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Good morning to everyone but especially to…
THE COLORADO BUFFALOES
Welcome back, Colorado! The university’s board of regents unanimously adopted a resolution to move the school from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 on Thursday, one day after the Big 12’s presidents and chancellors unanimously voted to add the Buffaloes. Colorado will officially switch conferences next summer.
Colorado joined the Big Six in 1947, was a founding member of the Big 12 in 1996 and left for the Pac-12 in 2011. Colorado reuniting with the Big 12 was months in the making, and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said simply, “They’re back,” alluding to Michael Jordan‘s 1995 return to the Bulls.
It’s a busy time for the Big 12, which adds BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF this year and loses Texas and Oklahoma in 2024.
The Buffaloes are coming off a 1-11 football season and haven’t won a bowl game since 2004. But the program’s entire trajectory changed — off the field certainly and on the field hopefully — with the hiring of Deion Sanders in December. “Coach Prime” has directed a massive roster overhaul, bringing in the nation’s top transfer class, including his son, Shedeur Sanders, and former No. 1 overall recruit Travis Hunter from Jackson State.
Will Backus compiled a timeline of how the move happened, and Dennis Dodd detailed why the Pac-12, still without a media deal, is a conference on the brink.
Dodd: “The Pac-12’s failings bear repeating: The league likely had its choice of Big 12 schools — twice. In 2010, then-commissioner Larry Scott’s bold move to raid the Big 12 of half its teams fell just short. More than a decade later, when Texas and Oklahoma announced they were departing for the SEC in 2021, the opportunity existed to pick the bones of a…..
