AAC Commissioner Tim Pernetti says CFP expansion is encouraging and there is room for more growth

New American Athletic Conference Commissioner Tim Pernetti said Thursday that College Football Playoff expansion is good for the sport and he believes there is room for more growth.

Pernetti, the former Rutgers athletic director and IMG executive, officially takes over for the retiring Mike Aresco in June.

In his first news conferences — both in-person and on a video conference — since being hired last week, the 53-year-old Pernetti said he wants the conference to take “big swings” and is not interested in chasing the status of certain labels that are now more nebulous than ever in college sports.

Pernetti said he won’t be using terms like Power Five or Group of Five, which became the common way to delineate the 10 major college football conferences during the College Football Playoff’s first decade.

“When I look at college football, to me college football is college football. Are there different levels of competition and levels of play? Of course there are,” he said. “Is there a financial disparity? We know that.