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How Colorado's football program got mired in a decade of losing
- Thread starter Bufffan68
- Start date
I think it's just part of the laundry list of CU acting bush league in how it ran its organization compared to the major players in college football. Not allowing an additional rental car expense to add GPS, a chip in the door of the HC's office, not getting a new desk, buying your own water, etc. There's been a culture there for a lot of years like the Oakland A's in Moneyball where they made players pay for beverages out of a vending machine. Mac1, Slick, GB, Hawk and Embo all had the strong sense that they were being forced to do more while being given less than their peers.
TDbuff
Club Member
I don't know how they got modified, other than making sure they kept track of the money better. Sounds like they were pretty loose with the record keeping.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2256612
Only thing worse than a bad lawyer is a bad doctor. Thanks Tharp.
At one point we required a parent to come on official visits with recruits. Brilliant.
Yeah. The "slush fund" BS
buffsyko
Club Member
Good article.
Everyone that somehow remained a fan over the last 10 years deserves a medal.
Everyone that kept their season tickets over the last 10 years deserves an additional diploma.
Rick George is clearly behind Mike MacIntyre when you take his quote and the letter he sent out.
What we did to ourselves was appalling. Ivory Towers, my god.
Everyone that somehow remained a fan over the last 10 years deserves a medal.
Everyone that kept their season tickets over the last 10 years deserves an additional diploma.
Rick George is clearly behind Mike MacIntyre when you take his quote and the letter he sent out.
What we did to ourselves was appalling. Ivory Towers, my god.
Easier to understand in that context. Is GB's new nickname GPS? I kid, I kid.
Why don't you guys go get a room where you can bitch about Mac and the state of the program all night long.
Was he the one that got lost in the Miami area a few years back and was nearly part of some crime while trying to find a recruits house?
Deleted member 807
Guest
Poor coaching hires, extensions, and internal restrictions are contributing factors to the decline. Behind all of that is a fundamental disregard for the sport of football by the regents and administrators between 2001 and 2011. The FB program was evaluated more like just any other profit center on campus, and was managed based on its ability to break even without the use of student fees and university funding.
Winning and losing was secondary to breaking even and avoiding scandal. The administration's focus on bottom line management was short sighted and pretty much ignored the dynamics of college football elsewhere in the b12 conference and across the country.
While most peer administrations were rebuilding stadiums, opening practice facilities, floating bonds, and investing in a game day experience based on providing a competitive sports entertainment environment for fans, CU had other non-athletic related priorities in mind.
The president's office left Boulder for Denver. And with that move came the desire to invest downtown, at the medical center, and in Colorado Springs. The CU student population outside of Boulder has surpassed the student numbers at the flagship institution.
Boulder's priorities included construction projects for seemingly every department except the CUAD, from the art school and rec center to the C4C, from the Williams Village Apartments to Benson Earth Sciences. Sure the investment in academic and student facilities is great, but meanwhile Folsom Field rusted, the south campus athletic facilities couldn't even get running water, and men's tennis was dropped, bringing CU to the bare minimum number of athletic programs that the NCAA and conference would tolerate. The XC team didn't even get a locker room.
Meanwhile at places like Oklahoma State, Boise, TCU, Baylor, Kansas State, Iowa State, Oregon, and other institutions that CU has historically out performed began pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into new facilities years ago, before the 2008 crash.
The big programs never let the foot off the gas when it came to coaches salaries and state of the art stadiums. Even Stanford recognized athletics has a place on campus alongside academics, and invested accordingly.
When scandals visited Tuscaloosa, Columbus, State College, Tallahassee, and everywhere else outside of the SMU hilltop, these university administrations were able to avoid the utter destruction of their programs. Many barely missed a beat despite salacious sex, drug, murder, booster payment and academic scandals based on much more evidence than what was surfaced during the witch hunt at CU.
CU and Bohn were left on autopilot, coasting in past glory and the awesomeness of Ralphie while falling farther and farther behind just by standing still.
While its popular to point to what Barnett said, or who Hawkins played at QB, or how cheaply Embree could be paid, the truth is that the root of CU's decline is structural and institutional and goes much deeper than the coaches. Best case when it comes to sports has been that CU administration couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time. Worst case is that Benson, DeStephano, and the elected regents just didn't care. Just hire a coach and AD and simply walk away from any responsibility to plow the path ahead. Leadership just stopped at delegation.
It seems that CU Athletics is perceived by the campus and the community as a "nice to have" and not a "must have". Any success on the field or court is icing on the cake, but not a necessity.
We'll see if Benson's renewed interest in athletic success is sufficient to dig CU out of a decade long hole. The $189M renovation is a big deal, but realistically only addresses less than half of what is really needed. Rick George has actual professional sports management chops. MacIntyre is a proven turnaround artist. So there is a turning of the tide. But decade long errors don't always fix themselves in two or three years.
For all this scrambling to show progress and relevancy, I'd sleep better at night if I believed that Benson, DiStefano, and each regent displayed even half the passion and pride in athletic excellence that was embodied by Coach McCartney.
Winning and losing was secondary to breaking even and avoiding scandal. The administration's focus on bottom line management was short sighted and pretty much ignored the dynamics of college football elsewhere in the b12 conference and across the country.
While most peer administrations were rebuilding stadiums, opening practice facilities, floating bonds, and investing in a game day experience based on providing a competitive sports entertainment environment for fans, CU had other non-athletic related priorities in mind.
The president's office left Boulder for Denver. And with that move came the desire to invest downtown, at the medical center, and in Colorado Springs. The CU student population outside of Boulder has surpassed the student numbers at the flagship institution.
Boulder's priorities included construction projects for seemingly every department except the CUAD, from the art school and rec center to the C4C, from the Williams Village Apartments to Benson Earth Sciences. Sure the investment in academic and student facilities is great, but meanwhile Folsom Field rusted, the south campus athletic facilities couldn't even get running water, and men's tennis was dropped, bringing CU to the bare minimum number of athletic programs that the NCAA and conference would tolerate. The XC team didn't even get a locker room.
Meanwhile at places like Oklahoma State, Boise, TCU, Baylor, Kansas State, Iowa State, Oregon, and other institutions that CU has historically out performed began pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into new facilities years ago, before the 2008 crash.
The big programs never let the foot off the gas when it came to coaches salaries and state of the art stadiums. Even Stanford recognized athletics has a place on campus alongside academics, and invested accordingly.
When scandals visited Tuscaloosa, Columbus, State College, Tallahassee, and everywhere else outside of the SMU hilltop, these university administrations were able to avoid the utter destruction of their programs. Many barely missed a beat despite salacious sex, drug, murder, booster payment and academic scandals based on much more evidence than what was surfaced during the witch hunt at CU.
CU and Bohn were left on autopilot, coasting in past glory and the awesomeness of Ralphie while falling farther and farther behind just by standing still.
While its popular to point to what Barnett said, or who Hawkins played at QB, or how cheaply Embree could be paid, the truth is that the root of CU's decline is structural and institutional and goes much deeper than the coaches. Best case when it comes to sports has been that CU administration couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time. Worst case is that Benson, DeStephano, and the elected regents just didn't care. Just hire a coach and AD and simply walk away from any responsibility to plow the path ahead. Leadership just stopped at delegation.
It seems that CU Athletics is perceived by the campus and the community as a "nice to have" and not a "must have". Any success on the field or court is icing on the cake, but not a necessity.
We'll see if Benson's renewed interest in athletic success is sufficient to dig CU out of a decade long hole. The $189M renovation is a big deal, but realistically only addresses less than half of what is really needed. Rick George has actual professional sports management chops. MacIntyre is a proven turnaround artist. So there is a turning of the tide. But decade long errors don't always fix themselves in two or three years.
For all this scrambling to show progress and relevancy, I'd sleep better at night if I believed that Benson, DiStefano, and each regent displayed even half the passion and pride in athletic excellence that was embodied by Coach McCartney.
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Deleted member 807
Guest
That decision rests entirely upon regents who have stood behind Benson for a decade and are publicly elected by voters made up of Broncos fans, carpet baggers with OOS college affiliations, CSU alum, Boulder airy fairy liberal hippies, and a dozen or so 35 year old bat**** crazy die hard CU fans that continue to post on Allbuffs who also happen to reside in state.
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1. We built a football stadium expansion during Hoffman's Presidency while Barnett was HC.
2. Even as early as 1992 when I was a student the shift to Denver was slowly taking place. The pharmacy program moved from CUB to CUD around 92 or 93. Anything and everything related to healthcare left Boulder campus.
I think your correct that the center of gravity has shifted away from the Boulder campus. Which has essentially run out of space for additional buildings and programs. When the government gave Fitzsimmons to CU it was a massive opportunity to get out of the Hospital on Colorado Blvd that they'd also outgrown. Now, the University owns or manages multiple hospitals around the state and is moving towards something akin to Johns Hopkins or the Mayo Clinic.
I think this BOR will pick another Bruce Benson/Hank Brown type. Other similarly sized University Systems have selected political types to be their Presidents. Janet Naplitano is Pres of the Univ of California System. Donna Shalala is President of the Univ of Miami. Ken Starr is President at Baylor
Who? Me? Umm, no. You must be mistaken.
And whoever it is should fire DiStefano first thing and get that asshat of a little man out of the picture. The day he is fired, CU will get a decent donation from me.
Deleted member 807
Guest
True. The East side luxury box expansion completed in 2003.
This expansion was purely a revenue play to increase revenue per seat.
That's not exactly the kind of facilities investment that appeals to athletes in the same way as a Nebraska weight room or an A&M student dorm or an Oregon center of athletic excellence or even a CSU 80 yard IPF.
The Tharp plan that was released around the turn of the millennium included athletic focused elements that extended well beyond the luxury boxes. But those plans just sat and collected dust until Rip Van Winkle Benson finally emerged from his slumber a couple years ago.
I agree. I think the athletics offices were in the stadium prior to Dal Ward's competition (in 1989?). So there was the prior project.
Our presidents in this period were not that strong.
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L Buff
Commissar of the Albuffs Collective Left
If only other journalists (other than Bruce Plasket of course) checked the facts on the CU "scandal" like they are on the UVa "frat gang rape" story.
If only ...
If only ...
Feminists dont like your dirty thoughts!
L Buff
Commissar of the Albuffs Collective Left
Hell ... I'm a damn feminist (assuming of course that the definition of that is believing in equal rights, pay, etc. for women ... and believing that they should have exclusive legal control over their own bodies).
What I am NOT is one who believes that "rape victims" NEVAR lie (or at least stretch the truth). We saw that in the CU situation and the Duke lax situation. Even if you consider Lisa Simpson's allegations to possibly have merit ... there were others (Katie Hnida, the black soccer player, etc.) whose accusations were less than credible if subjected to the kind of scrutiny they should have been. Instead, media outlets like the DP and Channel 9 just ran with the leaks and press releases of Baine Kerr's law firm and the PR firm he hired to spread his propaganda. And it worked.
Yeah ... I know that your post was facetious and that I'm preaching to the choir, but I still need to vent.
Bruce Plasket's book on the subject (even given its choppiness and stylistic flaws due to his having to self-publish after Kerr threatened potential publishers with lawsuits that had no legal basis) should be required reading in journalism courses/programs ... if there even still is such a thing.
Investigative journalism in 2014 = Perez Hilton
Did you walk past a Victoria's Secret today? You dirty slut.
TDbuff
Club Member
The other problem you had is it reached a tipping point where basically anonymous victims were coming out of the woodwork, and the media was keeping score like it was a game. "15th alleged victim has come forward....16th....17th" A headline every time. Once it got to that point the program was toast.
