Editor’s note: This article was written by Ben Portnoy and first appeared in Sports Business Journal, the industry’s leading source of sports business news, events and data.

It’s just after 4 p.m. on a weekday as Tim Pernetti slides into a plastic chair inside the boisterous Rhythm & Riffs bar tucked into the heart of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center at the annual NACDA convention in Las Vegas last week. The slot machines at the primo hotel whir. Buzzers sound. Chips clack.

There’s something poetic about this mayhem literally swirling around the new American Athletic Conference commissioner who’s officially one week into his job after being hired in April.

College sports are engulfed in chaos. Pernetti, the ex-Rutgers athletic director who’s spent the past decade in the private sector, didn’t need to jump back into the fray. Frankly, why on earth would he want to?

Let him explain.

“A lot of people close to me in the industry are like, ‘What are you doing?’” Pernetti said, grinning. “And what I said was, I do think sometimes in your career you may shy away from things that feel like there’s chaos. There’s uncertainty [in college sports]. It’s a little disorganized. There’s a lot of unknowns. … But the business is full of great people that actually care about the industry — and when there’s chaos and uncertainty, that’s when there’s more opportunity to do things differently.”

He is a unique animal in the world of conference commissioners, but one whose nontraditional background follows a familiar trend among those recently tasked with similar roles.

Pernetti, a New Jersey native, played football at Rutgers in the early 1990s, followed by a lengthy career in media. A spell as the athletic director at Rutgers ended in controversy around men’s basketball coach Mike Rice, but not before Pernetti shepherded the school into the Big Ten. He’s since been near but not directly inside the college ecosystem as president of IMG College, among other ventures.

What that all means is this: Pernetti’s worldview is different from others in college athletics.

He drew headlines with loose reference to shaking up the college football postseason and mentions of private capital during his introductory press conference in Dallas. That could scare some people. Others will tell you college sports need folks who see things through a new lens.

Pernetti absolutely has the latter perspective.

“The conference is willing to take risks,” he said. “I wouldn’t have seriously considered it if I wasn’t convinced [of that] by the presidents that I met. … When you talk about selling a jersey patch across the entire conference — every school, every sport — and the revenue from that flowing directly to student athletes as compensation, it makes people uneasy because they don’t understand it. The hard part for me — and the part I’m looking forward to — will be getting everybody in these conversations, being transparent, batting it around and seeing if we can find a way to do some of these things.”

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The job Pernetti inherits is unique. His predecessor Mike Aresco brought a league born out of the old Big East’s football ashes and banged the drum about a so-called “Power Six” conferences. The high moments were high. Cincinnati’s 2021 playoff berth and Tulane’s 2023 Cotton Bowl upset of USC come to mind. That carries weight. As does the league’s 12-year, almost $1 billion television deal with ESPN, the most lucrative among Group of Five leagues.

The AAC that Pernetti inherits, however, has changed. Houston, Cincinnati and UCF are now Big 12 members. SMU is off to the ACC. Army is on its way in, but that adds only so much. The divide between the Group of Five and Power Four, too, has never been more pronounced.

More broadly, the framework settlement in the House, Hubbard and Carter antitrust cases looms. Schools are likely to be able to share revenue north of $20 million annually with athletes as soon as next year assuming Judge Claudia Wilken gives the settlement her blessing. That barometer will be a competitive requirement in the upper echelons of college football. Those in the AAC and elsewhere in the Group of Five will do what they can to keep up, but that’s an increasingly tall task.Related: NACDA attendees grapple with House settlement

Pernetti is well aware of this divide. He knows the industry at-large is thinking in ways more closely aligned with the old J.G. Wentworth commercials — dial 877 CASH NOW — than with the long-term nuance and innovation needed to survive.

College sports require new thought in 2024. Better monetization of existing revenue streams and creating new avenues are functional requirements. A fresh set of eyes is also welcome in sifting through those hypotheticals.

“Nothing’s off the table,” Pernetti said of finding new revenue sources. “We have to look at things differently, especially given where the puck is headed right now. … And if that means something like a leaguewide jersey patch for all institutions and all sports, and seeing opportunities through a new lens, then that’s what it means, and everybody has to get comfortable with change.”

Pernetti is once again smack dab in the middle of this swirling world of college athletics. Alarm bells are blaring across the enterprise. No amount of luck at the slot machines is stopping that. Now, it’s on Pernetti to make sense of it all and keep the AAC relevant and thriving.

May the odds be ever in his favor.