CLEMSON — After being blasted by Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua the last several days, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips is trying to repair some of the so-called “damage” the league caused in its relationship with the Irish.

Notre Dame was excluded from the College Football Playoff and was sabotaged, Bevacqua believes, by the ACC. He said the league, which 24 of his 26 sports teams compete in, “targeted” the Irish through a social media campaign to get full-time member Miami in the CFP.

 As a result, Bevacqua says the ACC did “permanent damage” to their relationship. If that is the case, then Phillips is trying to fix it.

When asked, “Should the CFP situation this year lead to expansion,” by Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, Phillips said, “Absolutely. … If you’re leaving teams out of the playoff that could win a national championship, then you don’t have the right number.”

Phillips was in Las Vegas earlier this week with other conference commissioners, as they debate over an expanded CFP. The commissioners have roughly a month to decide on expanding the playoff, which could be a 20- or 24-team playoff in the Big Ten has its way.

The Big Ten wants to expand to as many as 24 teams with each conference receiving four automatic bids. However, there has been very little discussion from the other leagues on the new format.

 Where does the ACC stand?

According to Dellenger, when asked about expanding to a 16-team field, Phillips says, “You may need to look a little bit more than that. We had a great session as we are evaluating some of those options.”

Of course, Phillips would like to have four teams that could qualify for the CFP. This year, he had to pray and campaign for the league to get an at-large bid in the Hurricanes.

Duke stunned everyone by winning the ACC this season, leaving the conference in a situation where its own champion had too many losses to qualify for the CFP. The Blue Devils (8-5) dropped all the way down to the league’s seventh bowl partner—the Sun Bowl—instead of receiving a bid to the CFP.

Luckly for the conference, Miami (10-2) got in as the No. 10 seed and will play No. 7 Texas A&M on Dec. 20.

Duke, who was tied with four other ACC teams for second place in the league, qualified for the ACC Championship Game by winning the No. 7 tiebreaker. It then went on to beat top seed Virginia in the championship game.

The Cavaliers (10-3) would have made the playoff with a win.

“Who knew we would get to a seventh tie-breaker,” Phillips said.

That is why the ACC will explore changes to its tiebreakers and why he is suggesting a standardized tiebreaker across all conferences.

Phillips suggested, as Bevacqua did, a change to the CFP selection process to limit the amount of weekly ranking shows. According to Dellenger, he calls them “incredibly disruptive” and they “cause great anxiety throughout. We have to find a better way forward.”

Though there is some “permanent damage” the ACC has to fix in its relationship with Notre Dame, at least it’s trying to show the Irish that it cares.