Lol, "Mount Rushmore of commissioners?" Really?
As I've said often, the AAC is a bad fit for UConn. A northeastern land grant university with a strong brand and name recognition was always going to be a bad fit in southern/western conference of upstart and has been directional and city schools. So I agree, that Aresco's performance can be abysmal for UConn but good for the rest of the schools. But here's the thing, college sports has become a shooting war of every increasing expenditures. The way the successful conferences fund that is through media money. That was specifically why Aresco, a TV executive, was hired. That is the thing he has singularly failed to deliver.
Oh he has his reasons for failure, but every failed executive has excuses. The Mount Rushmore of executives are the ones that overcome those excuses and succeed regardless. His big success is the exposure he got us in lieu of a reasonable payoff. Of course that can also be viewed as ESPN getting content at next to nothing. Who really won on that exchange?
But wait he got us this great media deal which lasts to 2032, right? Yes he did. Of course he only is getting marginally more on an annual per school basis than a nine year old basketball only conference deal. Not particularly impressive. But wait there's more... the supposed $7M per school he got? That is number that is in effect in 2032, the current amount is less. Wow, that sucks pretty bad right, but it gets even worse. That number is a gross number. Since the ACC will have to bear their own production costs, estimated at $2M per year, that means that in 2032 the ACC will be making about $1M more than the NBE is making today. Oh and that doesn't count the fact that AAC schools will have to make capital investments so that they have production capability.
Aresco on the "Mount Rushmore of commissioners?" I think not. Perhaps he deserves a plaque near the men's room in the "Hall of Suckery" though.
Yeah, I fail to see how anybody thinks this guy is on the "Mt. Rushmore" of anything. I was embarrassed when I found out he's a UCONN law grad. He's a good reason not to go to law school there.
He has now managed to deliver not one, but two crappy media rights deals. BTW, media rights are supposed to be his strong suit. Hahaha...so much for that.
Let's examine these deals more closely. The first time around he was representing three schools that were members of a BCS conference up until the final BCS season, and four other schools that formerly were members of power conferences. These seven schools and the rest got a 2 million dollar per school media deal? That's all Connecticut, Temple, Cincinnati, USF, Houston, SMU and Tulane were worth? Did ECU, UCF and Tulsa drag down the league THAT much?
Then we have the current deal, which is so convoluted it would take an army of accountants locked in a room to calculate the real net numbers in this heavily back loaded deal. Maybe you'll make between 5-6 million for 12 years after deducting ESPN+ production costs per school, but you're not really getting 7 million less costs until near the end of the 12 year team, when 7 mil isn't going to be worth what it is today.
Is that a deal worthy of this conference? Not when you consider what UCF has done in football the past few seasons, or what Houston has done in BB and FB, or what Temple has done in FB, or what UCONN has done in BB, winning four NC's during conference play. The conference is worth a lot more. Aresco left money on the table.
Aresco does deserve to be on one Mt. Rushmore...the one dedicated to the biggest BS artists. His AAC member schools (other than us) seem to be buying his BS, but after our exit, you have to wonder if he's going to lose some of his ability to sell cherry popsicles to women wearing white gloves. The guy's a total assclown.
