The arrogance dripping from this board is just something to behold.
You're leaving a conference full of tepid fanbases and half empty stadiums and joining one where people actually give a **** about college sports. Yeah, the Bay Area blows Ames, Iowa out of the water for cultural amenities. But this is about college sports, and on that front, Ames, Iowa blows the Bay Area out of the water. Apply this sentiment to places like Manhattan, Stillwater, Lubbock, Morgantown, etc.
If you want to take a vacation to an exotic location, do so. If you want a good-to-great college sports experience? Have an open mind and embrace the future. Your administration was tired of watching your athletics department flounder due to the misguided notion that there was some correlation between whom you play in sports and what your institution's academic prowess was. Your alumni are in Cali? Ok, they were back in the Big 8/12 days too, and that didn't seem to be an issue.
The reason the Big 12 has pulled ahead of the Pac 12 is because the people involved care. College sports are important in the plains Midwest and the South. It's not important on the west coast. CU administration has clearly decided that they want CU athletics to be in a place where they can maximize revenue and competitive programs, and that's being in a league where the other schools and fanbases are dedicated to college athletics.
You can sit there and blather about state level politics, but remember, most of us alums of these red states schools don't vote red. We hate our asshole Republican governors too. It's just that 55% of our fellow state residents vote for them. Isn't Lauren Boebert a CO representative? Point being, politics is a bad excuse to be a jerk off about college sports.
In 2011, CU made a decision that any of the current Big 12 schools would have made offered. We have no ill will. You weren't a blue blood or power broker that could effect change in the Big 12 the way Nebraska, OU, and Texas were. You did what you had to do. 12 years later, you're doing the same.
Welcome home. Stop acting like ****wads. I hope the Big 12 starts playing some Week 0 games, because man I'd love to get to a game at Folsom.