Big East changing name; downsizing possible

TIP OFF: Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco, left, will oversee the conference’s transition to the American Athletic Conference. Providence College, a founding member of the Big East, will not be a part of the new conference. / COURTESY BIG EAST CONFERENCE
TIP OFF: Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco, left, will oversee the conference’s transition to the American Athletic Conference. Providence College, a founding member of the Big East, will not be a part of the new conference. / COURTESY BIG EAST CONFERENCE

Mike Aresco, commissioner of the athletic conference known for 34 years as the Big East, speaks fondly of Providence, but he can’t promise how long the league he’s reinventing will remain in its historic home.
On July 1, the Big East will officially change its name to the American Athletic Conference and welcome a new group of schools centered to the south and west of its Northeastern roots and Rhode Island headquarters.
Aresco, who took over the Big East while the league was in crisis last year, is rebranding and reorganizing the league, a process that could lead anywhere.
“We have no immediate plans to move, but are investigating our options and will ultimately do what makes the most sense,” Aresco said. “Obviously we have less of a presence in the Northeast, but then again this is an age of electronic communication. We have a good staff and history here and Providence is a great city.”
The Big East was born in Providence because of Providence College and its then-athletic director Dave Gavitt, a chief architect behind the league’s creation in 1979.
One of the seven original Big East schools, Providence College was also one of seven Catholic schools that broke away from the conference to form their own league last year.
With more original Big East members breaking away than those remaining, the new Catholic conference decided to purchase the Big East name, which it will assume July 1 when the American Athletic Conference is born.
All of these machinations should have at least some impact on Rhode Island’s capital city, which has benefited from hosting league headquarters and Providence College games against national-title-winning basketball teams for 34 years.
When Providence College returns to the court next fall, its schedule will still feature well-known, high-caliber teams, many of them old rivals from the former Big East, including Georgetown, St. Johns and Villanova.
But the biggest draws to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center for Providence College games in recent years – the University of Connecticut and Syracuse University – won’t be on the schedule.
In the last two years, Providence College sold tickets to home games against UConn and Syracuse in packages in order to boost attendance for other games.
UConn will be the only founding member of the Big East to stay in the re-formed American Athletic Conference, but no plans have been made yet to renew the rivalry with Providence College. Still, both PC and Dunkin’ Donuts Center officials are downplaying the effect the conference will have on future ticket sales.
“We have built a very strong conference which features schools like us with a national name,” said Providence College Athletic Director Bob Driscoll in an email. “Only time will tell the effect on ticket sales, but we are aggressively trying to sell Providence College basketball as we always do. We will have a strong conference schedule with new, attractive league members and existing league rivals coming to the Dunk.”
On the subject of UConn, Driscoll said PC would like to renew the rivalry.
“We just have to find a place where it fits in our schedule and their schedule,” Driscoll said.
Providence College has a multiyear, per-game lease for the Dunkin’ Donuts Center with the R.I. Convention Center Authority. PC receives the proceeds from all ticket sales under the deal while the arena takes all parking and concession revenue.
Like the school, Convention Center Authority officials are confident that Providence College will draw fans in its new league.
“We believe the Big East and PC will be fine,” said James McCarvill, executive director of the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority. “Many fans will miss some old rivalries but the home schedule will be very attractive going forward.”
While the old Big East plans to remain in Providence when it becomes the American Athletic Conference, at least for the immediate future, it’s unclear where the new all-Catholic Big East that Providence College is joining will be based.
The new league does not have a commissioner yet and it’s unknown where its headquarters will be located, although speculation has centered on New York City, where the old Big East basketball tournament was held.
At its offices in the Gateway Center on Park Row in Providence, the old Big East employs about 30 people full time, plus interns and contractors, Aresco said, the same as it had last year when the league included 16 teams.
When planned departures and new arrivals shake out over the next year, the new American Athletic Conference will have 12 teams (assuming no one else leaves or joins.) As he looks to put his stamp on the smaller, realigned conference, Aresco said an organizational reshuffling will be in order and it could include some downsizing.
“Things will evolve,” Aresco said. “We will have to do different things in the office. We will reorganize and I am looking at how we can be more efficient. We have fewer members but some complex tasks ahead.”
In his first year at the helm of the Big East, Aresco’s primary focus was keeping the conference viable and then negotiating a new television deal while many of the biggest schools went elsewhere.
In addition to establishing an identity for the new American Athletic Conference, Aresco said major projects include finding a new site for the league’s basketball tournament, establishing ties to football bowl games and creating a digital platform to stream video.
Aresco himself will move to Providence full time – he had been splitting his time between here and New York – in July as the conference name changes.
But he’s still renting at the Residences downtown, and moving up to a larger apartment, not buying.
Despite its long, successful run, the Big East always faced some challenges because of the different sizes and objectives of its members, especially the divide between the smaller nonfootball schools and the rest.
Although the American Athletic Conference will not have the geographic or historic rivalries of the old Big East, Aresco said the new league’s members will have greater similarities in terms of the role of athletics within the institutions.
All invited members will play top-tier football and the U.S. Naval Academy will be the only one that won’t play in the basketball league.
From the offices in Providence, Aresco will be watching over members who have spread south and west to places including Orlando, Memphis, Dallas, Tampa, Houston, New Orleans and Tulsa.
The Big East has a long-term lease in the Gateway Center, but Aresco declined to say exactly when it expires.
“We think that overall it is the conference we want to have with schools that think this is the best place for them,” Aresco said. “The financial condition of the league is sound and TV revenue is adequate, but we want more and now we will have to prove what we can do on the field and court.” •

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