Come on Aresco. Find a way to get the American a better TV deal!
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Would be nice to convince BYU and Louisville to come on board.
Louisville leave the ACC?
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If I’m Aresco, I’m looking to add BYU and either Boise State/Air Force/Colorado State for football only. IMHO, that should make the AAC a P6 conference.
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He has had years to build the AAC into a P-conference and has failed or fallen asleep at the wheel …
So I don’t put much faith in his abilities and chances to do any thing more than get all the members a few more $$$bucks$$$ … which I suspect ESPN or Fox will be willing to do to keep us pacified.
I think you are too quick to blame Aresco. Try working any kind of deal with anyone when half (or more) of your membership is busting its rear to get out the door. Maybe now with this at least temporarily settled Aresco can start bargaining.
First start by expanding the conference and connect with a wider population base. Bring in BYU and Boise and start talking to San Diego State. Go big or stay small. Think about a nation- wide, 4-division conference. Do a complete reorganization that flushes the current media contract and put that out for bids. And do it fast. Don’t give ESPN time to catch their breath. Even with $10 M per school per year this conference could push itself to P6 status. Be bold.
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Seems a waste of time to think Aresco can do anything…been a complete flop on membership and bowl tie ins and tv money…
We are going somewhere else, not staying in a league that cant generate ANYTHING in way of money or bowl tie ins…
Listen to TF and HC…THEY are talking about moving in future…THATS what they want, thats what we want, too…
I have to agree with this. Aresco has had Houston and the surrounding market handed to him on a golden G5 platter…and he’s done pretty much nothing.
Only so much he could while the AAC contract is still with espn. He’ll have an opportunity to prove himself when the contract is up for negotiation, 2019 I believe. Then we’ll see.
I would get some combination of bosie st, san deigo st, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado st. A 16 team conference that literally spans the US. There will be no disputing that the winner of this conference will be get the G5 spot in the NY6 bowl.
Side note: Byu will NEVER join the American as they have their own little deal with espn.
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Agreed that Aresco has done about all anyone could do under the circumstances. At the risk of repeating myself, give the guy a break. How much more could he do with a locked in ESPN contract and half the conference trying to jump ship. This is exactly what happened to the MW when they were on the cusp of becoming a BCS conference. Everybody was trying to get out the door. Where are they today as a result. Worked for BYU and Utah, but not for anyone else.
Aresco wants to start a P6 initiative now that the B12 BS is over - at least for the time being. There are a couple of ways to go after P6, but we should all line up behind him at this point. If something better comes along then we can certainly look at it. But this is a “bird in the hand” deal.
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You all remember that the G5 heads decided to cave in to the P5’s in order to get one NY6 game. They felt that this was going to be their only chance to get some real money. That day they sold out & signified the end for the G5’s to play on equal footing with the P5’s. They had a chance to even take their fight to congress. We debated about this when it happened. Today we are seeing the consequences.
This has always been about money and how it is distributed. There is absolutely 0% chance that it happens for the AAC or any other G5 conference to attain a P6 level now. Aresco is disingenuous and probably now regrets that he went along to sign on a deal with the "devil"
The only remote chance that this can happen is if an undefeated team(s) finish undefeated in consecutive years and present their case to the public. Orin Hatch was in our corner but he got his Utes in the PAC12. Now when the subject comes it seems that he has lost his vocal cords. Aresco wants to go forward with it? Do a press conference and ask for Hatch to be present and call him on it if he refuses. Remember how our President said he was going to reform College Football? Do I hear crickets?
I’m disappointed in how CBS hasn’t done more in college football. CBSCS and especially CSTV.com had a lot of potential and they just let those two flounder. I don’t even have CBSCS on my TV package yet I have every ESPN iteration it seems (2, U, News, etc). CSTV especially had a giant head start in on-line games but was killed trying to hold on to a direct user prescription model that had failed over and over on the internet. ESPN3 came in blew them away as if they were nothing.
Aresco should approach them about doing something bold and expanding their CFB coverage.
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Well, CBS certainly has the resources. The trick is duping ESPN. One way to approach this would be to dissolve the AAC and in doing so terminate all its contractual obligations. Then re-formulate the conference with the addition of some prime West Coast teams. From there put the media contracts up for bid. That might even bring ESPN around to offering something more reasonable, given the AAC would have a huge population base stretching from coast to coast under the new model. Even getting half of what the Big 12 gets would put us over the top. That could be challenging but from a legal point of view lawyers love to jump into something like this.
Often adding a certain number of teams triggers an automatic renegotiation. This makes sense as the value of you product has changed. I do not know if the American has such triggers in its contract.
Who is out there that would add substantial value to the conference? I get what you’re saying about fan bases from coast to coast, but I just don’t see any G5 schools out there that add enough value to cause ESPN to want to up the ante. I don’t think teams like San Diego State, Army, Air Force, Toledo, Western Kentucky, Boise State or Colorado State are going to bring enough additional viewers to make ESPN capitulate. If they did, wouldn’t P5s want to add them? Although, adding some of those teams would increase the competition level in the conference, which would be nice. Of course, I don’t pretend to know much about how TV deals are negotiated, so feel free to enlighten me.
The problem with dissolving the AAC just to reform it is that we would lose tournament credits in all the other sports. The AAC’s biggest coup was hanging onto the basketball credits from the Big East.
What do you mean by tournament credits?
Has the time come to become an independent?
• Schedule Teams that would want to play us IN TEXAS
• Build our own power schedule
• Able to “sell” recruits on a power Schedule
• Negotiate our own tv deal based on our regional & National numbers
• This might be the best time to become the “renegade” team that “has” to be invited by a P5
The idea has to be considered. Maybe it already has? Think of what we have achieved under the unwanted burden from our enemies. There is not ONE program that has had to endure the adversity that we have faced since our decision to go into athletics. We have the best football recruiting area in the entire country. This might be the best way to tap into it. We were independent once and it gave us National exposure. As long as we stay in a G5 we will always be a third to fifth choice. History tells that an Ed Oliver type recruit will rarely or will never happen again. I might be dreaming or completely wrong but as you see the thought of it is very intriguing. At the same time will espn, Fox and others be under pressure to not showcase our games? Would we want to take the risk? Just brainstorming folks.
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No.
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With all the bowls being locked down independence is a non-starter.