The American Athletic Conference extended the contract of Mike Aresco by three years, they confirmed on Monday. Aresco’s contract is now set to expire June of 2025.

Aresco, the only commissioner that The American has had since its inception in 2013, received his first contract extension in 2017, which was previously set to expire in June of 2022. The extension comes just two weeks after the AAC lost three schools – University of Houston, University of Central Florida, University of Cincinnati – to the Big 12 conference, starting in 2023.

“I appreciate this expression of confidence and support from the Board of Directors, not only for myself but for the long-term future of the conference,” Aresco said in a statement. “I am honored to continue to serve our institutions and their student-athletes and look forward to working with our presidents and athletic directors as we redouble our efforts to become an autonomy conference and take the American Athletic Conference into its second dynamic decade.”

Aresco helped secure a landmark 12-year, $1 billion media rights partnership with ESPN in 2019.  The partnership awards an average of $6.94 million to each member schools, which was unprecedented at the time of the agreement.

During his time as commissioner, Aresco led the AAC to four NCAA championship teams in addition to two NCAA Men’s Final Four participants, six Women’s Final Four teams, an NIT champion, 13 NCAA individual championships, since 2013.

Aresco has also helped add four new member schools, including Wichita State, and five associate members during his tenure. He also helped lead the conference through the pandemic and was one of the first commissioners to suspend spring sports at the height of the pandemic.