Random Thoughts – Vol. X

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Random Thoughts – Volume X – February 3, 2019

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Buff Trivia Questions of the Week …

• 1) Who was the first Buff to earn a Super Bowl ring?
• 2) Who was the most recent?; and
• 3) Which NFL team has produced the most Super Bowl rings for the University of Colorado?

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Self-deprecation raised to an art form …

Over the past decade, Colorado fans have become pretty used to feeling sorry for themselves – it’s been a tough run of disappointment and humiliation.

Many of feel that we have turned self-depreciation to an art form. We scoff when USC fans complain about a 5-7 season, and roll our eyes when Oregon and Nebraska fans wring their hands over 4-8 campaigns.

But we’re amateurs compared to the fans of some other schools.

In the book, Tribal, College Football and the Secret Heart of America, by Diane Roberts, recounts an occasion when an Ole Miss Rebel fan took Texas fans to task.

The setting: Ole Miss opened the 2013 season with a 2-0 record and a No. 25 ranking. The year before, the Rebels had lost at home to Texas, 66-31, and were now heading to Austin for the second half of a home-and-home with the Longhorns.

Texas, for its part, was coming off of a 40-21 loss on the road to BYU, and fans of the 1-1 Longhorns were bemoaning their chances against the mighty 2-0 Ole Miss Rebels.

An Ole Miss fan wrote an open letter to Longhorn fans (my apologies for the foul language, but it adds to the greatness of the letter):

When you inundated our fine city last year (the 66-31 drubbing) with your gaudy burnt orange apparel, your ridiculous cowboy hats, your second-rate actors and women, we smiled and politely offered you our cold chicken tenders and backup bourbon and pretended to enjoy your company.

But now you’ve gone too far. This we cannot abide, so let’s get this straight right now: You do not shit the bed. We shit the bed. Read that again. Repeat it. Tell it to your friends. We scoff at your pedestrian attempts at bed shitting. So you got blown out by BYU. Well, bully for you. Now you think you get to run around whimpering, lamenting the fact that its been eight years since your last national championship. On behalf of legitimate bed-shitting programs everywhere: How dare you?

You want to talk about shitting the bed? Please. Perhaps you were surprised when you lost to BYU in such embarrassing fashion. We were not. It is all part of the setup: “Texas gets trounced by BYU and now a feisty 2-0 Ole Miss team, which has just entered the rankings for the first time since 2009 (that’s right, 2009), travels to Austin for a winnable game against a prestigious but vulnerable program in the midst of a coaching controversy with an inept defense and a new (but still shitty) defensive coordinator and an angry fan base.” 

We’re supposed to be getting our hopes up right now, but we’re old hands at this. We know how this movie ends. 

So, say it with me now: Ole Miss will shit the bed Saturday. We do not know the precise method of our downfall, but rest assured that the bed will be shat.

Remember this prophecy Saturday night as the clock ticks down to zero and you’re smiling down upon the field and your newly revived football season, wondering how it all came to pass. Your lackluster attempts at bed shitting are embarrassing, you bunch of wannabe cowboy, faux-hippie, bed-shitting amateurs. Prepare to see the real deal. We shit beds like you for breakfast. 

The letter writer got it right … but was just a bit premature.

Texas did not beat Ole Miss that week. In fact, the Rebels took out the Longhorns in Austin, 44-23. However, Ole Miss then went on to lose its next three games. After rising to No. 21 in the polls, Mississippi slid to a 7-5 regular season record, winding up in the Music City Bowl.

Texas, meanwhile, went on to an 8-4 regular season record, and an Alamo Bowl berth against Oregon.

Order had been restored in the college football world, with Ole Miss looking up at Texas … just as the letter writer had predicted.

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We’re in the money … 

ESPN reported this week that the SEC doled out $43.1 million per school in fiscal year 2017-18. The SEC has long led the nation in conference revenue, but that may be changing.

The Detroit News reported that Michigan, for the same fiscal year, received over $50 million. While that may be an exaggeration, and it may also well be that Michigan received more than its Big Ten brethren, but … we’re still talking a great deal of $$$$.

Comparatively, the other three Power conferences were behind the Big Two. The Big 12 reported an average of $36.5 million; the Pac-12: $33.5 million; and the ACC: $28 million.

The latter three numbers might give Buff fans a bit of peace. After all, the Pac-12 is right in there with the Big 12 and the ACC, so it can’t be all that bad, right?

Well, except for the fact that the ACC Network (partnered with ESPN) is going to make its debut this year, and the ACC schools will also soon be running laps around the Pac-12 in terms of revenue distribution.

And the Big 12 report of $33.5 million per school did not include third-tier rights, such as the haul Texas is bringing in for its own Longhorn Network.

Long story short, the Pac-12 is enjoying its last fiscal year of at least nominally keeping up with its Power Five counterparts. Come the reports for fiscal year 2018-19 … it won’t be pretty.

In the near future, schools like Vanderbilt, Indiana, and Minnesota will be able to cherry pick quality assistants away from Pac-12 schools, who won’t be able to offer multi-year, seven-digit contracts to assistants.

The battlefield in college football has moved on from high-priced amenities to high-priced assistant coaches (witness Jim Leavitt to Oregon after the 2016 season, becoming the first Pac-12 assistant coach to earn over $1 million/year).

Barring some unforeseen influx of dollars, Pac-12 schools like Colorado will be going into future battles for quality assistants with one hand tied behind their backs.

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Buff basketball … 

In town for the men’s basketball game this weekend, I was among the 6,839 disappointed fans who left the Events Center after a 76-74 loss to Oregon State, a very winnable game which had the Buffs missing ten free throws.

Two days later, after listening pre-game about whether the Tad Boyle era was coming to a close, I was one of the 8,654 who witnessed the Buffs play their best game of the season, jumping out to a 27-7 lead, and never looking back, taking out the Ducks, 73-51.

Which Buff team is the real Buff team?

Unfortunately, the answer is “both”.

These Buffs can win against almost any team remaining on their schedule (the likely exception a road game against league-leading Washington).

These Buffs can also lose to almost any team remaining on their schedule.

At 12-9, 3-6, the Buffs will have to finish strong just to have a chance at an NIT berth.

For this young team, that might not be a bad goal …

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Buff Trivia Questions of the Week …

• 1) Who was the first Buff to earn a Super Bowl ring? Boyd Dowler, who earned Super Bowl rings with Green Bay in both Super Bowl I and II;
• 2) Who was the most recent?; Nate Solder, with New England in 2016; and
• 3) What team has produced the most Super Bowl rings for the University of Colorado? The New England Patriots, with 14 of CU’s 52 Super Bowl rings.

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This post, about the Postseason game, from the 2018 Season, is filed under Article.
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