George Marks 10 Years As Buffs AD
July 17, 2023 | General, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — In his 10 years as the University of Colorado's athletic director, Rick George has guided the Buffaloes through and around an inordinate amount of obstacles.
A 100-year flood. A worldwide pandemic. Conference upheaval. Changes to NCAA transfer rules. Name, Image and Likeness legislation.
Events and situations that no one could have imagined occurring — until they did.
And, of course, there were the "normal" circumstances that come with the job. Coaching changes, facility improvements, the implementation and improvement of student-athlete programs, fundraising, and the never-ending drive for success on the playing surface and in the classroom.
It has been one heck of a ride — and George is by no means ready to climb out of the saddle.
Not yet.
"My first three weeks on the job I'm sleeping in my office and helping move people from married student housing over to higher ground at Kittredge at 10 o'clock at night because the floodwaters are rising," said George, whose hiring was announced on July 17, 2013. "We've had pandemics, NIL, transfer portal, realignment — you can definitely say it hasn't been a smooth ride all the time."
But through it all, George made sure his first decade as Colorado's AD was a productive and successful one. He had a strategy in place when he arrived and he began executing the plan almost immediately (despite the floodwaters).
It has resulted in one of the most transformative eras in CU Athletics history.
"When I got here, there were a lot of things that we needed to do right away," George said. "One of them was building the Champions Center. That was a pivotal point in our history. We were way behind in facilities and that caught us up. We built a first-class facility that put us on a level playing field with our peers. That was incredibly helpful."
Indeed, the construction of the UCHealth Champions Center put CU in elite company. In the span of two years, Colorado went from near the bottom in terms of necessary facilities to among the best in the nation. From an indoor practice field and track to top-flight training rooms to administrative space, student-athlete dining facilities, weight rooms and special events venues, the new building sent a clear message: Colorado would not be left behind.
At the same time, George turned his attention to student-athlete programs that were in desperate need of more support. Academics, nutrition, psychological health and performance and leadership development became focal points.
"We really focused on the programs we had in place for our student athletes," George said. "We addressed every area we could in terms of support. If you look back just five years ago, we had one mental health practitioner. Now we have five on our full-time staff and we're growing.
"Six or seven years ago, our nutrition program — we really didn't have one. We had someone serving food every day (an outside contractor). But now we're serving three meals a day and we have a team in place that works for the athletic department. We have three full-time sports nutritionists, which is fantastic."
George has also made sure the "student" part of the equation has remained front and center. He converted a large portion of the Dal Ward Center into the Herbst Academic Center and the classroom results have been stellar. CU student-athletes have consistently improved their academic performance, with Colorado's NCAA Academic Progress Rate at an all-time high and the overall GPA of the department also its best ever (and matching or surpassing that of the CU general student population).
"Our academic programs that Kris Livingston and her staff have built have produced some incredibly positive stories," he said.
CU has also created a national standard with its Crawford Family WHOLE Student-Athlete program. By enlisting the help of Kittman Labs, CU can now provide a personalized performance, nutrition and academic plan for every student-athlete, making CU a national benchmark in that area.
"Our nutrition program has grown significantly," George said. "Our (Scripps) Leadership Development program is producing great results every year. Our goal has always been to provide a world-class experience for our student-athletes. We want 100 percent of them to have that experience. We know that's difficult to achieve but that's how we come in to work every day, to try to do that. When I see our student-athletes get their degrees and move forward in their lives, we know we've made an impact and we know they will make an impact with their lives. That's what makes us proud and it's why we come to work every day."
CU has also taken a leadership role in other areas, from DEI leadership initiatives to the development of a digital marketing arm that has more than kept pace with the national explosion in that area.
But there is obviously still much more to be done. With many of the support mechanisms in place, George still has a lengthy "to-do" list.
"We still have facility needs," George said. "We have to fix the west side of Folsom Field and it has to be done soon. I would like to have that done in the next three years. We have to fix and upgrade the Events Center. We still need a soccer-lacrosse stadium somewhere down the road and we need to build an indoor-outdoor tennis facility.
"What's critical is that we get our entire network of Buff fans around the country and around the world to get behind what we're doing."
While George hasn't specifically talked about his personal timeline publicly, he has made it clear that he can now see an end to his CU career on the not-too-distant horizon. His stay at CU is already the longest he has spent at any one position in his career.
"My contract is up in three years and I'm not looking past that at the moment," he said. "I'd like to make sure we get as many of these things done as we can in that time frame."
But while George's list still contains facility upgrades and continued improvement of student-athlete services, he also knows that producing championship results must be the No. 1 priority.
"We know we have to win in football and all of our sports," George said. "We have the facilities in place in most sports — some we still don't have — and we have the programs in place. Now we have an opportunity to do some significant things."
It's not as if Colorado hasn't been successful in his tenure. The Buffaloes have won national championships and Pac-12 titles and played in bowl games and NCAA Tournaments with regularity in the last 10 years.
But Colorado is now squarely back in the national spotlight in the sport that gains the most attention. George's hiring of Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders last December made the Buffs' football program relevant again almost overnight. CU's spring game was nationally televised, the Buffs' first two games next fall will be in Fox Sports' premier Saturday window and Colorado is a regular topic of conversation among the national media.
It's clear expectations are high.
"We have leadership in football," George said. "There's a lot of energy around Coach Prime and what he's doing. There's no doubt, we have high expectations for this fall and for the future."
But it's more than football.
"You look at our cross-country program and our women and men are poised to compete for Pac-12 and NCAA titles," George said. "I look at women's basketball and they lost one player off a Sweet 16 team and they brought some transfer players in who are going to make us even better.
"Men's basketball, we've got one of the top three or four high school recruits in the country in Cody Williams, along with (transfer) Eddie Lampkin and Tristan da Silva and KJ Simpson and all those players. Our soccer team is going to be good. We're going to be good in volleyball. Right now, we're in a position to win and we have to maximize that."
Of course, all of these things are operating in the shadow of a huge unknown: what is the future of college athletics and where will the Buffs' place be when the dust settles?
Will CU remain in the Pac-12 (or Pac-10)? Will there be two or three major conferences five years from now, with some schools left behind and others moving into the "super conferences"? Where will the world of NIL lead?
"To me, there's really no 'best guess' about the future," George said. "If you go back five years, nobody could have imagined NIL and what it has produced — collectives and inducements and tampering and all the different things that are going on.
"But what we can't lose sight of is that college sports is the best organization in the entire world. It provides opportunities for young men and women to get an education while they are pursuing their dream in athletics … We need to get smart people at the table and talk about the future of college athletics and think about all of the great things college athletics has done for young men and women all over the country. Opportunities like those that became available when Title IX came aboard. Giving student athletes who couldn't afford to go to college the opportunity to get an education, graduate and go on to meaningful careers outside of their chosen sport. Those are the things we have to keep prioritizing and make sure they aren't lost."
And for the next three years, George sees his task as a simple one: prepare Colorado to be at its peak and ready to be included in whatever scenario might unfold.
"We have the opportunity to set this department up for long-term success," he said. "That's what I want to do going out — make sure we leave this athletic department and this university in a great position to be successful. We have to position ourselves for the future, make our brand significant around the country — and ensure that if it does go to a two- or three-conference setup, the Colorado Buffaloes are poised to be a part of that."