American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco plans to retire at the end of the 2023-24 academic year, the conference announced. Here’s what you need to know:
- Aresco, 74, was hired as Big East commissioner in 2012 and oversaw the group’s transformation into the AAC after multiple conference members left for other leagues and the Big East’s non-football members split off to form a new conference, which ultimately retained the Big East name.
- According to league sources, it was Aresco’s decision to step down.
- Aresco’s last day as commissioner will be May 31, 2024.
What is Aresco’s legacy?
Aresco leaves two legacies in college sports. As a longtime TV executive at CBS and ESPN, he oversaw the acquisition and management of properties like the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at CBS, including the expansion of TV access to put games on Turner networks. Before that, he created ESPN’s Thursday night college football series and helped develop bowl week.
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As a commissioner, he’ll be remembered as a leader who dreamed big and fought for his membership. He took over the Big East as it was falling apart and became the AAC. But under Aresco, the conference established itself as the top Group of 5 conference. He always demanded more national respect for his teams, especially when UCF was twice left out of the College Football Playoff. He coined the “Power 6” phrase to get more respect for his league and fought to elevate the AAC to Autonomy 5 conference status (which has not happened). A crowning moment for those campaigns arrived in 2021 when Cincinnati became the first and only G5 team to make the four-team field.
The long-term ESPN deal Aresco forged brought stability to the league. The AAC is the only Group of 5 conference to have lost teams to the Power 5 during recent realignment rounds (UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, SMU), which Aresco touted as a sign of the league’s quality of competition.
What’s next?
Aresco leaves at a time of great change, especially for the Group of 5. The 12-team College Football Playoff is coming next year, but many details are still being worked out, including the television deals and revenue sharing setup for 2026 and beyond. Just this week, NCAA president Charlie Baker proposed a new FBS subdivision that would mandate at least $30,000 be paid to at least half of a school’s athletes. The divide between the haves and have-nots has never been greater, and it’s growing. During its existence, the AAC has always sat in a middle ground from a resource standpoint, richer than other G5 leagues but not at the same level as P5 leagues. The next commissioner will come in with a lot of decisions to make.
What they’re saying
“Mike was a trusted colleague at CBS Sports and played an integral role in the growth of college sports at our network,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said. “From helping to further March Madness into a national treasure and leading our groundbreaking arrangement with the NCAA in 1999 and later our historic joint venture with Turner Sports, to establishing SEC football as a national television package, his vision was clear and his legacy is secure. He has also been a great partner at the AAC. Most important, Mike is a man of integrity, humility and kindness and the most loyal friend you could ever have.”
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“Mike has done a truly outstanding job in shepherding the American Athletic Conference through a rapidly changing national landscape in college athletics,” Tulane president Michael Fitts said. “We all are in his debt. The conference would not be what it is without him. Mike is a thoughtful and strategic thinker and a warm gregarious human being; we will miss him dearly.”
(Photo: Brad Horrigan / Hartford Courant / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)