After a late Monday night that saw a number of previously unknown names emerge as possible candidates to be the next Big East commissioner, the job has apparently been taken by CBS Vice President of Sports Programming Mike Aresco. Mark Blaudschun first reported the hiring on his new site ajerseyguy.com this morning. He writes:
They kept it a secret until the final moments when the Big East Presidents sealed the deal with a conference call, but the Big East came up strong when it chose CBS Sports Vice President Mike Aresco as its new commissioner.
Aresco will be officially announced late Tuesday afternoon.
You can read a lengthy bio of Aresco here. For Big East fans, I think the important parts of Aresco's background are that he's experienced in college sports television both for football (the original SEC deal with CBS), basketball (CBS' continuing coverage of the NCAA Tournament), and in the development of multiple broadcast platforms for games (such as March Madness on Demand).
Is this a good hire by the Big East? The reception certainly seems to be positive from insider types who are more familiar with these types of things. This tweet from CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd should be encouraging:
Neinas giddy about Aresco hiring: "I think they outkicked their coverage."
— Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) August 14, 2012