Aresco: American 'deserves' more TV revenue
Mike Aresco isn't making any bones about it.
The lack of revenue generated by the American Athletic Conference's current television deal puts them at a huge disadvantage compared to the Power Five. ACC, Big 12 and PAC-12 schools earn more than $20M per year. Thanks to lucrative conference network deals, Big Ten and SEC schools net more than $30M annually while the Big Ten could potentially eclipse $40M once their new contract is finalized.
Members of the American take home about $2M annually.
While it's unlikely they'll ever be on par monetarily with the Power Five, Aresco spoke quite candidly of the need to try to close the gap during a Thursday guest appearance on Orlando's 1080 The Team with Jerry O'Neill and Eric Lopez.
Television was just one topic of discussion during the 19-minute interview. Aresco readily admitted that much of the focus this summer will likely revolve around potential Big 12 expansion since several AAC members - UCF, Cincinnati and UConn just to name a few - have been mentioned as possible candidates.
"Unfortunately, I'm somewhat experienced with realignment," Aresco said. "I think it's just an occupational hazard of this job. I'm willing to accept it. There's nothing you can do about it. It's there. My job is to focus on the American Athletic Conference and to build it... We don't know what's going to happen. Anybody who tells you they do probably isn't relying on sound information. I've also said if there is realignment, we're going to remain strong because we've got a really good core group of schools. This wasn't three years ago when we were in serious danger. I'm confident we're going to be fine."
League presidents, athletic directors, school administrators as well as football, men's and women's basketball coaches will convene for annual meetings May 31-June 3 in Key Biscayne, Fla.
"We've got a lot of issues," Aresco said. "Student-athlete endorsements, whether we favor that. The new values-based distribution initiative, distributing money from the NCAA Tournament differently from what we've been doing. Student-athlete time demands in addition to our own league issues, whether we're dealing with the football championship game and men's and women's basketball tournaments, things of that nature. We'll have a number of speakers making formal presentations."
Aresco then added television would be "at the top of the agenda." The American is entering the third year of a seven-year contract with ESPN and CBS that runs through 2019-20.
"As you know, we're going to be negotiating a new TV deal in a few years," Aresco said. "Our TV and digital strategies are critical... It's going to be very important, no question. It's a seminal moment for us because we really have to generate additional revenue for the conference if we are to remain competitive as we've been or as we want to be as we move forward. It's really important. It's going to be complex. This is not a simple world anymore.
"Given our druthers we would certainly sit down and talk with ESPN and I hope we have that opportunity. I think we will have it before the end of this contract, before we have to go to the open market, and see whether ESPN is interested in extending it. We get great exposure from ESPN. The sky is not falling when it comes to cord cutting. ESPN is by far still the worldwide leader and they do a tremendous job for us. We think we've created enormous value for them that maybe they didn't anticipate three years ago. Maybe nobody anticipated it three years ago. We're hoping if we can generate sufficient revenue perhaps we can extend.
"If not, then obviously there are a lot of platforms we're going to have to explore. As we talk to ESPN and others down the road, the digital world is changing. The online companies are getting more involved in live video. That's going to be huge. Younger people don't watch TV the way they used to. They don't consume sports content the way we once did. It's changing. We have to be aware of that. We're spending a lot of time with it. We have excellent consultants, the Wasserman Media Group. We've been in close touch with them to determine where we stand and what strategies would make sense for us.
"Our goals are pretty simple. We need a good deal of more revenue. We think we deserve a good deal more revenue. We think we're on the cusp of the P6. We're getting closer to them in terms of what we do. We've got a dynamic in this conference where schools that maybe didn't have the impact several years ago are having it now, whether it's Memphis and Temple and others. They're going to continue to have it. The Florida schools are perfect examples of juggernauts waiting to happen. We're going to need a lot more revenue. That's our goal. The second goal of course is to have exposure. If it means multiple platforms, there's nothing wrong with that. As long as the main platform makes sense.
"For us, ESPN has been a great partner. I can't say enough about the tremendous promotion we get. In fact, the ESPN deal along with CBS in basketball and some football on CBS Sports Network has really given our schools a chance to build their brands. It's given schools that didn't get meaningful exposure to have lots of viewers. We had 19 games this year that generated over a million viewers. One that generated over six million, the Notre Dame-Temple game. It's exposure for Temple, Memphis, Houston and others that they didn't have before. We've had two big bowl games over the last three years, two New Year's games on national TV in front of huge audiences. You could argue UCF wasn't a brand known around country three years ago as it is now. You could argue even in the old Big East USF didn't get as much exposure as it gets now. Houston in the old C-USA days didn't get as much exposure. SMU, Tulsa and others.
"The goal is to parlay that into a TV deal that gives us both. It's going to complicated. It's not going to be simple is my guess."
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