ATLANTA — ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said Sunday that the league will hold conversations among coaches and athletic directors about whether to change the format of the conference championship game.

These conversations come as the playoffs expand to 12 teams, ensuring conference champions and teams competing in conference championship games remain important.

Last season, SMU entered the ACC Championship Game as the regular-season champion, but lost to Clemson in the ACC Championship Game and had to struggle before Selection Day to earn a spot among the 12 teams.

Phillips said the ACC could consider giving up the regular season championship and allow the second or third team in the league standings to participate in the ACC Championship Game.

He also said another possibility would be to have the top four teams play each other on the final weekend of the regular season: No. 1 vs. No. 4, No. 2 vs. No. 3, with the winner playing in the ACC Championship Game next weekend. .

Phillips said he will speak with league head coaches on a conference call next week to get their feedback on the plan - specifically pointing to comments made by SMU coach Rhett Lashlee before the game, He said the Broncos could be better off but don't play to protect his position on the field.

Phillips also said those conversations will continue at the league's winter meetings next month in Charlotte, and he has already begun raising it as a topic with the league's athletic directors.

"Division championship games are important, as long as we make them important, right?" Phillips said. "Do you play two-on-three? You go through the regular season, whoever wins the regular season, you put them aside, and then you play the second-place team against the third-place team in the championship game. So you have A regular season championship and then you have a conference championship or playoff championship.

"That's one of the options, depending on how you approach the division championship, or that championship game, you might want to do something different."

"I mentioned this on one of our advertising calls every other week, these are some things for the future. We want to look back at the regular season, the playoffs, and what do we think about the future?"