Benson, when he came in, had bigger fish to fry. He was focused on the hospital system and building high value degree programs in the CU system while building up the CU campuses in the population centers of Denver and Colorado Springs. He also was working on the politics to change some state legislation to CU's benefit (such as not having to count international students in the requirement that a certain percentage of students had to be from in-state). Heck, he's in the midst of a $2B project for high tech research and degrees on the Boulder East Campus. Within all that, when he saw the fallout from the failures in football hurting donations and applications he acted (hiring of Rick George). He also saw that hurting his legacy. So he seems to have gotten religion and has realized that athletics, most particularly football, is the front porch of the university that emotionally connects alums & the local community (potential donors) while also driving the number of applications (therefore, the university's academic ranks).
Long story short: I now trust Benson on valuing athletics and I've always felt he was a guy who got things done when he had his eye on the ball.
