Spring/Summer – 2022

Wilner: Ultimately, the Big 12 Will be the Receptacle for Schools Not Worthy of the Big Ten and SEC … 538 Does a Deep Dive Into Big Ten’s Options: CU in the “Strategic Reaches” category … Pac-12 AD: “I don’t have time nor attention for the Big 12 noise” …

Final preseason projections from ESPN+ and Jon Wilner: CU a three-win team in 2022 … Associated Press Preseason poll released: Half of CU’s 2022 opponents receive votes … Pro Football Focus Preseason All-Pac-12 teams … CBS Preseason 1-131: Utah No. 4 (!); USC jumps 73 spots (?) … Neill Woelk: Five Reasons for Optimism … College Football News predicts the outcome of every Pac-12 game …

College Football Playoff Expansion Talk Back on the Table … Preseason Media All-Pac-12 Team Released (CU only team with no representatives on first- or second-teams) … UCLA’s “messy situation” could get much worse …

Karl Dorrell at Pac-12 Media Day: “I believe you are going to see a quality team this year” … Alex Fontenot on running backs room: “I know we can get it done. That’s the confidence I have in our room. … The talent is still there” … Defensive Line: From Weakness to Strength? …

CU’s conference affiliation for the 2024 season may be unknown, but we do know that the Buffs will be playing in the Pac-12 this fall … Brad and Neil are back, with a team-by-team preview, together with a look at how CU is being treated by the nation’s press this preseason …

CU athletic director Rick George: “We’re not going to have boosters involved in the recruiting process and other areas” … CU has largely taken a pass on engaging its fan base in the new age of NIL. Is taking the high road the right road? Or a road which leads to lost recruits, lost games and demotion? …

There are three sure things in life: Death; taxes; and the inability of the remaining teams in the “Pac-10” to be viable in the new world of college football … So, what happens nex for CU? Expansion of the Pac-12? A merger with the Big 12? A joint move with Utah and the Arizona schools to the Big 12? Let’s find out …

A guest editorial by a CU at the Gamer takes a look at how we got to where we are in realignment, and what options are ahead … (How can you not like an Essay which quotes Mad Men, Charles Darwin, Socrates, and Bill Murray?) …

All in all done … With this Sunday’s posting of the interview with redshirt freshman tight end Caleb Fauria, the 20 NIL podcast interviews have been conducted … Thanks to you, and your donation of $10,000 in three days in February, it has been a great opportunity to get to better know your Buffs …

Emma Coburn wins the 3,000-meter steeplechase national championship … Taylor Kornieck scores in her debut with the U.S. women’s national soccer team … CU women finish 9th in NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships (tied for second-best finish by the team in CU history) …

It’s been another tough June for the CU fan base, with the Buff chances being panned by almost every national publication … An anonymous Pac-12 coach: “Coaches talk in this league, and there’s a rep out there that they’re not interested in pressing to be great again” (ouch) … Can CU defy expectations? …

With the defection of starters through the Transfer Portal, and the lack of the formation of a CU collective to lure and retain top talent, the Buff Nation is faced with not only the prospects of another losing season, but the likelihood of it not getting any better … Are you as apathetic as I was in 1981? … 2006? … 2009? … 2012? …

Interviews with players on the defensive side of the ball were enlightening. Players like Jalen Sami, Terrance Lang, and Isaiah Lewis have been with the team for years, while younger players, like cornerback Nikko Reed, linebacker Devin Grant and kicker Cole Becker, are the future of the program … Also: remembering interviews with Evan Battey and KJ Simpson …

“The Faces Behind the Facemask” … The podcast interview series has given us a unique look at the lives and opinions of CU athletes … Here are some notes on the interviews conducted with players on the offensive side of the CU roster …

Over the past few months, I have interviewed over half of the projected 2022 starting lineup, talking with players from every unit on the team … Here are some of the reoccurring themes from what I learned from these conversations, and what it may mean for the 2022 season …

Moments after the NCAA allowed conferences to abandon division winners for conference title berths, the Pac-12 jumped at the chance … The next move is to adjust future schedules … Will the Pac-12 stay with the current schedules? Go to a “pod” system and nine games? Or go to an eight-game schedule? …

The Buff Nation isn’t looking for College Football Playoff berths, but want – and deserve – a program which regularly posts winning seasons and goes to bowl games … By staying above the fray in the new world of NIL and the Transfer Portal, CU is denying its fans (and its players) hope for the future …

CU has gone out of its way to do NIL and the Transfer Portal “the right way”, but in the shady new world of college football, all that has meant is that CU is losing its best players and assistant coaches to programs more interested in winning than by playing by the rules …