Colorado University Athletics
Pac-12's Scott: CU's Facilities 'State Of The Art'
October 22, 2015 | Neill Woelk
BOULDER — When the Colorado Buffaloes officially became a member of the Pac-12 in the summer of 2011, Commissioner Larry Scott admits the Buffs had a "noticeable gap" in facilities.
Not any more.
In his six years as commisioner, Scott has seen nearly every school in the conference undergo a substantial facilities upgrade. Last weekend, he took the opportunity to see one of the latest entrants in the facilities derby when he toured the new Champions Center on the CU campus.
Scott gave the Champions Center his hearty seal of approval.
“What Colorado has built here is state of the art,” Scott said. “It compares very well with everything else I've seen in the conference. If you are a student-athlete thinking about coming here, you realize there's a big commitment to football, to the student athletes. It was really well done.”
When Colorado officially became a member of the conference in 2011, the Buffs were building a new basketball/volleyball practice facility, but the Dal Ward Center, which housed the football team, academic center and administrative offices, was at its 20-year mark.
But in December 2013, the CU Board of Regents gave approval to athletic director Rick George's plans for construction of the new facility. Groundbreaking was held in early May 2014 and by August of this year, the football team and coaching staff had moved into the Champions Center.
“Things have been changing pretty rapidly in the conference,” Scott said. “Since I've been here, in six years almost every one of our schools has gone through a pretty dramatic transformation in terms of their football facilities and facilities for student athletes. It's been a pretty rapidly changing landscape.
“The gap was noticeable in terms of what Colorado had here before, but they're absolutely right at speed and comparable with anything we've got in the conference now.”
Scott also touched on a topic that continues to be an issue for the conference, the inability to strike a deal with DirecTV to carry the Pac-12 Networks. Scott had expressed optimism at the Pac-12's Media Days in late July after DirecTV was acquired by AT&T, a corporate partner of the conference, but negotiations stalled in early September.
“We wound up being disappointed that DirecTV wasn't willing to carry our network on the same terms as everyone else,” Scott said. “They ultimately made a proposal to us that our schools rejected. DirecTV and really AT&T were asking for a very aggressive set of things from our schools they weren't prepared to do. So we're disappointed.”
The Pac-12 Networks are completely owned by the league. Other conferences, such as the Big Ten and SEC, share ownership of their networks with their broadcast partners. Asked if he thought the Pac-12's model was still the most viable, Scott was adamant that the conference needed to maintain complete control of its content.
“In this world with the rapidly changing media landscape, and over-the-top options, technology companies getting involved, owning your own content will give us great advantages going forward,” Scott said.
Scott also said that technology will continue to change how that content is delivered to Pac-12 subscribers.
“The model is changing dramatically. I think we'll be sitting here five years from now with us having many more options than the traditional cable, satellite or telco companies,” Scott said. “The technology companies, in the part of the world where we're based, on the West Coast, they're all looking at this. It will open up more different options for our fans to be able to access the Pac-12 Networks on whatever device they want. It's still in development, the models and how it would work — it's one of the reasons I like owning our own network. We'll be nimble, we'll be flexible, we'll have the ability to adapt.”
Scott also touched on several other topics:
ON EXPANSION: “It's not something we've been actively thinking about for a while. We're settled in with the Pac-12. … I don't hear any of the big conferences worried about it. The only one of our peer conferences that I heard even talking about it would have been the Big 12 last year after getting shut out of the (football) playoff. There was some soul searching that went on whether they needed to be a 12 and have a championship game like all the others, but that's calmed down”
ON FANTASY SPORTS: “The biggest concern we've got is on college games using likenesses of student athletes and the whole dynamic of fantasy gaming. We've lobbied the two big fantasy gaming companies to not do a college game. I think they're intending to do college games, but they've been willing to engage in discussion with the NCAA and the conferences about how it's done to avoid jeopardizing the amateur status of the student athletes, putting student athletes in peril of eligibility, things of that nature. That's been our area of concern. Aside from that, we leave it up to the government to decide the legality of it. That's not our business.”
ON COMPENSATION FOR ATHLETES: “We are firmly opposed to compensation for student athletes above the cost of attendance. We've done a lot in our conference in the last year to significantly add value to the scholarship and the conditions for student athletes. Our student athletes have the ability to get the full cost of attendance covered, not just room books, board and tuition. A lot more support for meals, nutritional support for student athletes, medical support, academic support. We've really ratcheted it up, the value and the cost of support the student athletes. But we're firmly opposed to crossing that line and compensating them.”
ON FOOTBALL PARITY IN THE PAC-12: “You can't control which of the schools are going to emerge amongst the core. But as a commissioner I really like seeing a level of competitiveness. The hallmark of any strong league is a little parity, and then you hope, of course, that one or two teams that rise above, have big national non-conference wins and have a chance to compete for the playoff. Right now I think they're pretty well situated. You've got some teams that could emerge Pac-12 champion either undefeated or one loss, and we'd have a pretty strong case. We could also have a situation where all of our teams have two or three losses. Every week's a new adventure in this conference”
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
