(05-04-2013 09:45 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(05-04-2013 09:34 AM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  ......... Maybe we should give our leadership a bit more credit.

What credit have they earned? What have they actually done that would be considered a success?

Considering the fact that 15 schools jumped ship over a 12-month period, I would say that not only keeping the whole damn thing from blowing apart but building a credible 12-school conference which will have extremely good national exposure was a success. I don't think anyone could have stepped in when Aresco did and done any better. He inherited a domino crisis which was unpreventable due to the current disparity of conference revenue.

The Russell bowl would be a good bowl for the champ. I think that's the old Tangerine bowl that has good history. Have to do it with the ACC, as the SEC will never do better than #7 for us. Liberty is good for #2 - great bowl, but they like their SEC tie-in, so we can't put the champ there.
It would be nice to keep that Charlotte bowl for the upper east teams, but it looks like SEC wants it. We need some bowl up there.
We should have a bowl in Texas with the MWC. A second Texas bowl would be good too (what about the one played in TCU's stadium?), as would a second Florida bowl. Alternatively, a bowl in California with the MWC would be good - hey, it's California.
New Orleans bowl thrives on a)nearby teams and b)teams that have never been to a bowl. Until Tulane gets better, which is hopefully by 2014, they'll probably stick with the Sunbelt and C-USA, which has oodles of teams that meet both criteria. Still, it would be a good bowl for a 7-5ish AAC team. An argument could be made to the NOLA sports foundation for the NOLA bowl to go bigger and go for AAC/SEC#10, but that would require it to move after Christmas, which would be hard for the City to handle, with everything else going on.

(05-05-2013 12:27 PM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  

(05-04-2013 09:45 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(05-04-2013 09:34 AM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  ......... Maybe we should give our leadership a bit more credit.

What credit have they earned? What have they actually done that would be considered a success?

Considering the fact that 15 schools jumped ship over a 12-month period, I would say that not only keeping the whole damn thing from blowing apart but building a credible 12-school conference which will have extremely good national exposure was a success. I don't think anyone could have stepped in when Aresco did and done any better. He inherited a domino crisis which was unpreventable due to the current disparity of conference revenue.

So in other words, anything good that happened (even though nothing good actually happened) was due to Aresco, but anything bad that happened wasn't?

Gee, I sure wish you were my boss. No accountability? No problem!

(05-05-2013 12:27 PM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  Considering the fact that 15 schools jumped ship over a 12-month period,

I agree with you on this part. Losing that many schools over that short of a time period is a huge qualifier to any assessment of Aresco's job performance.

(05-05-2013 12:27 PM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  I would say that not only keeping the whole damn thing from blowing apart

I disagree with you on this part. In my mind, "keeping the whole thing from blowing apart" would have entailed preventing the split in the Big East Conference and keeping the catholic schools on board. In other words, maintaining the conference as an elite basketball conference that also sponsored football. By that definition, I would argue that the Big East completely fell apart under Aresco's watch. Now how much of that was his doing and how much of it was inevitable with the announced departures of Cuse, Pitt, Notre Dame, and Louisville, we might never know. But either way, I don't think it is reasonable to claim he really kept anything together.

(05-05-2013 12:27 PM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  but building a credible 12-school conference which will have extremely good national exposure was a success.

This is where I really disagree with you. Pretty much every schools in the AAC with the exceptions of SMU, Tulane, and Tusla have been mentioned as expansion targets. Go back through the ncaabbs archives and you'll see poster debating whether the conference should add Temple, Houston, UCF, ECU, Memphis, and Navy. What Aresco did was simply add the most logical and available choices to the conference; i.e. he pretty much added the same teams we've been debating about on these forums for as long as I've been a member.

As for the TV contract, that is a mixed bag. We'll have to wait and see how the exposure angle turns out but the money aspect of it leaves a lot to be desired.

(05-05-2013 12:27 PM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  I don't think anyone could have stepped in when Aresco did and done any better.

But by the same token, could others have done much worse? While I do give Aresco a pass on a lot of things (most of the conference's problems were out of his control), he hasn't done anything that screams "man, he is doing a great job". In fact, I'd argue that most of his accomplishments thus far should have been the baseline for expectations.

That is where I think most of the complaints are coming from. Meeting expectations is fine if you are a middle manager. When you are the CEO, you should not only be meeting expectations, but routinely exceeding them. Thus far, I can't see anything that I'd consider having exceeded expectations.

(05-03-2013 08:11 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(05-03-2013 07:57 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-02-2013 04:55 PM)BullsFanInTX Wrote:  http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...on-process

Aresco is out worrying about Basketball tournaments. This is a low priority item and can be done at any time. The rest of the conferences are lining up bowls. As usual, the AAC is sitting idly by doing absolutely nothing. Not a peep out of AAC offices about what they are doing to line up bowls. Nothing. This is highly critical and must be worked all day every day at this moment.

My prediction: Our bowl lineup will suck just as everything else Aresco has done has sucked as well.

Pretty much, and he's been out in full spin trying to pretend like he's been doing a good job. We still have no details about how many mid week football games the league will be looking at, and all this "undervalued" stuff has yet to be proven to be undervalued.

Who could do a better job with the cards he was dealt?

I doubt Mike Slive wouldn't have done any better if positions were swapped.

(05-05-2013 12:44 PM)DrBox Wrote:  The Russell bowl would be a good bowl for the champ. I think that's the old Tangerine bowl that has good history. Have to do it with the ACC, as the SEC will never do better than #7 for us. Liberty is good for #2 - great bowl, but they like their SEC tie-in, so we can't put the champ there.
It would be nice to keep that Charlotte bowl for the upper east teams, but it looks like SEC wants it. We need some bowl up there.
We should have a bowl in Texas with the MWC. A second Texas bowl would be good too (what about the one played in TCU's stadium?), as would a second Florida bowl. Alternatively, a bowl in California with the MWC would be good - hey, it's California.
New Orleans bowl thrives on a)nearby teams and b)teams that have never been to a bowl. Until Tulane gets better, which is hopefully by 2014, they'll probably stick with the Sunbelt and C-USA, which has oodles of teams that meet both criteria. Still, it would be a good bowl for a 7-5ish AAC team. An argument could be made to the NOLA sports foundation for the NOLA bowl to go bigger and go for AAC/SEC#10, but that would require it to move after Christmas, which would be hard for the City to handle, with everything else going on.

Sigh!

Just tap your heels together three times and say "There's no place like home... There's no place like home..."

Wake up, Dorothy... You are not in Oz... This is the real world.

I keep wondering why we're not hearing anything about AAC bowls, and maybe it's due to the conference not being official until July 31? Maybe these bowl committees are not willing to sit down till the conference officially "exists"? I'm just guessing, because the lack of conference aligned bowls is concerning, and the lack of news about said bowls is more concerning.

We can kick & scream all we want, but the bowls want nothing to do with any of our programs. They'll take us as warm bodies to fill slots, but we arent something that is worth fighting over. We'll get the leftover scraps, as we deserve.

(05-05-2013 07:53 PM)BullsBEAST Wrote:  We can kick & scream all we want, but the bowls want nothing to do with any of our programs. They'll take us as warm bodies to fill slots, but we arent something that is worth fighting over. We'll get the leftover scraps, as we deserve.

We certainly are not the number one pick on anyones list--but our situation is not likley as grim as you portray. As Ive said before, the conference is siginificantly better than the old CUSA and its not as attractive as the 2012 Big East. Therefore, its entirely reasonale to expect an AAC bowl line up that is worse than the old Big East but significantly better than the current CUSA bowl buffet. The key is getting a good game for our champ, 4 bowls against power conference opponents, and only a few limited bowls against non-AQ schools. I'd really like to see us look at landing the Heart of Texas Bowl (vs the CUSA champ) or the New Orleans Bowl (vs the Sunbelt champs) as our bottom 2 bowls. Those are nice relatively fun locations against some of the best non-AQ's. Should be entertaining games for our bottom schools. The Hawaii Bowl, Poinsetta, Armed Forces, and Military Bowls are all possibilities for interesting locations vs non-AQ schools. Any of those are fine for our bottom 2 slots (along with the Beefy Bowl). Frankly, Id like to see our Beefy Bowl opponent upgraded to a low ACC/SEC/Big-12 school. The Florida location should help in that effort.

So we had:
http://www.bigeast.org/Sports/Football/B...ineup.aspx

Russell Athletic Bowl
http://russellathleticbowl.com/home.aspx
--BE vs ACC

Belk Bowl
http://belkbowl.com/
--BE vs ACC

Pinstripe Bowl
http://belkbowl.com/
--BE vs B12

Beef O'Brady's Bowl
http://www.stpetersburgbowl.com/
--BE/CUSA/MAC

Liberty Bowl:
http://www.libertybowl.org/
--BE/SEC/CUSA

BBVA Compass Bowl
http://www.bbvacompassbowl.com/
--BE vs SEC


*********************

ECU's inclusion should be a strong point for keeping the Belk.

Beef O'Brady's should be a lock with UCF AND USF in the conference.
*Russell Athletic was a Florida bowl too....

Liberty Bowl should be a lock with Memphis and previously good relationships with former CUSA members in ECU, UCF, and Tulsa.

Pinsrtipe seems shaky based on who left the BE but I wonder if the B1G would have interest with Navy on board.

Compass Bowl....

(05-05-2013 06:38 PM)UofLgrad07 Wrote:  

(05-05-2013 12:27 PM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  Considering the fact that 15 schools jumped ship over a 12-month period,

I agree with you on this part. Losing that many schools over that short of a time period is a huge qualifier to any assessment of Aresco's job performance.

(05-05-2013 12:27 PM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  I would say that not only keeping the whole damn thing from blowing apart

I disagree with you on this part. In my mind, "keeping the whole thing from blowing apart" would have entailed preventing the split in the Big East Conference and keeping the catholic schools on board. In other words, maintaining the conference as an elite basketball conference that also sponsored football. By that definition, I would argue that the Big East completely fell apart under Aresco's watch. Now how much of that was his doing and how much of it was inevitable with the announced departures of Cuse, Pitt, Notre Dame, and Louisville, we might never know. But either way, I don't think it is reasonable to claim he really kept anything together.

(05-05-2013 12:27 PM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  but building a credible 12-school conference which will have extremely good national exposure was a success.

This is where I really disagree with you. Pretty much every schools in the AAC with the exceptions of SMU, Tulane, and Tusla have been mentioned as expansion targets. Go back through the ncaabbs archives and you'll see poster debating whether the conference should add Temple, Houston, UCF, ECU, Memphis, and Navy. What Aresco did was simply add the most logical and available choices to the conference; i.e. he pretty much added the same teams we've been debating about on these forums for as long as I've been a member.

As for the TV contract, that is a mixed bag. We'll have to wait and see how the exposure angle turns out but the money aspect of it leaves a lot to be desired.

(05-05-2013 12:27 PM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  I don't think anyone could have stepped in when Aresco did and done any better.

But by the same token, could others have done much worse? While I do give Aresco a pass on a lot of things (most of the conference's problems were out of his control), he hasn't done anything that screams "man, he is doing a great job". In fact, I'd argue that most of his accomplishments thus far should have been the baseline for expectations.

That is where I think most of the complaints are coming from. Meeting expectations is fine if you are a middle manager. When you are the CEO, you should not only be meeting expectations, but routinely exceeding them. Thus far, I can't see anything that I'd consider having exceeded expectations.

What expectations has he even met so far? There is not one single thing that has even gone as well as expected. The next time something turns out better than expected will be the first time.

(05-05-2013 06:48 PM)CyberBull Wrote:  

(05-03-2013 08:11 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(05-03-2013 07:57 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-02-2013 04:55 PM)BullsFanInTX Wrote:  http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...on-process

Aresco is out worrying about Basketball tournaments. This is a low priority item and can be done at any time. The rest of the conferences are lining up bowls. As usual, the AAC is sitting idly by doing absolutely nothing. Not a peep out of AAC offices about what they are doing to line up bowls. Nothing. This is highly critical and must be worked all day every day at this moment.

My prediction: Our bowl lineup will suck just as everything else Aresco has done has sucked as well.

Pretty much, and he's been out in full spin trying to pretend like he's been doing a good job. We still have no details about how many mid week football games the league will be looking at, and all this "undervalued" stuff has yet to be proven to be undervalued.

Who could do a better job with the cards he was dealt?

I doubt Mike Slive wouldn't have done any better if positions were swapped.

Slive is far from perfect, but Aresco has been awful. When the only defense available to an employee is "well, under the circumstances, X Y and Z weren't his fault", you're admitting there was no point to hiring him.

(05-05-2013 09:02 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  ECU's inclusion should be a strong point for keeping the Belk.

Beef O'Brady's should be a lock with UCF AND USF in the conference.
*Russell Athletic was a Florida bowl too....

Liberty Bowl should be a lock with Memphis and previously good relationships with former CUSA members in ECU, UCF, and Tulsa.

The Liberty Bowl cares about the SEC, not Memphis. If the SEC wants a Big 12 opponent, that's how it will be.

And ECU's inclusion will mean next to nothing for the Belk, which clearly wants an SEC/ACC matchup.

(05-06-2013 07:40 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-05-2013 09:02 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  ECU's inclusion should be a strong point for keeping the Belk.

Beef O'Brady's should be a lock with UCF AND USF in the conference.
*Russell Athletic was a Florida bowl too....

Liberty Bowl should be a lock with Memphis and previously good relationships with former CUSA members in ECU, UCF, and Tulsa.

The Liberty Bowl cares about the SEC, not Memphis. If the SEC wants a Big 12 opponent, that's how it will be.

And ECU's inclusion will mean next to nothing for the Belk, which clearly wants an SEC/ACC matchup.

It's not that ECU's inclusion means nothing to the Belk, but that the SEC is clearly the top choice for almost any bowl, especially 1 in the south east. The people in Charlotte certainly know and like ECU, as ECU's played more games at Bank of America Stadium than any other team, but if they can get an SEC tie in then of course they are going to take it. The Belk Bowl did want ECU added, along with the Liberty Bowl, and maybe the AAC can get a backup tie in with the Belk if it is indeed lost.

(05-06-2013 07:40 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-05-2013 09:02 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  ECU's inclusion should be a strong point for keeping the Belk.

Beef O'Brady's should be a lock with UCF AND USF in the conference.
*Russell Athletic was a Florida bowl too....

Liberty Bowl should be a lock with Memphis and previously good relationships with former CUSA members in ECU, UCF, and Tulsa.

The Liberty Bowl cares about the SEC, not Memphis. If the SEC wants a Big 12 opponent, that's how it will be.

And ECU's inclusion will mean next to nothing for the Belk, which clearly wants an SEC/ACC matchup.

It's starting to sound like the rotating bowl sharing agreement between the 4 eastern most power conferences will not happen. That may help us get our foot in the door for some bowls against lower selections from power conferences. Up to now, the SEC seems to have been fine sending one of thier lower bowl qualifiers to play CUSA in the Liberty. Keep in mind that the current (likely now stable) AAC is far superior to the current CUSA. Hopefully, the SEC will continue its relationship with the Liberty and view the AAC opponent as an adequate upgrade. Even if the SEC would prefer more, it doesn't have to spell doom. It's still possible a rotating 3 conference mix might work (similar to how CUSA, the SEC, and the Big East currently share the bowl). I will say, we really need to get on the stick here. Delany was quoted a few days ago as saying the Big10 will have its bowl line up sorted out within a couple of weeks or so. Inaction on our part could be a fatal mistake. We will be stuck with the soon to be determined bowl line up for over half a decade. We best make it the best line up we can.

(05-03-2013 09:21 AM)BullsFanInTX Wrote:  

(05-03-2013 07:57 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-02-2013 04:55 PM)BullsFanInTX Wrote:  http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...on-process

Aresco is out worrying about Basketball tournaments. This is a low priority item and can be done at any time. The rest of the conferences are lining up bowls. As usual, the AAC is sitting idly by doing absolutely nothing. Not a peep out of AAC offices about what they are doing to line up bowls. Nothing. This is highly critical and must be worked all day every day at this moment.

My prediction: Our bowl lineup will suck just as everything else Aresco has done has sucked as well.

Quo, unfortunately I am starting to come around to your view. Everything is in shambles as compared to 3 or 4 years ago for USF.

I think you guys need to look within for part of the blame before casting all the stones at Aresco.

(05-06-2013 07:59 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(05-06-2013 07:40 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-05-2013 09:02 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  ECU's inclusion should be a strong point for keeping the Belk.

Beef O'Brady's should be a lock with UCF AND USF in the conference.
*Russell Athletic was a Florida bowl too....

Liberty Bowl should be a lock with Memphis and previously good relationships with former CUSA members in ECU, UCF, and Tulsa.

The Liberty Bowl cares about the SEC, not Memphis. If the SEC wants a Big 12 opponent, that's how it will be.

And ECU's inclusion will mean next to nothing for the Belk, which clearly wants an SEC/ACC matchup.

It's not that ECU's inclusion means nothing to the Belk, but that the SEC is clearly the top choice for almost any bowl, especially 1 in the south east. The people in Charlotte certainly know and like ECU, as ECU's played more games at Bank of America Stadium than any other team, but if they can get an SEC tie in then of course they are going to take it. The Belk Bowl did want ECU added, along with the Liberty Bowl, and maybe the AAC can get a backup tie in with the Belk if it is indeed lost.

I think we are saying the same thing in different ways. My point was that, compared to the wishes of the Belk to have the SEC, ECUs inclusion meana very little.

(05-06-2013 08:03 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(05-06-2013 07:40 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-05-2013 09:02 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  ECU's inclusion should be a strong point for keeping the Belk.

Beef O'Brady's should be a lock with UCF AND USF in the conference.
*Russell Athletic was a Florida bowl too....

Liberty Bowl should be a lock with Memphis and previously good relationships with former CUSA members in ECU, UCF, and Tulsa.

The Liberty Bowl cares about the SEC, not Memphis. If the SEC wants a Big 12 opponent, that's how it will be.

And ECU's inclusion will mean next to nothing for the Belk, which clearly wants an SEC/ACC matchup.

It's starting to sound like the rotating bowl sharing agreement between the 4 eastern most power conferences will not happen. That may help us get our foot in the door for some bowls against lower selections from power conferences. Up to now, the SEC seems to have been fine sending one of thier lower bowl qualifiers to play CUSA in the Liberty. Keep in mind that the current (likely now stable) AAC is far superior to the current CUSA. Hopefully, the SEC will continue its relationship with the Liberty and view the AAC opponent as an adequate upgrade. Even if the SEC would prefer more, it doesn't have to spell doom. It's still possible a rotating 3 conference mix might work (similar to how CUSA, the SEC, and the Big East currently share the bowl). I will say, we really need to get on the stick here. Delany was quoted a few days ago as saying the Big10 will have its bowl line up sorted out within a couple of weeks or so. Inaction on our part could be a fatal mistake. We will be stuck with the soon to be determined bowl line up for over half a decade. We best make it the best line up we can.

No question, we need to be active and aggressive in seeking good bowl tie ins.

(05-05-2013 01:08 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  Gee, I sure wish you were my boss.

So do I, so I could fire you asap.

(05-06-2013 11:55 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-06-2013 07:59 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(05-06-2013 07:40 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-05-2013 09:02 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  ECU's inclusion should be a strong point for keeping the Belk.

Beef O'Brady's should be a lock with UCF AND USF in the conference.
*Russell Athletic was a Florida bowl too....

Liberty Bowl should be a lock with Memphis and previously good relationships with former CUSA members in ECU, UCF, and Tulsa.

The Liberty Bowl cares about the SEC, not Memphis. If the SEC wants a Big 12 opponent, that's how it will be.

And ECU's inclusion will mean next to nothing for the Belk, which clearly wants an SEC/ACC matchup.

It's not that ECU's inclusion means nothing to the Belk, but that the SEC is clearly the top choice for almost any bowl, especially 1 in the south east. The people in Charlotte certainly know and like ECU, as ECU's played more games at Bank of America Stadium than any other team, but if they can get an SEC tie in then of course they are going to take it. The Belk Bowl did want ECU added, along with the Liberty Bowl, and maybe the AAC can get a backup tie in with the Belk if it is indeed lost.

I think we are saying the same thing in different ways. My point was that, compared to the wishes of the Belk to have the SEC, ECUs inclusion meana very little.

Yes we agree on that, but I do believe that ECU's inclusion did increase the chances of either keeping the Belk or maybe having a backup tie in with the bowl. Aresco needs to try to get as many fall back agreements with eastern bowls as possible. If the SEC and others are all going to 9 conference games and there is no limit to how many teams can get in the playoffs/contract/access bowls there will likely be a good number of tie ins every year that can't be filled. The SEC for example really has no shot at filling 8 or 9 bowl tie ins a year when they will likely have their top 3 every year in either the playoffs or contract/access bowls. Aresco needs to get backup deals with the ACC, SEC, B1G, and B12 lower bowls because every year a few of these will not get filled.