The Case For Killing Ralphie
by Evan Pfaff on Sep 29, 2009 9:15 AM CDT
in Colorado Buffaloes Basketball
12 comments
By Evan Pfaff, Big12Hoops.com Missouri Beat Writer
The cover story of last week's Newsweek was entitled "The Case For Killing Granny." The article talks about the high cost of health care and whether "Killing Granny" is better in the long run, economically, socially and emotionally.
Reading it, I started thinking about the need to resuscitate some struggling Big 12 schools. There are some programs out there who seem content just going through the motions... not making waves of any sort. One of these programs is the University of Colorado.
Would it be the worst thing to "let" CU move away from the Big 12 and in to, say, the Mountain West Conference?
I know this is a basketball blog, but briefly let me first discuss football that underscores the larger argument, well at least the brand that CU claims to be football.
In the years 2006-2008 CU has won a total of eight conference football games, out of a possible 24. This year they lost at home to in-state rival Colorado State and then at Toledo. They did beat Wyoming at home, but that is the same Wyoming team that squeaked by Weber State in the first game of the season (former Mizzou offensive coordinator, Dave Christensen, we know better times are ahead for you and the Cowboys).
On the hardwood, CU hasn't fared any better. Over the same time frame, CU basketball brings with them a 25% conference winning percentage, having won 16 of the 64 conference games they have played since the start of 2005-06 season. And last year they saw an average of 4,262 come out to sit in the 11,064 seat Coors Event Center, ranking them last in the Big 12 in attendance.
CU doesn't field a baseball team and isn't particularly competitive at any non-running sport. To its credit though, CU has brought home 9 conference championships since the start of the 2004 academic year, registering 8 in cross country and one in men's outdoor track.
Geographically, Boulder is the outpost of the conference. It remains the only Big 12 school in the Mountain time zone and the closest Big 12 city to "The People's Republic of Boulder" lies in Lincoln, Nebraska, some 7 hours drive away.
Conversely, there are six Mountain West schools that are within an 8-hour drive of Boulder, two of which reside in the state of Colorado. Colorado State University in Fort Collins and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs are 1 and 1.5 hour drives, respectively, from Boulder. The University of Wyoming, the University of New Mexico, BYU and the University of Utah also all fall within the 8-hour drive.
And just because CU would transfer to a non-BCS conference doesn't mean they would be the big, bad bully. As shown already this year, CU couldn't defeat MWC middling CSU on the grid iron in the "Rocky Mountain Showdown." They probably wouldn't fare any better against national powerhouses in BYU, TCU or the Utah Utes.
In terms of MWC league basketball, CU would face the tough challenge of having to face Utah, UNLV and BYU on a regular basis. Other schools may give CU stiff competition, however those are the preeminent MWC hoops powerhouses.
So what now? Would there be another mis-numbered conference (yeah, I ‘m looking at you, Big Ten)? Nonsense!
Right now the MWC has 9 teams, CU would even them out to ten. The logical step is to accept the University of Arkansas into the conference. Arkansas is a sub 4-hour drive to either Oklahoma school and already has a rival in Austin. Hell, I had a groomsman in my wedding from the city that would relish the rivalry most, Texarkana.
Sharing a border with Missouri also brings another rival. In fact Arkansas and Mizzou have a storied history of battling over recruits and despising each other's existence. (One of the best stories from the Mizzou heckling group, the Antlers, involves dangling a hog's head off a fishing pole in front of the Arkansas team bus as they pulled into the Hearnes Center for a 1992 match-up.)
Now, realistically this would never happen because of fiduciary concerns. CU is already in a tough spot because of nearly $13 million in cuts in state funding, so the loss of Big 12 money would devastate an already tight financial plan.
Not being in a BCS conference means a substantial loss of money. The 2009 BCS bowls paid out $17.5M to each conference. Since the Big 12 is a BCS conference, they are guaranteed to land at least one of these slots (they got two in 2009). The MWC, however, isn't guaranteed and needs substantial help to get a coveted slot. Besides the BCS games, the Big 12 has football contracts that could put up to 8 teams into bowls. The MWC doesn't have this luxury.
And in terms of hoops, the Big 12 generally gets about half its members into March Madness each year. The MWC generally sends two teams. Again, less money to be split amongst conference schools.
So like everything else in sports (and in the world) the decision to keep CU in the Big 12 will come down to the all mighty dollar.... which is good news for any Big 12 team looking for an easy W.
Follow Evan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MizzouHoops/
0 recs |
12 comments
| Add comment
|
Email
Print
Comments
Is this a series?
You mentioned economics in that Granny story you are reading and I’d love to hear the economics of Colorado moving out of the Big 12 and how it’d affect the conference. The big complaint about the Big 12 and one of the reasons that I would love to see CU move to the Pac-10 is that it is just an awful conference if you want to go to a road game. Lincoln, Manhattan, Lubbock, Ames, Waco, and College Station are not exactly tourist destinations and I’m not sure how safe I’d feel traveling to those places without proper firearms. In fact, the one time we went to a game in Lincoln, our car was broken in to.
The good thing about CU is that it is located in one of the few great tourist spots for Big 12 fans. Boulder and Austin are the two places that seem to come up most when people discuss traveling to an away game. I feel like the city is one of those places that people really want to go because you can head on up to the mountains for the rest of the weekend or do down to Denver and stuff like that. I don’t think that Big 12 would EVER make such a decision to get rid of CU because they’d lose a lot of money and adding Arkansas to the mix would make the conference that much less desirable travel wise.
As far as the actual on-court performance, I think you need a longer time scope with CU. The university has put a lot of money into Jeff Bzdelik and the basketball program. He has a stipulation in his contract that dramatic renovations must be done to the facilities or he can basically walk from Boulder. If you’ve ever been to Coors Event Center, it really is an awful venue so I understand why the attendance is terrible. He’s got one of the best players in the conference in Cory Higgins and brought in a pretty solid recruiting class this season. As far as football, it wasn’t that long ago when Colorado was sitting atop the Big 12 North. I understand that was with Gary Barnett and CU probably has a coaching change to deal with but lets not forget that this was once a very proud football program. 1990 was a National Championship year and they were Big 12 Champs in 2001, and won the North in ‘02,’04, and ’05.
I really would like to see a conference realignment as much as you’d like to see CU out of the Big 12 but the facts are it probably won’t happen. Considering that CU mainly recruits against schools like Washington, Oregon, Cal, UCLA, and even Stanford, it’d be great to see the Buffs compete against those schools year in year out and I think the west coast schools fit the campus atmosphere at CU better than the Big 12 does.
Overall, if you are looking at this business-wise, I can’t imagine schools like Baylor and Iowa State making the cut over CU.
The Slipper Still Fits - SB Nation's home for the Gonzaga Bulldogs!
Formerly BuffZag
Bol Kong for President!
I really hope you're being sarcastic here
Lincoln, Manhattan, Lubbock, Ames, Waco, and College Station are not exactly tourist destinations and I’m not sure how safe I’d feel traveling to those places without proper firearms.
A firearm? Really?
Introducing the new 2008 Big 12 Football Champions: OU, UT*, TT*, and MU*!
Now Introducing the new 2009 Big 12 Baseball Tournament Champions: UT, KSU*, BU*, and MU*!
Yep
that was sarcastic
The Slipper Still Fits - SB Nation's home for the Gonzaga Bulldogs!
Formerly BuffZag
Bol Kong for President!
Good comment
First the "destination" take. I agree Boulder is an amazing city. A destination and a place where you can go and center a trip around a game, but otherwise enjoy yourself in the hills.
But I think that most other conferences suffer the same fate "destination-wise" as the Big 12. Like you said, if not for a game you wouldn’t think about heading to Manhattan or Waco.
But how is that different from, say, the Big 10, ACC or SEC? Would you really want to travel to East Lansing or Durham or Starkville if not for a game? Sure they are good "college towns" and if you are looking for a burger and beer, you are pretty set in any college city. If you are looking for a destination trip, you are almost certainly going to choose a Pac 10 location (Scottsdale, LA, Palo Alto) over most Midwest cities.
As far as the hoops goes, I am not sure CU can ever get to where they want to be. They had a good run in ’97 when Chauncey Billups was at the helm… but after that? Not much. Jeff B is a good coach and got Air Force some national pub. He might be able to do the same in Boulder, but what is really their ceiling? I would contend it is pretty low. They don’t have the facilities or history to get them to the top. Colorado isn’t a breeding ground for basketball, so they have to recruit outside their borders, into Texas and Cali and now are butted up against the likes of the Longhorns and Bruins.
And I think I overlooked a big point in this article. I spoke mainly about the money generating sports, hoops and football. When the Buffs face Big 12 opponents in non money generating sports they have a far distance to travel and that is costly. If their women’s volleyball team could load a bus and drive a few short hours to face half their conference foes, the school would save tons of money, as opposed to getting them on a plane to fly to Austin.
With thy watchwords, Honor, Duty, Thy high fame shall last
Bball
Basketball is the real issue and that is kinda where schools like Baylor and Iowa State have begun to focus. Craig Brackins is one of the best players in the country and Baylor has one of the most underrated coaches in the nation. I hope that Colorado can kind of rally around Higgins and make him a top player in the conference and I think with the supporting cast Jeff is bringing in, they can do that. But you are absolutely right about Colorado not being a breeding ground for basketball. However, when you think about the star players that have come out of the state, they have rarely stayed in the state. For instance, at Gonzaga we have Matt Bouldin who was Mr. Basketball in Colorad. Nick Fazekas was also a local boy and starred at Nevada. Even smaller guys like Sean Ogirri who went to Wichita State out of high school would have been great for CU.
The key, and this goes the same for Hawkins, is for Bzdelik to make CU a place where local kids want to stay and play. That comes down to facilities. CU has one of the most amazing campus settings in the country but the athletic facilities are subpar. When kids from Colorado visit CU and then they go and visit schools like Oregon, Washington, Texas, or even places like Utah and BYU, they are going to be stunned by how much better those facilities are.
The real underlying issue in all of this comes down to the city of Boulder, which, like you say is more of a republic all to itself. A lot of athletes that come to Colorado complain that they are not well received in the city of Boulder. Unlike most of the Big 12 cities, a lot of people in the city don’t really care about Colorado athletics. Some would even contend that the money-making programs are more of a nuisance to the city and we see this take its effect because a lot of football players have gotten into trouble off the field at CU. Especially after the Gary Barnett era, which did not sit well with the very left-wing city, Boulder seems to have grown wary of supporting the effects of athletic programs that excel.
The Slipper Still Fits - SB Nation's home for the Gonzaga Bulldogs!
Formerly BuffZag
Bol Kong for President!
Hilarious
So we are just throwing out arbitrary years?
How about a North Division comparison of Colorado vs. Missouri from 2000-2005.
Colorado division record was 21-9
Missouri division record was 8-22
As long as we are having fun with numbers.
Football revenue for 2007
Colorado $28,755,199
Missouri $19,301,864
How about conference championships?
Colorado 1
Missouri 0
How about Divsion Championships?
Colorado 4
Missouri 2
Conference Titles (all sports)
Colorado 27
Missouri 5
National Championships (all sports)
Colorado 23
Missouri 2
National Championships since the Big XII inception (1996)
Colorado 8
Missouri ZERO
Do we even have to discuss academic prestige and media market comparisons?
Colorado is second only to Nebraska. If you want to kick someone out, either of the Kansas JUCO’s, Missouri or Iowa St. would be much better choices. But thanks for the laugh.
Or we could go the last 25 years of football.
Colorado 18 winning seasons. (182-117-3)
Missouri 7 winning seasons. (122-163-5)
A Missouri beat writer should never be making a case against CU football, regardless of this spectacular 3 year run you are on.
Touche
I will be the first to admit that for all my Mizzou basketball love, football just isn’t there for me.
I brought up CU football only to advance my point and apparently I had holes in it.
Basketbally speaking though (since that is the focus of this site) let me spit a few stats. And while this wasn’t supposed to turn into MU v. CU, I will compare the two.
Since 2002, Mizzou has:
2 Elite 8 runs
1 conference tourney championship
5 Post season tournament bids
9 conference tourney wins
In the same time, CU has:
3 post season tournament bids
ZERO post season tournament wins
3 conference tournament wins
So while the football argument may be valid, when comparing Mizzou and CU, in terms of hoops there is no comparison.
With thy watchwords, Honor, Duty, Thy high fame shall last
CU Basketball is not good. No argument there. Football is king however and out of the North division, Colorado is a clear #2 behind Nebraska.
When taking into account the other factors Conference’s look at (ie. Media Market, Research Grants, Academics, etc) Colorado is one of the more attractive schools in the Big XII. You took a cheap shot at a couple programs that have been down the last few years. Fair enough. But to your point, Colorado is in the upper half of the Big XII and most certainly not at the bottom.
If Colorado were to leave the BIg XII (they would NEVER be kicked out) it would be for the PAC 10, not the MWC. And in case your not up to speed on history, Colorado turned down an official bid to join the PAC 10 a little more than 10 years ago.
No one with a brain would vote for CU to leave the Big XII. Considering CU is even an option, its pretty much a worthless poll, therefore no need to participate. If one was forced to choose, it would be between Baylor, Texas Tech, Iowa St. or Kansas St.
If revenue is weighted as the biggest factor. Following is total revenue for Big XII schools 2007-2008.
1. Texas – $120.3 million
2. Oklahoma State – $88.5 million
3. Kansas – $86 million
4. Nebraska – $78.4 million
5. Oklahoma – $77 million
6. Texas A&M – $74.8 million
7. Colorado – $56.5 million
8. Missouri – $49 million
9. Kansas State – $48 million
10. Baylor – $44 million
11. Texas Tech – $42.8 million
12. Iowa State – $38.6 million
Keep in mind, these numbers represent very poor seasons for CU football and basketball as you pointed out. And CU is still ahead of Missouri.
And like I have presented already, Colorado is near the top for factors conference’s consider. (Media market, research, prestige, etc. )
Coming from a missouri Fan.
Colorado definitely deserves to stay in the Big XII. In 1990 they won a NATIONAL TITLE. Even if it took them five downs to beat Mizzou! ;)
"If you believe in telekinesis, raise my hand."
Something to say? Choose one of these options to log in.
On Facebook? Use Connect to join SB Nation. Share insights with fans and friends.- » Create a new SB Nation account
- » Already registered with SB Nation? Log in!
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
