American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco sat down with the media for about 20 minutes before last night's UConn/Michigan football game. Naturally, football topics dominated the question and answer session but Aresco did give his thoughts on defending national champion UConn headlining the AAC as well as Mohegan Sun Arena as the host for the inaugural AAC women's basketball tournament.

"With UConn we feel like we are already one of the top leagues but Louisville is in for only one more year and we lost Notre Dame which was one of the top teams," Aresco said. "We really think having UConn in the league is going to elevate our other programs. Connecticut is really important in women’s basketball and Mohegan could well be a long-term site but XL (Center) once they get back into the picture (could be a potential host). Mohegan is the right size, I think the women are excited about going there. We think we will have good attendance there but that is another one where we do have an option for another year and we are going to try to play it by ear. We were gratified that we had a lot of interest from a lot of sites for the men’s and women’s tournaments."