In the eyes of Mike Aresco there is no reason the American Athletic Conference can’t succeed. While college athletics has undergone a state of flux and realignment the past few years Aresco doesn’t want people thinking the AAC is a league of castoffs, even if that is how it came about.
Aresco is the AAC commissioner. For about 30 minutes Thursday morning he took questions on a conference call with media members who cover the league that at this point stretches from Connecticut to Texas. Look on the conference’s web site and you won’t find the logos of two schools – Louisville and Rutgers – who will play in the AAC for this first season before bolting for other pastures but you will find those of future members East Carolina, Tulsa, Tulane and Navy.
The University of Cincinnati is one of the bell cows of the AAC, along with Connecticut, as the league transforms from the remnants of the original Big East into a re-branded conference.
UC and UConn can boast appearances in BCS bowl games as well their basketball traditions. The conference should be a formidable one immediately in hoops with four returning NCAA tournament teams, including national champion Louisville, plus UConn, which was denied a tournament bid opportunity because of academic sanctions.
“This conference represents opportunity, just as the old Big East did,” said Aresco. “The Big East had to reinvent itself a few times and schools that aspired to compete at a national level always bettered themselves in the Big East and it’s going to be the same in the American Athletic Conference. You’re going to see schools that are going to build their programs, get far more exposure than they did before from TV – the ESPN and CBS deals are extraordinary in that regard – and I think that will help our schools brand themselves, show people who they are and show people they can compete at the highest levels.”
Aresco said the AAC remains a core conference in the NCAA, which means that it maintains its automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA postseason tournaments. The football champion will get an automatic BCS bid this year. When the new playoff system begins in 2014, the champion of the AAC will be eligible for one of the top six bowl games but will have to compete against the champions of the Sun Belt, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West and Conference USA for one spot.
“We have a great potential in football,” said Aresco. “All of these schools want to improve and make this an outstanding football as well as a basketball conference.”
It’s no secret that UC and UConn were hoping to join the Atlantic Coast Conference. The ACC instead chose Louisville and then solidified its ranks by signing a grant of rights commitment that all but locks in the 15 members to the league through 2027.
So now the tune of the AAC and its members is to be the best conference it can be and make people take notice.
“We know we have a future. It’s up to us to perform,” said Aresco.
