Big East commissioner: Ignore reports of lackluster TV deals
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“I tell people to kind of ignore all the various reports you see because we don’t know yet,” Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco said in a phone call, Monday. ”We’re working on it. Our members want financial stability and we think we can deli Video by IdahoOnYourSide.com
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“Just because Boise State at this point might possibly be leaving,” Maaco Bowl Executive Director Dan Hanneke said at a news conference, Monday.
“Mark,” a reporter asked Bronco Athletic Director Mark Coyle, “can you talk about the words ‘might possibly’?”
Coyle opted not to talk about those words, instead leaving rumors of his school’s Big East departure to proliferate.
Those rumors grew louder Friday, following the CBSSports.com report that the Big East’s TV deal could net each of its members less than half the amount initially promised.
“I tell people to kind of ignore all the various reports you see because we don’t know yet,” Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco said in a phone call, Monday. ”We’re working on it. Our members want financial stability and we think we can deliver that to them.”
Aresco told us he’s exploring all options – including founding a new media company and an exclusive TV network.
“We look at some of the deals cut by other conferences below ours,” Aresco said, “and we think that our deal should be good for the membership.”
How good it is may decide which of the 13 football schools now committed to the Big East decide to actually keep their word.
“We’re trying to get the best information we can,” Coyle said Monday, “and once we know that number we’ll absorb it and see how it’s going to impact our program going forward.”
According to CBSSports, if current Big East revenue declines 25 percent or more, or if less than 70 percent of TV money goes to football, Boise State may back out of the conference at a discounted rate.
Aresco called Boise State football an already national brand and said his conference could catapult the program to the next level.
“If Boise [State] and Louisville were playing a championship game this year and it was 2014,” Aresco said, “I believe [one of those teams] would have ended up [playing] on New Year’s Day or New Year’s Eve.”
Instead, the Broncos will return to Vegas to play in a bowl whose executive director seemed on Monday to either enjoy awkward situations or know something the Big East did not.
“We’re really looking forward to having [Boise State] in the conference,” Aresco said.
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