Commissioner: National TV spotlight on UCF provides ‘showcase’ for AAC
As a national television audience tuned in to the start of ABC’s prime-time college football showdown between No. 11 UCF and No. 24 Cincinnati Saturday night, they witnessed something special.
Under the bright lights, more than 47,000 spectators took to the air, jumping up and down. Spectrum Stadium rumbled and swayed, living up to the venue’s Bounce House nickname.
It was a big weekend, not just for UCF but for the entire American Athletic Conference. ESPN’s College GameDay made its first appearance on the Knights’ campus, then conference tilt featuring the Knights and Bearcats was showcased during ABC’s Saturday Night Football broadcast.
AAC commissioner Mike Aresco was on hand and witnessed all the grandeur of the evening.
“It’s a great showcase for the school and for the program, I don’t think there’s any question,” Aresco said. “It’s certainly one of the biggest things that have happened to our conference.
“We won a national championship in basketball, which is pretty big. We won these big huge bowl games. … We’ve had some great moments, but this is pretty big when you get GameDay coming to your campus.”
Turns out, it was big business in the ratings department as well, with the game becoming the mostwatched prime-time college football game on Saturday.
“It’s not a sudden thing. This is something that’s been in the making for a long time and not just UCF, the league has been good for quite a while now,” Aresco said. “We’ve had a lot of good teams and we’ve had a lot of big wins and this is sort of a mini-culmination. … I hope it’s not our high point, though. I think we can I think we can do even more great things down the road.”
Aresco has worked during the past few years to brand the AAC as one of the best leagues in the country worthy of the same perks afforded to those in the Power 5 — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC. He has urged others to embrace his argument the American is part of what should be known as the Power 6.
“Getting this kind of exposure and again having earned it, and having done what we’ve done as a conference, I think it absolutely reinforces the P6 narrative,” Aresco said. “It gives us a chance to put our best foot forward.”
Performance on the field has helped, with the league boasting seven wins this season over traditional powers UCLA, Arizona, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Maryland and Illinois
But despite its best efforts, the league continues to be hampered by the stigma associated with the Group of 5 conferences. That’s carried over into the College Football Playoff rankings, where UCF has failed to gain much ground despite being one of just four undefeated teams in the country. Three of those teams — Alabama, Clemson and Notre Dame — are ranked among the top three and are in line for a possible spot in the two semifinal games.
Does Aresco hope the strong showing Saturday could help the Knights’ case?
“You earn respect in increments and if they can continue to earn respect and somewhere along the line the dam may break,” Aresco said. “Then they may get a real shot into the top 10 and maybe even the top four or five. It’s not out of the question and it’s a long shot. I’m not naive, but I do think that this is the kind of thing that at least can impress people.”
This level of national exposure is sure to help Aresco as he goes to the bargaining table during the next few months to work out a new media rights deal for the conference.
“It certainly doesn’t hurt us, let’s put it that way. We’ve got TV coming up next year, the negotiating period, that’s a good time to be doing what we’re doing,” he said. “But I think you have to look at the larger picture and that is, that we’ve been competitive, and we needed to demonstrate to TV that we had something sustainable here. And I think we’ve done that.”