My office environment includes fans of the Sooners, A&M, Alabama, Oregon, Notre Dame, Missouri, Penn State, Longhorns, and CSU.
The discussion I had today was not on the subject of CU's self inflicted wounds, but the impact of CU's miserable play on the quality of NCAA football and the BCS. Poor play by the Buffs is bad for all of college football. Many sports fans might just turn the channel. Others might watch CU and decide that NCAA is a truely inferior product to the NFL and make a point to tune out.
Bad CU football is bad for the College Football brand. It devalues the value of the Pac12 Network. It opens the BCS and the major conferences up to controversy. There are dozens of colleges who care about football that are frozen out of a power conference. These schools would do anything to switch places with CU.
If Oregon wins out but gets bumped from the BCS title game in place of KState based on strength of schedule, then there will be lots of angry Pac 12 teams with buyers remorse. An historically poor CU team is an anchor and a liability to the conference members with legitimate mNC aspirations. Its not Oregon's fault CU sucks, yet it could be CU that makes the rest of the nation have to watch Granny Schneider instead of Chip Kelly.