What's new
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

2022 Transfer Portal

Status
Not open for further replies.
Yep. Even a really bad football program with lackluster attendance and donations is still, by far, the most profitable sport in the AD and pays for all the other sports to exist. MBB is self sufficient, but they likely wouldn't be if football goes away and the University loses the Pac 12 affiliation.
Who was the poster a few months ago who was arguing with you about CU being better off as an AD without a football program? That was fun
 
Last edited:
It’s mind boggling to me how our administration can let our academics stagnate and decay but feel like they’re Stanford or MIT
If those that be talk/think it into possible existence, then it could happen? The other hand would be less students (admitted/enrolled and due to overall stagnation) = more academic prestige? This may be the collective thinking of the Administration and BoR?
 
Who was the poster a few months ago who was arguing with you about CU being better off as an AD without a football program? That was fun
Put it this way: CU Football is going through the worst 20 year stretch in program history and it is FAR more profitable every year than the second most profitable sport, CU MBB, that is going through their best 10-12 year stretch in program history.

An AD without football requires one or more of the following:
1. Rabid donor base that is enthusiastic about non football sports and willing to subsidize them
2. Private, for profit, broader University model where the University pays the AD bills
3. Elite MBB program that can take over the football role in funding the rest of the sports

Since CU will never meet any one of those things, this concept of an AD is a complete non starter.
 
Put it this way: CU Football is going through the worst 20 year stretch in program history and it is FAR more profitable every year than the second most profitable sport, CU MBB, that is going through their best 10-12 year stretch in program history.

An AD without football requires one or more of the following:
1. Rabid donor base that is enthusiastic about non football sports and willing to subsidize them
2. Private, for profit, broader University model where the University pays the AD bills
3. Elite MBB program that can take over the football role in funding the rest of the sports

Since CU will never meet any one of those things, this concept of an AD is a complete non starter.
The School knows it would be devastating on a million different levels to drop football. They'll just support it enough
 
Put it this way: CU Football is going through the worst 20 year stretch in program history and it is FAR more profitable every year than the second most profitable sport, CU MBB, that is going through their best 10-12 year stretch in program history.

An AD without football requires one or more of the following:
1. Rabid donor base that is enthusiastic about non football sports and willing to subsidize them
2. Private, for profit, broader University model where the University pays the AD bills
3. Elite MBB program that can take over the football role in funding the rest of the sports

Since CU will never meet any one of those things, this concept of an AD is a complete non starter.
With the current situation even if CU had an elite (regular sweet 16, multiple final 4) MBB program the money would not be generated to fund the rest of the athletic department like football does.

With a program that is regularly winning 20+ games a year and contending for the tourney we don't even come close to selling out the keg, an 11,000 seat facility even with relatively low ticket prices.

Dropping football would probably mean dropping the PAC12 which would mean likely even lower conference media revenues.

All of this in a market dominated by pro sports teams. Note that most of the big money MBB programs are able to be a dominant ticket in their markets.

Probably the future of the athletic program in Boulder should they decide to go without football (or scale it back to a lower division program) would be a significant reset of the level of competition for the entire athletic program, likely to an FCS type level of competition and requiring financial contributions from the university to maintain that level.

The shock would come to those on the academic side, some of whom are most in favor of de-emphasizing athletics so they can pretend to be some kind of elite academic school.

Experience at other schools shows that the lack of a highly visible athletic program often results in significant reductions in donations, not just to athletics but also to academics. No the donors aren't just going to throw their money at academics because athletics isn't there any more. Someone else on this board in the past had some links to data that showed that average faculty pay was something like $20,000 per year lower at schools without a prominent football program.

Some arguments have been made that CU faculty are already underpaid compared to peer institutions and that there has been a drain of qualified faculty to other schools. Consider that in light of substantially lowering average salaries while in a place with the cost of living that Boulder county has. You certainly don't maintain any form of elite academic status when much of your faculty is looking to go elsewhere.
 
Probably the future of the athletic program in Boulder should they decide to go without football (or scale it back to a lower division program) would be a significant reset of the level of competition for the entire athletic program, likely to an FCS type level of competition and requiring financial contributions from the university to maintain that level.
Or we wait for whats next; a super league of the SEC and a few other programs. Then we play in the division below that
 
Or we wait for whats next; a super league of the SEC and a few other programs. Then we play in the division below that
I think that is the most logical outcome. I was just commenting on The Yak's post about what happens if the administration were to decide to cut football or cut way back on it. A lot of people don't recognize that sports like soccer, lacrosse, skiing, volleyball, track and field don't magically exist. They bring in little to no revenue but require all the expenses such as scholarships and academic support, coaching, travel, etc. etc.

Women's basketball when it is doing well generates some revenue to offset cost but still falls short, men's basketball makes money but not a lot more than it cost. Football is what carries the rest at a school that has stated that it expects the athletic department to be self-supporting, at least break even.

The administration is happy to get the publicity of the athletic department, happy to have something that helps keep alumni and boosters connected to the school, happy to have the increased student applications generated from athletics, happy to have the much more diverse group of students that are recruited as athletes.

They just aren't happy to pay for all those benefits. They want the benefits but don't want to compromise their image of being some kind of elite school that is above paying for things like athletics.
 
It’s unbelievable how far up its own ass CU is. CU also has a massively overinflated perception of its own academics and weird priorisation when it comes to academics in athletics.

Tl, dr: CU isn’t in the ****ing Ivy League. Stop ****ing acting like it.
 
The dorks that run CU are pretty snooty for a school that has a USNWR ranking just a few ticks above Arizona and Arizona State.
Part of the reason for that is our insistence on taking 50% CO kids, and CO is a relatively small state. The other reason is our outrageous out of state tuition. Lots of places to get a decent education cheaper, so CU will be relatively more attractive to rich kids from out of state who are coming here to ski and party.
 
Part of the reason for that is our insistence on taking 50% CO kids, and CO is a relatively small state. The other reason is our outrageous out of state tuition. Lots of places to get a decent education cheaper, so CU will be relatively more attractive to rich kids from out of state who are coming here to ski and party.
Based on what metric?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top