Mike Aresco addresses UConn's departure, the impact on his American Athletic Conference moving forward

[Guapo]

I think social media accelerates and heightens basic human nature. It's much more difficult to manage human nature in this online era, but basic human nature hasn't changed. Most people will either praise or criticize what they don't fully understand depending on their perspective.

What has Mike Aresco (no mad) done to receive the benefit of the doubt in “fully understanding” what’s going on?

It really doesn’t seem like he understands the college sports landscape any better than many of the joe shmoes pontificating about it online.

 

[CL82]

I've said 10 million was the minimum to make this work for US. However you guys are grossly underestimating the payday he got for schools like Tulsa, Tulane, ECU, and others. He got them up to Boise State levels without Boise State results.

I don't think anyone is. He's down a good job for a Conference USA commissioner.

 

[noeynox]

I don't think anyone is. He's down a good job for a Conference USA commissioner.

Except conference USA never sniffed those numbers. The league he put together has also snagged the NY6 bid more than any other conference. Again, he wasn't good for UConn, but the man didn't do a terrible job.

 

[CL82]

Except conference USA never sniffed those numbers. The league he put together has also snagged the NY6 bid more than any other conference. Again, he wasn't good for UConn, but the man didn't do a terrible job.

Haha, well, good walk back from the Mt Rushmore comment. I agree 100% He didn't do a terrible job, but he certainly didn't do a great one either. But inheriting a BCS conference and making it the best of the FBS G5 probably isn't a resume item. Yeah we added a lot of CUSA but the hope was the conference would bring them up to our level not that we'd drop down to their level.

Still we can agree, and have frequently through the is thread, that CUSA schools are happy to have their games accessible and sniff some cash north of a million or two. But that level of payout was less than our market value and certainly didn't justify the ridiculous travel expense and loss of our unique broadcast presence in our recruiting area, thus we left.

 

[uconndogs]

What has Mike Aresco (no mad) done to receive the benefit of the doubt in “fully understanding” what’s going on?

It really doesn’t seem like he understands the college sports landscape any better than many of the joe shmoes pontificating about it online.

Well, I'm a joe shmoe posting online and I work under the assumption that someone in Aresco's position understands a lot more about cutting media deals in the college sports world than I do. Therefore, I work under the assumption that my ability to assess his work is somewhat limited (not entirely though). As a UCONN fan am I disappointed in much of the outcomes with the AAC? Sure. But, I'm rational enough to know that I have limitations in assessing Aresco's performance.

 

[huskymedic]

Aresco speaks about UConn/AAC on the Dan Tortora's Wake Up call @ 13:10 +/- minute mark:

 

[noeynox]

Haha, well, good walk back from the Mt Rushmore comment. I agree 100% He didn't do a terrible job, but he certainly didn't do a great one either. But inheriting a BCS conference and making it the best of the FBS G5 probably isn't a resume item. Yeah we added a lot of CUSA but the hope was the conference would bring them up to our level not that we'd drop down to their level.

Still we can agree, and have frequently through the is thread, that CUSA schools are happy to have their games accessible and sniff some cash north of a million or two. But that level of payout was less than our market value and certainly didn't justify the ridiculous travel expense and loss of our unique broadcast presence in our recruiting area, thus we left.

Walk back? Here's the quote you're so hung up on
When you consider what he has done for the rest of the conference (save for us, USF and Cincinnati) he belongs on the Mt Rushmore of commissioners.

I'm walking back nothing. He's gotten conference USA also rans Boise type money. Yes, if you're Tulane you're probably carving his face in to mountain as we speak.

The anger you have for him should really be guided toward the people who were monitoring the landscape as UConn got swept into what you call conference USA. Aresco was hired to look out for the best interests of all the schools, not just UConn's. Yes those other schools had no problems putting the prized UConn women's bb team behind a paywall because it benefited them.

 

[businesslawyer]

So given the amount of criticism, I will assume my point was not properly understood. I was not defending either the overall job performance of Aresco or anyone else. My only point was that here we had a commissioner do what almost everyone here wanted -- which was to talk up the conference -- and then he was criticized because when he did what people wanted -- jawboning the conference -- lo and behold, the conference wasn't truly at the level that he said it was.

It is so easy for Americans to simply post something when they want to criticize, instead of even taking the time to think whether if the target of the criticism did what they say they wanted they would then criticize him for that. That was the point. It had zero to do with Aresco. It had everything to do with the Boneyard. Including my forgetting that once someone is a target on the message board, God forbid you look at the criticism instead of just joining the party and throwing more darts at him.

 

[Guapo]

Pay me 1 mil per year to be bad at my job and y’all can be as mean as you want to me on here.

 

[CL82]

Walk back? Here's the quote you're so hung up on
When you consider what he has done for the rest of the conference (save for us, USF and Cincinnati) he belongs on the Mt Rushmore of commissioners.

I'm walking back nothing. He's gotten conference USA also rans Boise type money. Yes, if you're Tulane you're probably carving his face in to mountain as we speak.

The anger you have for him should really be guided toward the people who were monitoring the landscape as UConn got swept into what you call conference USA. Aresco was hired to look out for the best interests of all the schools, not just UConn's. Yes those other schools had no problems putting the prized UConn women's bb team behind a paywall because it benefited them.

I'm not "angry" at Aresco, I'm just not willing to deify him. Those things are different.

Kind of feel like you are getting pissed over this. We've both had our say. Want to just let it go?

 

[CL82]

So given the amount of criticism, I will assume my point was not properly understood.

Too funny!

Yeah. You're right. There isn't another possibility.

 

[Huskygrad88]

Aresco speaks about UConn/AAC on the Dan Tortora's Wake Up call @ 13:10 +/- minute mark:

Which is worse...that there is a show in the “Charney’s Men’s clothing & tuxedo” studio or that Aresco was on a show originated from said studio??

 

[Dooooooomed]

LOL at Aresco in that interview. "They complain about travel, but then they wanted to be in the Big 12."

Ya, because given the TV contract $, it's the same exact thing...

 

[businesslawyer]

Too funny!

Yeah. You're right. There isn't another possibility.

I gave you a like for that.

It is always possible that I'm wrong. (But that's not where the smart money is.)

 

[CL82]

It is always possible that I'm wrong. (But that's not where the smart money is.)

Usually.

In this case, I think you missing the thrust the of the thread and getting bogged down over a collateral argument that no one else really cares about.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Aresco speaks about UConn/AAC on the Dan Tortora's Wake Up call @ 13:10 +/- minute mark:

thanks for the link. I don't know anything about this guy, and proally will never hear him again, but this episode sounded a lot like a grief therapy, or divorce counseling session. 'maybe the conference will be better without UConn,' said no one, ever. and why do so many of these things look like wayne and garth broadcasting from their mom's basement? maybe that new tv deal with production costs liability will help him out.

 

[UCFBfan]

Walk back? Here's the quote you're so hung up on
When you consider what he has done for the rest of the conference (save for us, USF and Cincinnati) he belongs on the Mt Rushmore of commissioners.

I'm walking back nothing. He's gotten conference USA also rans Boise type money. Yes, if you're Tulane you're probably carving his face in to mountain as we speak.

The anger you have for him should really be guided toward the people who were monitoring the landscape as UConn got swept into what you call conference USA. Aresco was hired to look out for the best interests of all the schools, not just UConn's. Yes those other schools had no problems putting the prized UConn women's bb team behind a paywall because it benefited them.

The thing is, schools like Tulane, ECU, Tulsa, only got those types of deals because of schools like UConn, Cincy, and even UCF. They did nothing to warrent them getting that much money. They just happened to be in the conference for some reason (cable boxes that don't matter anymore). You could swap those teams out for any current CUSA, MAC, or even MWC school and they'd love getting type of cash for doing nothing but riding the coattails of UConn's reputation, UCF's football success, and Cincy's success.

 

[billybud]

I think that as the Boomers, such as myself, march in ranks towards our big step off this mortal coil, it will affect how media pays out for sports.

The Boomers have been the sports fans who have fueled stadium expansions and live sports TV watching with the attendant increases in media contracts. And the Boomers and their relative wealth have supported increased levels of athletic donations.

The Gen Xers and Millenials have different live sports watching habits.

A review of live sports TV watching noticed this:

With so many sports options across so many screens, fans of all ages—not just millennials—are watching fewer games and quitting them faster.

"From our analysis of Nielsen data, in the 2016–2017 regular season, National Football League (NFL) ratings among millennials declined 9 percent. However, the number of millennials watching the NFL actually increased from the prior season (from 65 percent to 67 percent of all millennials). The ratings decline was caused by an 8 percent drop in the number of games watched and a 6 percent decline in the minutes watched per game (down to 1 hour 12 minutes per game).

The same was true for Generation X for the NFL (a 6 percent decline in ratings, no change in reach) and for millennials and Generation X for the most recent Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Hockey League (NHL) seasons. Overall reach for sports on TV hasn’t declined; ratings have dropped because fans are watching fewer and shorter sessions.

In a world with so many sports options across so many screens, sports fans of all ages are clicking away from low-stakes or lopsided games."


The competition for eyeballs with a myriad of viewing options and more "sampling", will, I think, winnow down those games that catch the significant viewing minutes.

 

[Stinger92860]

The thing is, schools like Tulane, ECU, Tulsa, only got those types of deals because of schools like UConn, Cincy, and even UCF. They did nothing to warrent them getting that much money. They just happened to be in the conference for some reason (cable boxes that don't matter anymore). You could swap those teams out for any current CUSA, MAC, or even MWC school and they'd love getting type of cash for doing nothing but riding the coattails of UConn's reputation, UCF's football success, and Cincy's success.

I read posts like this and I think about our performance over the last few years. We have been terrible on the football field, delivering one of the worst D1 football defenses ever. Basketball has been better but certainly no where near what we all want, to which is a perennial top 10 team. We have been under 500 the last 2 years. We brought the cable boxes but not the on field/court performance, with the exception of WBB and other sports.

 

[StunningSteve]

I'm walking back nothing. He's gotten conference USA also rans Boise type money. Yes, if you're Tulane you're probably carving his face in to mountain as we speak.

Marquette, DePaul, Louisville, TCU, etc, were all in Conference USA too.

What separates all those teams now (including Tulane) is the money.

Money is EVERYTHING. The only "brand" that decides anything in college sports is infinite Ben Franklins.

Money is why Butler is no longer a Horizon/A10 and is now NBE. Same for half of the NBE from CUSA, MVC, A10.

Boise wont come anywhere near AAC money.

 

[Guapo]

Marquette, DePaul, Louisville, TCU, etc, were all in Conference USA too.

What separates all those teams now (including Tulane) is the money.

Money is EVERYTHING.

Money is why Butler is no longer a Horizon/A10 and is now NBE. Same for half of the NBE from CUSA, MVC, A10.

It’s a chicken or egg argument. Money separates them but so does fan support/tradition.

 

[StunningSteve]

It’s a chicken or egg argument. Money separates them but so does fan support/tradition.

Fan support is also correlated to being on TV and having successful teams.

In the BCS/non-BCS era, there were no TV deals outside of the BCS-focused structure that allowed most teams to maximize growth.

It's why we saw Louisville, Cincinnati, and USF, all of a sudden become so much better on the field when they replaced Miami/VT/BC.

Louisville was good prior to entry but it really took off with that spotlight, which subsequently propelled them into the ACC as well.

Even with UL/USF/DePaul/Louisville/Houston/TCU/Marquette/Tulane/etc, the exposure and revenue was so far behind.

 

[noeynox]

I'm not "angry" at Aresco, I'm just not willing to deify him. Those things are different.

Kind of feel like you are getting pissed over this. We've both had our say. Want to just let it go?

Not pissed at all. I'm good. I won't deify him either. I'm simply saying, look at this like if you're Tulsa instead of UConn. They are an in infinitely better position than they've ever been. The only thing that would make us feel that way is a P5 invite. Since that isn't coming, we got sort of the next best thing. The Big East, now lets wait and see what becomes of football.

 

[Exit 4]

Exit clock started 7/1/19.

 

[noeynox]

The thing is, schools like Tulane, ECU, Tulsa, only got those types of deals because of schools like UConn, Cincy, and even UCF. They did nothing to warrent them getting that much money. They just happened to be in the conference for some reason (cable boxes that don't matter anymore). You could swap those teams out for any current CUSA, MAC, or even MWC school and they'd love getting type of cash for doing nothing but riding the coattails of UConn's reputation, UCF's football success, and Cincy's success.

Maybe... but he got the 3 remaining BCS schools left off the P5 island and added solid members in UCF and Houston and netted exposure and now money the rest of the G5 can only dream of.

This all said, I'm glad UConn is making this move.