Mike Bohn's visit at Rotary

[sackman]

OK, I forgot to ask a couple questions, but most of them got answered:

He had to treat the OU deal with kid gloves, but admitted that he was very disappointed in the disparity of treatment that we received with respect to OU's violations, which were clearly much worse. He indicated that he felt that the Neuhisel infractions and the Jeremy Bloom situation might have played into the heavy handed approach the NCAA took. That was a candid admission, I thought.

When he started as AD, the athletic department received 4% of it's operating budget from the school, down from 46% in 1990. It's now back up to 24%. While he said he doesn't think they need it to go back up to 46%, he's still looking at increasing the figure from 24%.

Hank Brown was instrumental in recruiting both Hawkins and Bzdelik to come coach here. While he will certainly be missed, Bohn stressed that Bud Peterson (CU-Boulder chancellor) is committed to a strong athletic department and will continue to be a champion for improvements there.

Forget hockey, it isn't going to happen any time soon, if ever. The two sports that will be brought back first are baseball and women's lacrosse. No specific timetable was established for those sports.

He spent a lot of time discussing the culture surrounding CU athletics, and that he's seen a significant improvement in the last year or so. Having said that, he still feels like there is a lot of work to be done and improvements to be made.

He stressed all of the facilities upgrades that are in the works like the indoor practice facility, the basketball operations offices, improvemetns to the basketball lockerooms, overhead scoreboard at the CEC, and improvements to Potts Field.

 

[SuperiorBuff]

OK, I forgot to ask a couple questions, but most of them got answered:

He had to treat the OU deal with kid gloves, but admitted that he was very disappointed in the disparity of treatment that we received with respect to OU's violations, which were clearly much worse. He indicated that he felt that the Neuhisel infractions and the Jeremy Bloom situation might have played into the heavy handed approach the NCAA took. That was a candid admission, I thought.

When he started as AD, the athletic department received 4% of it's operating budget from the school, down from 46% in 1990. It's now back up to 24%. While he said he doesn't think they need it to go back up to 46%, he's still looking at increasing the figure from 24%.

Hank Brown was instrumental in recruiting both Hawkins and Bzdelik to come coach here. While he will certainly be missed, Bohn stressed that Bud Peterson (CU-Boulder chancellor) is committed to a strong athletic department and will continue to be a champion for improvements there.

Forget hockey, it isn't going to happen any time soon, if ever. The two sports that will be brought back first are baseball and women's lacrosse. No specific timetable was established for those sports.

He spent a lot of time discussing the culture surrounding CU athletics, and that he's seen a significant improvement in the last year or so. Having said that, he still feels like there is a lot of work to be done and improvements to be made.

He stressed all of the facilities upgrades that are in the works like the indoor practice facility, the basketball operations offices, improvemetns to the basketball lockerooms, overhead scoreboard at the CEC, and improvements to Potts Field.

Screw baseball, lets get men's and women's lacrosse of we can't have hockey. I'd much rather have swimming and wrestling back before baseball.

 

[Liver]

Screw baseball, lets get men's and women's lacrosse of we can't have hockey. I'd much rather have swimming and wrestling back before baseball.

there are some major donors who want baseball back. as i understand it, they are trying to get enough support together to fund a baseball team, a new baseball stadium and a women's lacrosse team.

i don't think you'll find enough donors to support men's lacrosse. baseball would be very good for CU if they can "do it right." one of the challenges is that if they do reinstate baseball, they need enough funding and stuff to give it a chance to succeed over a period of years.

i'd rather have a men's hockey team, but i think i am in the minority on that by a wide margin.

the one sport i don't think you'll ever see back at CU is wrestling.

 

[sackman]

Speaking of hockey, Bohn did say that when they were in the process of building the Broomfield sports arena, he approached *whoever* and said that they would make the improvements to the CEC necessary for an ice sheet if the new hockey team would play there. They were turned down. I thought that was a pretty bold proposal on the part of CU and I wish they would have taken it.

MBB - I don't think you're in the minority, at least not on this board. Lots of us would love to see varsity hockey at CU. The economics would have worked if they could have convinced the minor league team to rent the CEC for it's games, but it probably won't work now. :sad1:

Maybe if we could get Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg to donate a couple mill apiece to the effort. Forget the fact that neither of them have no connection to CU whatsoever. :lol:

 

[Liver]

Speaking of hockey, Bohn did say that when they were in the process of building the Broomfield sports arena, he approached *whoever* and said that they would make the improvements to the CEC necessary for an ice sheet if the new hockey team would play there. They were turned down. I thought that was a pretty bold proposal on the part of CU and I wish they would have taken it.

MBB - I don't think you're in the minority, at least not on this board. Lots of us would love to see varsity hockey at CU. The economics would have worked if they could have convinced the minor league team to rent the CEC for it's games, but it probably won't work now. :sad1:

Maybe if we could get Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg to donate a couple mill apiece to the effort. Forget the fact that neither of them have no connection to CU whatsoever. :lol:

it would be awesome to have a hockey team, but there are lots of problems... for one, it isn't really a "big 12" type sport. baseball would give us more of the traditional opponents. and, unless something like you describe above were to happen, i think it would be more expensive to fund a hockey team than a baseball. but, i think it would be totally cool. CU v. du v. cc. can you imagine that every year? it would be a freaking brawl!

 

[mattybuff]

You guys are crazy about CU bringing Baseball or Hockey back, especially if the University wants to be competitive. Forget about making money, none of the afformentioned sports will bring that.

CU should really consider a mens soccer program. Look at the short success that the womens team has had. There are talented mens soccer players fleeing this state b/c there isn't a single Div. I program.

 

[Duff Man]

Baseball would be pretty cool, but I wonder how competitive the team could be.

 

[SuperiorBuff]

Speaking of hockey, Bohn did say that when they were in the process of building the Broomfield sports arena, he approached *whoever* and said that they would make the improvements to the CEC necessary for an ice sheet if the new hockey team would play there. They were turned down. I thought that was a pretty bold proposal on the part of CU and I wish they would have taken it.

MBB - I don't think you're in the minority, at least not on this board. Lots of us would love to see varsity hockey at CU. The economics would have worked if they could have convinced the minor league team to rent the CEC for it's games, but it probably won't work now. :sad1:

Maybe if we could get Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg to donate a couple mill apiece to the effort. Forget the fact that neither of them have no connection to CU whatsoever. :lol:

I sat with the owner of the Eagles at one of the CU games last year, purely by chance. He told me about CU's offer to the new team's owners and was rather pissed off when they didn't accept it. They want to draw fans from both Boulder and the I-25 corridor. The I-25 corridor is what really pissed him off since they chose the north side of Denver; he was trying to get them to go to the south side of Denver to avoid pulling each others fans. Turns out the new owners planned to do just that. This is all according to a story that no doubt contained a few sour grapes.

 

[SuperiorBuff]

You guys are crazy about CU bringing Baseball or Hockey back, especially if the University wants to be competitive. Forget about making money, none of the afformentioned sports will bring that.

CU should really consider a mens soccer program. Look at the short success that the womens team has had. There are talented mens soccer players fleeing this state b/c there isn't a single Div. I program.

Check the revenue that DU and CC pull from hockey. It could be every bit the revenue sport that mens basketball should be.

 

[absinthe]

You guys are crazy about CU bringing Baseball or Hockey back, especially if the University wants to be competitive. Forget about making money, none of the afformentioned sports will bring that.

CU should really consider a mens soccer program. Look at the short success that the womens team has had. There are talented mens soccer players fleeing this state b/c there isn't a single Div. I program.

be quiet america hates soccer, CU should be no part of tha even if it would be easy and cost effective.

 

[absinthe]

While we are at it why not bring back mens tennis?

 

[DBT]

CU is the only Big XII team without baseball. I don't know if any have hockey. Also, there are a lot of football recruits that also play baseball. CU has been hurt a time or two in football recruiting by not being able to offer baseball although I don't believe it to be a major factor. I know several of you guys are hockey fans, but get real. Baseball is a Big XII sport and it will mesh with the football program.

 

[dyemeduke]

We have one money making sport - football, and hopefully men's bball will join them. If we can get those two sports to be competitive on a national scale, we should be fine financially, but at the same time, we don't want to bring in an expansive sport that won't make any money at all.

Any sport we bring in would be in the red - that's probably the plain, cold reality of what would happen. We would get in the baseball market late (other Big XII programs have established programs), and although our state has quality talent, CO is still NOT a baseball hotbed. We would also have to build a stadium for the team, and attendance would not be great - CO is not that great of a baseball state. Men's soccer - it would be cheap, but nobody would attend games - it'd raise absolutely no money (CO men's HS soccer is not as strong to the comparative talent on national scale as women's HS soccer is). Wrestling - same deal. Hockey - we'd have to renovate CEC and although I do see it generating some money (not enough to be in the black), the fact that we'd getting into an expensive market already dominated by DU and CC, I'd be against it.

Basically, I see adding a sport at this time, or in the near future, an error. We need to strengthen the programs we have now. Our track facilities are horrible; Dal Ward could use some more upgrades; renovate CEC, and not just the offices; practice bubble could be expanded (did anyone see the CSU news...I'm jealous a little); some assistants need more competitive salaries; Wetmore deserves a raise; and we need some space to retain coach Bz and Hawk when they win their national championships :thumbsup:

I would not want to add a program softly either. If we added baseball for instance, I would want the program to have sufficient financial support to be competitive (maybe not win the Big 12, but finish in the middle) after a couple of years. I don't want to throw 2.5 million (FIGURATIVE number I just pulled out of my ass) at an endeavor that truly costs 3.5 million to be successful - if we're going to do it, do it right.

But for aforementioned reasons, if we do get blessed to add another program, I say baseball, and due to Title IX, add women's swimming (come on, swimmers are hotter than field hockey players ANY day...)

 

[BamBamBuff]

Men's LaCrosse would generate cash!! I'm quite positive that this would be a more cost effective team sport than Hockey! They wouldn't have to spend tons of cash on the CEC. There's got to be room for a field that is roughly 110yrs by 59yrds that they could play on! Equipment, goals, field Maintenece would be farely low too compared to Hockey! Not to mention all the Chics dig guys w/ big sticks...LOL

 

[92Buff]

I really don't care and agree that nothing we add will be a money maker. My vote is to let the AD build itself up for a while before considering any moves (unless some wealthy alum wanst to donat millions to bring back a sport).

Dye - I will argue your point about HS soccer in Colorado. The competitive programs in CO have very strong teams and compete regularly at nationals at all age groups - meaning they win their Regionals which means beating stacked teams from California. I have played against many great athletes in recent years (e.g. Connor Casey who was the starting center for the US Team in Sydney) and if you check where these top players go you would be pleasantly surprised. Full rides to Stanford and many east coast schools are a regular occurrence here. A large number of kids each year are playing Division I soccer around the country. Now stepping off the soapbox...

 

[DBT]

I really don't care and agree that nothing we add will be a money maker. My vote is to let the AD build itself up for a while before considering any moves (unless some wealthy alum wanst to donat millions to bring back a sport).

Dye - I will argue your point about HS soccer in Colorado. The competitive programs in CO have very strong teams and compete regularly at nationals at all age groups - meaning they win their Regionals which means beating stacked teams from California. I have played against many great athletes in recent years (e.g. Connor Casey who was the starting center for the US Team in Sydney) and if you check where these top players go you would be pleasantly surprised. Full rides to Stanford and many east coast schools are a regular occurrence here. A large number of kids each year are playing Division I soccer around the country. Now stepping off the soapbox...

You mean The Rush, right? But you are right. There are a lot of good men players from the state. Didn't a DII school from the state, Adams State or one of thos RMAC schools, recently win or come in second in the DII championship? But, even so, I vote for baseball.

 

[96 Buff]

But, even so, I vote for baseball.

Of course you do. You actually like that boring sport.

 

[sackman]

CU is the only Big XII team without baseball. I don't know if any have hockey. Also, there are a lot of football recruits that also play baseball. CU has been hurt a time or two in football recruiting by not being able to offer baseball although I don't believe it to be a major factor. I know several of you guys are hockey fans, but get real. Baseball is a Big XII sport and it will mesh with the football program.

Iowa State dropped baseball 5 years ago.

Just the same, I think it's a foregone conclusion that when they do bring back a sport, it will be baseball. The timing on that is still a long way off, though.

 

[dyemeduke]

Dye - I will argue your point about HS soccer in Colorado. The competitive programs in CO have very strong teams and compete regularly at nationals at all age groups - meaning they win their Regionals which means beating stacked teams from California. I have played against many great athletes in recent years (e.g. Connor Casey who was the starting center for the US Team in Sydney) and if you check where these top players go you would be pleasantly surprised. Full rides to Stanford and many east coast schools are a regular occurrence here. A large number of kids each year are playing Division I soccer around the country. Now stepping off the soapbox...

Hey - no disrespect intended, and I guess I stand corrected. It was just that I was going off spur of the moment recollection, and it seemed to me that although CO has produced Connor Casey, haven't we produced multiple girls that have played on the US Team? I also seemed to remember during my HS days that there were multiple nationally recognized girls, and only a few boys. Of course, it seems that you have a better grasp on it, so I stand corrected.

 

[FChairbanks]

But for aforementioned reasons, if we do get blessed to add another program, I say baseball, and due to Title IX, add women's swimming (come on, swimmers are hotter than field hockey players ANY day...)

i like the way you think...

...adding men's baseball is a risky proposition and would definitely run in the red; but i agree with dbt that as a big xii school we should be fielding a team.

and as long as we are adding men's baseball, we should try to add women's softball for title ix considerations. new facilities could be developed that would service both sports as complimentary.

the key is to get back on track with our two money makers though; football and basketball. and to make sure we are getting the support of our alumni base, especially those who have benefited financially from their time in the athletic department at cu-boulder...

there's my $00.02...

:gobuffs:

 

[DBT]

"...but i agree with dbt that as a..."

Its MR. DBT to you, sir! :smile2:

 

[sackman]

...adding men's baseball is a risky proposition and would definitely run in the red; but i agree with dbt that as a big xii school we should be fielding a team.

and as long as we are adding men's baseball, we should try to add women's softball for title ix considerations. new facilities could be developed that would service both sports as complimentary.

Apparently you weren't paying attention. Mike Bohn said that it will be Baseball and Women's Lacrosse if and when they add any sports.

 

[SuperiorBuff]

Apparently you weren't paying attention. Mike Bohn said that it will be Baseball and Women's Lacrosse if and when they add any sports.

With the goofy implications and requirements of Title IX we may actually have to add 2 women's sports to add 1 men's. I read this last year but it may have changed with the dropping of men's tennis.

 

[92Buff]

You mean The Rush, right? But you are right. There are a lot of good men players from the state. Didn't a DII school from the state, Adams State or one of thos RMAC schools, recently win or come in second in the DII championship? But, even so, I vote for baseball.

Rush started the visibility to the talent in colorado by winning a lot of national titles, but now Real and others are keeping up.

I agree - I would not push for men's soccer. Soccer just is not a money maker and frankly the folks in the US just don't care. Its a fact of life and isn't going to change anytime soon.

 

[92Buff]

Hey - no disrespect intended, and I guess I stand corrected. It was just that I was going off spur of the moment recollection, and it seemed to me that although CO has produced Connor Casey, haven't we produced multiple girls that have played on the US Team? I also seemed to remember during my HS days that there were multiple nationally recognized girls, and only a few boys. Of course, it seems that you have a better grasp on it, so I stand corrected.

No disrespect taken at all. Just grew up in the game in CO and know the talent that has been here all along in terms of the men's game. Lots of guys I grew up playing against could have started for the top D1 schools but out talent didn't get showcased until the high powereed soccer clubs came to town.

The girls - they are kicking serious ass. The CU team lands top girls each year from in-state and you are correct - the US team likes them. Again, they have been showcased by the super clubs here in CO. I think Rush and Real Colorado are now designated as Us Team development clubs.

 

[FChairbanks]

Apparently you weren't paying attention. Mike Bohn said that it will be Baseball and Women's Lacrosse if and when they add any sports.

sorry...i was voicing my preferences and attempting to use logic with my input.

you are right though, i wasn't paying close attention; i usually just skim through your voluminous drivel anyway...

:smile2:

 

[Junction]

You mean The Rush, right? But you are right. There are a lot of good men players from the state. Didn't a DII school from the state, Adams State or one of thos RMAC schools, recently win or come in second in the DII championship? But, even so, I vote for baseball.

Fort Lewis came in second in men's soccer last year (according to the NCAA site, at least). There are seven RMAC schools in Colorado sponsoring men's soccer programs, with Mesa State adding it this fall, and building a new soccer stadium for the men's and women's teams to play in. Eight RMAC schools are sponsoring women's soccer. As much as I really don't give a **** about watching soccer, it is one sport where Colorado has a decent talent base, and the success of the women's team at CU and the sport at smaller schools makes me think it might not be a bad idea for CU to look at adding a men's program.

But I still like baseball better...

 

[Junction]

Sacky - I'm going to have to join your Rotary club. I was treated to a speech by the President of CSU today....

 

[absinthe]

Sacky - I'm going to have to join your Rotary club. I was treated to a speech by the President of CSU today....

speech is a bit generous isn't it?

 

[Junction]

speech is a bit generous isn't it?

No, speech is very accurate. Treated is more than a bit generous, though... :huh: