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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYSJuly 30, 2013Mike ArescoNEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND THE MODERATOR: It's my pleasure to introduce the commissioner of the American Athletic Conference, Mr.Mike Aresco. COMMISSIONER MIKE ARESCO: Thanks, Chuck. Appreciate all the work you've done. I want to first thank all of you for being here and supporting the American Athletic Conference. We appreciate your hard work and the excellent coverage of our schools and college sports generally that you provide. I want to thank Nick Carparelli and Lisa Zunekia (phonetic) and our entire staff for the arrangements that have been made the last few days so enjoyable for all of us. Chuck Sullivan and Sara Nagar (phonetic) have earned our thanks for the hard work they've put in, as has LeslieAnne Wade who has been a consultant to our conference for media relations and was instrumental with her group in developing this outstanding logo that we are so extremely proud of. I want to extend a warm welcome to our TV partners, ESPN and CBS. They have been a presence at this meeting and they are supporting us in a very large way. I want to extend a warm welcome to our new coaches. Tommy Tuberville at Cincinnati, an old friend; Willie Taggart at USF and Matt Rhule at Temple, new friends. I've gotten to know these gentlemen over the years, Tommy and recently Willie and Matt and they're wonderful coaches. They join a distinguished group of coaches, and an accomplished group. I'd also like to welcome our new athletic directors Kevin Clark at Temple, Derrick Gragg at Tulsa, and Jeff Compher at ECU. Jeff was not able to attend. I also want to congratulate Ryan Koslen, Cincinnati's sports information director, who was recognized as one of 11 SIDs nationally for excellence in sports information by the Football Writers Association of America. Again, congratulations. Today is another important and proud day in the evolution of our reinvented conference. We celebrate the upcoming football season and its promise, but we also celebrate the people who worked hard to bring us to this point. Our presidents and our athletic directors, our senior women administrators, our SIDs, the office staff of the conference, all pulled together and faced our challenges head on. I want to thank our outgoing chair, Judy Genshaft, president of University of South Florida; our incoming chair, R. Gerald Turner, of SMU; and vice chair Susan Herbst of UConn for their leadership and commitment to this conference and its future. In the past year, we've risen above the changing landscape and have stayed focus, not only achieving our initial goals but stabilizing our conference. We've made enormous progress in many vital areas. Through it all we adhered to the spirit of something Edward R. Murrow once said: Difficulty is an excuse that history never accepts. And now we look ahead. We're not planning for yesterday. We're planning for tomorrow. Our list of milestone achievements over the past several months attest to our determination and resolve to embrace a bright future. Among these, a Catholic 7 settlement that allowed us to relaunch our conference this year. Not next year, this year. An internal financial arrangement that promotes unity among our schools, TV deals with ESPN and CBS that provide unprecedented exposure and branding for our conference and our teams with two of the world's most important media companies. Expansion that includes East Carolina University in all sports and the University of Tulsa in all sports; outstanding men's and women's basketball tournament venues in Memphis and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut respectively; a plan for our digital networks soon‑to‑be‑announced marketing deal; and last but not least, a strong new name and dynamic new logos. And let us not forget that the champions in DivisionI men's and women's basketball reside in this conference and earn their championships in this conference. We are very, very proud of that. We will challenge the status quo. We'll seek new and engaging ways to involve our fans through emerging technologies. We're going to work with our media partners to provide a quality experience for our viewers and fans and in the end we want our student‑athletes to have the best opportunities to compete. These are exciting times for us. We have a new name that has been well received. Seems like it's been here for a long time. It's seamlessly entered the major conference lexicon. It's a source of pride for our conference and it reflects the values that we are seeking to emulate. We're committed to ensuring that our conference is a national leader in everything that we do from the quality of our competition to our focus on athletics administration, to the creativity of our marketing and communications. We have a new set of conference markers that are vibrant and strong and which have been universally applauded. We welcome four institutions into our conference: University of Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, and Southern Methodist University, and three more join us next year. As I said, East Carolina, Tulsa, and Tulane, and then Navy a year after. All are outstanding universities with the highest academic standards, and obviously we're very proud to welcome them. Our membership for this year includes schools in four of the nation's top ten markets. All ten of our schools are in top 50 markets. Our schools are housed in population centers like New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Orlando, Hartford, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Memphis. That footprint alone covers more than 20 million households. We can point to other exciting things that we're doing. UCF will be playing Penn State in Ireland to kick off the 2014 season. We have well‑developed plans for our own Bowl game in South Florida. Our Bowl lineup is beginning to take shape and our teams continue to add significant nonconference games to their future schedules. Our new television contract with ESPN, which begins with the coming basketball season and takes effect for football next year, gives our conference unprecedented television exposure, and it's on the industry leader in sports television. Nearly 90percent of conference‑controlled football games will be carried on national broadcast or cable television. That's worth repeating. 90percent of our conference and nonconference games will be seen on ESPN and some games will be seen on ABC. As I speak to you today, the pieces are in place for a successful football season and a brilliant long‑term future. And although today is devoted to football, I want to point out that our basketball and Olympic sports will also be outstanding. We have four returning men's NCAA tournament teams, including the defending national champion. We have emerging programs at our other schools, several of whom have had outstanding basketball traditions. We have the defending national champion in women's basketball and we have a strong group of teams. Our men's and women's Olympic sports will be played at a very high level. I firmly believe we're on the cusp of great things in this conference, and soon we're going to have the opportunity to show the country who we are and what we can achieve. We know that we are perceived as a challenger brand and we will exceed expectations. We will be a shining example of grit and determination. We have great institutions and assets in this conference, and we're going to develop them quickly. We'll compete vigorously but with sportsmanship and class. I'm proud of our outstanding student‑athletes, a number of whom you've had the opportunity and will have the opportunity to meet here today. I'm especially proud of how they have conducted themselves. They have shown character and commitment. We have 206 players who earned All‑Conference academic honors and many who serve their communities. We do see examples of bad behavior in college athletics, and we clearly must effectively address this issue. Our athletes are role models. Children look up to them, and we can't forget that. But let us not also forget that the vast majority of our student‑athletes in all sports conduct themselves extremely well, are a credit to their schools and communities. A perfect example is Memphis quarterback Jacob Karam who with no fanfare or publicity stopped in at St. Jude's Hospital at Memphis to play the piano, he's quite accomplished, for a little girl diagnosed with leukemia. The girl and her family did not even know that he played football at Memphis. Craig Doyle wrote a wonderful article about this and other instances of caring college athletes who volunteer their time to help the children and elderly, among others. Another example of another outstanding student‑athlete is Eric LeGrand who has demonstrated remarkable courage and determination in the face of adversity. I had the privilege of meeting Eric in the CBS studio a few years ago and was incredibly impressed with his attitude and outlook. He continues to inspire everyone at Rutgers and he continues to inspire all of us. I would also like to acknowledge Jacob and the other student‑athletes from the conference who have been nominated for the All‑State Good Works team for their commitment to volunteerism. In addition to Jacob, we have Wyatt Benson from Temple, Jordan Luallen from Cincinnati, as well as four nominees in the room with us today: Blake Bortes from UCF, Brandon Coleman from Rutgers, Teddy Bridgewater from Louisville, and Zach McMillian from Houston. I'm also proud of our outstanding group of coaches and administrators. They display extraordinary day‑to‑day dedication and have a vision for their programs which at its heart evolves preparing their athletes for a productive rewarding life after college. Because this is our football media day, please permit me to talk some football. Our conference features legitimate football national championship contenders. Our BCS representative this year will be a strong team. And I would remind people we remain a BCS conference this fall. There are some interesting facts that may not be widely known or appreciated as we approach our first season as the American Athletic Conference. We feature three teams that won ten games last year: Cincinnati, UCF, and Louisville. Only the SEC had more teams with double‑digit wins. Five of our teams played in Bowl games last season and were 4‑1 in the season. As you know, Louisville had a resounding victory in the Sugar Bowl. We feature several of the nation's top quarterbacks. Nine of our ten teams return their outstanding quarterbacks, two of whom have seen significant action in a BCS game: Garrett Gilbert of SMU who rallied Texas to a near comeback in the National Championship game against Alabama in 2010, and Teddy Bridgewater who had a great game against Florida in last year's Sugar Bowl. Four of our ten teams won or shared their championship last year: Louisville, Cincinnati, Rutgers in our conference, and UCF in Conference USA. Seven of our ten teams have been ranked in the top 25 of the BCS standings since 2008. Five of our ten teams have been ranked in the top 10 since 2006. We have an unusual blend of veteran and already accomplished young coaches, as I mentioned earlier. As we look ahead, we see many positive markers for our conference and football. We are a BCS conference, as I mentioned. We will have access to the highest level of the postseason in subsequent years where there are twice as many opportunities, four versus two, to play for the National Championship, but also beginning in 2014 we'll have an opportunity to play in a New Year's Day or New Year's Eve host Bowl if we qualify. And we think we will. We'll have an excellent Bowl lineup. Although the lineup is not yet finalized, we'll be playing the ACC, the SEC, the Big 12, possibly the Pac‑12 and possibly the Big Ten in excellent Bowl destinations. We will have a good chance to show our mettle. Our teams have very good season strength of schedule, and that's going to be an important component in the new college football playoff structure. We have a great heritage. Our schools have had Heisman Trophy winners, they've had top NFL Draft picks, and we're committed to excellence in the future. We've already scheduled numerous nonconference games through 2020 against what are termed the power five conferences. And we want to make that the power six conferences. This year alone we have games against Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan, Miami, Missouri, South Carolina, Arkansas, Illinois, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Michigan State, TCU, Purdue, Maryland, Duke, and others. In addition to games against such perennial powers, eight of these games are against ranked teams or teams receiving votes in one of the final national polls. We're playing three teams ranked in the final AP Top Ten: Notre Dame, Texas A&M, and South Carolina. We obviously have an opportunity to make a statement to have some signature wins, which is the way we want it, things decided on the field. And look at what our teams have done on the field over the past five years. We've had nonconference wins against Baylor, Boston College, Florida State, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa State, Kansas State, Maryland, Miami, Mississippi State, Missouri, NC State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Penn State, South Carolina, TCU, Texas Tech, UCLA, Virginia Tech, West Virginia. The list goes on. I haven't mentioned them all. In subsequent years our teams will play the likes of Notre Dame, UCLA, BYU, Missouri, Texas, Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Baylor, TCU, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Syracuse, Mississippi State, NC State, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Army. The list is extensive. It goes on. I didn't mention everyone. But I wanted to give you a clear sense of what we are doing in this conference. This list is extensive. It's going to expand our nonconference schedules, especially for 2017 through '20 are not even completed yet. We have scheduled from 2014 through 2020 over 100 games involving the BCS conferences and BYU and games with Army and Air Force, and more to come. Clearly we're a conference that wants to compete. We want to play the best. If our teams are successful playing such nonconference schedules, in addition to our very tough conference slate, we will be in a position to challenge for a spot in the national playoff or a spot in a New Year's Day or Eve host Bowl as part of the college football group of six Bowls. Our only limitation will be our own performance. The opportunity is clearly there. Which brings me to the topic that's generating a lot of news and comment these days, the possibility of a group of top conferences forming a separate division within the NCAA or, as a last resort, breaking away. I would state at the outset that I do not expect the latter, and conversations with other commissioners confirmed to me that that is not a preferred option. However, there clearly seems to be support and momentum for exploring a separate division for the schools with the most resources. We've seen the recent comments you all have. I understand the frustration felt by the largest conferences with the largest revenues and expenditures, issues of governance and finances that are important to them, and, I might add to us, have become bogged down in a structure that well need reworking in this new era. There's a real concern that schools with dissimilar objectives and resources can buy their votes, frustrate the perceived needs of larger better financed schools. There's no question that there's a wide disparity amongst schools in DivisionI. There's no question that resources and interests differ. One cannot disagree with Bob Bowlsby, with no disrespect whatsoever to Northern Iowa, as Bob was the AD at Northern Iowa and he mentioned Northern Iowa, and he mentioned that Northern Iowa does not have a lot in common with Texas. And I would submit that Northern Iowa does not have a lot in common with our schools either, with Cincinnati or UConn, UCF or USF, Houston and SMU among others. Here is where we stand. Whatever the highest level of DivisionI is in the future, we expect to be part of it. And if a fourth division materializes, and of course we do not know whether that will happen, there are many issues attached to it that obviously have to be vetted. The American Athletic Conference belongs in it. Not because we say we do, but because the empirical indices say we do. Whether it's the size of our athletic budgets or our athletic revenues, whether it's the result of‑‑ whether our football results on the field, which I described to you in recent years, whether it's the size and importance of our markets, and we have very significant markets as you know in our conference, whether it's the heritage of our being a BCS conference, whether it's the heritage of other schools who participated in the old Southwest Conference when it would have been considered a BCS conference, whether it's the alignment of our goals with those of the conferences that are being called the power five conferences, whether it's the size of our stadiums, our attendance, our investment in facilities‑‑ Houston and Tulane are building new stadiums, for example. Other schools in our conference are upgrading their facilities. Many already have outstanding facilities‑‑ whether it's the level of TV exposure‑‑ ESPN will televise 58 of our 66 football games nationally on either ABC again or ESPN national platforms in 2014, with a handful sublicensed to other national networks‑‑ whether it's our Bowl tie‑ins and our opponents. As you will see, we'll be playing those conferences in Bowl games. All these measurements separate us and put us above the line and, in my opinion and in the opinion of many, into the power group of conferences. Many of our schools have had successful athletic programs and successful football programs for decades. We are currently a BCS conference. We have enormous respect for the other five BCS conferences. We look forward to working with them to competing with them. We feel strongly that we belong in the same conversation with them. It will be up to us to continue to demonstrate that. Having said that, we all need more detail as what such a fourth division might entail, how it would be governed, the costs associated with it. There's been a lot of discussion about it but there aren't really a lot of hard details at this point. Our presidents and our athletic directors will weigh in once more is known. But our strong indication is to do what is necessary to be part of such a division if restructuring occurs. You've also heard a lot about the makeup of the selection committee that will determine the four teams that compete in the new college football playoff beginning in 2014, which will also rank teams for slots in the host Bowls, both of these items very important to our conference. Despite recent reports, nothing has been decided, discussions are ongoing. Representation on this committee should be a function of fairness and common sense and I believe fairness and common sense will prevail. If there is to be conference representation on the committee, then each of the ten conferences in the room should be represented along with the distinguished at‑large group of individuals being considered. I am confident that the committee will be of a reasonable size and will comprise estimable people with expertise and integrity. In closing, I would emphasize as I did earlier that there is significant football achievement in our collective past and enormous potential in our future the reinvented league the American Athletic Conference. We intend to be a major player on the national stage. We're going to forge a new identity. We've already begun doing that in earnest. We'll develop rivalries and we want to be judged by the quality of our play and the quality of our values. College football and college sports generally are an important part of this country's cultural fabric. We thrill to the exploits of our student‑athletes and enjoy the intense competition that they provide. But we must not forget that we all bear a huge responsibility as custodians of the rich traditions and contemporary realities of our sports to ensure that our athletic teams serve the overall mission of our universities, which is to educate young men and women and to see that they become responsible and productive citizens. We must be committed to their well‑being. As part of that, we are concerned with player safety. Nothing trumps player safety. We are an active participant in new rules regarding targeting. We've been engaged in research regarding concussions and other things and we continue to engage in these discussions in all areas of player safety. That has to be our highest priority. We as a conference have much hard work ahead and challenges still to meet. But we will meet them. We embark upon our journey with confidence and optimism, with an unwaiver commitment to the welfare of our student‑athletes for the reason we are all here today. And I thank you for being here and supporting our conference. Thank you. (Applause.) THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Can you talk about the stability of the conference now and not having to worry about all the internal tensions that may have arisen last year? COMMISSIONER MIKE ARESCO: Thank you. That's a very good question. You notice I didn't really talk much about that because I don't really think that I really need to now. I think there's great stability in this conference. I think the grant of rights by the members of the ACC has certainly acted as a settling influence on the collegiate landscape. We really think that's critical. Conferences have said they're happy with their size. We think we have a group that is very committed. We've got a great group of schools that want to build our conference. Down the road, you never know what's going to happen. I'm not a prophet, none of us are. But I would say this: We're not worrying about it. We're looking ahead. And if anything happens down the road, we'll be prepared to deal with it. But we feel we've got a very strong, stable conference that will take its place among, again, the strong conferences in the country. Q. What does DivisionIV mean to you? All the commissioners mentioned stipend. A couple mentioned enforcement. Do you have any specific ideas of what that governance structure should be? COMMISSIONER MIKE ARESCO: I think one of the issues has been when the larger schools, again, that have significant revenues that have programs that are different than smaller schools, want to pass legislation, sometimes their will is stymied by, again, schools that may not have the same interests. I think there's also a feeling that there might be an enforcement structure that works better. Commissioner Delany has talked about trying to separate out major violations from minor violations, and there's been a lot of talk about cost of attendance. This is where you get into the financial implications of this, and there's a feeling that the larger schools perhaps would like to pursue that and they can't do it under the current structure, at least they haven't been able to. There's also, I think, a general feeling that among all issues, and you can't get into all of them but that the larger schools have certain concerns. Now, again, we consider ourselves in that group. And we've got the same concerns. And I think longer term I don't know that this will happen. And I don't know how many conferences it would include. Again, what we're seeing now, of course, has been a consolidation. And I think longer term we have to step back and we have to think about what's good for college athletics. And I believe in inclusiveness. I believe that we've gotta do what's good for the greater good of college sports. Conference realignment has not always been edifying, as you know. We see rivalries that have disappeared. We see more travel than we'd like. And in our conference we've consolidated our conference, and we feel that our footprint is now similar to other conferences. But we've got to address all those issues. But when it comes to another division, that raises a lot of issues, and we're going to have to discuss down the road. So, again, it's still obviously in very preliminary stages, but you're hearing enough talk about it so that we have to take it seriously. And that's why obviously I addressed it in my remarks. Q. As you pitch the league for inclusion in DivisionIV, if there actually becomes one, how vital is it your teams go out and beat the teams this year that are in those power conferences? COMMISSIONER MIKE ARESCO: It's important we do well. It's not vital that we beat this team or that team. But it's important that we do well. And you've seen the history of our conference. And I pointed out what our teams have done, the teams in this conference recently. We will be very competitive. We think we will exceed expectations, but I think it's important that we show we belong in all sorts of ways and I think we're doing that by the commitments we've made in terms of our athletic facilities, in terms of the way we're trying to generate revenues for our conference. But also I think we do it in other ways. We show an extraordinary concern for our student‑athletes. One of the things, again, Dennis asked me a very good question about what would be involved in a division like this. And, again, there are very, very important issues of academic eligibility, strengthening those requirements perhaps for freshmen, modernizing recruiting rules. There's been talk of scholarship aid for students who come back to school and try to get their degrees. Commissioners have floated various things.  We as a conference want to be out front also in analyzing legislation. So all these things‑‑ I think there's been a feeling that perhaps, again, schools with like‑minded sensibilities on these things and also schools that share the same level of commitment and resources perhaps ought to be dealing with these issues together. But, again, this talk of a fourth‑‑ I don't want to make it sound like it's a fait accompli. But on the other hand, we'd all be naive if we didn't realize that certainly it's a possibility and we have to get ahead of it and we have to address it and we have to be firm about it. In my case I'm an advocate for our conference because, as you can tell from my remarks, I firmly believe if a division like that does materialize, we need to be in it. It's important for obviously the well‑being and future prestige of our conference, and we feel that our conference clearly has, as I said, the benchmarks and the measurements to be included if it does develop. Q. If a subdivision does come down in part to spending more money, whether it's on player stipends, resources, etc., how far is the American willing to go in that regard to be included? COMMISSIONER MIKE ARESCO: I can't say. And it would not be wise for me to say to draw a limit. But as I said earlier, our inclination would be to do what we need to do to be part of that group. Now, we don't know what the cost of attendance figures would really be at this point. We know what the stipend numbers have been, but we don't know long term what other conferences are going to propose. And, again, I can't get into specific limits. But I would say this: That our presidents are committed to being part of this and take a hard look at that. Obviously we do what it takes. Q. Could you just talk about what went into the final decision to wipe the record book clean in terms of the football record to start fresh? COMMISSIONER MIKE ARESCO: Our inclination is to start fresh with the record book. We're analyzing that now. We looked at what other conferences have done. Obviously schools will keep their individual records and schools will have their history and heritage. But as a conference we think ultimately it might be cleaner and better to have our own record books start from scratch. I've said in the past that we've been called a new conference. We're really a reinvented conference because we are the core group that played football and basketball. And so we are the continuity and longer term now, of course, we will be viewed really as a new group. We're going to have our own history. We deserve our own history. We will make history in this conference and, again, our inclination‑‑ we haven't fully decided yet, we're getting close‑‑ is to, again, start fresh with our record book. Q. Could you talk about or I guess is there concern about the Bowl lineup and where the top teams in the conference may go? I know obviously the Liberty Bowl, doesn't look like you'll be a part of that. Do you have an idea where you're going to send the league champion if they're not in the playoffs? COMMISSIONER MIKE ARESCO: We're talking about that. We're talking to the Liberty Bowl, and again Steve Ehrhart is here and he's an old friend and he's been a great friend of our conference. We're talking about some arrangements. We think we'll have several good places for our conference champion. As you know, we're also very, very close and working out an arrangement to have our own Bowl. This is something we've thought about for a long time. The important thing is that in the variety of Bowl games we have, and some will be with ESPN. And our good friend from ESPN, Pete Derzis, is here. Norby Williamson and Burke Magnus were here. And it's a great pleasure to have our partners from ESPN here because they're going to be so supportive obviously of our football going forward. And Bess Barnes is here from CBS as well, and they do a lot for us. But, again, I think longer term we'll deal with these issues. I apologize. I got distracted. I apologize, could you repeat the question? I apologize. Q. Is there any concern about where you're going to send the champion? COMMISSIONER MIKE ARESCO: I was talking about the champion and I got distracted here. We'll have something very soon on that, and I think we'll have some good places to be. We think that in the end we want to play obviously the best competition we can play, and I think we will be able to do that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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