CHARLOTTE, NC (WINA) – ACC 2023 Football Media Days got underway in Charlotte Tuesday, and League Commissioner Jim Phillips began his address remembering Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis, and D’Sean Perry. They are the three University of Virginia football players slain by a gunman inside a bus that had just transported students back from a field trip last November. Phillips said Lavel, D’Sean, and Devin are “forever ACC family” and he expressed continued condolences to their families.

Phillips espoused a positive relationship between the conference and its TV affiliation with ABC and ESPN. He acknowledged the ACC is 3rd in revenue behind the SEC and Big Ten calling it “certainly a good position… but we want to close the gap”.

In his first public appearance since being named in at least two suits by athletes at Northwestern University during his tenure as Athletics Director there, Phillips said he could not say much about ongoing litigation. However, he called it “a very difficult time for the Northwestern community, and my heart goes out to any person who carries the burden of mistreatment, or has been harmed in any way”.

He said in his 30-year career in college athletics, his “highest priority has always been the health and safety of all student athletes”.

Virginia football coach Tony Elliott, quarterback Tony Muskett, running back Perris Jones, and defensive end Chico Bennett will speak for the Hoos at 2:30 Wednesday afternoon.