FORT WORTH, Texas – American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco has issued the following statement in advance of the start of the American Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championship.
In recent weeks I have seen references to the “Power Five” in interviews and public conversations which suggest that the P5 is all that matters in college athletics. This is profoundly misguided, especially in the current environment.
As it now stands, in terms of competitiveness, the gap between the number two and three conferences is far greater than between the number three conference and The American. There are P5 conferences that have lost the marquee teams which gave them that status in the first place and whose value today is much harder to define. There are P5 conferences that have added multiple teams from The American and other conferences among this group that have discussed adding schools from our conference. If the P5 label means that you are vastly different, why is this so?
Five American Athletic Conference schools were once BCS or Southwest Conference teams. If the difference is so vast, why does The American have four New Year’s Day football wins over top-10 teams and dozens of regular season football wins against the labeled P5. If the gap is so vast, how could The American have won a national championship in men’s basketball and three national championships in women’s basketball? How could The American have been to a Final Four, an Elite Eight, multiple Sweet Sixteens, and have had a College Football Playoff team? How could The American currently be home to the number one men’s basketball team in the country? At this moment in history, separating conferences with a so-called “Power Five” moniker lacks meaning in the context of competitiveness.
It is troubling to see media-manufactured labels, confirmed by college sports leadership, which do not reflect the reality of college sports going forward. This creates a divide at five that should not exist and creates harmful effects. Documents have recently come to light that describe a P5 legislative initiative around NIL that has not been shared with the wider membership. This is not a healthy approach, as such an initiative should be a collaborative effort among the wider Division I membership, including all FBS conferences. These five conferences do not speak for all of college athletics. The Power Five and Group of Five labels should be discarded and confined to collegiate history. There are 10 FBS conferences, some more successful than others, but all sharing similar goals, experiencing similar challenges and competing successfully against each other.