Over the last eight years The Big East Conference has seen the majority of their football schools defect from the conference. Miami, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh have pledged their allegiance to the almighty dollar of The Atlantic Coast Conference while West Virginia cashed in with The Big 12 Conference. Former Big East Conference commissioner John Marinatto was able to lure Houston, Southern Methodist, Central Florida, and Memphis for all sports while securing Boise State, San Diego State, and Navy as football-only members before he was forced to resign earlier this year. Now in steps CBS network executive Mike Aresco as the conference’s new commissioner.
To me the hire of Aresco will work as the main duty of a conference commissioner is to secure a lucrative television deal for his conference. One of Aresco’s top priorities will be to provide stability to a conference that has recently been kept together by spit and glue. Aresco has a history of negotiating television deals. As a television executive with CBS, Aresco negotiated two of the biggest contracts in collegiate athletics. Aresco was in charge of the network’s negotiations to broadcast The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and CBS’ current 15-year deal with The Southeastern Conference to televise their football games.
Aresco’s background in negotiating TV deals should be enough to persuade the current schools in The Big East to remain. The ACC has been rumored to be interested in Notre Dame, UCONN, and Rutgers, but the future appears to be bright for The Big East. In 2013, The Big East will have 12 members for football which will allow them to have a conference title game in football which has become a big money maker. ESPN has an exclusive window to negotiate a new TV deal with The Big East. The window will close next month if both sides cannot come to an agreement.
Marinatto and The Big East turned down a $1.4 billion deal last year which resulted in Syracuse, Pitt, and West Virginia all bidding farewell which ultimately led to Marinatto’s resignation.
NBC could step in with a blank check if ESPN cannot close the deal. ESPN has a monopoly on college football as they have partial contracts with The Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC, Big 12, and ACC. NBC currently televises Notre Dame’s home games, but The Fighting Irish are currently a football independent while they are members of The Big East in all other sports.
Aresco’s other main task is to maintain the conference’s rich basketball tradition that took a huge hit with the departure of Syracuse and Pittsburgh. Connecticut, St. John’s, Georgetown, and Villanova have to be the teams to carry the Big East’s banner for basketball. Marinatto made the unfortunate mistake to think that loyalty was still the king in college athletics when it is ultimately money. As a network executive, Aresco knows that money is the driving force. Once he gets a TV deal for The Big East, the next step for The Big East will be to prove themselves as a football conference. Once The Bowl Championship Series expires in 2014, The Big East will no longer be guaranteed an automatic bid as they have been decimated by schools departing. The only way to get respect is to earn it and the only way to keep schools is with money. Aresco came along at the right time to save The Big East.
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