Mike Aresco

[DDaileyuconn]

Just heard Mike Aresco on the Tim Brando show, sounded like he was pretty upset with this so called Power 5 Conference Bs, he refuse to say Power 5, because he thinks the AAC is just as good as any conference out there, spoke about UCONN and UCF winning championships

 

[Dooley]

He's doing exactly what UCONN needs him to do: pump up the idea that there could possibly be a P6 someday.

 

[Macho Grande]

The more perceived separation the AAC can get from the rest (especially the Mountain West), the better it is... I don't think the P5 is going to let the AAC in anytime soon -- but if our conference consistently gets the at-large former BCS bowl game, then it will keep us out of being lumped with **cough** CUSA... It starts with the perception that wins in our conference mean more than the other non-P5 conferences. Keep it up, Aresco....

 

[coachcap]

I heard part of the interview also. Most of what Aresco stated was a rehash of arguments that he's been saying for weeks whenever he's interviewed on various media platforms. The part of the interview that intrigued me was when he was speaking about P5 schools boycotting non-P5s in scheduling in the future. He stated that the AAC would be announcing very shortly 4-5 new multiyear home & home game contracts between AAC member schools & various P5s.

 

[DDaileyuconn]

Another part of the story Brando called out the other P5 big wig coaches to come on a platform show and give their side of the story that they're not trying to destroy other school not in P5, his rant was at Nick SabanSaban

 

[uconNYC]

I wrote this in another thread but I think they need to get rid of the P5 designation and designate schools by the amount of extra benefits they give. Kind of like CIAC sports where a conference can have class LL, L, M and S schools.

 

[CTMike]

Aresco is saying what he has to say but no one is buying it.

 

[noeynox]

Aresco is saying what he has to say but no one is buying it.

Have to keep beating that drum though. I like that he is at least trying. Marinatto had a bcs league to sell and every time he opened his pie hole you were astonished as to what came out. Do I think Aresco will eventually succeed? No, but at least he is trying to earn that seven figure salary.

 

[CTMike]

Have to keep beating that drum though. I like that he is at least trying. Marinatto had a bcs league to sell and every time he opened his pie hole you were astonished as to what came out. Do I think Aresco will eventually succeed? No, but at least he is trying to earn that seven figure salary.

I do have to give him credit for trying his best with the hand he's been dealt. It's all any of us can do really.

 

[JayRU09]

Have to keep beating that drum though. I like that he is at least trying. Marinatto had a bcs league to sell and every time he opened his pie hole you were astonished as to what came out. Do I think Aresco will eventually succeed? No, but at least he is trying to earn that seven figure salary.

Exactly, Marinatto had a BCS league with Notre Dame, three schools surrounding NYC, a Florida presence, and did jack all to promote anything.

Aresco and the American may not win this fight but he will go down swinging.

 

[UConn990411]

Are people seriously praising Aresco?

Marinatto was a disaster ... but Aresco has been a disaster, too. I'm amazed that people are even trying to defend him.

Let's go through his resume:
1. Big East's demise - check. I'm not holding him responsible for this, since it would have happened in due time. But he sure didn't help slow the process down. (Plus, the way he handled the payouts was a complete joke.)
2. Horrible TV contract - check. That was supposed to be the area where he excelled, too.
3. A Tulane invite - check. No explanation needed for this one.
4. Horrible branding - check. In its inaugural season as a conference, the AAC produced the men's and women's hoops champions, while UCF upset Baylor in their BCS matchup. Yet the conference doesn't even get the same respect as the Mountain West or A-10.

I really don't want to pin all this stuff on Aresco (except for Tulane - that one was unforgivable) because, well, he was placed in a position to fail. But at some point, results matter. He's been commissioner long enough to have produced at least some wins, and yet I can't think of a single one to date.

No amount of peppy interviews will change that.

 

[noeynox]

Well, he is not a dictator. The presidents voted to add Tulane. Maybe he sold the presidents in the idea but whatever. What got me about the Tulane invite was that that the school president Scott Cohen or Cowen was one of the most outspoken voices about the big east not deserving a bcs bid. The irony was I believe he was a former UConn linebacker.

 

[JayRU09]

Are people seriously praising Aresco?

Marinatto was a disaster ... but Aresco has been a disaster, too. I'm amazed that people are even trying to defend him.

Let's go through his resume:
1. Big East's demise - check. I'm not holding him responsible for this, since it would have happened in due time. But he sure didn't help slow the process down. (Plus, the way he handled the payouts was a complete joke.)

There was nothing he could do. As soon and RU and UL left that was it. Better that he just accepted it and moved forward.

2. Horrible TV contract - check. That was supposed to be the area where he excelled, too.

It was the best possible contract the conference could do, just looking at the MWC and C-USA contracts should tell you that. The American gets a lot of exposure with the contract, so if the conference proves itself it could end up being a much bigger contract.

3. A Tulane invite - check. No explanation needed for this one.

While they're a bad athletics school, it's a big metro area team with potential. Again, fulfill the potential and it will pay off.

4. Horrible branding - check. In its inaugural season as a conference, the AAC produced the men's and women's hoops champions, while UCF upset Baylor in their BCS matchup. Yet the conference doesn't even get the same respect as the Mountain West or A-10.

Blame the media and blame the pollsters. Aresco has been going all out trying to sell the conference with the limited avenues he has as a group of 5 commissioner. A lot of the schools in the American are 'new' brands, so crap like the new Big East with the Catholics get the benefit of the doubt while the American who is just plain better doesn't as of yet. You can't blame him, he's using every avenue he has to get the message out because guess what, the biggest outlet for sports (ESPN) doesn't want to give him any chances to succeed. So he's been very limited by the environment, but at least he's trying.

I really don't want to pin all this stuff on Aresco (except for Tulane - that one was unforgivable) because, well, he was placed in a position to fail. But at some point, results matter. He's been commissioner long enough to have produced at least some wins, and yet I can't think of a single one to date.

No amount of peppy interviews will change that.

The American is on TV a lot and it still alive, that's two pretty big wins right there.

 

[pj]

Well, he is not a dictator. The presidents voted to add Tulane. Maybe he sold the presidents in the idea but whatever. What got me about the Tulane invite was that that the school president Scott Cohen or Cowen was one of the most outspoken voices about the big east not deserving a bcs bid. The irony was I believe he was a former UConn linebacker.

They misjudged the market, thought they would get a much better TV deal and that a conference championship game would bring in lots of money, so they expanded to 12. It turns out that was a bad decision. If you have to go to 12 Tulane and Tulsa were good adds, but they should never have gone to 12. They should have gotten a better sense of the market before making that decision.

 

[frankthetank]

Are people seriously praising Aresco?

Marinatto was a disaster ... but Aresco has been a disaster, too. I'm amazed that people are even trying to defend him.

Let's go through his resume:
1. Big East's demise - check. I'm not holding him responsible for this, since it would have happened in due time. But he sure didn't help slow the process down. (Plus, the way he handled the payouts was a complete joke.)
2. Horrible TV contract - check. That was supposed to be the area where he excelled, too.
3. A Tulane invite - check. No explanation needed for this one.
4. Horrible branding - check. In its inaugural season as a conference, the AAC produced the men's and women's hoops champions, while UCF upset Baylor in their BCS matchup. Yet the conference doesn't even get the same respect as the Mountain West or A-10.

I really don't want to pin all this stuff on Aresco (except for Tulane - that one was unforgivable) because, well, he was placed in a position to fail. But at some point, results matter. He's been commissioner long enough to have produced at least some wins, and yet I can't think of a single one to date.

No amount of peppy interviews will change that.

I generally agree that Mike Aresco seems to be getting overrated by a lot of AAC fans lately for his populist anti-P5 bluster when there were some tangible things that he could have done previously.

Most prominently for me is that he failed to secure the one thing that could have distinguished the AAC from the rest of the G5: create a true coast-to-coast football conference. Marinatto was certainly a disaster overall, but he was onto something by inviting Boise State and San Diego State as football-only members. Who knows whether it would have worked in the long-term, but it was a legitimate bet to shake up the system as opposed to falling into the safe and staid regionalism that firmly cemented the AAC's "meh" place within the G5. At the very least, the MWC wouldn't have had any claim whatsoever to be an AAC peer.

Yet, when Aresco came in, he chased the ghost of BYU (who anyone with a rudimentary understanding of that school's mentality should have known that they were NEVER going to join) instead of raiding the MWC of its other assets when the then-Big East had the chance. Aresco had the chance to have a legit western flank to have a national conference that would have at least been the clear #6 football conference and a legit power in basketball (imagine a hoops league with UConn combined with the programs and fan bases of SDSU, UNLV and New Mexico to the west compared to the AAC now) and BLEW IT. STRAIGHT UP BLEW IT. In the meantime, the MWC reinforced itself and got CBS and ESPN to open back up their TV contracts to get Boise State (and in turn, San Diego State) back. This is despite the fact that the whole reason why Aresco was hired by the then-Big East was BECAUSE of this experience at CBS and ESPN.

Aresco was never going to prevent any Big East member from leaving for one of the P5 and the Catholic 7 were destined to break off once Syracuse, Pitt and Notre Dame decided to leave. I can't blame him for that. However, messing up the coast-to-coast conference proposal was ENTIRELY on him. That was the one chance for the AAC to actually present something different to the marketplace and he blew it.

On the other hand, I completely disagree with the characterization of Tulane (who seems to take a lot of criticism around here). They are an AAU school in a good TV market, GREAT football recruiting territory and will have new facilities. From a university president standpoint, they hit a TON of metrics that have proven to be critical in conference realignment. If they can become merely competent in football, they can actually zoom up the list of the most likely schools to get poached from the AAC if the Big 12 or ACC ever expand.

I've seen a lot of people underrate private schools in conference realignment discussions simply based upon their enrollment sizes. That's a BIG mistake. P5 university presidents may prefer large flagships with big enrollments with all things being equal, but they'd generally take private schools over less academically-inclined directional or "city" public schools that might be much larger. There aren't any directional public schools in the P5 and the only "city" public school in the P5 is Louisville (and it took top tier athletic revenue and budget numbers for them to get in... and they were literally the *last* school that got in).

 

[pj]

Yeah, replacing Tulsa and ECU with the best 2 or 4 from the group of SDSU/UNLV/Boise/Colorado State/Air Force would have improved the conference. But, remember what happened. Travel costs for the western schools would have been $6 mn per year greater in a coast-to-coast conference and the extra TV revenue was coming in well below those costs. To be in the AAC was a money-loser for them. They didn't withdraw until it became clear the money wasn't there. The criticism of Aresco is that (a) he couldn't bring in the money and (b) he over-expanded in a situation where, just as with the B12, there is more money per school in an 8-to-10 team conference than in a 12-team conference.

 

[noeynox]

On this one, Frank is FOS. The only thing Marinatto sold was those schools on the idea of playing in a BCS CONFERENCE. Once Pitt and SU were poached and WVU went balls to the wall to get into the Big 12, the word was out. The Big East wasn't going to be part of the "in crowd" in the system that was going to follow the BCS. It's why Marinatto resigned. He FAILED with a BCS conference. The dude was shocked in the press box of a game between Maryland and WVU when he found out Pitt and SU were leaving. Literally had no clue as to what was happening under his nose.

So Aresco, was left with trying to sell those teams on increased travel costs and not much else.

Aresco has failed at pretty much everything he set out to do. Preserve BCS bid, big money TV contract, you name it. He inherrited a hopeless situation and is trying to make the best of it. Given that his conference just won the men's and women's national titles in basketball and the league champ in football trounced the Big 12 champ in a BCS game, what do poeple like Frank suppose he do? Say nothing? He is doing exactly wtf he should be doing. Selling the his conference's accomplishments and trying to convince everyone why HIS league belongs in the establishment.

 

[frankthetank]

Yeah, replacing Tulsa and ECU with the best 2 or 4 from the group of SDSU/UNLV/Boise/Colorado State/Air Force would have improved the conference. But, remember what happened. Travel costs for the western schools would have been $6 mn per year greater in a coast-to-coast conference and the extra TV revenue was coming in well below those costs. To be in the AAC was a money-loser for them. They didn't withdraw until it became clear the money wasn't there. The criticism of Aresco is that (a) he couldn't bring in the money and (b) he over-expanded in a situation where, just as with the B12, there is more money per school in an 8-to-10 team conference than in a 12-team conference.

I agree that it didn't make sense with just a small western presence for those western schools. The then-Big East thought that it could get by with being "a little bit pregnant" going west, but it really needed to be build up a true western flank (i.e. raiding 6 schools from the MWC). Just for discussion purposes, it could have looked something like this:

EAST
UConn
Navy
Temple
UCF
USF
Cincinnati
Memphis
Tulane

WEST
Houston
SMU
Boise State
Fresno State
San Diego State
Air Force
New Mexico
UNLV

Like I've said, that's just to give an idea of the scope. Maybe others would prefer to swap out Tulane for ECU or other individual schools, which is certainly fine. I'm just saying that the then-Big East needed to think BIG geographically and size-wise if it was going to have a western division. They seemed to misguidedly hope that Boise State and a couple of others would be satisfied with only a cursory football-only western presence. That was a major mistake.

 

[WestHartHusk]

I generally agree that Mike Aresco seems to be getting overrated by a lot of AAC fans lately for his populist anti-P5 bluster when there were some tangible things that he could have done previously.

Most prominently for me is that he failed to secure the one thing that could have distinguished the AAC from the rest of the G5: create a true coast-to-coast football conference. Marinatto was certainly a disaster overall, but he was onto something by inviting Boise State and San Diego State as football-only members. Who knows whether it would have worked in the long-term, but it was a legitimate bet to shake up the system as opposed to falling into the safe and staid regionalism that firmly cemented the AAC's "meh" place within the G5. At the very least, the MWC wouldn't have had any claim whatsoever to be an AAC peer.

Yet, when Aresco came in, he chased the ghost of BYU (who anyone with a rudimentary understanding of that school's mentality should have known that they were NEVER going to join) instead of raiding the MWC of its other assets when the then-Big East had the chance. Aresco had the chance to have a legit western flank to have a national conference that would have at least been the clear #6 football conference and a legit power in basketball (imagine a hoops league with UConn combined with the programs and fan bases of SDSU, UNLV and New Mexico to the west compared to the AAC now) and BLEW IT. STRAIGHT UP BLEW IT. In the meantime, the MWC reinforced itself and got CBS and ESPN to open back up their TV contracts to get Boise State (and in turn, San Diego State) back. This is despite the fact that the whole reason why Aresco was hired by the then-Big East was BECAUSE of this experience at CBS and ESPN.

Aresco was never going to prevent any Big East member from leaving for one of the P5 and the Catholic 7 were destined to break off once Syracuse, Pitt and Notre Dame decided to leave. I can't blame him for that. However, messing up the coast-to-coast conference proposal was ENTIRELY on him. That was the one chance for the AAC to actually present something different to the marketplace and he blew it.

On the other hand, I completely disagree with the characterization of Tulane (who seems to take a lot of criticism around here). They are an AAU school in a good TV market, GREAT football recruiting territory and will have new facilities. From a university president standpoint, they hit a TON of metrics that have proven to be critical in conference realignment. If they can become merely competent in football, they can actually zoom up the list of the most likely schools to get poached from the AAC if the Big 12 or ACC ever expand.

I've seen a lot of people underrate private schools in conference realignment discussions simply based upon their enrollment sizes. That's a BIG mistake. P5 university presidents may prefer large flagships with big enrollments with all things being equal, but they'd generally take private schools over less academically-inclined directional or "city" public schools that might be much larger. There aren't any directional public schools in the P5 and the only "city" public school in the P5 is Louisville (and it took top tier athletic revenue and budget numbers for them to get in... and they were literally the *last* school that got in).

What market does Tulane bring? The number 54 market, which is between Wilkes Barre and Providence, and is dominated by LSU? That market? Your position on LSU is especially laughable given that UCONN market is too small by your measure.

 

[UConnJim]

I agree that it didn't make sense with just a small western presence for those western schools. The then-Big East thought that it could get by with being "a little bit pregnant" going west, but it really needed to be build up a true western flank (i.e. raiding 6 schools from the MWC). Just for discussion purposes, it could have looked something like this:

EAST
UConn
Navy
Temple
UCF
USF
Cincinnati
Memphis
Tulane

WEST
Houston
SMU
Boise State
Fresno State
San Diego State
Air Force
New Mexico
UNLV

Like I've said, that's just to give an idea of the scope. Maybe others would prefer to swap out Tulane for ECU or other individual schools, which is certainly fine. I'm just saying that the then-Big East needed to think BIG geographically and size-wise if it was going to have a western division. They seemed to misguidedly hope that Boise State and a couple of others would be satisfied with only a cursory football-only western presence. That was a major mistake.

What you propose could happen in the future, but putting together a conference like that needed more time than Aresco had when the Big East was falling apart. Don't forget, Aresco inherited the plan to add Boise St and SD St as football only members as the plan had been in place for about 8 months before he was hired.

 

[frankthetank]

On this one, Frank is FOS. The only thing Marinatto sold was those schools on the idea of playing in a BCS CONFERENCE. Once Pitt and SU were poached and WVU went balls to the wall to get into the Big 12, the word was out. The Big East wasn't going to be part of the "in crowd" in the system that was going to follow the BCS. It's why Marinatto resigned. He FAILED with a BCS conference. The dude was shocked in the press box of a game between Maryland and WVU when he found out Pitt and SU were leaving. Literally had no clue as to what was happening under his nose.

So Aresco, was left with trying to sell those teams on increased travel costs and not much else.

Aresco has failed at pretty much everything he set out to do. Preserve BCS bid, big money TV contract, you name it. He inherrited a hopeless situation and is trying to make the best of it. Given that his conference just won the men's and women's national titles in basketball and the league champ in football trounced the Big 12 champ in a BCS game, what do poeple like Frank suppose he do? Say nothing? He is doing exactly wtf he should be doing. Selling the his conference's accomplishments and trying to convince everyone why HIS league belongs in the establishment.

Everyone knew that the Big East's AQ status was lost even before Rutgers and Louisville left. Boise State and San Diego State were still in the fold despite knowing that the AQ status was gone. Aresco still had several months where the league could have poached ANYONE from the MWC even though that it was clear that the Big East wasn't an AQ league anymore. As a result, I firmly believe that then-Big East could have kept Boise and SDSU if they would have expanded their vision. Instead, the only school that Aresco (not Marinatto) look at from the west was BYU football-only, who anyone with any objective understanding of BYU is all about was NEVER going to join the Big East. While Aresco was nonchalantly chasing an unobtainable BYU, the MWC regrouped and went to Aresco's old employers of CBS and ESPN and re-did their TV deals to poach Boise State and San Diego State back. I cannot emphasize that last point enough. Aresco didn't get raided by the Big Ten, ACC or Big 12 (all of which, no matter what Big East fans might tell themselves, would have happened even if both Jim Delany and Mike Slive were co-running the Big East) - he got raided by the MWC.

The Big East doesn't exactly have an illustrious history of commissioners outside of Dave Gavitt, but it's amazing how much Aresco is receiving a pass for getting raided by another G5 league since he's putting out favorable sound bites.

 

[noeynox]

I guess we differ on the definition of getting raided. Those teams never played one game in the Big East. They waited until it was official that the Big East lost its AQ bid and said no thanks. They were willing to come to a BCS league, not a non AQ conference. The reasons as to why decided to not come are pretty simple. Have nothing to do with Aresco.

 

[frankthetank]

What you propose could happen in the future, but putting together a conference like that needed more time than Aresco had when the Big East was falling apart. Don't forget, Aresco inherited the plan to add Boise St and SD St as football only members as the plan had been in place for about 8 months before he was hired.

The job of a great commissioner is to push those big ideas through quickly, though. As we have seen in conference realignment, these things often happen extremely fast. The Big Ten's courtship of Maryland was only about 4 weeks. Larry Scott almost pulled off the Pac-16 plan within 3 months with much bigger players and a lot more money involved. The ACC has basically struck overnight in all of its raids of the Big East. As much as the Big East in turmoil back then, remember that the MWC was in an incredibly weak position, too. Their only choices in realignment were basically annexing the remnants of the WAC. There is no logical reason for the MWC to have outflanked the Big East (whether AQ or non-AQ) at that time.

 

[UConnJim]

I've seen a lot of people underrate private schools in conference realignment discussions simply based upon their enrollment sizes. That's a BIG mistake. P5 university presidents may prefer large flagships with big enrollments with all things being equal, but they'd generally take private schools over less academically-inclined directional or "city" public schools that might be much larger. There aren't any directional public schools in the P5 and the only "city" public school in the P5 is Louisville (and it took top tier athletic revenue and budget numbers for them to get in... and they were literally the *last* school that got in).

Frank -

That is the old way to look at realignment. Yes, the Big 12 and ACC took private schools when they expanded, but they had limited choices. The Power 3 conferences, SEC, PAC 12, and B1G chose flagship state universities. Why? Conference cable networks are driving the bus for the P3. I am still puzzled as to why the ACC didn't grab Rutgers and UConn and figure out how to keep Maryland. The long term monetary value of those three schools is much greater than Syracuse, Pitt, and Louisville.

Few of the private universities have large non-alumni fan bases with the exception of USC and Notre Dame.

 

[gioff23]

I generally like FTT's analysis. I will simply say on this one, he's joined most of his blogging brethern by choosing bold print and over the top language to paint a picture no one knows would have been bought. It is possible, we could have added the western flank and found ourselves in a worst economic predicament. UConn certainly would have been a loser (as the BE exit fees would have been further watereed down). And we would still be on the outside looking in. And then what? Declare there is a P5, and 1 other?