A house once ablaze is rebuilt in fashion by six teams ready to usher in a new age.
In a move of historic significance, Colorado State University announced its decision — along with Boise State University, San Diego State University and California State University, Fresno — to move to the Pac-12 conference.
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The Collegian was able to talk to CSU President Amy Parsons and Director of Athletics John Weber about what the move will mean and what it will do for the future of CSU.
Both Parsons and Weber mentioned that the timing of the move was a quick process but one that gave the university enough time to vet the possibilities. And eventually, the decision was made — a decision filled with endless possibilities and a vision for a brighter future, one achievable by locking arms with Oregon State University and Washington State University.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity to raise the visibility of Colorado State and really take control of our future as we look forward to the next version of what CSU will become,” Weber said.
Parsons very specifically gave Weber and his team a lot of credit for being ready to get the move done — a move that won’t only be a boost for CSU Athletics but one for CSU academia as well. As a Carnegie Research 1 institution, CSU is at the forefront of many areas of research. The move to the Pac-12 will bring CSU’s reach to a wider audience.
With the instability that has been the college athletics landscape, CSU started preparing itself should something arise. And while the move to the Pac-12 was fairly abrupt, the foundation had already been built.
“We knew that we needed to position ourselves to be ready for opportunities,” Parsons said. “So when the opportunity arose, it felt like it came fast, but really we’ve been working and preparing ourselves for a long time.”
Parsons said that in joining the Pac-12, CSU will be an equal-share member of the conference. Because of that, CSU will help direct the future of the conference. This includes the potential additions of more teams, media rights deals and how to use the Pac-12 Network in new ways.
Weber said there would be no cap to the number of teams that could join the Pac-12. When looking at future additions to the conference, the Pac-12 will focus on how each new school might complement the current six.
“It’s really making sure that we’re doing what makes the most sense to build a very competitive conference across the board: academically, researchwise and athletically,” Weber said.
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In terms of media rights deals, Weber said that was top of the order for the conference. For CSU, No. 1 is filling out the membership to get into the conference and then right into finding those future media deals.
Any new deal is expected to bring a significant increase in the revenue CSU sees from its current media rights deal. Weber didn’t mention any specifics, but it can be presumed this will help out in terms of recruitment, future facility upgrades and a multitude of other areas.
“There’s a lot of different factors that go into that, but we have a lot of work to do between now and settling what that media rights deal looks like,” Weber said. “And part of that is filling up the conference and making sure that we add members that can help from that perspective as well.”
Across all sports, there are currently 14 members of the Mountain West with only four of them making that transition into a new conference.
Each of those four schools brought something to the table that the other 10 could not. Parsons said one of the big things that CSU brings is its academic notoriety along with being strong athletic peers.
“We really stand out in that, as well as our great facilities, our tremendous college town in Fort Collins and the fact that we’re in a great media market in Colorado,” Parsons said. “We’re a place where people want to travel to; we’re a place people want to be.”
One thing that CSU won’t leave behind is their impassioned rivalries — or at least the Border War for sure.
Weber said he hadn’t yet had the chance to speak to Nathan Pine, the athletic director for the United States Air Force Academy, about continuing their rivalry, but he did speak with the University of Wyoming‘s Director of Athletics Tom Burman, and both sides expressed “a very deep desire to keep the Border War alive.”
Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001.
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