Commish Aresco to retire, led creation of AAC

American Athletic Convention commissioner Mike Aresco will retire on the finish of the 2023-24 educational 12 months, he introduced Thursday.

The one commissioner within the convention’s historical past, Aresco has steered the AAC via turbulent instances over the course of its 11-year historical past. Initially employed as commissioner of the Huge East in 2012, he oversaw the creation of the AAC because of convention realignment that led to the Huge East going again to its basketball roots.

The FBS faculties that remained expanded the convention, including UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, SMU and Memphis to kind its first iteration in 2013. The next 12 months, Louisville (ACC) and Rutgers (Huge Ten) had gone, so Aresco added East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa to the combo.

Final 12 months, the AAC was pressured to vary once more after UCF, Cincinnati and Houston left for the Huge 12. Aresco added UAB, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice and UTSA. SMU leaves for the ACC in 2024, however Military will start taking part in within the league as a football-only member that very same season.

Throughout his run as commissioner, Aresco pushed laborious for inclusion within the Energy 5 dialog. He all the time referred to his convention as one of many “Energy 6” and used the undefeated run UCF made in 2017 to show his level. He pushed laborious that season for Faculty Soccer Playoff inclusion, however UCF completed No. 12 within the closing CFP rankings at 12-0.

That began a dialog about Group of 5 inclusion within the four-team playoff, one which was rewarded in 2021. Cincinnati turned the primary Group of 5 staff to make it into the Faculty Soccer Playoff, earlier than dropping to Alabama 27-6 within the semifinals.

“It has been the supreme privilege of my lengthy profession in sports activities to have had the chance to guide this nice convention from its reinvention in 2013, and to signify its excellent student-athletes, coaches and directors,” Aresco mentioned in an announcement. “There have additionally been some disappointments and difficulties alongside the best way, most notably, the P5-G5 divide, realignment, Faculty Soccer Playoff entry for our deserving groups, and a few aggressive heartbreak in massive video games.

“However these haven’t affected in any means my enthusiasm in main this terrific and resilient convention or my optimism for its long-term future.”

Throughout his tenure, the AAC produced 4 NCAA championship groups, a Faculty Soccer Playoff semifinalist, 4 New Yr’s Six bowl champions, two NCAA males’s Ultimate 4 groups and 6 ladies’s Ultimate 4 groups.