College football is in a period of ongoing change heading into the 2022 season with conference realignment, college football expansion and NIL being some of the leading conversations.

American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco expressed his concerns and possible solutions on some of these topics during the AAC Media Day on Thursday.

The recent conference realignment moves appear to be foreshadowing two super leagues of the SEC and Big Ten. Aresco supports the idea of FBS football breaking away from the NCAA as one way to help ensure that every FBS team has a fair shot at competitive relevancy. 

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“What can we do in the face of the recent conference upheavals and consolidation?” Aresco asked. “Well, we can fight for a healthier and more equitable system on the various fronts that are still in play that are still available to us. Among them, are the college football playoff, NCAA governance and important protocols that still remain such as scholarship limits, which helps obviously level the playing field. Complete concentration on a few top conferences at the expense of historic associations and rivalries does not strike me as a good thing.”

Conference realignment

Aresco didn’t shy away from recognizing the benefits of programs choosing to jump to a bigger conference. He acknowledged that the challenges facing athletic programs today make it even more enticing for a school to jump to a conference with more national relevancy that allows a larger payout.

“Admittedly, it is a hard, unforgiving business,” Aresco said. “Trust is shattered routinely in these situations. Feelings are hurt, relationships can end, friendships can dissolve and schools are often blindsided and left scrambling. Although one can not take it personally, it is by no means fun.”

All of the AAC’s top three teams from last season, who were also voted top three in this year’s preseason poll, are entering their last season in the league before switching to the Big 12. The AAC will be adding six new teams to replace them.

Aresco says he’s still confident in where the AAC stands after Cincinnati, Houston and UCF leave. But he mentioned the potential negative impact on the sport if college football got to a point where media and fans only cared about a small portion of teams.

“College football is entertaining and fun,” he said. “Its popularity is clear and has been clear for some time. But will something irreplaceable be lost in this new world of super conferences and professionalized players? Time will tell, but creating a large group of second-class citizens would not appear to be a healthy development. Consolidation of the elite brands may very well diminish everyone else. Competitiveness nationally could be lost.”

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When speaking about the competitive nature of conferences, Aresco made sure to point out the AAC’s achievements. He ran through the league’s competitive resume that included a trip to the College Football Playoff, a men’s basketball championship and multiple women’s basketball championships.

“All is not necessarily doom and gloom and our conference is a shining example of that,” Aresco said. “The American has against all odds been nationally relevant for the entire decade of its existence despite noticeable lack of attention from the media compared to that given to the so-called P5 conferences, and also far less revenue than they’ve had.”

NCAA governance

One solution to the changing landscape of college football is for FBS football to break away from the NCAA governance model. Aresco said this idea should be seriously considered.

He said the FBS conferences wouldn’t abandon all functions of the NCAA but it would include rulemaking, operating the postseason and control over officiating.

“It’s reasonable to believe that FBS football should be governed by committees comprised solely of FBS representatives,” Aresco said. “The FBS commissioner should have a major role in how FBS football is run. Football is clearly a separate and distinct entity within the NCAA and could benefit from its own government structure. With the interconnection between the regular season and the College Football Playoff, it may make sense to streamline the governance process through FBS self-governance.”

Breaking away from the NCAA would also allow for the Group of Five label to go away, which is something Aresco has been wanting to happen for years.

“That label has been disruptive,” Aresco said. “It should all be FBS. I’ve said it many times. The recent realignment of the past two years makes the autonomy concept and the accompanied Power Five media branding even less meaningful than it was before. If all 10 FBS conferences are viewed equally in terms of branding, as I believe they should be, an upward mobility — the feature of our American heritage — would be a more realistic possibility.”

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“Some FBS conferences of course would be more equal than others in terms of revenue, competitiveness all the things that obviously matter. That’s perfectly normal and acceptable, but actually having to earn a particular status or reputation would be a healthy development.”

Aresco also called it a shame that the 12-team playoff was not approved. It would have allowed six automatic qualifiers and six at-large bids to be included. Aresco believes the 12-team model emphasizes the importance of conference championships and allows the opportunity for the Group of Five membered schools a shot at the playoff.

“It would be a mistake a big mistake to adopt a system that could largely exclude three-quarters of FBS teams,” Aresco said.