AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco said conference realignment "never goes away," but there is "probably some stability now" for his conference following Wichita State's recent move, according to Joan Niesen of SI.com. Aresco: "Four or five years ago we were blindsided a few times, and everybody thought stability had returned and the landscape was going to be level for a while. But I think if there's going to be more realignment at this level, and there probably will be -- it's probably going to occur when some of the (television) deals start running out in mid-2020s." Aresco said the thinking in adding Wichita State was if the AAC was not "holding up our end of the bargain in basketball, it would be harder to claim that we were a [Power-6] conference." Aresco noted Wichita State men's basketball coach Gregg Marshall will be "sitting around a table now with some coaches who have won national championships and gone to Final Fours." Aresco: "We'll get a better TV deal. That's going to be key." Aresco noted the AAC had a "number of schools that expressed interest" in joining at the same time the Big 12 explored expansion. Niesen wrote the AAC is now a "modern conference" in that it has "never really had tight geographic constraints or too many traditional rivalries" as a product of realignment. Aresco: "We had to create a new world. ... It wasn't something that was by choice originally. We found ourselves with a group of schools that didn't necessarily have a home. ... Geography doesn't matter as much" (SI.com, 4/10).
