Michael Aresco, commissioner of the American Athletic Conference, said one step taken to maintain level of play of non-revenue sports was to “schedule in a common sense way.”
Michael Aresco, commissioner of the American Athletic Conference (AAC), says Olympic, non-revenue-generating sports are extremely important to the conference. He’s also honest in saying those sports cannot get the same attention as football and basketball because if those two marquee sports aren’t operating optimally than other sports cannot exist.
“We have to focus a lot of our attention on football and basketball because they generate the revenue that allows us to function and allows us to give our student-athletes the highest possible level of competition,” says Aresco.
Conference realignment
The AAC formed in 2013 following the decimation of the former Big East due to conference realignments.
“Conference realignment has changed the paradigm of the regional, eight-team conference,” says Aresco. “There’s been consolidation. It’s having an impact on Olympic sports without question; the demands of travel, time and other kinds of things.
“In terms of Olympic sports, we’ve tried hard to manage our travel and develop schedules that take into account that certain schools are clustered in certain areas,” he adds. “Therefore, we’ve tried to schedule in a common sense way that limits travel and any missed class time.”
