Hopes are high for AAC, UConn football

NEWPORT, R.I. — He spoke boldly. He spoke defiantly. He went Winston Churchill and Baker Mayfield on us. He went George Washington. He talked about smashing the grass ceiling.

In past summers, after the clambake and lobster from the previous night had given way to morning coffee, Commissioner Mike Aresco used football media day to unashamedly promote the American Athletic Conference. He came off enthusiastic, if not a tad desperate. The former TV executive had a commercial to sell.

On Tuesday, with the UCF gold coin jingling in his pocket alongside, Aresco spoke more quietly, yet more confidently. He has proved to have a strong football league. He never uses the term “Power 5” anymore. He always uses Power 6 and he’s counting in the American.

“It’s because I’m so optimistic about this conference,” Aresco would say later. “And because I’m cautiously optimistic about the TV (negotiations). Like I said in my remarks, we’re now a nationally respected brand. We couldn’t make that claim five years ago.”

Moments earlier, Randy Edsall — who hadn’t been around in 2013 for the start

of the American but had been around Newport plenty when the old Big East hosted media day — was talking about a defining moment. He said his UConn football team had gone in all sorts of different directions last year. There was a “me” attitude. And now they were embracing their mantra of “Rise As One.”

“One of the hardest things we have as coaches today is getting young people to be accountable themselves, but the tougher part is standing up and holding other people accountable,” Edsall said. “There are always defining moments and there was one we had this summer. When it happened I said, ‘We finally got it. We finally are going to be what we want to be.’ ”

Edsall would not define the defining moment. He said it was a personal thing within the team. He did say it was a matter of a player holding somebody else accountable. “What happened,” Edsall said, “made us better, a lot better ... a consistent winner.”

This is July. Optimism is high, and lobster and beer go down easy. The American is going to distribute $41 million to each of its schools the way the SEC does, right? UConn, 3-9 last year and 14-35 in the past four, is going 12-0 before beating Auburn on New Year’s Day like UCF did. Then the Huskies will storm ESPN headquarters demanding to be named national champion.

Whoa. Quite a dream, wasn’t it?

The American’s television deal, struck with ESPN during the turmoil of

2013 and scheduled to end in 2020, nets a little more $20 million a year for the entire conference. The Big Ten? Oh, a half billion. That’s why Michigan can get $51 million a year in total revenue from its conference and UConn settled for about $8 million last year. And that included the Big East exit money that has dried up.

Aresco will meet with ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro in the coming months. He’d love to get something done in Bristol, one-stop shopping, he says. The results of those initial exclusive negotiations or subsequent ones with other networks will tell us everything about the future of the league and the health of UConn athletics.

And what if Aresco doesn’t score big and the TV deal remains relative peanuts? What if the Power 5 cartel — a word Edsall used Tuesday — remains too strong to break? And what if Edsall does not turn around fortunes on the field and we keep seeing 3-9, 3-9, and 20,000 fans continue to stew in a half-filled Rentschler Field?

Is it possible UConn would give up football?

“I don’t think it’s realistic,” athletic director David Benedict said. “There has been no discussion. If five years from now we’re in that position, we’ll discuss it at that point. It is much more likely you’ll see us become a competitive football program and our TV deal and our conference is going to be much, much improved.”

The $42.2 million needed to balance the $83 million budget, according to the USA Today study of public universities, is fairly alarming. It’s the most in the nation. A little more than

$8 million comes from student fees and four times that comes from various, direct and indirect school support, from housing, dining, etc.

“We’re doing our best to reduce it,” Benedict said. “The budget we just finished, we reduced our budget to below (fiscal year) 2016. We’re making progress.”

Benedict talks about lining up big-money games with Big Ten and ACC opponents, Clemson for one in 2021; a few more are in the works. He talks about how if you eliminate football you’d also lose half your multimedia money. He smiles and says, “Football’s not being eliminated.

“Everyone in this conference, we all aspire to be where the others (Power 5) are,” Benedict said. “That’s where this conference is united.”

Aresco talks for the united. He talks about the 3-0 record in New Year’s Day bowl games, all against top-10 teams. He talks about winning 26 games in three years against the cartel and having more than 90 games with more than a million TV viewers. He talks about 15 NFL draft picks in 2017 compared to 14 for the Big 12 and how none of this is a fluke. He talks about being slighted. How Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield got all the hype a few years ago against Houston and it was Greg Ward who won decisively. He talks about how Houston’s rankings in 2015 and UCF’s ranking in 2017 made no sense and both proved it in the bowls.

“We do not want a glass, or grass ceiling in college football, as it is terribly unfair to our terrific players and coaches,” Aresco said.

He gushes about returning stars Ed Oliver, McKenzie Milton and Tony Pollard and how the American has always had great players.

“Shaquem Griffin (from UCF) reflected and epitomized our league,” Aresco said. “Underappreciated until we do something remarkable, underrated until we shock the world.

“Paraphrasing Churchill, it’s not the end or even the beginning of the end, but it’s clearly the end of the beginning. The P6 is no longer a media or promotional campaign. It’s a reality.”

Aresco was on a roll now. He said undefeated UCF, which had to watch Alabama beat Georgia for the CFP title, had a right to claim the national championship. He pointed to the Knights being No. 1 in the Colley Computer Index.

“Many schools over the years, including Alabama, have claimed national championships based on such metrics,” Aresco said. “This UCF team deserved a shot at the national championship and I’m convinced could have won it.

“Mark my words, we’ll get there eventually. We will never settle for secondclass status, we will never accept a silly non-power designation. We will never surrender to the naysayers. It is not an impossible dream. These same skeptics likely would not have given George Washington and his colonial army much chance against the mighty British either. We know how that one turned out.” Strong words.

We await the proof. In Bristol. At Rentschler Field.