Tag: Colorado Big 12

Deion Sanders applauds Rick George for guiding Colorado to the Big 12

Coach Prime thanked his athletic director for steering Colorado to the Big 12.

Deion Sanders definitely wanted the Colorado Buffaloes to be in the Big 12. This much is clear. The Buffaloes eventually did return to their former conference, but for some time, chancellor Phil DiStefano and athletic director Rick George wanted to stay in the Pac-12.

Obviously, patience had its limits. Colorado wanted more specifics from Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff, and it didn’t get them. DiStefano and George had enough. The desire to stay in a unified Pac-12 gave way to anger and dissatisfaction with the conference for its footdragging. Kliavkoff’s lack of action proved to be costly.

Deion Sanders wanted the Big 12 because he wanted to be able to recruit in the state of Texas. Big 12 membership would put Texas much more in play as a recruiting area, whereas staying in the Pac-12 would have required Colorado to recruit more in California.

Rick George did eventually move Colorado to the Big 12, so Deion wanted to thank his boss in Boulder, the man who hired him.

Buffaloes Wire passed along Coach Prime’s immediate reaction:

“If everything I’m hearing is true, I applaud our (AD) Rick George for choosing the best scenario for all athletics at CU,” Sanders told 247Sports. “This move is a game changer and we plan on changing the game.”

Everyone is now waiting to see if any other Pac-12 schools will follow Colorado to the Big 12.

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Twitter reaction to official Colorado exit from Pac-12

College Sports Twitter, Big 12 Twitter, and Pac-12 Twitter have been white-hot with intense reactions. Here’s a sampling:

It is official: Colorado is returning to the Big 12 Conference. The Big 12 approved of CU’s return, but first, CU had to vote to leave. The school’s board of regents did that on Thursday, and away we go. The Pac-12 is now in critical condition. The Big 12 is stronger.

Buffaloes Wire has been covering this story over the past 48 hours. This was the initial statement from CU Chancellor Phil DiStefano and athletic director Rick George:

“After careful thought and consideration, it was determined that a switch in conference would give CU Boulder the stability, resources, and exposure necessary for long-term future success in a college athletics environment that is constantly evolving. The Big 12’s national reach across three time zones as well as our shared creative vision for the future we feel makes it an excellent fit for CU Boulder, our students, faculty, and alumni.

“These decisions are never easy and we’ve valued our 12 years as proud members of the Pac-12 Conference. We look forward to achieving new goals while embarking on this exciting next era as members of the Big 12 Conference.”

Check out how Twitter reacted once Colorado’s Pac-12 exit was official:

Latest episode of Pac-12 humiliation might be the worst … and most costly

The #Pac12 knows how to humiliate itself, but this Colorado mess is far worse than you already knew. We’ll explain.

You know by now that Colorado has voted to return to the Big 12 Conference, and that the Big 12 Conference has approved of the move. The Big 12 released a statement from Brett Yormark about Colorado. It didn’t have to say much, and it didn’t. Yormark, who has completely outmaneuvered George Kliavkoff and the Pac-12, very simply said this about the Buffaloes: “They’re back.”

It was the confident, minimalist statement of a man who knows he is cleaning the Pac-12’s clock.

It’s a mismatch. A wipeout. A rout.

We know how much the Pac-12 has embarrassed itself under Larry Scott. Now George Kliavkoff is being humiliated on the big stage. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 CEO Group continues to show a complete inability to manage situations, handle its commissioners, and steer negotiations toward successful conclusions. This happened under Scott, and it’s happening again.

You know the Pac-12 never misses an opportunity to step on a rake and embarrass itself, but you don’t know a number of details which make this latest debacle that much more remarkable and appalling.

With help from our friends at Buffaloes Wire — specifically this very informative and helpful article — we’ll unpack just how bad this latest Pac-12 embarrassment truly is.

It could be the embarrassment which leads to the extinction of the conference:

Media reaction to Colorado returning to Big 12 and leaving Pac-12

From Desmond Howard to Stewart Mandel to Jon Wilner to @BuffaloesWire, we sample media reactions to Colorado’s #Big12 move:

The Colorado Buffaloes are moving to the Big 12. The Big 12 has approved of Colorado’s return to the conference. Colorado’s board of regents voted to leave the Pac-12 and join the Big 12 on Thursday afternoon.

Our friends at Buffaloes Wire have the details:

“By a unanimous vote of 9-0, the University of Colorado board of regents approved the school’s decision to leave the Pac-12 and rejoin the Big 12 ahead of the 2024-25 academic year.

“The board met on Thursday afternoon and university president Todd Saliman opened with a statement confirming Colorado’s move. ‘We think the time has come to change conferences,’ Saliman said.”

Fans are certainly fascinated by all of this, but we want to take a little time to give you a sampling of the media coverage of this huge story (including from us, as well as Buffaloes Wire, whom you should follow for complete Colorado coverage).

Here’s what some national commentators, writers, reporters, bloggers, and podcasters have said about this potent, explosive development in the world of college sports:

USC fans, ready for the Big Ten, get one last example of Pac-12 incompetence

This Colorado mess could be the end of the #Pac12. It’s a final reminder why #USC fans eagerly wanted out and won’t look back.

As this article is published Thursday morning (just after 10 a.m.) in Los Angeles, the door hasn’t officially closed on the Pac-12. However, all indications are that the conference is about to suffer a crippling blow at some point in the next 30 hours. Colorado is expected to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12, as Buffaloes Wire has noted.

One week ago, Pac-12 insiders were super confident not only that a deal would be reached, but that it also would be very competitive with the Big 12’s price point for its member schools. Sources said the Pac-12 CEO Group’s “patience is about to pay off.” Sources said “it will be worth the wait.”

Waiting was viewed as necessary and good. Commissioner George Kliavkoff said the longer the process went on, the better it was for the Pac-12.

Well, here we are. It should have been a warning sign — an indication of trouble — when Colorado’s athletic director, Rick George, stormed out of the Pac-12 media day event on Friday after George Kliavkoff’s disastrous press conference and public remarks.

USC fans, knowing they have a safe and lucrative home in the Big Ten next year, are feeling quite affirmed. They escaped the sinking ship just in time. They never had to worry about their future — not when the move to the Big Ten was announced one year ago. They and other West Coast college sports fans reacted to the news of the Pac-12’s possible implosion and extinction:

Twitter reaction to reports of Colorado exploring a move to the Big 12

.@BuffaloesWire is extremely busy. We’re also very interested in how this story is resonating on Twitter. See for yourself:

Colorado could be on its way out the door in the Pac-12. The Buffaloes could head for the Big 12, maybe even by the time you read this.

Buffaloes Wire’s Tony Cosolo wrote the following about moving to the Big 12:

“Realignment rumors have been running rampant ever since Deion Sanders was named head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes football team, and I’ll take some credit for bringing up a move to the Big 12 last July. This is mainly because CU football is once again an appealing program for other conferences. Plus, the mismanagement of the Pac-12 Conference essentially forced the Buffs out.”

Follow Buffaloes Wire for continuing coverage of this story.

See how Twitter reacted to the initial reports of Colorado creating another massive realignment earthquake in college sports:

No fan base would be happier to see the Pac-12 die than BYU

Big 12 fans in general would revel in the Pac-12’s demise, but BYU fans have their reasons. No one can blame them.

Yes, Big 12 fans throughout the conference’s central Plains footprint are enjoying the Pac-12’s moment of crisis, anguish and possible death.

If the Arizona schools follow Colorado out the door, that’s the worst-case scenario for the Pac-12. It’s hard to see the conference remaining intact if that happens. Utah would have little to no reason to stick around. The same goes for Washington … and Oregon … and Stanford … and Cal-Berkeley. Washington State and Oregon State don’t want anything more or less than being Pac-12 members, but the other schools have actual options to varying degrees. If the Arizona schools leave, that’s probably it for the Pac-12.

Big 12 fans recall that when their conference was on the ropes a few years ago, people wondered if the Pac-12 would poach the remnants and put the Big 12 out of its existence. The media fueled that line of thought (albeit more out of speculative interest and a desire to get clicks than pure anti-Big 12 animus — that point might be irrelevant to some), and Big 12 fans remembered.

Now that the Pac-12 is in peril, every Big 12 fan is smiling and munching on popcorn.

Of any Big 12 fan base, however, one is especially reveling in this Pac-12 death drama. We’ll walk through the backstory on this one:

Colorado is impatient, so George Kliavkoff has only one chess move left

Deal or no deal? That’s the only relevant question before Colorado’s board of regents meets to leave the Pac-12.

There is really only one move left for George Kliavkoff to make. The question is whether he has the skill and the finesse to pull it off.

You can imagine how frantic and hectic Kliavkoff’s life is right now, on the evening of Wednesday, July 26, 2023. His position as Pac-12 commissioner is truly at stake.

If the conference dies, he’s out of a job. More than that, he will go down in history as the man who failed to keep the Pac-12 together and, ultimately, in existence. No one wants that on his career biography, so if Kliavkoff wants to save everything, including the Pac-12, there’s only one thing he needs to focus on in the next 12 to 20 hours, before Colorado’s board of regents meets to discuss a probable move to the Big 12.

Let’s go through the plot points attached to this one final rescue plan for the Pac-12:

Pac-12 emergency arrives as Colorado considers move to Big 12

.@BuffaloesWire is covering the CU #Big12 story. We & @Ducks_Wire are wondering what George Kliavkoff will do. It’s a 5-alarm fire.

Is this it? Is this the end of the Pac-12? The next 24 hours could be a very wild ride in the conference and in all of college sports.

Our friends at Buffaloes Wire have picked up on the reports from Wednesday afternoon in which the University of Colorado will consider a possible move to the Big 12 Conference at a meeting scheduled for Thursday. Plenty of people close to the situation think the Buffs are pretty much out the door at this point, though that view is not unanimous.

There are a lot of interesting angles to this story, and while we can’t do a deep-dive discussion of all of the various components to this mess, we can at least give you a brief awareness of the scope and reach of this development.

Let’s start by simply noting that over the past weekend, we mentioned that Colorado athletic director Rick George quickly jetted out of Pac-12 media day instead of sticking around for the full day’s proceedings. It might have seemed innocuous to some, but it certainly created an impression and caught some people off guard.

It certainly did not seem like the action a Pac-12 athletic director would take if he was happy about his school’s situation within the conference. It might be that the event was more significant than we knew at the time.

Let’s now dive into this existential crisis for the Pac-12, whose very existence is now legitimately up in the air: