PROVIDENCE, RI –  American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco will be among the featured panelists at the 2019 Learfield IMG College Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, Dec. 11-12, at the Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan in New York City. Aresco will be joined by Nick Dawson, ESPN Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions, on a panel discussion entitled Inside the Deal: AAC & ESPN, a 12-Year Media Rights Deal.
 
The American once again will be well-represented at this year’s forum. In addition to Aresco, Pat Kraft, director of athletics at Temple University; Danny White, vice president and director of athletics at the University of Central Florida; and Kiera Dalmass, a four-year women’s lacrosse player at the University of Connecticut and current representative of the NCAA Division I National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and chair of The American SAAC, also will be among the feature speakers during the two-day symposium.
 
Aresco, who has been a panelist at previous Learfield IMG College Forums, and Dawson will share insight into the negotiations behind The American’s landmark deal with ESPN that was announced in March 2019. That panel will take place on Thursday, Dec. 12, and will be moderated by Sports Business Journal staff writer John Ourand.
 
Kraft will be joined on a panel with four other collegiate athletic directors, James Knowlton of the University of California; Warde Manuel of the University of Michigan; Bill Scholl of Marquette University; and Marie Tuite of San Jose State University, entitled What Keeps You Up at Night? The discussion, which will kick off the two-day forum on Wednesday, Dec. 11, will be moderated by Ourand and will focus on the economic realities of running an athletic department, how best to manage the growth of college sports and dealing with the intense scrutiny that is inherent with the visible nature of their positions.
 
White will participate in a panel that same day entitled Customizing the In-Venue Experience. Moderated by Matt Burns, a staff writer at Sports Business Journal, the discussion will also will include  Jason Cole, co-founder & CEO of FanMaker; Kim Damron, president & CEO of Paciolan; and David Herman, partner manager of TwitterSports.
 
Dalmass will be a panelist along with four other student-athletes on Dec. 11 , on a panel discussion entitled The Challenges and Benefits that Come Along with Being a High-Performing Student-Athlete. Emmy award-winning journalist Jack Ford will serve as the panel moderator.