Mike Aresco makes no bones about the fact that the American is not trying to be the B1G or the SEC. He explained that the American had to be different and play on Thursday and Friday nights to gain notoriety. He used an airline analogy that compared the AAC with Jet Blue and Southwest Airlines and the P5 to American, United and Delta. They were upstart innovators and are now household names in the airline industry.
Aresco further states in the interview that he doesn't expect P5 money but believes the American has a proven track record and must continue to improve. They talked about how the American is closer to a P5 than a G5.
We should all be encouraged that a former high ranking Sports TV executive is leading the charge in promoting the P6 argument. With the impressive football wins over P5 competition, national championships in Men's and Women's basketball and the additions of Navy and Wichita State, they have a pretty good product for Aresco to sell. According to Aresco he will be selling it to multiple networks including "new media" like Amazon
Although making predictions are fun, I frankly have no idea what the final dollar amount will be. However with the AAC TV football contract coming up after the 2019 season and basketball in 2020, I wouldn't bet against Aresco negotiating a good deal. The P6 label together with competing new media outlets, Amazon, Yahoo, Facebook, etc should create some interesting negotiations.
Consider what Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, had to say about new media:
The reality is more complicated and less certain. Like newspapers before them, ESPN and Fox will grapple with disruption to their business model and ultimately may have to remake themselves if they want to continue to thrive in the new media landscape. But reflexively forecasting doom assumes television networks are the only entities that will bid on sports rights in the future*. That is almost certainly not going to be the case. “I really see a time when there are going to be a lot of players in the marketplace and there are going to be a lot of distribution methods,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. “The unknown is how much is it all worth? I don’t think there’s anyone who legitimately knows what it’s going to be worth.”
*Don’t get hung up on the television-versus-Internet delivery issue. No, streaming isn’t as reliable on May 8, 2017, as cable or satellite service. Buffering remains a problem. But by May 8, 2023, the differences could be negligible.
Bowlsby is correct. No one knows. Not him. Not Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany. Not SEC commissioner Greg Sankey. Not Apple CEO—and Auburn grad—Tim Cook. The only thing we do know is that there is a limited number of major college football and basketball games available for sale and there is a built-in demand for them. How much that demand is worth depends on how many companies wind up bidding. “I don’t think anyone knows exactly what the landscape will look like or what health ESPN or Fox will have in 2023 when we’re negotiating or how significant a player a Twitter or a Facebook will be,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said. “My sense is that there will be more competition. There will be more and different types of players. And there will still be very limited and highly valuable sports properties.”
Power 5 counting on Silicon Valley to keep them rich
