College football Week 1 thread

So, you don't like CSU do you? CSU has had tremendous growth on campus and much more than just enrollment, which is at record levels. New buildings left and right. Record donation levels. Lots of real nice stuff happening. The financials have looked good on the stadium and I think you know that. I guess it's always a risk to borrow money. But Hughes would have cost $30 million just to make viable. Seems like an OK risk to me. And I'm pretty sure it was in the works way before the Big 12 stuff happened two years ago.

Utah State a peer? Sure but so are Iowa State, K-State, Oklahoma State (tons more donation money there, I get it), etc. There are a lot of P5 schools that wouldn't be P5 today if they weren't already in i the way it's set up. So that's a dumb argument.

CSU is doing a lot of nice stuff regardless. I wish athletics would take a step forward too. Maybe it will here eventually, who knows.

 

Colorado State would be good for Big XII for the Denver TV market but those teams need a better following.

Look at the stadiums in the Pac 12 vs Big 12. There’s just more to do in the Pac 12 markets that don’t center on football. That’s why Boulder is a better “fit” in the Pac 12 but, financially, there’s something about being in with Texas and Oklahoma.

Colorado State reminds me of what Iowa State is going through. Remarkable student growth. A higher priority on select majors. The difference is Iowa State was already in a P5 - albeit the member with the least to offer during the “will Texas leave?” summer a few years back.

CSU needs to have a lifeline where they’re consistently top 20 in football or men’s basketball. They’ve never been in the Boise State talk for football. Never near the top in the BYU Jimmer/New Mexico under Alford. Eustachy had some very good teams but they never broke into a regional relevance.

Iowa State often is Top 20-25 for hoops and is in a football Renaissance until Campbell leaves this winter.

 

I like Colorado State by the way. Always have.

However, someone attractive needs to stand outside the club. And that... is Colorado State.

 

That would seem historically accurate

 

I have been thinking about the CSU statement making money. Governmental accounting is different than private sector accounting in some several ways. One is that the books are divided between operating funds and capital funds. So operating expenses are paid out of one pot of money (and I think the CSU stadium makes money on an operating basis) and funds for the retirement out of separate funds for long-term debt. I think the CSU stadium makes money in it's operating fund for the stadium but does not cover the debt payments made in a different fund.

For example, that is how proponents of the Kansas City arena say the facility makes a profit. It covers operating expenses but not the mortgage.

 

No school should upgrade facilities on the hope of moving into the Power Five. The politics of geting into the Power Five are beyond the control of the school. Only build when you a written invitation.

And I like CSU fine. Nice school and a nice town. But I think that any decision that a school makes on its football program should be based upon solid analysis and not by borrowing money based upon hope. I think the stadium remodeling at CU falls into the same category. It ahs bben a disaster fron a fiscal point of view.

 

Good points. It will probably be a few months before an audited financial statement is available. Then you can start to get a picture.

 

If you don't build facilities to at least the point of being average in your current conference (and preferably above average), you have zero chance of moving up if a conference realignment happens. You need attractive facilities, institutional and alumni financial support, decent teams on the field, and television eyeballs. If you are not competitive there you are dead in the water before the starting gun ever sounds.

 

Understand that Hughes was coming apart. Shame because it was nestled right beside Horsetooth Reservoir ... sort of scenic in the way Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe and Edwards Stadium in Provo. Was anything but a cookie-cutter setting.

Thing is, I understand the sports arms race and so do all of you. The question: What will it take for Colorado State to no longer be a steppingstone school for a high-end coach? There won't be many like Sonny Lubick. The Jim McElwain scenario is more likely. Win a bunch of games and get a call up. At least they got a nice infusion of cash from Gainesville out of it.

Is there anyone in Fort Collins who thinks Bobo won't get - and likely take - the more high-profile job as opposed to being the next Sonny Lubick?

 

How is Mike Bobo getting a higher-profile job from this? He’s more likely to get fired and drop down to OC again.

Every school outside the P5 is and always will be a steppingstone. Hell, half the schools in the P5 are steppingstones. It’s always going to be that way, and you never want to hire a coach because he won’t leave.

 

Three 7-6 seasons makes me think he won't get a high-profile offer. Seems like P5 assistants who take G5 HC jobs are on to the next job within three years. The opening loss at home vs. Hawaii? Not happening this year either.