On the road again: AP joins ACC commissioner Jim Phillips as he racks up miles hitting league events

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jim Phillips stood near the ACC Network’s pregame set outside Acrisure Stadium, his dark suit standing out amid droves of Pittsburgh fans decked out in gameday gear ahead of the Panthers' spotlight-grabbing visit from Notre Dame.

One recognized the Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner as she walked by.

"It's great to see you here,” she said.

“No question,” Phillips replied, reflecting his belief that it is important for him to be everywhere he can.

As he closes in on five years leading the ACC, the Chicago native and former Northwestern athletic director has made a habit out of bouncing throughout the league's new coast-to-coast footprint. He is constantly on the road for sporting events ranging from football with its unquestioned role as the financial driver in college athletics to the nonrevenue programs away from the spotlight.

The Associated Press shadowed him on one such trip over the weekend. That meant a daybreak flight from North Carolina to Pittsburgh, a return flight afterward, then driving two-plus hours the following day to attend the league’s men’s soccer championship match.

“It’s not a job, it’s never been a job,” Phillips told the AP after Sunday's soccer finale. “It’s a lifestyle. It’s a commitment to a passion that I’ve always had. This is about helping young people in a really important time in their life. ... The job will take every minute that you can give it.”

Phillips has hit more than 30 football games this season and visited every campus of the league’s 17 football-playing members, with some trips including stops at multiple games in different cities on the same day.

This trip started at 5:45 a.m. Saturday when Phillips arrived at the regional airport in Concord, North Carolina, roughly 20 miles from league headquarters in Charlotte. He boarded a small private plane for a flight of slightly more than an hour, with homework to do before arriving in the Steel City.

He pulled a blue folder from his backpack and flipped through pages of printed-out notes. It was time to prepare for any number of conversations that could arise in the hours ahead. Among them: the pressing topic of the league's uncertain footing to earn multiple College Football Playoff bids for a second straight year.

Phillips was set to appear live on the ACC Network’s "ACC Huddle” pregame show to help make the case. So he studied résumés for teams like Georgia Tech, Miami and Pitt as they entered the weekend jockeying for CFP consideration, as well as comparative data for teams in other leagues.

Could he really remember all the metrics in that folder?

“Verbatim,” he said with a grin.

The plane landed a little after 7 a.m., and Phillips immediately hopped in a waiting SUV for the roughly 20-minute ride into Pittsburgh. That would give him one more chance to charge his cell phone for a busy afternoon of calls, text messages and tracking scores nationally.

With “College GameDay” from ACC TV partner ESPN also on site, Phillips headed first into the production office. He talked a few minutes with former Alabama coach Nick Saban, Desmond Howard and host Rece Davis while colleague Kirk Herbstreit's golden retriever, Peter, ambled about the room.

He headed over to the GameDay set where Pitt fans had gathered with the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers meeting to form the Ohio River a striking background setting. He shared a quick greeting with Pat McAfee before yet another opportunity arose.

Phillips soon began a lengthy backstage chat with a staff member for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about the SCORE Act in the House, a bill seeking to reform college athletics and one being monitored by sports officials across the country.

Later, he finished his own appearance on “ACC Huddle,” then hopped down the set's stairs to head into the stadium.

Things were about to get much busier.

Keeping up with Phillips isn't easy. He gets up around 4:45 a.m. daily and starts working out by 5, with running on a treadmill as his go-to choice. He briskly slalomed through the gameday crowd, focused on connecting with as many people as possible. Coaches, athletes, political figures, venue workers and security staff, they’re all fair game.

With the noon kickoff looming, he headed to Pitt's locker room to share a hug and chat with Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi, then went to midfield to find the ABC broadcasting crew for a quick hello.

He migrated to his gamelong residence on the Pitt sideline, wearing a gold-and-blue tie honoring Pitt's colors as a full-time ACC member against the Fighting Irish, a football independent but an ACC member in all other league sports.

The sideline conversations included the likes of former NFL coach Jon Gruden, former Pitt and NFL star Tony Dorsett, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and two more former Pitt and NFL stars in defensive back Darrelle Revis, and defensive lineman Aaron Donald.

Also on hand was Pitt chancellor Joan Gabel, who sported Pitt-blue colored glasses and black shoes bearing Pitt's script logo.

“College sports has changed a lot and the change is happening at a pace that is literally dizzying,” Gabel said. "So the way you navigate through that and succeed through that is by having a foundation, and you build a foundation face to face. And no one models that better than our commissioner. He’s been in this industry, if you will, his whole professional life. And it shows. He knows everybody. He nurtures those relationships."

To listen to Phillips, this skill is rooted in his upbringing as the youngest of 10 children, with his father teaching him to “know people's names” and “make sure you're sincere and warm" in greeting them.

It's a core approach now in leading one of the country's Power Four football conferences.

“The world's about people and relationships,” Phillips said at kickoff of Notre Dame’s 37-15 win. ”That's one of the great things about the job, is all the interesting individuals that you get a chance to come across. And at the end, you're trying to represent the conference in the very best possible way.”

Things were calmer Sunday back in North Carolina, yet still busy.

Phillips made sure to attend Catholic Mass — another daily routine — at his home parish in Huntersville, then quickly headed to his car. The soccer championship between SMU and Virginia was set to begin at 1 p.m., leaving him roughly three hours to drive the 160 miles to Cary, near Raleigh.

He got there with time to spare, then took a seat at a midfield table wearing a dark hat and white striped golf shirt with each bearing the ACC logo.

That gave him the chance to observe everything from the game action, the benches, the officials' work using replay and even smaller details.

“Nice job,” Phillips at one point told a young ballboy. “You're doing good work.”

When Virginia player Stephen Hurlock suffered a serious leg injury late in the match, Phillips walked to the far end of the field to join tournament director Brandon Neff in monitoring medical workers treating Hurlock from a few feet away. He also stopped to speak briefly with Hurlock shortly before the freshman was taken to a hospital.

When the game was over, Phillips quickly walked the ACC trophy across the field to the celebrating Mustangs, handed it into the chaos and then cleared out of the way.

He stayed for the official postgame trophy presentation, handing out all-tournament honors as well as smaller versions of the ACC trophy to each of SMU's players, coaches and support staffers before posing for a final photo with the celebrating team.

“I’ve been blessed to be a part of it, certainly my family’s been blessed to be a part of it," Phillips said of the weekend. “I wouldn’t want to do anything else. I’m grateful to be the commissioner of the ACC — and just thankful for what I get to do on a daily basis.”

With that, it was time to head to the car and start the drive back home.

And next week, hit the road all over again.

This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of Neff, instead of Meff.

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ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips checks his phone on the field before an NCAA college football game between Pittsburgh and Notre Dame in Pittsburgh, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, right, visits with Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett before an NCAA college football game between Pittsburgh and Notre Dame in Pittsburgh, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, right, visits with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, left, on the field before an NCAA college football game between Pittsburgh and Notre Dame in Pittsburgh, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, center, visits with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, right, on the field before an NCAA college football game between Pittsburgh and Notre Dame in Pittsburgh, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats took to the Senate floor Wednesday to deliver impassioned speeches denouncing the Justice Department’s attempt to indict a group of lawmakers who last year urged U.S. military members to resist “illegal orders,” framing the episode as a dire test for their chamber and the rule of law.

“The fact that they failed to incarcerate a United States senator should not obviate our outrage. They tried to incarcerate two of us,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. “I am not entirely sure the United States Senate can survive this if we do not have Republicans standing up.”

Schatz was among a string of Democratic senators who spoke a day after a Washington grand jury declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, over a 90-second video that drew fierce backlash from President Donald Trump.

While Democrats blasted the Trump administration, they also challenged their Republican colleagues to speak out. Sen. Chris Murphy called it a “test for the Senate” that “could break this institution permanently.”

Earlier Wednesday, Slotkin and Kelly praised the grand jury’s decision, with Slotkin saying that “if things had gone a different way, we’d be preparing for arrest.”

“A group of anonymous Americans upheld the rule of law and determined that this case should not proceed,” she said.

The failed indictments mark a high-profile setback for the Justice Department, which has faced mounting scrutiny from Democrats and some Republicans over investigations seen as aligned with Trump’s political grievances. The episode has raised stark First Amendment questions about the potential prosecution of sitting members of Congress for their speech.

“This is not a good news story,” Kelly said. “This is a story about how Donald Trump and his cronies are trying to break our system in order to silence anyone who lawfully speaks out against them.”

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer similarly framed the attempt as a broader free speech threat, saying that if Trump “believes that he can even attempt to jail senators over speech he dislikes, then the First Amendment is no longer a basic right.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the Justice Department's response “wouldn’t have been my response to that, but we are where we are.”

“The indictment didn’t withstand the scrutiny of a grand jury. It was clear it was not going anywhere,” Thune said.

Two Republicans, Sens. Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski, stood out from the otherwise muted reaction in their party. Tillis said that “political lawfare is not normal, not acceptable, and needs to stop,” while Murkowski called it “a very disturbing direction that the administration has taken in basically trying to make criminals out of sitting lawmakers who effectively pointed out what the Uniform Military Code of Justice says.”

Kelly and Slotkin said during a joint press conference that they have not been told what charges prosecutors sought, and it's unclear whether prosecutors plan to keep pursuing the case. The senators sent a letter on Wednesday asking the Justice Department to confirm the investigation is now closed, they said.

The two senators and four House members have been embroiled in fallout from the video for months. Trump reacted angrily to their video, labeling it “seditious” and saying on social media that the offense was “punishable by death.”

All six of the Democratic lawmakers who appeared in the 90-second video served in the military or intelligence communities. They said the video’s purpose was to simply affirm existing law after receiving outreach from members of the military.

On the other side of the Capitol, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said the video warrants criminal scrutiny. He told MSNow late Wednesday that the lawmakers “probably should be indicted.”

“Anytime you’re obstructing law enforcement and getting in the way of these sensitive operations, it’s a very serious thing, and it probably is a crime. And, yeah, they probably should be indicted,” he said.

Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., speak during a news conference at Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., speaks during a news conference at Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., speak during a news conference at Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)