Power Six? AAC commish Mike Aresco’s salary certainly puts him in the conversation

The AAC has been making a push to be called a ‘Power Six’ conference for several years now in a bid to be treated in the same league as the actual Power Five conferences like the Big Ten, SEC and others. Following UCF’s undefeated 2017 run, things really kicked into high gear in terms of talk and branding from the conference office despite nobody beyond that group of AAC schools really believing that they are on the same playing field as their larger peers.

There is, however, one area where the AAC can rightfully claim to be a Power Six conference and that comes with the salary of their commissioner Mike Aresco, which was revealed through tax documents this week to be a whopping $1.86 million. Per USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz:

American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco credited with $1.86 million in total pay for 2016 calendar year, conference's new tax docs show. Base of $1.5M, with $250,000 bonus.
AAC reported revenue of $74.5M for FY ending June 30, 2017.

— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 16, 2018

Aresco, a former television executive at CBS Sports, has a salary that is way behind that of the Pac-12’s Larry Scott but it’s still a pretty hefty figure that comes shockingly close to what SEC commissioner Greg Sankey hauled in back in 2016.

Other commissioners' pay for 2016 calendar year:
Pac-12's Larry Scott: $4.8 million
Big 12's Bob Bowlsby: $3.1 million, including 205K reported on prior tax docs
B1G's Jim Delany: $2.5 million
SEC's Greg Sankey: $1.9 million https://t.co/BXYl7RXfqO

— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 16, 2018

It should be noted that while the AAC managed $74.5 million in revenue through the end of the 2017 fiscal year, the SEC paid out more than that amount... to just two schools. All told, the SEC brought in roughly $650 million for the same time period.

We’re still waiting for the ACC to release their figures and tax returns but even if their commissioner John Swofford is in the $3 million range like he was last year, there’s very clearly still a ‘Power Six’ when it comes to CEO pay in college athletics.