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30 years to the day.... A sea change?

Darth Snow

Hawaiian Buffalo
Club Member
Junta Member
This is in the CU Football forum, but it really is about all the CU sports. I was just thinking about how monumental this move is. 30 years ago today, CU eliminated several sports. That trend has continued for a long time, with Men's tennis joining the scrap heap just a few years ago. Despite the uptick in the late 80's and early 90's, there was no commitment to building a strong foundation for CU athletics. Basically, CU hit the jackpot with McCartney and the strong support he had. But that support was in the form of a president. It wasn't a system, a structure, something that could last beyond them. And it didn't. As soon as Mac left, CU began a general downward spiral.

That changed today. Today, the president of the university, along with the chancellor and the AD, announced a new commitment to CU athletics. A regalvanizing of the entire approach. A promise to try and add new sports, or at least to regain lost ones.

Bohn has been talking about this for a long time, about building the foundation. About putting things together so that they last for the long term. That starts with facilities, and it ends with securing long term financial stability. Coaches come and go, wins come in bunches, and so do losses, sometimes. Wins are great, but they are amorphous and hard to build on. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. However, the best approach is to focus on the things that bring wins. Look at Kansas. A joke for decades, but a serious investment in their program, and now they are the premier basketball school in the nation (arguably), and their football program has become a legitimate stopping point for well regarded coaches instead of a deathground. Unfortunately for them, their foundation may be crumbling underneath them. I hope for their sake they find a way to survive the changes.

Bohn may not be good at hiring coaches so far, but he sure as hell has changed the CU AD. A lot of people outside of the CU community have said that this is a bad fit, that CU should have gone to the MWC. They are wrong because they are looking at the brittle outer shell of the AD. The shell produced by years of neglect in facilities, of failing to stand up to the big dogs of the Big 12 in order to get shared revenue (or even agreeing to UT's demands in the first place). There was no plan, there was no vision. It was just look for the next Mac. Hope basketball lands another Chauncey. And it had telling results. despite a few upticks, CU was on a downward spiral. Hawkins may be a terrible coach, but he was put in a position to fail. And he was hired because he was cheap. And we could only do cheap. Because there was no foundation in place.

CU now has one pillar of that foundation. With this conference switch, it looks like long term financial stability is a given. Just to put this in perspective, it took Bohn what, 3 years to beg enough money to get the basketball facility STARTED. And I think he still needs to beg for some more. I believe the facility is around $10-12MM. If things go right television wise, CU, without adding anything else, could build a new basketball facility EVERY YEAR just with the new cash flow. CU may not have the donors of the biggest fish in the NCAA pond, but Bohn just ensured that CU will be able to compete. If someone left CU and didn't come back for 10 years, they probably won't even recognize Folsom and CEC. Not to mention Balch fieldhouse.

30 years ago, CU hit rock bottom. Despite a few blips here and there (Dal Ward, stadium expansion) CU failed to ever build anything sustainable. That has now changed. The pendulum is on the upswing. I'm pretty excited. Looking forward to proving all those douches (even Drew Littleton!) who are dismayed by this move wrong.
 
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