Before you ask, yes, Rick George has heard the CU Buffs-to-the-Big Ten rumblings, too.
“Everybody’s got their opinion on where we should go and what we should do,” the Buffs athletic director told The Denver Post.
“And our position is that we feel really good about our conference (the Pac-12) and we feel really good about our position. And we’re going to continue to focus on that, at this point. And as things change or they stay the same, we’ll react accordingly.”
Change — big change — is coming to college sports. And to collegiate conferences.
Remember 2010? Texas and Oklahoma got itchy feet and nearly blew up the Big 12 Conference. Things got so hairy that CU (Pac-12), Nebraska (Big Ten), Missouri (SEC) and Texas A&M (SEC) all bolted the league for presumably safer (and richer) pastures.
Welcome to déjà vu, all over again.
Fast forward a decade, and this time, the Longhorns and Sooners actually did the deed. The Big 12’s most powerful universities and biggest football brands accepted invites this past Friday to join the Southeastern Conference by 2025 — and possibly much sooner.
The SEC now boasts the first 16-team “super” conference, one that includes four of the 10 winningest FBS programs in the country from 2000-2019: Oklahoma (.817), LSU (.773), Alabama (.763) and Georgia (.747).
The Big 12, meanwhile, is losing its two top television draws, and Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has accused ESPN of colluding to break up his league. If you like chaos and legal drama, grab some popcorn. This one could get ugly.
It also begs the question: How does all this affect CU? Or CSU?
The short answer? Not directly. Not yet. At least, not in the way it might have a decade earlier.
But as we learned from 2009-12, every college football realignment shift causes ripple effects in neighboring leagues. Before long, everything’s on shaky ground.
CU Buffs: Happy, but how happy?
George insists that the Buffs, who fled the Big 12 for the Pac-12 in the summer of 2010, are happy where they are. And new Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff stressed during conference media day in Los Angeles last week that expansion for the league wasn’t “required to continue to compete and thrive.”
Still, another wave of conference upheaval brings with it even more speculation. CU has already been name-dropped in published reports as a potential partner for the Big 12 and the Big Ten, by itself or as part of a massive Pac-12 merger with either Midwest-based circuit.
While CU’s football success and stability have been fairly schizophrenic since 2006, the Buffs would be appealing to Big Ten leadership on at least three fronts: Its membership in the Association of American Universities, a collective which is to academia what the SEC is to the football; its proximity to the Denver television market and the Front Range’s Midwestern transplants; and its old rivalry with the Cornhuskers, their former Big 12 neighbor.
Every Big Ten member but Nebraska is a member of the AAU. CU is one of nine Pac-12 schools which also belong to the organization.
George, who just returned from a fundraising junket, recounted that Buffs alumni he met have been asking him which domino falls next. And whether or not CU needs to get out in front of the pack.
“It’s kind all over the map,” George said. “People are saying, ‘Well, Big Ten, this and that.’ And so it’s really more of that. I don’t know if ‘concern’ is the issue. I just think it’s that people really want to know what’s going on … again, everything out there is speculation.”
CSU Rams: Time to be aggressive?
The Mountain West has at least one thing in common with the Big 12: Its biggest brand name — Boise State, in this case — hasn’t been shy about its desire to leave the league in search of more revenue and more exposure.
While the Broncos might not appeal to the Pac-12, despite its regional proximity and sterling football success (Boise boasts an .835 winning percentage from 2000-2019), they’ve already been in contact with the American Athletic Conference, which is reportedly also looking to add to its football cache with ESPN’s dollars and ESPN’s blessings.
A Broncos departure could improve CSU’s standing within the Mountain West. It could also sink the MW as a collective altogether.
“Maybe the Pac-12 will decide they need to get a little bit bigger,” former Rams athletic director and CSU alum Jack Graham told The Post. “It’s hard to imagine what’s going to happen, but I’m sure there are a lot of really smart people thinking about it. If I were the AD at CSU right now, I’d be working really hard picking off a half-dozen of those Big 12 schools and go find the brightest and the best of college athletics that are in the Power 5 conferences and get them into a new conference.
“They’re going to have to do something to hold their position, or else that (Mountain West) conference is going to (implode).”
When The Post reached out to current CSU A.D. Joe Parker on realignment, and for his take on the Rams’ role within it, CSU’s sports information department replied with this statement:
“Colorado State is a proud founding member of the Mountain West, and we will continue to focus on our pursuit of excellence within the conference. However, the landscape of college athletics can shift dramatically, and Colorado State will always be in a position to explore any opportunities which provide our student-athletes with the greatest experience.”
The Rams’ home, Canvas Stadium, is a Power-5-level building, a Power-5-level part of the equation. But even Graham, who’d helped launch the construction of CSU’s state-of-the-art football facility during his tenure from 2011-14, admits that the Rams need more than that in order to sell themselves to a power conference seeking an addition or an upgrade.
“(Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12) was going to make things that much more difficult for CSU to get itself in a position where it could be in a Power-5 type conference,” Graham said. “Having said that, I also think there are some opportunities out there (for) CSU, but it would take a lot of creativity. And a lot of work.”
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