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American Athletic Conference (AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco didn't shy away from voicing his concerns about the state of college football and its future during his annual media day press conference. It's not news that numerous issues have raised flags in the realm of college football and college athletics since the end of the 2021-22 seasons. In fact, Aresco listed a heavy handful, including but not limited to conference realignment; name, image and likeness (NIL) deals; the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) potentially breaking away from the NCAA; and college sports becoming too professionalized. He called it a new and challenging era in college sports, something unprecedented and unsettling, having been years in the making. Now, Aresco sees collegiate athletics at a pivotal point. Conference realignment in the FBS "It's been in the news. It's sent shockwaves through the college sports landscape, boiled the water of college sports and continues to do so. It affected the AAC last year and may again, we don't know. Three of our members – UCF, Cincinnati and Houston – will depart the conference in July 2023. We appreciate their important contributions to our conference's legacy over the last decade and we'll enjoy having them compete in the American this season." read more: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/college/university-of-cincinnati/2022/07/28/aac-commissioner-mike-aresco-speaks-numerous-issues-college-football-realignment-nil-fbs-ncaa/10173044002/

It was reported by the Houston Chronicle that Cincinnati, Central Florida and Houston will have to pay a hefty fee of $45 million to leave the American Athletic Conference by 2023. The three future Big 12 schools are contractually required to remain in the AAC until 2024. In the article, it states that on top of the $10 million required exit fee that Cincinnati, Houston and UCF are also required to pay a $35 million fee to leave the AAC prior to the 2023 fall season as opposed to the 2024 fall season. AAC bylaws require a $10 million exit fee and a 27-month prior notice to leave, hence why the school’s are contractually obligated to stay until 2024. read more: https://wvsportsnow.com/aac-charging-future-big-12-schools-45-million-to-leave-by-2023/

The Big 12 has two choices. It can re-stock, looking for inventory to replace Oklahoma and Texas, rebuilding to at least 10 schools or it can make a major move and add two, four, six or 8 schools to reach the 16-team super conference level. The Big 12 had a chance to expand a few years ago and chose to maintain the status quo, a ;move which was made from a position of strength. That no longer exists. Sources in the AAC say Aresco has been working the phones and the zoom call network constantly for the past several days, putting together a deal that will be more proactive, rather than reactive. read more: Sources in the AAC say Aresco has been working the phones and the zoom call network constantly for the past several days, putting together a deal that will be more proactive, rather than reactive

If I were the commissioner of the American Athletic Conference, I would be nervous right now. I would be nervous because when the Big 12 announced last week that it was going to jump back into the expansion waters, the list of likely candidates to join included Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, Connecticut, UCF, BYU and maybe Colorado State. Five of those schools are members of the 12-team AAC. What if the Big 12 gets really frisky and takes four of those schools? Can the AAC, which has been the strongest conference outside of the Power Five, survive such a blow? That’s why I would be nervous. If I were the commissioner of the American Athletic Conference, I would be nervous right now. I would be nervous because when the Big 12 announced last week that it was going to jump back into the expansion waters, the list of likely candidates to join included Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, Connecticut, UCF, BYU and maybe Colorado State. Five of those schools are members of the 12-team AAC. What if the Big 12 gets really frisky and takes four of those schools? Can the AAC, which has been the strongest conference outside of the Power Five, survive such a blow? That’s why I would be nervous. But when I talked to AAC commissioner Mike Aresco this week, he was anything but nervous. He is doing what all good leaders do. He’s working the issue with his eyes wide open, his ego in the desk drawer and with the best information possible. “In these situations, communication is critical,” said Aresco, who was a long-time television executive before getting into college administration. “I’ve been talking to the (athletic directors) and the president of the schools that might leave, and it looks like some of them will. We’re talking to each other and trying to figure out the future. We expect everyone who leaves will leave on good terms.” read more: http://gridironnow.com/big-12-expansion-aac-mike-aresco/

Gotta give props to Commissioner Banowsky who secured 6 bowls for our conference today! Great job BB! AAC folks not too happy about it: 1. Why is CUSA getting it done before AAC? Legitimate question. 2. CUSA scored some bowl spots that would have fit nicely in an AAC bowl lineup--the Shreveport backup spot, the New Orleans Bowl. 3. The Montgomery Bowl, the Boca Bowl and the Bahamas Bowl make it less likely that the Marlins Park Aresco Bowl happens. 4. And it happens on the same day that the AAC gets games sublicensed from the ESPN Family to CBS-SN, flushing the "all our games are going to be on basic (74M+) cable" down the toilet. Read more: http://csnbbs.com/showthread.php?tid=644964

On the college football calendar nowadays, everything seemingly has its own season. Years ago, before social media, before a thousand television channels, before those channels shelling out billions of dollars for broadcasting rights, there were essentially two college football seasons: the regular season and the bowl season. But now we also have recruiting season, spring ball, training camp, and for the time being, Johnny Manziel season (which was previously known as "summer"). And we have media day season, the rotating circuit of conference media days that greases the skids for the start of the regular season. In a bizarro wrestling card setup, media season is marked by the main event leading off (SEC Media Days in Hoover, AL) and gradually peters out to where the lesser conferences have their day in what's left of the sun. Which brings us to the American Athletic Conference's media day on Tuesday, the "conference stew" of left-behind Big East members that includes the University of Houston When Mike Aresco, commissioner of "The American" (as they prefer to be called), took over this athletics land of misfit toys on August 14, 2012, it was called the Big East, it included several Catholic schools that don't play Division I-A football, and while it was big and somewhat messy, it had a recognizable name. It also had a spot at the "big boy" table for college football, a BCS bowl bid. To be fair, the American still lays claim to the Big East's guaranteed BCS bowl spot for the final year of the BCS' existence before the College Football Playoff system begins in 2014. At that point, the "big boy" line will be redrawn with the AAC likely on the wrong side of it. Right now, the AAC is like one of those run down neighborhoods that happens to find itself in an incredibly nice school district. Unfortunately for them, they're about to get redistricted at season's end, back to the impoverished part of town. But Media Day is about hope, or at the very least, creating the illusion of hope, so Aresco in meeting with the media on Tuesday morning in Newport, RI (and really, doesn't "Newport, RI" scream college football?), went into full on Iraqi Information Minister mode. Let's take a peek at a few of my favorite Ares-quotes (my comments, as always, preceded by "SP:"): Read more: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/07/mike_aresco_commissioner_of_th.php?page=2

The American Athletic Conference is working on a new lineup of bowl contracts starting with the 2014 football season, and commissioner Mike Aresco said Tuesday that he anticipates contracts for seven teams, including a new bowl game at Marlins Park in Miami. "We're moving pretty steadily on that, and we think it's very likely to happen for Miami," said Aresco, who said he has talked with the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences about lining up a team on the other half of the new game. "It's something we really are excited about. We feel it's workable and would be good for our conference. It's exactly the kind of thing we need to do." The Miami game would not likely be a spot for the American champion, should that team not land a spot in a top-six bowl in the new format -- one spot will go to the highest ranked champion from the American, Mountain West, MAC, Conference USA and Sun Belt conferences. That spot could be in Memphis, where C-USA's champion has played in the current bowl cycle. "It's really the geographic center of our conference. It makes a lot of sense from a lot of different perspectives," said Aresco, whose initial American men's basketball tournament will be at FedEx Forum in Memphis in March. Read more:

Mike Aresco's five months on the job as Big East commissioner has been anything but routine. The former CBS Sports executive vice president of programming has seen Notre Dame, Rutgers, Louisville, Boise State and San Diego State make plans to leave his conference since he took the job. He has seen the "Catholic 7" basketball schools break off in an effort to form their own conference, while he has added Tulane and East Carolina, the latter currently set to enter as a football-only member. There is also the matter of negotiating a new television deal. With moving days taking part across the blogs this week, we caught up with Aresco to talk about incoming 2013 members Central Florida, Houston, Memphis and SMU, as well as several other topics facing the Big East. Obviously there's a lot out there right now about the TV deal. Where do you guys stand with that, and do you need a 12th school immediately to move forward with any further TV negotiations or deal? Mike Aresco: I think we are getting closer. The TV doesn't really depend on whether we add another team or teams. I think our position has been that we're not interested in numbers just for numbers' sake. We don't need to be 14 or 16 teams or any of that. We just want to make sure we have the right teams and the right mix athletically, academically. And right now, as you know, we're at 10 with Navy going to join in '15. And Louisville/Rutgers -- if they leave after next year, we're not sure yet -- but if they leave after next year we would replace them and have 10 and we would also have Navy coming in obviously a year later. At this point we would definitely look at a 12th, because you'd want even divisions if you ultimately go to a championship game, which I think is our goal. We don't absolutely have to do that, but we think that that's what we would want to do. You can play unbalanced divisions, but it's not a great idea. It just isn't. So I think in that sense we would look at perhaps adding another team -- you know the usual suspects, you've heard those. And I don't know when we would make that decision. We've got some meetings coming up, we call it our group of 11 schools, and we could make a preliminary decision as to whether we want to expand, in probably the next several weeks, and then determine just what we want to do. And then if we did expand, that team. But in terms of our football, I think everybody's fine playing as a 10-team league until we get Navy in. If we feel the need to expand, great. But you mention some of the teams, I think our conference is really built on some programs that have had success and that really have a lot of potential. We look at SMU, and June Jones has done well there, but I think their best years are still ahead of them. Houston a couple years ago, obviously a tremendous season with Kevin Sumlin. Again, they need to sustain that. Same thing, USF has had years when they've been highly ranked and had good seasons. And UCF, you've seen what UCF has done, very strong program with good facilities. I think what we're looking to do is with our group from the North, Cincinnati, [Tommy] Tuberville there now. UConn. Temple, Al Golden left a program that was definitely rebuilt, and they have to sustain that. And eventually Navy, East Carolina with a great fanbase. It's a good group of schools that frankly need to probably develop a storyline, now that we're going to be together. The schools haven't played together before. But I think they're all spending money, they're all trying to improve. Many of them are in big markets. I didn't mention Memphis -- they're spending a lot on their programs, and I didn't mention Tulane, they'll stay until 2014. Houston, building a new stadium. So I think it's a story of growth. That's what we're looking for, we're trying to grow. We think we can compete. Our goal is to be competing with the five conferences that are perceived as the five power conferences. As you know, we were one of the six, we're still one of the six BCS conferences, but we know that we have to fight and try to be, again, a challenger, to challenge those other five. And that's why I think TV and exposure and marketing and promotion are really important. I think we've got some good brands, some good schools, but there's a lot of untapped potential there. Read more: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/42365/qa-with-big-east-commissioner-mike-aresco

read more: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jan/16/San-Diego-State-staying-in-Mountain-West-Big-East/