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AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco responds to C-USA letter, realignment and murky future for conference

2021/10/13 at 6:05 PM - KEVIN REYNOLDS - THE DAILY CAMPUS

excerpts:

"As the American Athletic Conference continues to figure out its increasingly murky future, Commissioner Mike Aresco once again found himself at the center of conference realignment talk this week."

"Aresco spoke about realignment, expansion and the overall direction of the American Athletic Conference at a media availability Wednesday."

"After Boise State declined to come to the AAC, there are no obvious schools to add to the conference that would significantly heighten its profile."

"Aresco instead pointed to a new model. Instead of bringing in established schools, he believes the conference can survive by bringing in lesser schools and raising their profile once they are in the conference."

NOTE: THE ABOVE SENTENCE IS A QUOTATION FROM THE ARTICLE, BUT IS THE REPORTER'S INTERPRETATION OF WHAT ARESCO BELIEVES AND IS NOT A DIRECT WORD FOR WORD QUOTATION OF ANYTHING THAT ARESCO SAID.

“I think what is sometimes overlooked is what the American Athletic Conference has done in elevating programs that may not have been at the level they’re at now.”

“In terms of the conference, our goals and vision have not changed. I think once we reconstitute we’re going to continue our approach. As in trying to become an autonomous six conference.”

https://www.smudailycampus.com/sports/aa...conference

Don't we already have a thread on this one Jed?

Blow up AAC and MWC and do 16 teams, 4 pods of 4. That is the only way to get a P6 and potentially raise the payments.

The only way that raising these small schools like Rice up works is if USF, ECU come back to their former glory and SMU and Memphis stay strong to lead the conference.

Some of these schools don't have the appetite or budget of a top AAC team.

(10-15-2021 07:31 AM)CoastalJuan Wrote:  Don't we already have a thread on this one Jed?

Seriously.

In the unlikely event that the "expansion candidates" thread doesnt discuss this student journalist's botching of what Aresco said* there is a thread on the realignment board and also on several G4 boards (I guess they already consider themselves lesser teams)


*Aresco never used the words "lesser teams." The story, the headline, and any clown using them in a thread title ran too far with a single remark out of many at conference basketball media days.

Bring on 2-4 CUSA teams to meet the current TV contract expectations of ESPN. Then add AF and CSU latter after Boise leaves for the B-12 if they ever do get that invite. Personally I'd add CSU to the B-12 for BYU's travel partner and leave Boise wither in the wind to cut down on travel to Idaho. Keeps the New B-12 more compact and saves on the Olympic travel expenses. CSU has a higher academic rating and gets the B-12 back into Colorado now that the University of Colorado has moved on to the PAC-12 too.

Isn't that what they tried with ECU and Tulsa?

(10-15-2021 09:11 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  Isn't that what they tried with ECU and Tulsa?

At the time ECU didn't need upgrading. Internal issues caused ECU's downfall, not AAC membership.

Just rip the band-aid off already.

It's going to be bad. Aresco should be criticized for the way he handled it. Stop drawing this out and get to a solution.

(10-15-2021 09:22 AM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  Just rip the band-aid off already.

It's going to be bad. Aresco should be criticized for the way he handled it. Stop drawing this out and get to a solution.

Agreed. But UAB posters think it's gonna be the best thing for the program since molded slice bread. That's how bad CUSA has become.

Welp... It was a good run. The white Flag has been raised

Sent from my SM-F916U1 using Tapatalk

(10-15-2021 09:11 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  Isn't that what they tried with ECU and Tulsa?

Tulsa wasn't that either. They were brought in because Tulane and SMU wanted another academic/private institution and Tulsa was playing really well in all sports at the time. We were nationally ranked in golf, soccer, softball, think our volleyball was near top 25. Our football had just done a couple top 25 finishes. Just did a couple NCAA tournament selections. Our rowing team I believe was also nationally ranked. We were throwing down just at the right time. Then we got invited and our administration said.....meh we dont like sports at all anymore...We have been fighting that ever since.

If it really goes down like this I think they will effectively run off Wichita St.

Ya, I don't understand the tough criticism of Aresco. I don't think anyone else could have changed the outcome. Money has a way of changing people's attitudes at the blink of an eye. The B12 dangled that golden carrot, while they still had it, and the 3 AAC teams simply couldn't resist.

The reality of the football landscape is what it is... the teams Aresco went after were sound logical choices, but he just couldn't offer them P5 money, so those teams decided to wait for the next round of invitations, hoping.

So either the AAC does nothing, or it looks to the future and adds teams that weren't on the radar yet but may be later. It's was a tough order, and Aresco probably deserves kudos for trying to make work instead of bailing himself.

(10-15-2021 09:11 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  Isn't that what they tried with ECU and Tulsa?

no those are the literally only 2 aac that dont fit the mold... the 2 teams added because of what they had estabilished.. ecu had 50k fans, tulsa in football and basketball was top 3 in football win and basketball wins among the g5 at the time of invite

ecu already had 50k fans (already controlled their market) and tulsa is the smallest fbs school in the nation.. there was little growth potential with either

i believe he is talking about how he elevated literally everyone else... smu, memphis, ucf, houston, temple, tulane as some examples

he took big market teams with high potential and drastically elevated their profile ..memphis was doing sub 20k attendance and seen as one of the worst teams in the nation when invited..same for tulane, same to a lesser extent for smu..ucf was a national brand etc..

also i want to be very clear that the title of this thread is not an exact quote and a twisting of what he actually said... aresco in basketball media days said the aac has done an amazing job of elevating teams, and bragged about our capability to do that..... he didn't mention literally anything about taking "lesser teams".. not clue why the OP put in quotes like it was something he said

this article didn't state anything that wasn't obvious... since mwc wasnt an option anymore this was the obvious route

whichever sunbelt, c-usa, mac team is added will need a drastic increase in profile.. or they would have been added when the aac went to 11

this has been obvious

Am I taking crazy pills here?

ARESCO. NEVER. SAID. LESSER. TEAMS.

(10-15-2021 09:48 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  Am I taking crazy pills here?

ARESCO. NEVER. SAID. LESSER. TEAMS.

This. End this ridiculous thread.

Mods, please merge this into the main expansion thread.

Good morning, am I speaking to the university president? Hi, I’m Mike, and I would like to make your crappy school less crappy. Hello? Hello?

Of course Aresco never used the term lesser.

Like a lot of good leaders in difficult times he has been pretty good at spinning a positive narrative, but that’s part of the job.

Similar with the P6 slogan, while many P5’s & their fans wanted to continue their elitist appearance over the AAC and mocked it at every opportunity, the results more times than not showed the top of the AAC was closer to the P5’s than any of them would want to admit.

He has a tough job, as he has to find the right combination of schools with markets, academics & athletic performance that also have both the ability & “want to” to fund their athletics at a level that will allow them to grow & take advantage of the opportunities presented in the AAC the same way some of the current members have.

Unfortunately there are a lot of G5 schools that have accepted they can never be anything other than a school with a $30Mish budget, with limited regional appeal & success.

My $0.02 is the AAC would be wise to avoid them, despite what current on field success they may have at moment.