Colorado University Athletics
Buffs AD George Remains 'Bullish" On Pac-12
July 13, 2022 | General, Neill Woelk
GREELEY — Technically, the conference to which the University of Colorado belongs is still the Pac-12.
But make no mistake, the league's athletic directors — minus the two who head lame ducks USC and UCLA — are turning all their energies and focus toward how the remaining 10 programs can move forward.
The question for all involved is whether to go (join another conference), grow (add members to the Pac-12) or stay (stand pat as a 10-team conference).
But while all those options are on the table for CU, count Buffaloes AD Rick George among those who strongly believe the 10 remaining schools have the ability and resources available to continue as a viable and relevant conference in an ever-changing college athletics environment.
"Our focus is going to be on keeping our conference aligned," George said Wednesday. "I feel really good about the strength of our conference with the 10 schools. Just so everybody's clear, we didn't lose a team that has appeared in a CFP playoff game. We still have the strength of those teams that are in our conference. I can tell you that the ADs are aligned on where we think this needs to go. We're bullish about the future."
George made his comments at the annual summer media roundtable, an event he usually utilizes to recap the previous school year and address what lies ahead for the Buffaloes.
Under normal circumstances, that means such things as tallying conference championships won last year (the Buffs claimed a pair of Pac-12 titles, both in cross country), postseason successes (the CU women's basketball team earned an NCAA Tournament berth) and achievements in the classroom.
That last item is a big one for the Buffs, as Colorado's student-athletes last year produced a grade point average that matched that of the entire student body — a first in George's nine years in Boulder.
But all those topics were washed aside for the most part Wednesday as George spoke to the media for the first time since the news broke roughly two weeks ago that two of the Pac-12's most-prominent programs will be heading to the Big Ten in two years.
Those two schools' abrupt and surprising departure has no doubt created an atmosphere of uncertainty, not only in the Pac-12, but throughout the nation. Paired with the announced defections of Oklahoma and Texas from the Big 12 to the SEC a year ago, the balance of power in college athletics has clearly shifted to two major conferences.
But George believes Colorado and the Pac-10 — in whatever form it takes two years from now — will still be a nationally relevant conference. That means a conference that will have a presence in the College Football Playoffs, especially if the field expands as expected, as well as continuing to be a contender for championships in other sports.
"College athletics needs multiple conferences," George said. "It's important that we have multiple conferences that compete for the CFP and for the national championship in all of our sports, but particularly in football."
George noted that the Pac-12 has opened its 30-day window for media rights negotiations with current rights holders. That will give the conference a solid idea of the value it will hold moving forward as the 12-year deal enters its final two years.
Of course that long-term deal — plus a mostly ineffective Pac-12 Network setup that has been far more of a burden than a boon for the league — has left the Pac-12 lagging in terms of annual TV rights revenue. It will almost certainly be the lasting legacy of former commissioner Larry Scott.
But now, at least, the league can explore what might be available in the future, as well as discuss options for the Pac-12 Network. When the 30-day window is over, the conference can then opt to explore the open market.
"I think our media rights have been undervalued," George said. "Our Tier Two rights are extremely low because of the Pac-12 Network. But I think there's tremendous value in our league because we've been undervalued on our Tier One rights and our Tier Two rights. I think there's tremendous upside for us as a conference."
One thing that has been stressed in recent Pac-12 meetings, led by commissioner George Kliavkoff, has been to resist the urge to respond irrationally. While the future is clearly uncertain, rash decisions that look promising in the near term could prove to be costly over the long haul.
"We'll just take it one day at a time," George said. "That's kind of what we've done. We've tried to stay level headed through the course of this and you have to do that. We have a really good feel for each other in our room as ADs and we're aligned. We're looking forward and we'll see what transpires over the next several days and weeks and months."
George also addressed a variety of other topics Wednesday, including:
— Karl Dorrell's football program: "We have high expectations for this year. We've got a really good football staff. I think we've got solid veterans coming back and we've got some really good young guys on this team. So my expectation is that we'll be in a bowl game in December or January and I think Karl probably has those same expectations."
— Title IX celebration: CU Athletics is currently engaged in a yearlong recognition of the 50th anniversary of the signing of Title IX legislation. The Buffs will host a Women's Sports Weekend on Sept. 22-25 that will culminate with a brunch before the Colorado-Arizona State volleyball game on Sept. 25. CU will also induct four females into its Hall of Fame this year (Jane Frederick, Debbie Wilcox, Maria Grevsgaard and Yolanda Johnson), and recently announced that Betty Hoover and Peggy Coppom, CU's beloved twins, will be inducted into the Legacy Hall wing of the Hall of Fame.
— Salaam HOF honor: The Buffs will honor the late Rashaan Salaam's selection for the College Football Hall of Fame at the Sept. 24 home game vs. UCLA. Salaam will be officially inducted in a December ceremony in Las Vegas.
99th season at Folsom Field: This will mark the 99th season of football at CU's venerable stadium. George also noted that next season's 100th year celebration will include home games with Nebraska and Colorado State.
— Budget matters: George said the Buffs will emerge from last year with a balanced budget — a near Herculean feat in light of the financial punch levied by the Covid-19 pandemic. "The coming year will be challenging, because we do have some debt that comes on our books from the pandemic," he said, "We only have six home (football) games this year. So it'll be challenging, but you know, we seem like we always figure a way to make the budget work and, and so again, I feel good about that."
George said football season ticket renewal has been solid, currently at about 85 percent, and he also anticipates strong student ticket sales.
— NIL update: Until the shakeup in the Pac-12, the hot topic in college athletics was Name, Image and Likeness activity. George said CU has 76 companies currently involved with CU's NIL platforms, and they continue to grow every month. He also noted that of CU's participating student-athletes, the breakdown was 67 males and 65 females.
George currently sits on an NCAA committee that is studying how to create guidelines in what is currently a virtually unregulated NIL marketplace.
That includes discussing what will and won't be permissible from a booster angle.
"What you can and cannot do," George said. "What tampering is. We all know they just hide behind NIL and these collectives. You know what tampering is and inducements. We've had to remind our membership and then we started enforcing those in the middle of May a little bit more stringently than we have. We don't want to penalize the student athletes, but certainly it's disrupting our industry in a negative way … There are student athletes that are doing it the right way. I think it's a great educational experience for them. It's putting more money in their pocket, but when you're using it to recruit and induce and tamper it's not who we are and we have to fix it."
— Facilities update: George noted that CU has hired Ryan Gottlieb as a senior associate AD and revenue generating officer. Among his duties will be pursuing naming rights for a variety of CU's facilities, including the football stadium (the field is Folsom Field but the stadium is unnamed), the CU Events Center and the Indoor Practice Facility. CU is also upgrading the Folsom sound system, but the process has been hampered by supply chain issues.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
