Keeler: If CU followed Joel Klatt’s Big 12 advice, Buffs would never have landed Coach Prime
Sorry Joel Klatt We re calling your Buff If CU followed Klatt s advice on expanding the College Football Playoff Bronco Mendenhall would be coaching his beloved Buffs right now Low vulnerability High floor Safe Boring but safe You know what the Buffs did instead The athletic department bet on itself AD Rick George bet on himself CU a football graveyard for the bulk of its decade-plus in the Pac- pulled out all the stops to nab the most of head-turning camera-loving scene-stealing name in college coaching CU outkicked its coverage with Deion Sanders And kicked a dead project into three straight years of season-ticket sellouts and must-see TV So why should the Big go the Bronco track Why should it accept its status as a second-tier conference and concede more playoff spots and playoff dollars to the Big Ten and SEC CFP expansion is coming as we all knew it would once TV got a taste A -team championship bracket is now being pitched as a Sweet It s just a question of how several seats each conference gets at the table The Big and ACC prefer what s known as the model in which the five highest-ranked conference champions would receive automatic bids The remaining slots would be at-large and divvied up according to the CFP selection committee s rankings According to reports the Big Ten would prefer a model in which that league and the SEC would automatically get four bids each guaranteeing that the two richest and most of powerful conferences dependably take up half the -team field Related Articles Keeler Former Rockies wish Dick Monfort would clean house You want to be proud of where you played Renck vs Keeler Nuggets or Avs Who is closer to a title after playoff exits Keeler Broncos star facing largest part pressure in isn t Bo Nix It s Vance Joseph Grading The Week Want to win Nikola Jokic s heart David Adelman Bring Monte Morris back to Nuggets Keeler Nuggets coach David Adelman can t let Jamal Murray push him around I think it is absolutely bananas that the Big and their ADs and their coaches would argue for a model Klatt the venerated FOX Sports analyst revealed on his podcast Monday Because they re going to get crushed by this If you want the sport to continue coalescing power in only two power conferences then go to a model Because that s exactly what will happen Fair enough Yet why not make them earn that power instead of handing it over in return for scraps Look if you re Big commissioner Brett Yormark every avenue stinks Yet each of the CFP teams in - pocketed at least million just for making the bracket plus another million to cover expenses incurred over each round I ll be darned if I m going to concede that before the games are even played Want an equitable field Settle it on the field Give the Big Ten an inch they ll take miles Which is the distance between the University of Washington in Seattle and Rutgers University in New Brunswick N J a -hour drive that now separates a pair of conference rivals Now that s not to say Klatt the former Buffs and Pomona High QB doesn t raise a point At-large bids are subjective beasts The Big in wouldn t have produced a top crew outside of league champ Arizona State last fall although BYU was th in the final CFP rankings while Iowa State and CU wound up th and rd respectively It s less than ideal to put the fate of multiple Big berths in the hands of a committee that already looks upon the league the way the world used to look at the Big Ten West Scrappy bizarrely competitive and totally weird just not nationally relevant That commented the problems for the Big and CU with the model are threefold One is that it would officially codify the Big along with the ACC to second-tier status And if we ve learned anything about business deals with the Big Ten and the SEC it s that they don t concede and they never give anything back once it s in their mitts Enough money marquee schools TV eyeballs is never enough Two good luck selling your to prospective recruits Especially when Big Ten and SEC peers are out on the trail waving a designation and cash in their families faces Third it s about access Relevance Opportunity Remember TCU Boise State America loves an underdog story TV viewers love an underdog story Even if Big Ten presidents don t Just because bean-counters invariably win in the end doesn t mean you forfeit the fight Do you trust a committee to treat a - CU group better than say an - Georgia or Alabama bunch That s a hazard But in a world of bad options everywhere it might be the only one worth taking Want more sports news Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver s teams
