Forbes: No Fear of Change, American Athletic Conference's Mike Aresco Eyes A Different Realignment

[Brad]

No Fear of Change, American Athletic Conference's Mike Aresco Eyes A Different Realignment

Jerry Barca

Contributor

Mike Aresco knows the terrain, the shifting landscape of major college athletics.

The commissioner is well aware that the American Athletic Conference he leads is a prime target for poaching.

Mike Aresco (Courtesy American Athletic Conference)

He has admitted the AAC is likely to lose members. If, or when, that happens, he has a shortlist of schools he’s ready to add, nothing he would name publicly. Nothing he plans to talk about at the AAC football media days, which begin today.

No matter what happens in the coming weeks, Aresco remains committed to the long-term plan for the AAC.

He’s led the conference through a tumultuous period before and he plans to do it again.

 

“Difficulty is the excuse that history never accepts.”

That’s the Edward R. Murrow quote Aresco often thinks about.

In the end, Aresco knows nobody will care about the challenges. They’ll only know whether....

 

Rest of story

 

[TheUpperHand]

Quote

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” Kennedy said in 1962.

Aresco wants another shift in collegiate sports. He wants the AAC to be accepted into the top tier, making the Power 5, the Power 6. In its time, Kennedy’s words were more farfetched than Aresco’s big-picture plan.

Have to disagree there. Given two scenarios:

Launching a miniscule capsule perched upon 500,000 gallons of highly explosive fuel into the radioactive vacuum of space, deploying two astronauts in a tinfoil box onto a ball of rock moving at 2,300 miles per hour, and returning with all occupants alive all with the use of slide rulers and a computer less powerful than a pocket calculator.

OR

The American getting a seat at the adults table.

Only the first one is realistic.

[BDYZR]

 "The commissioner knows when the AAC reaches that top status the roster of schools in the league will be different."

Optimistic at least. He sounds like a head coach with a plan. His/our problem is that he keeps losing his best players and having to rebuild.

 

 

[GaUSFBull]

14 minutes ago, TheUpperHand said:

Have to disagree there. Given two scenarios:

Launching a miniscule capsule perched upon 500,000 gallons of highly explosive fuel into the radioactive vacuum of space, deploying two astronauts in a tinfoil box onto a ball of rock moving at 2,300 miles per hour, and returning with all occupants alive all with the use of slide rulers and a computer less powerful than a pocket calculator.

OR

The American getting a seat at the adults table.

Only the first one is realistic.

You know the first one is realistic only because it happened over 40 years ago.  When Kennedy said that, it was mind blowing and very hard to fathom for Americans at that time. 

I agree that it seems hard to fathom that the American could make it a P6, but I don't think it's completely out of the realm of possibility.  

[raptorcj]

1 hour ago, GaUSFBull said:

You know the first one is realistic only because it happened over 40 years ago.  When Kennedy said that, it was mind blowing and very hard to fathom for Americans at that time. 

I agree that it seems hard to fathom that the American could make it a P6, but I don't think it's completely out of the realm of possibility.  

If Kennedy had explained the challenge like UpperHand did, Americans would have questioned their wisdom in electing him.

[BDYZR]

19 minutes ago, raptorcj said:

If Kennedy had explained the challenge like UpperHand did, Americans would have questioned their wisdom in electing him.

And yet there are still a few that don't believe we even went to the moon.

[jchem1995]

I like his thinking. So let's assume were not in the big12's interest.  Keep kicking ass, end the year in the top 25 (my prediction for '16) and keep on keeping on. Eventually they will have to listen if the AAC keeps their teams in the top25. BTW my other prediction is that WKU will be in the AAC.  They are by far the best team in Kentucky.  To that point, N.Illinois and maybe Bowling Green.