(03-19-2014 01:23 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  You ask me to prove a counter-factual, which is impossible, since we can't replay history with someone else as the commissioner.

What we DO know is that Aresco was brought in with great fan-fare and a very high, P5-level salary, because of his alleged negotiating skills with media that would bring us big dollars. And what we got was, peanuts for dollars.

And that was in the area he allegedly was an expert in. As i noted earlier, Aresco had NONE of the skills traditionally associated with being a successful conference commissioner. Unlike guys like Delany and Slive, who served as university administrators and then commissioners of lesser conferences, Aresco had no such background, zilch.

The onus is on you to explain why, if Aresco couldn't have done anything differently, did we bother to hire him and at a big-time salary?

It was obviously a big mistake. The Big East gambled on Aresco, and we crapped out. He simply failed to deliver in all the important areas.

Aresco negotiated the best non-power 5 TV deal in terms of exposure. It really isn't even close. The money wasn't there... but what do you expect when you backfill with C-USA teams because those were the only options? He walked in with an opportunity to really capitalize on being the last "power conference" to negotiate. A month later the exodus began and by the time he was negotiating for TV he had lost 5 of the 8 schools he began with for football.

It is a good thing that USF isn't in the Big East now because without any TV exposure, which is what the case would be there, USF would have zero chance of turning around their program. USF has a fighting chance because they can offer kids the opportunity to play a ton of games on ESPN, and the rest on CBS. It really is a good deal.