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CU Regents turn down Rick George's request to forgive AD debt

Buffnik

Buffnik

Real name isn't Nik
Club Member
Junta Member
Brittany Anas covers higher education for the Boulder Camera. Looks like she's a good twitter follow.

https://twitter.com/BrittanyAnas


 
she's not exactly supportive of the AD. Definite slant to what she says. But she's the only one covering it. sigh.
 
so is it $19 million or $22 to $25 million. We really need to get the scholarship endowment up.
 
J.R. Ewing said:
We really need to get some friendly regents on the board.
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Yeah, good luck with that. Boulder is overrun with the mentality that CU football financially takes away from other departments on campus.

If the regents wanted to cut the athletic department a break they could simply charge in-state tuition for all scholarship athletes. Instead they charge the AD the out of state rate, even if the kid on scholarship is a Colorado resident.

In the last election didn't most refuse to even discuss CU athletics with this site?
 
GoBuffs08 said:
Yeah, good luck with that. Boulder is overrun with the mentality that CU football financially takes away from other departments on campus.

If the regents wanted to cut the athletic department a break they could simply charge in-state tuition for all scholarship athletes. Instead they charge the AD the out of state rate, even if the kid on scholarship is a Colorado resident.

In the last election didn't most refuse to even discuss CU athletics with this site?
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Trustee elections are statewide.
 
She's a fashion and style writer whose day job is to cover higher ed for the Camera. It is what it is. And she is the only reporter on this beat.

I'd love to interview her for Allbuffs, actually. She's got a different POV and is kind of entertaining.
 
Buffnik said:
She's a fashion and style writer whose day job is to cover higher ed for the Camera.
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And if that right there doesn't perfectly show the state of higher education in Colorado, I don't know what does.
 
I would be surprised if the school forgave the debt. That would be pretty irresponsible, actually. The best advice I can give Mr. George is to add an extra $20MM to his capital campaign to retire the debt.

Honestly, they need to have an ongoing fundraising effort to fund things like scholarship endowments, facility upgrades, etc. Why this hasn't been initiated already is beyond me. Maybe it has, and they have just been really bad at it.
 
Darth Snow said:
sorry bout the edit. wrong button. content remained the same.

Anyways, tomato, tomato.
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I've done the same thing with the edit buttons - no sweat...

But there is a difference between a statewide vote and a vote by Congressional District. With each CD having a representative, you're guaranteed to have a Rep from District 1 and one from District 2. Essentially Denver proper and Boulder. And they stand a pretty good chance of echoing those "Boulder community" attitudes somebody mentioned. It probably isn't going to change anything either way on this issue, but it does make a difference to CU overall...
 
The regents bear a good deal of responsibility for the AD debt. If not for their foolish vote to spurn the advances of the PAC10 in the 90's and opt instead for the Big XII, then at least half of this debt wouldn't be. It was costly to exit the Big Tex conference.
 
I have heard that the PAC-12 revenue stream should be in the $20 million range per institution this year. What if a portion of that was used to buy down the debt. I have heard rumblings that the amount should increase FY2014 then come down a little in 2015 as Utah will get a full share. If they would allocate roughly 25 percent of that income to debt pay down then the athletic department could be in the black by 2016-2017. Of course if basketball can continue winning and football stays on its current trajectory a lot of problems will be resolved.
 
I wouldn't donate to pay off the AD's debt for a school that has neglected it's athletic programs for decades. In fact, if I were a big donor, I would expressly indicate that my donation go only to facilities improvements or endowments and is NOT to be used to pay off the schools mistakes. This is the schools problem, not the ADs problem. Does the school have to charge the AD out of state tuition for every athletic scholarship (at least I think I've read here that's how this is)? Does the school recognize that good athletics increases applications and is good for school on the whole? Does the school prefer the PAC 12 to BIG Whatever (does the PAC add academic prestige)? The school created many of these AD problems (via neglect) and is benefiting from the AD, so they should be paying their share and effectively investing in the program (together with donors).
 
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sackman said:
I would be surprised if the school forgave the debt. That would be pretty irresponsible, actually. The best advice I can give Mr. George is to add an extra $20MM to his capital campaign to retire the debt.

Honestly, they need to have an ongoing fundraising effort to fund things like scholarship endowments, facility upgrades, etc. Why this hasn't been initiated already is beyond me. Maybe it has, and they have just been really bad at it.
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Agree on the bolded.
 
CUFan said:
I wouldn't donate to pay off the AD's debt for a school that has neglected it's athletic programs for decades. In fact, if I were a big donor, I would expressly indicate that my donation go only to facilities improvements or endowments and is NOT to be used to pay off the schools mistakes. This is the schools problem, not the ADs problem. Does the school have to charge the AD out of state tuition for every athletic scholarship (at least I think I've read here that's how this is)? Does the school recognize that good athletics increases applications and is good for school on the whole? Does the school prefer the PAC 12 to BIG Whatever (does the PAC add academic prestige)? The school created many of these AD problems (via neglect) and is benefiting from the AD, so they should be paying their share.
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I agree with a lot of what you're saying here. I think the school itself could do more to help put the AD in the black. Charging in-state tuition to all athletes would be a good start.

I would also like to know exactly where the debt came from. Some of it was supposedly from when they built the sky boxes and club level, but I could swear I remember hearing that the AD had paid off that obligation. So is it all from firing two football coaches coupled with the lack of conference distributions for one year? If somebody wants to tell me that part of it is paying off Mike Bohn, I'll kick him/her square in the nuts. That was Phil's decision and he can pay for it.
 
sackman said:
I agree with a lot of what you're saying here. I think the school itself could do more to help put the AD in the black. Charging in-state tuition to all athletes would be a good start.

I would also like to know exactly where the debt came from. Some of it was supposedly from when they built the sky boxes and club level, but I could swear I remember hearing that the AD had paid off that obligation. So is it all from firing two football coaches coupled with the lack of conference distributions for one year? If somebody wants to tell me that part of it is paying off Mike Bohn, I'll kick him/her square in the nuts. That was Phil's decision and he can pay for it.
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You've got the coach firings, the 2-year shortfall from changing conferences, the KMM settlement in women's hoops, the Bohn settlement, and all the money previously borrowed for the tri-fecta of Barnett settlement/skyboxes/scandal settlements. At best, the annual budget was balanced in any of the Bohn years but the AD didn't pay back monies borrowed. I don't know all the details and I may be off on some, but the bottom line is that we have an Athletic Department that's $20MM +/- in the hole, had increased costs of firing Embree & Bohn plus increasing salaries to other coaches (including what HCMM & staff are being paid, Rick George's salary, etc.) and also had a pretty big financial nut added with W-LAX in order to avoid Title IX penalties.
 
Another option to paying down debt is to secure naming rights to Folsom.
I'm sure if would be a hot button with the alumni as well as others on this board, however it would be less painfull than spending cuts
 
sackman said:
I would be surprised if the school forgave the debt. That would be pretty irresponsible, actually. The best advice I can give Mr. George is to add an extra $20MM to his capital campaign to retire the debt.

Honestly, they need to have an ongoing fundraising effort to fund things like scholarship endowments, facility upgrades, etc. Why this hasn't been initiated already is beyond me. Maybe it has, and they have just been really bad at it.
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I think he was doing due diligence by asking. I'm sure he knew the odds were slim. I wonder how much the debt issue had to do with Bohn's dismissal? A big part, I'm sure. As well as his lack of an effective plan to eliminate it.
 
Buffellow85 said:
Another option to paying down debt is to secure naming rights to Folsom.
I'm sure if would be a hot button with the alumni as well as others on this board, however it would be less painfull than spending cuts
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Make Folsom host to a summer concert series plus maybe an event or two during the academic year. That would not only bring in a bunch more money specifically from the events, but it would dramatically increase the value of the naming rights and other stadium advertising.
 
Buffnik said:
Make Folsom host to a summer concert series plus maybe an event or two during the academic year. That would not only bring in a bunch more money specifically from the events, but it would dramatically increase the value of the naming rights and other stadium advertising.
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Seeing the Stones play at Folsom in 81' was one of the highlights of my Sophmore year.
 
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