CHARLOTTE — During the league’s spring meetings back in May, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips was asked about Dabo Swinney’s accusations involving Ole Miss and head coach Pete Golding tampering with transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli. Phillips went on record saying he believed schools caught tampering should face genuine consequences.

During the ACC Kickoff on Wednesday, the commissioner was once again asked about the situation, as well as the one involving Miami, Duke and quarterback Darian Mensah, seeing as there have been some tampering allegations made there, as well. Phillips doubled down, noting the entire sport has a real issue on its hands when it comes to tampering.

“The tampering is serious. Those are serious things that people are looking at and certainly have to be dealt with,” Phillips said during the ACC Kickoff on Wednesday. “Between the College Sports Commission and the NCAA, we have to have support for them to do the work that they are capable of doing in order to hold schools, institutions and coaches accountable.”

Phillips encouraged member coaches and administrators to come forward with anything they might know.

“The best way to hold people accountable is for others to bring forward those types of situations and cases and specific information about what has happened with a particular student or a particular instance,” he said. “It is allowing for people to play in the margins. As we modernize college sports, we have to make sure that we are supporting and imploring the CSC and the NCAA enforcement group to do their job.”

Back in May, Phillips also said he’d had discussions with NCAA President Charlie Baker regarding the Clemson-Ole Miss-Ferrelli saga, saying publicly he had been assured the situation would be dealt with.

“Charlie Baker has promised us, with his staff, and I believe him – I think very highly of Charlie – that case in particular is going to be dealt with,” Phillips said at the time.

Ferrelli transferred to Clemson from Cal following last season. However, after signing with the Tigers, then attending team activities and even having started classes, Swinney says Golding contacted Ferrelli directly, which is a direct violation of NCAA rules. Shortly thereafter, Ferrelli was headed to Ole Miss, leaving Clemson with a hole in its linebacker room.

Phillips believes a lack of consequences has led to an environment which has allowed coaches to become more brazen when it comes to skirting the rules. And some coaches have gotten so bold, they are not trying very hard to hide it.

“What’s sad about what I see with some of the tampering that’s going on is there’s a failure to have restraint in college sports like I’ve never seen before,” Phillips said. “Tampering, expenditures, how we don’t maybe work together collaboratively as much as we should. That has to change. It just has to.

“Again, I can’t emphasize enough, individuals that have information about tampering need to continue to come forward on that. There have to be consequences. Until there’s consequences, then we’ll get similar behavior.”