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Big East reportedly to hire CBS VP Mike Aresco as next commissioner

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Mike Miller

The Big East Conference is set to hire Mike Aresco to become its next commissioner, Mark Blaudschun of the Boston Globe first reported and other outlets are now confirming.

Aresco has spent the last 16 years with CBS Sports, most recently as its Executive Vice President of Programming, responsible for “managing the division’s college sports properties, including contract negotiations and future acquisitions for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, regular season college basketball and football, and bowl games,” according to his bio online.

For the Big East, his expertise will be especially crucial this fall, as the conference heads into major television negotiating deals for rights to its programming.

While at CBS, Aresco was at the forefront of CBS’s negotiations to retain rights to the NCAA tournament through 2013, as well as expanding coverage to include web and on-demand applications for the event.

News of Aresco’s imminent hire comes one day after the conference announced that it would be hiring Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures to be the lead negotiator in its upcoming rights negotiations.

With Aresco and Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures, the Big East is positioning to self to make a run at a television deal that will set the course for years to come.

Aresco takes the place of John Marinatto, who stepped down from his position in May. He had been serving in that capacity since July 2009.

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_