I think you are misconstruing CU as a tier 1 fit, which they are not. However, they are in that next tier and are viewed very favorably in that realm, which will be involved with the next round of expansion.
- AAU Member (it is still a big thing for Big 10 presidents whether you or anyone else wants to believe it).
- Alumni base is large in Chicago and surrounding areas.
- CU and ****braska fit as rivals (you want each School to have that natural rivalry within your conference as seen with the last two times these teams played)
- CU's standing as a league member in the Big 12 and Pac 12 is looked at in high regards (their chancellor and AD are very much involved in big picture items within college athletics and will do what's best for their conference. This is what RG is very, very good at and very well could get CU in that mix if this all materializes).
- CU brings a big portion of the Mountain time zone and is a massive sell to other Big 10 Schools who have large alumni bases in the Denver metro area.
- CU has shown the commitment if it can win, the support is there (CU expanded football facilities at an all time low for the program).
I think we look at CU with all of these warts because we are so close to them and think they are bigger than they are (which football highlights in the last 15 or so years). Go on any Schools board and the same stuff is talked about. I think you'd be surprised at how well CU is looked at within the Big 10's fan bases.
Thanks for the response. I’m not misconstruing CU’s place at all - I firmly believe CU would be in the discussion with schools like Stanford, Cal, Iowa St, Utah WVU, Kansas, UVA, Georgia Tech etc as options after the USC, UCLA, UW, and Oregon’s. So how do we stack up against those schools?
1. Every school I mentioned aside from WVU is AAU, so no real advantage there.
2. I’ll take your word on the Chicago alumni numbers and how much that really matters. Most of our alumni are in the west coast and now we’re talking about leaving.
3. Old rivalries are a good reason. Is CU/NU more attractive than Iowa/NU is now? Probably so, but Cal/Stanford, Iowa/Iowa St are pretty attractive from a rivalry standpoint also.
4. Not sure what you mean with this one. Is this that we’re a good soldier within the conference? I can’t really speak to whether we are better in this regard than any of the other schools mentioned. None of them strike me as problematic. DiStefano was in a position in leadership within the conference and I wonder whether that’s a good or bad thing in hindsight. Would USC, UW, etc agree that CU did a good job with that responsibility? I don’t know. USC does have an AD who CU fired once upon a time, but hopefully that’s a non-issue.
5. I thought media market and geography wasn’t really that important. What does “bringing a big portion of the mountain time zone” really mean in practical terms?
6. Stanford built a new stadium, Cal completed a massive facilities project, Utah and Iowa State are in the middle of or have completed big facilities projects. It was great that CU got the champions center built but that doesn’t set us apart, it just eliminates a huge, glaring weakness.
I’m not down on CU at all, I’m trying to see how we might compare against other options to an outsider or the BIG 10 powers that be. Where do we really stand above the others?