like being in the ACC, and we are making progress, and we have addressed some of the things that they’ve talked about.”

Phillips added “there’s history there” when it comes to ACC expansion and the additions not receiving a unanimous vote.

“As far as not a unanimous vote, in 2004 and 2005, the ACC made offers to Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College. That was not unanimous,” Phillips said. “Carolina and Duke, from what I remember, voted against it. People made a big deal, I know, about NC State and Carolina separating in their vote. There’s history there.”

Of course, the ACC is moving forward with adding Stanford, Cal and SMU as new members in 2024. The ACC needed 12 of 15 votes, and Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina were outvoted, 12-3.

“At the end of the day, we had a high threshold. You’re talking about 80 percent of the league voted in favor of that. I’m not sure in this world you can get 80 percent of vote on anything, on any issue,” Phillips said.

“We move forward. We move forward together. I don’t feel any hangover by any of the schools that may not have been in favor of the expansion piece of it. Zero.”

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