CBS VP Mike Aresco will be named the Big East's next commissioner on Tuesday, according to
— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) August 14, 2012@blauds.
In case you're wondering who this guy is, his bio is pretty impressive. Aresco has a ton of experience negotiating TV deals and "was instrumental in the CBS Television Network's landmark agreement with the NCAA granting CBS exclusive rights to the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship through 2013."
Full Aresco bio after The Jump:
Michael L. Aresco was named Executive Vice President, Programming in June 2008 after having been Senior Vice President, Programming, since 2000. In his new expanded role, Aresco is responsible for all college programming for both CBS Sports and CBS College Sports Network. He also continues to help shape the strategy for growing CBS College Sports Network.
Aresco joined CBS Sports as Vice President, Programming, in August 1996 and was promoted to Senior Vice President in 2000. He is responsible for managing the division's college sports properties, including contract negotiations and future acquisitions for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, regular season college basketball and football, and bowl games. He is also responsible for administering the Network's various NCAA properties including internet, marketing, radio, licensing, publishing and outdoor programming.
Aresco was instrumental in the CBS Television Network's landmark agreement with the NCAA granting CBS exclusive rights to the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship through 2013. He also played a key role in negotiating the marketing agreement that coincided with the NCAA deal, and in the evolution and development of various new media platforms for the NCAA Tournament, including March Madness on Demand (MMOD), CBS's highly successful Tournament streaming platform, and Video on Demand (VOD) applications. Aresco has also negotiated several agreements with DirecTV to show NCAA Tournament games on an out-of-market basis. He has played an active role in coordinating CBS content with CBS College Sports Network's various video streaming packages, and also authored a high school sports initiative that led to CBS's purchase of MaxPreps, the leading website devoted to high school sports.
In addition, Aresco recently negotiated the Network's historic 15-year Southeastern Conference agreement to televise SEC football and basketball. This agreement also provides multiple new media rights for CBS, CBS College Sports Network and CBS Interactive. He has reached several agreements with the Big Ten Conference for college basketball as well as Big Ten product for CBS College Sports Network. Aresco also reached a multi-year agreement that expanded CBS Sports' Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) basketball coverage and has negotiated several basketball deals with the Big East, Pac 10 (through Fox Sports Network) and the Big 12 (through ESPN Regional). He also reached multi-year agreements granting CBS exclusive rights to televise the Army-Navy and Notre Dame-Navy football games, as well as the Sun and Gator Bowls. He recently negotiated a 10-year extension to CBS's Army-Navy football game agreement and was instrumental in the Academies' decision to move the game a week later where it will be the concluding game of the college football regular season. He also recently negotiated an extension of CBS's Notre Dame-Navy football game agreement through 2016 with an option through 2018 and assisted in negotiating the CBS College Sports Network-Navy football agreement through 2018. In 2005, CBS acquired CSTV, an independent cable sports network. In January 2008, CBS Sports began to integrate CSTV's operations with its own and, in March 2008, CSTV became the CBS College Sports Network. Aresco oversees the CBS College Sports Network's programming department, spearheading program planning and development, as well as working with conference rights holders on contract negotiations and future acquisitions. He sits on the Board of the mtn., the Denver-based regional sports network devoted to the Mountain West Conference and jointly owned by CBS and Comcast.
In 2004, he was appointed by NCAA President Myles Brand to the Basketball Partnership, a select panel whose mission is to explore ways to improve and promote college basketball. Other members include Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and former Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt.
He has been a guest lecturer at the Tisch Center for Sports Management at NYU and a guest speaker at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and the University of Tennessee School Of Business. He has appeared regularly on panels at the Sports Business Journal Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, and has been a panelist at Practicing Law Institute and National Sports Marketing Network seminars. He has addressed the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators. Aresco has been a frequent delegate to the Spruce Meadows Changing Fortunes Round Table, an annual gathering of prominent worldwide business leaders in Calgary, Canada. He is a charter member of the Steering Committee of the Columbia University / New York City Chapter of the National Football Foundation.
Aresco joined CBS Sports from ESPN where he was responsible for overseeing the acquisition, scheduling and development of long-term strategies for all of ESPN and ESPN2's college sports properties. Aresco also was responsible for programming a wide variety of sports properties, including college football, ATP and Davis Cup tennis, boxing, the Racing Across America Series, rodeo and yachting. He was the architect of ESPN's Thursday night college football series and was instrumental in developing "Bowl Week." He joined ESPN in 1984 and was named Assistant General Counsel in 1988 before moving to the ESPN programming department.
Aresco is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Tufts College (B.A., magna cum laude, history); the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts (M.A., international relations), where he held a John Moors Cabot Fellowship, and the University of Connecticut Law School (J.D.). He served as a foreign relations staff intern in the office of former U.S. Senator Robert P. Griffin of Michigan. In 2003, he was the recipient of the All-American Football Foundation's Outstanding Television Sports Executive Award. In 2007, he was honored as the Middlesex (CT) County Chamber of Commerce Role Model of the Year with an accompanying citation from the Connecticut General Assembly. He was born in Middletown, CT and lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife, Sharon and their son, Brett. Another son, Matthew, formerly a producer for the Versus Cable Television Network, recently established his own independent production company.
Though the full impact of this hire obviously remains to be seen, it appears the Big East has found a guy who isn't going to back down in the crucial upcoming television contract negotiations and will likely bring in the best possible outcome to maintain the stability of the Conference. I give the hire an "A-", with the only blemish on his resume being that law degree from UConn.