(12-10-2020 05:30 PM)pesik Wrote:  Ps I’m aware the reason UCF fans don’t like aresco is because aresco wasn’t going on a media tour proclaiming the UCF national title, that wasn’t a real title ...
Which is dumb

It was even before that. Aresco never championed the league while all the analysts were trashing our conference as "a bunch of high school teams" saying that "anyone would go undefeated in their conference". That's you guys. He was so absent in speaking up to defend our conference that UCF's AD is the one who had to do it. UCF's AD, not Aresco, had to be the one to bring up that usf was being drastically underrated in 2017 with their 10 win season.

We had 3 10 win teams in 2017 and he didn't defend us. Then ignored UCF's national championship. Then didn't speak up AGAIN in 2018 when UCF had been undefeated for 2 straight years. Aresco is useless. Oh he also leaked our series with Arizona State and got it poached.

(12-11-2020 05:35 PM)MidknightWhiskey Wrote:  

(12-10-2020 05:30 PM)pesik Wrote:  Ps I’m aware the reason UCF fans don’t like aresco is because aresco wasn’t going on a media tour proclaiming the UCF national title, that wasn’t a real title ...
Which is dumb

It was even before that. Aresco never championed the league while all the analysts were trashing our conference as "a bunch of high school teams" saying that "anyone would go undefeated in their conference". That's you guys. He was so absent in speaking up to defend our conference that UCF's AD is the one who had to do it. UCF's AD, not Aresco, had to be the one to bring up that usf was being drastically underrated in 2017 with their 10 win season.

We had 3 10 win teams in 2017 and he didn't defend us. Then ignored UCF's national championship. Then didn't speak up AGAIN in 2018 when UCF had been undefeated for 2 straight years. Aresco is useless. Oh he also leaked our series with Arizona State and got it poached.

this is 100% fabricated....

there has no been no commish more vocal about supporting there teams success than aresco..its not even close

literally google mike aresco and UCF.. there are atleast 40-50 interviews where aresco is ranting about the committee is drastically underranking ucf ..

this one is before any of the undefeated runs

within the system there has been no one more vocal about their conference deserving than aresco.. any other statement is homer blinders and fabrications ..he NON STOP PREACHED for ucf to the playoff

when ucf tried to go around the system, he wasnt even negative he just didnt go on his regular media tours...we are at the mercy of the p5 for our leagues ambitions (invited to automous voting and getting our own ny6)..why would it be smart for our league commish to be attacking the system??? he doesnt want colley matrix championships he wants real ones

ask your self this: coastal carolina has more total wins, and more top 25 wins than cincy ..who is the sunbelt commissioner? and when was the last interview you heard of him lobbying for coastal over cincy?

(12-11-2020 05:35 PM)MidknightWhiskey Wrote:  UCF's AD, not Aresco, had to be the one to bring up that usf was being drastically underrated in 2017 with their 10 win season.

more facts:
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/c...story.html

Quote:“All I really said was I thought the committee may not be fully aware of how good we are”

Aresco reiterated he took umbrage with the fact that the committee didn’t give USF enough respect by not ranking the Bulls and he believes their performance on Friday showed why they should have been in the top 25.

“I thought they were a very good team and your schedule is your schedule,” he said. “They were ranked in both polls [Associated Press and coaches,] but not the CFP poll.”

and about ucf

Quote:He referenced Wisconsin, which is the lone remaining undefeated team in the country and has been criticized for a weak schedule. The Badgers were still ranked fifth in last week’s rankings.

“An undefeated team in the Power 5, even if it had a soft schedule would likely be ranked much higher.”

And if UCF wins the conference championship Saturday against Memphis to finish 12-0, does he believe the Knights should be considered for a spot in a playoff semifinal?

“I do, absolutely, because I think they can beat anyone in the country,”

Thanks for those pulls Pesik.

It's Army week, so I won't spend too much bandwidth on the issue of some UCF fans' blindspot on this. Two points, though.
1. Danny White and Mike Aresco had two different roles to play in January 2018 and thereafter- one a disruptor and one working within the system. I've asked before: did Danny White ever publicly state that he was unhappy with what Aresco and the conference were doing?
2. P6 is a strategic campaign with a strategic goal of the next CFP restructure. We need inclusion with a contract with Cotton/Peach/Fiesta, or an acknowledged spot in an 8-team. The new media goal was an intermediate objective or a measuring stick. Even a CFP berth in '17 or '18 or '20 could end up as a win the battle but lose the war situation.
Think strategically.

Aresco has repeatedly acknowledged that the AAC is not up to par with P5 conferences. Anyone remember those Jet blue and Spirit analogies. If the commissioner has already stated his conference is not up to par, why would the committee consider otherwise.

In the year UCF went undefeated, didnt he congratulate Alabama for winning the CFP championship and stated that he respected the CFP process. Again, he respected the process that excluded an undefeated team in his conference that had every right to play in the CFP. Oh BTW, he qualified that saying UCF had a right to claim a national championship based on Colley rankings.

He can cry a river now , that ship has sailed. There is precedent that the committee can exclude an undefeated AAC with no consequence.

This is the damage this conference will never overcome and why most schools like Houston wants out of here.

ESPN sees this conference is a glorified G5 conference. It doesn’t belong in the CFP championship


https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-fo...mpionship/

you missed the entire interpretation of the jetblue analogy ..and completely removed the context

he wasnt saying we were the jetblue conference....he was saying we get the same results (point a to point b) we just do it a different way ..

the full context- we dont get 5star recruits, we might have to constantly switch coaches, we might not even have the same money...but at the end of the day our teams are still just as good..(flying emirates or flying jetblue, how you got there doesnt matter, its that you are there)....

you took what he meant and completely flipped the meanin

edit: i found a link referencing the quote https://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bull...-six-push/

aresco has never said we arent up to par...

most of the criticism about aresco are rarely ever true... just looking for reasons to not like him

(12-11-2020 08:29 PM)pesik Wrote:  you missed the entire interpretation of the jetblue analogy ..and completely removed the context

he wasnt saying we were the jetblue conference....he was saying we get the same results (point a to point b) we just do it a different way ..

the full context- we dont get 5star recruits, we might have to constantly switch coaches, we might not even have the same money...but at the end of the day our teams are still just as good..(flying emirates or flying jetblue, how you got there doesnt matter, its that you are there)....

you took what he meant and completely flipped the meanin

edit: i found a link referencing the quote https://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bull...-six-push/

aresco has never said we arent up to par...

most of the criticism about aresco are rarely ever true... just looking for reasons to not like him

Other than his pay rate, he deserves criticism for that.

Otherwise there isn't anything glaringly bad about him, although he hasn't been perfect, he has generally been good, just not 2m a year good. So if you are judging him based on pay, then yeah he is coming in underperforming. In comparison to other commissioners? He's better than most, not quite as good as some. So he fits the conference quite well in that regard.

(12-11-2020 08:47 PM)Foreverandever Wrote:  

(12-11-2020 08:29 PM)pesik Wrote:  you missed the entire interpretation of the jetblue analogy ..and completely removed the context

he wasnt saying we were the jetblue conference....he was saying we get the same results (point a to point b) we just do it a different way ..

the full context- we dont get 5star recruits, we might have to constantly switch coaches, we might not even have the same money...but at the end of the day our teams are still just as good..(flying emirates or flying jetblue, how you got there doesnt matter, its that you are there)....

you took what he meant and completely flipped the meanin

edit: i found a link referencing the quote https://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bull...-six-push/

aresco has never said we arent up to par...

most of the criticism about aresco are rarely ever true... just looking for reasons to not like him

Other than his pay rate, he deserves criticism for that.

Otherwise there isn't anything glaringly bad about him, although he hasn't been perfect, he has generally been good, just not 2m a year good. So if you are judging him based on pay, then yeah he is coming in underperforming. In comparison to other commissioners? He's better than most, not quite as good as some. So he fits the conference quite well in that regard.

Which commissioner is better, please don’t mention a P5 commissioner because how can you not be better when everything is handed to you. Tell me a G5 commissioner that has accomplished more then Aresco and then we can compare salaries based on conference value and years on the job.

(12-12-2020 09:10 AM)oipirate Wrote:  

(12-11-2020 08:47 PM)Foreverandever Wrote:  

(12-11-2020 08:29 PM)pesik Wrote:  you missed the entire interpretation of the jetblue analogy ..and completely removed the context

he wasnt saying we were the jetblue conference....he was saying we get the same results (point a to point b) we just do it a different way ..

the full context- we dont get 5star recruits, we might have to constantly switch coaches, we might not even have the same money...but at the end of the day our teams are still just as good..(flying emirates or flying jetblue, how you got there doesnt matter, its that you are there)....

you took what he meant and completely flipped the meanin

edit: i found a link referencing the quote https://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bull...-six-push/

aresco has never said we arent up to par...

most of the criticism about aresco are rarely ever true... just looking for reasons to not like him

Other than his pay rate, he deserves criticism for that.

Otherwise there isn't anything glaringly bad about him, although he hasn't been perfect, he has generally been good, just not 2m a year good. So if you are judging him based on pay, then yeah he is coming in underperforming. In comparison to other commissioners? He's better than most, not quite as good as some. So he fits the conference quite well in that regard.

Which commissioner is better, please don’t mention a P5 commissioner because how can you not be better when everything is handed to you. Tell me a G5 commissioner that has accomplished more then Aresco and then we can compare salaries based on conference value and years on the job.

Here's some things about Aresco:

Positive: He is a great conference cheerleader. He arguably does more media cheerleading for the AAC than all of the other nine FBS commissioners put together. So if you like cheerleading, he has to get an A+ on that. There is something psychically and viscerally satisfying to an AAC fan to hear their commissioner voice the feelings they would like to vent to a big audience. He has a great sense of the pulse of the conference fan base.

Negative: IMO, Aresco raises expectations and under-delivers. IIRC, since 2014 or so he talked about the importance of improving AAC bowl ties, but when the new ties were announced last year, there was basically no improvement. On the 2020 media deal, Aresco talked about signing a deal that was in the "ballpark" or something with regards to P5, and he signed for $7 million a year, below what even some pessimists like myself had expected, and for 12 long years. This means that even if by some miracle a 2026 CFP re-structuring results in an AAC contract with an NY6 bowl, we will still be getting paid media peanuts compared to the other contract conferences.

Neutral: If you are going to excuse Aresco for not achieving bigger things by saying he can only play the hands he has been dealt, meaning he is the commissioner of a G5 conference not a P5 that gets everything handed to them, then you can't credit him for things that are likely a structural property of the AAC as well. Why does the AAC get more media money than the other G5? Because the AAC has better and bigger-name football programs. You can't really credit Aresco for that, we all knew that was the case in 2013. Schools like UCF and Memphis and Cincy didn't become good thanks to Aresco, their internal processes achieved that.

Bottom line is, I agree with the other poster that Aresco is significantly over-paid. I don't have much doubt that we could have gotten essentially the same performance in terms of media deal and bowl ties with a $600,000 a year commissioner, like the MW and Sun Belt have. For 8 years and counting, we have basically been paying Aresco a P5-level salary for a conference that does not have P5-level finances. Heck, until this year, Aresco was making money essentially equal to a school's share of the $2m or so media payout. That would be like the Big 12 commissioner getting paid $30 million a year.

To me, Aresco is a fine commissioner in an overall performance sense. He does tend to raise expectations and not meet them, but there's no bottom line harm in that. Had he not been overly optimistic on bowls and media, we would have got the same deals anyway. And, I don't think the current SEC or B1G commissioners could have done any better for the AAC had they been in Aresco's place either.

He just gets paid way more than his performance is worth, given who we are as a conference.

Herbstreet just said AAC more respected conf than P12

i want the pac-12 to join the G5 conferences, that will shake things up

(12-12-2020 10:20 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(12-12-2020 09:10 AM)oipirate Wrote:  

(12-11-2020 08:47 PM)Foreverandever Wrote:  

(12-11-2020 08:29 PM)pesik Wrote:  you missed the entire interpretation of the jetblue analogy ..and completely removed the context

he wasnt saying we were the jetblue conference....he was saying we get the same results (point a to point b) we just do it a different way ..

the full context- we dont get 5star recruits, we might have to constantly switch coaches, we might not even have the same money...but at the end of the day our teams are still just as good..(flying emirates or flying jetblue, how you got there doesnt matter, its that you are there)....

you took what he meant and completely flipped the meanin

edit: i found a link referencing the quote https://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bull...-six-push/

aresco has never said we arent up to par...

most of the criticism about aresco are rarely ever true... just looking for reasons to not like him

Other than his pay rate, he deserves criticism for that.

Otherwise there isn't anything glaringly bad about him, although he hasn't been perfect, he has generally been good, just not 2m a year good. So if you are judging him based on pay, then yeah he is coming in underperforming. In comparison to other commissioners? He's better than most, not quite as good as some. So he fits the conference quite well in that regard.

Which commissioner is better, please don’t mention a P5 commissioner because how can you not be better when everything is handed to you. Tell me a G5 commissioner that has accomplished more then Aresco and then we can compare salaries based on conference value and years on the job.

Here's some things about Aresco:

Positive: He is a great conference cheerleader. He arguably does more media cheerleading for the AAC than all of the other nine FBS commissioners put together. So if you like cheerleading, he has to get an A+ on that. There is something psychically and viscerally satisfying to an AAC fan to hear their commissioner voice the feelings they would like to vent to a big audience. He has a great sense of the pulse of the conference fan base.

Negative: IMO, Aresco raises expectations and under-delivers. IIRC, since 2014 or so he talked about the importance of improving AAC bowl ties, but when the new ties were announced last year, there was basically no improvement. On the 2020 media deal, Aresco talked about signing a deal that was in the "ballpark" or something with regards to P5, and he signed for $7 million a year, below what even some pessimists like myself had expected, and for 12 long years. This means that even if by some miracle a 2026 CFP re-structuring results in an AAC contract with an NY6 bowl, we will still be getting paid media peanuts compared to the other contract conferences.

Neutral: If you are going to excuse Aresco for not achieving bigger things by saying he can only play the hands he has been dealt, meaning he is the commissioner of a G5 conference not a P5 that gets everything handed to them, then you can't credit him for things that are likely a structural property of the AAC as well. Why does the AAC get more media money than the other G5? Because the AAC has better and bigger-name football programs. You can't really credit Aresco for that, we all knew that was the case in 2013. Schools like UCF and Memphis and Cincy didn't become good thanks to Aresco, their internal processes achieved that.

Bottom line is, I agree with the other poster that Aresco is significantly over-paid. I don't have much doubt that we could have gotten essentially the same performance in terms of media deal and bowl ties with a $600,000 a year commissioner, like the MW and Sun Belt have. For 8 years and counting, we have basically been paying Aresco a P5-level salary for a conference that does not have P5-level finances. Heck, until this year, Aresco was making money essentially equal to a school's share of the $2m or so media payout. That would be like the Big 12 commissioner getting paid $30 million a year.

To me, Aresco is a fine commissioner in an overall performance sense. He does tend to raise expectations and not meet them, but there's no bottom line harm in that. Had he not been overly optimistic on bowls and media, we would have got the same deals anyway. And, I don't think the current SEC or B1G commissioners could have done any better for the AAC had they been in Aresco's place either.

He just gets paid way more than his performance is worth, given who we are as a conference.

Reasonable analysis. Like you, most disappointing is the TV deal. Much too long for much less than should have been negotiated. He's probably too tied to ESPN & has under estimated the exposure value of ESPN+ where too many of our conference games have gone with much less viewership. Deal might have been a little better if schools had owned their 3rd tier rights as an option to ESPN+.

two thing i disagree with quo statement:

1) the pessimists were not saying 7mil....i was one of the biggest optimist and i was saying 6-8 mil....the moderate pessimist for 5 years were saying marginal increase, we were making 2mil in the old deal.. the super pessimist were saying a decrease because of the the cable bubble had burst...the moderate pessimists were saying marginal increase of 2.5-3mil---honestly ask yourself if you legitimately think pessimist were projecting a 400% increase in revenue

b) ill be honest i wasnt in love with the length either, but tv deals can be restructured mid way, the SEC just signed a deal with espn that doesnt end till 2034...if the landscape changes and we add or lose members itll be redone


2) second biggest point- the aac has bigger better football programs soley and only because we invested more, i made this point earlier the MWC and AAC were seen as roughly equals in 2013 by the general media...aresco pushed a message of investment, and we will spend like the p5 becuase we are a power conference.. a message reverberated and reiterated by every aac president, AD, coach ..the other conference didnt.. only one conference improved

culture of the conference matters -- you cant believe its pure coincidence the once conference that built a culture of investing and proclaiming they are fighting to compete with the power conference is who is growing (culture built and pushed by aresco)..and the mwc who's goals is "to be the best g5"..public state "they arent in competition with the p5", publicly say they have no intention to try and match power 5 spending or stipends, that each institution has to decide it own goals etc.. hasnt grown much

Getting back to topic, here is Fickell's response to being banged down to #8. Not at all agitating for a playoff spot. Acknowledges the supremacy of the historically powerful programs.

(12-13-2020 12:43 AM)Fishpro10987 Wrote:  Getting back to topic, here is Fickell's response to being banged down to #8. Not at all agitating for a playoff spot. Acknowledges the supremacy of the historically powerful programs.

Let’s see if his tone changes if they win against Tulsa. Fick is extremely intelligent and very mindful of the things he says. I’m sure he knows if he makes claims that we belong in the CFP discussion and lose to a capable Tulsa squad it actually sets us back in the future. If we are able to complete the undefeated season I doubt he will be aggressive with his claims as it does us no good to alienate the powers that be, but I could see him make more statements that he feels we are deserving. Hopefully we find out.

With the Florida loss things could have been very interesting if the committee wouldn’t have moved an undeserving ISU squad in front of us.

Florida is now out of contention with the loss, but it also impacts A&M since that was really their only good win. Outside of the Florida win they only have 1 win against a team above 500 (Auburn). It’s very possible that Cincinnati could have leaped them with a conference championship and win against Tulsa, especially if it happened to be convincing and if they wouldn’t have overlooked Tulsa last week and moved them up to around #20 as a lot of people expected.

They would still likely need ND to win and/or an Ohio State loss, which aren’t very likely, but it would have given them a legit path to the playoff with a win and just one other game going their way. As it stands though, the committee has basically said the B12 champ would get in ahead of us, which is absurd when you consider how poorly the B12 performed in their OCC schedule.

(12-13-2020 05:21 AM)C1ncy4Life Wrote:  With the Florida loss things could have been very interesting if the committee wouldn’t have moved an undeserving ISU squad in front of us.

Florida is now out of contention with the loss, but it also impacts A&M since that was really their only good win. Outside of the Florida win they only have 1 win against a team above 500 (Auburn). It’s very possible that Cincinnati could have leaped them with a conference championship and win against Tulsa, especially if it happened to be convincing and if they wouldn’t have overlooked Tulsa last week and moved them up to around #20 as a lot of people expected.

They would still likely need ND to win and/or an Ohio State loss, which aren’t very likely, but it would have given them a legit path to the playoff with a win and just one other game going their way. As it stands though, the committee has basically said the B12 champ would get in ahead of us, which is absurd when you consider how poorly the B12 performed in their OCC schedule.

Uc will need an ohio state like performance if they want to move up. Anything less than that and they might actually move down.. Im thinking the committee puts coastal very close to uc and they really need a strong showing against tulsa to keep that ny6 bowl, because cc has a legit argument for it

(12-12-2020 12:05 PM)pesik Wrote:  two thing i disagree with quo statement:

1) the pessimists were not saying 7mil....i was one of the biggest optimist and i was saying 6-8 mil....the moderate pessimist for 5 years were saying marginal increase, we were making 2mil in the old deal.. the super pessimist were saying a decrease because of the the cable bubble had burst...the moderate pessimists were saying marginal increase of 2.5-3mil---honestly ask yourself if you legitimately think pessimist were projecting a 400% increase in revenue

b) ill be honest i wasnt in love with the length either, but tv deals can be restructured mid way, the SEC just signed a deal with espn that doesnt end till 2034...if the landscape changes and we add or lose members itll be redone


2) second biggest point- the aac has bigger better football programs soley and only because we invested more, i made this point earlier the MWC and AAC were seen as roughly equals in 2013 by the general media...aresco pushed a message of investment, and we will spend like the p5 becuase we are a power conference.. a message reverberated and reiterated by every aac president, AD, coach ..the other conference didnt.. only one conference improved

culture of the conference matters -- you cant believe its pure coincidence the once conference that built a culture of investing and proclaiming they are fighting to compete with the power conference is who is growing (culture built and pushed by aresco)..and the mwc who's goals is "to be the best g5"..public state "they arent in competition with the p5", publicly say they have no intention to try and match power 5 spending or stipends, that each institution has to decide it own goals etc.. hasnt grown much

^ this.

I'll take Mike over our other options like Britton Banowsky, John Marinatto, Judy Mcleod, Craig Thompson, etc

Aresco = PT Barnum

(12-13-2020 09:16 AM)Lurkercat Wrote:  

(12-13-2020 05:21 AM)C1ncy4Life Wrote:  With the Florida loss things could have been very interesting if the committee wouldn’t have moved an undeserving ISU squad in front of us.

Florida is now out of contention with the loss, but it also impacts A&M since that was really their only good win. Outside of the Florida win they only have 1 win against a team above 500 (Auburn). It’s very possible that Cincinnati could have leaped them with a conference championship and win against Tulsa, especially if it happened to be convincing and if they wouldn’t have overlooked Tulsa last week and moved them up to around #20 as a lot of people expected.

They would still likely need ND to win and/or an Ohio State loss, which aren’t very likely, but it would have given them a legit path to the playoff with a win and just one other game going their way. As it stands though, the committee has basically said the B12 champ would get in ahead of us, which is absurd when you consider how poorly the B12 performed in their OCC schedule.

Uc will need an ohio state like performance if they want to move up. Anything less than that and they might actually move down.. Im thinking the committee puts coastal very close to uc and they really need a strong showing against tulsa to keep that ny6 bowl, because cc has a legit argument for it

This is where the SMU loss to ECU and Memphis losing to Tulane really hurt.

If SMU had won, they would have been on the edge of ranking at least with their only two losses to Cincy and @ Tulsa. With all the chaos this week and their bowl game being before the last CFP announcement, they would have finished a ranked opponent for Cincy and Tulsa.

Memphis was also receiving votes in polls, that win and the one versus Houston would have set Memphis up possibly climb into the rankings last week or for sure this week. Again their only two losses would have been to a top 10 Cincy and a close to ranked SMU.

With Army beating Navy and likely to beat AFA next week it is quite possible they will be ranked next week with it's only two losses away games to top 10 Cincy and Tulane.

This missed opportunity for the conference openned up the door for CC and Louisiana as well as likely keeping Cincy from a serious shot at the title.

We could have had a 4-0 vs ranked teams Cincy or a 2-1 Tulsa with a top ten win and only loss on the road to a ranked Oklahoma St by a fieldgoal as Champs.

Coastal jumps UC this week.