Plati-'Tudes - University of Colorado Athletics

May 16, 2000

A weekly notes column penned by David Plati, who is in his 16th year as Colorado's Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations.

Thanks to Buddy Martin at The International for inviting PR hacks like myself to participate in his media day yesterday... though my Castle Pines-best ever 93 won't rewrite any record books. Yes, 'tis the season to golf, golf, golf.

TRIVIA QUESTIONS... CU-The meat of the college golf season is upon us, as the Buffaloes leave today to participate in the NCAA Central Regional in Victoria, Texas. So with golf on the brain, what distinction do Colorado and Ohio State share? Godfather-What two names did Michael Corleone scream out when he suffered his diabetic stroke in Godfather, Part III?

FOOTBALL SCHEDULING... The question has arisen as to why we're only scheduled to play five home games at Folsom Field for a second straight year. As a member of the football scheduling committee, I thought I'd try to walk through the process for those who might be interested.

First, some background. When the Big 12 was being formed back in the early 1990s, one of the discussions centered around how many conference games should be played. At the time, CU was really the lone dissenter to keep the old count of seven that were played in the Big Eight, but the others all wanted eight. Since that time, most leagues have moved to (or maintained) the eight league game format: ACC, Big 10, Pac-10 and SEC, while the Big East, MWC and WAC play seven conference games. Conference USA had six last year.

So the Big 12 decided upon eight league contests, four home and four road each year. Obviously, in an 11-game regular season, that leaves three non-conference games to schedule. That's a challenge to those schools who want to schedule quality home-and-homes with nationally renowned opponents, and not only for the obvious television opportunities. You need good home-and-homes to play the kind of exciting college football schedule that coaches, players and fans alike enjoy and that have earned CU the NCAA's toughest schedule nod twice in the last decade, especially in this market.

With Colorado State on the schedule every year, we're down to two openings. When CSU is designated as a road game, you have to be able to work the home-and-home arrangements with two other opponents to have the two games in Boulder coincide with the CSU on the road or in Denver. If that can't be done, the result is five home games, or six when we forego a home-and-home arrangement and schedule a one-time opponent visit (i.e., Fresno State, Utah State, and San Jose State in 1998 and 1999). Jupiter won't always align with Mars-we may be looking for two home games, but many others are doing the same in a particular year. And what really skews is it that schools with the largest stadiums (75,000-plus) are always looking to buy home games, and that takes several schools out of the loop. Because of our stadium size, sometimes we have had to work a 2-for-1 (two road games in exchange for one home), like Michigan last decade, for example.

The 1998 Colorado State game, originally scheduled for Fort Collins, was moved to Denver to experiment with a new market for college football. After that game sold out, the next two in the series were also moved to Denver, the '99 game set for Boulder and this year's game, again, originally earmarked for Fort Collins.

Other scheduling fun occurs when conference alignments change, or teams just drop you. We went through that in 1998, when we had Texas and Texas Tech scheduled at home, but when the Big 12 was formed, those games were obviously nuked. It took forever to find decent opponents to fill the holes, even though we knew three years out; it was because most schools were already booked until 2000. The worst case scenario happened to all the schools scheduled to play Southern Methodist right after it received the death penalty in the late 1980s; there was little time to react. As it stands now, most schools have their non-league schedules filled, with a few holes here or there, until 2008.

In 12-game regular seasons coming up in 2002 and 2003, it's business the way we like it at Colorado. As soon as the NCAA approved that piece of legislation, we signed on with a home-and-home with UCLA. Both games are a virtual lock for national or regional television, and since we heavily recruit California, it's an attractive kernel for us in recruiting.

Why are 12 games permitted in some seasons and not others? The easiest way to explain it is in that those years in which there are 14 total Saturdays between the weekend prior to Labor day and the weekend following Thanksgiving (the last weekend in November), a 12th game will be allowed. These years are 2002, 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2014 in the foreseeable future.

I recently did a survey of games added in 2002-03 due to the legislation for a 12th game. With schedules for most schools about 90-95 percent complete through the middle of the decade, the additional game afforded the opportunity for some quality intersectional play. In most cases, a home-and-home series was added; in other cases, schools added a different opponent each year or used one of the 12-game years to couple with another year to fill out a schedule. Here's a list of what's been announced so far, and in many cases, some attractive intersectional match-ups have been scheduled:

Arizona State vs. North Carolina (2002 in Tempe, 2003 in Chapel Hill)
Central Florida vs. Ohio (2002 in Athens, 2003 in Orlando)
Clemson vs. Georgia (2002 and 2003)
Colorado vs. UCLA (2002 in Los Angeles, 2003 in Boulder)
Florida vs. Miami (Fla.) (2002 in Gainesville, 2003 in Miami)
Fresno State vs. San Diego State (2002 in Fresno, 2003 in SD)
Georgia Tech vs. Vanderbilt (2002 in Nashville, 2003 in Atlanta)
Illinois vs. Missouri (2002 and 2003 at the TWA Dome in St. Louis)
Iowa vs. Kansas State (2002 in Manhattan, 2003 in Iowa City)
Kansas vs. Northwestern (2003 in Lawrence)
Louisiana State vs. Arizona (2003 in Tucson)
Louisiana State vs. Miami, Ohio (2002 in Baton Rouge)
Mississippi vs. Louisiana-Monroe (2002 and 2003 in Oxford)
Michigan vs. Washington (2002 in Ann Arbor)
Ohio State vs. Washington (2003 in Columbus)
Oklahoma vs. Southern Methodist (2002 in Dallas, 2003 in Norman)
Purdue vs. Bowling Green (2003 in West Lafayette)
South Carolina vs. Virginia (2002 in Charlottesville, 2003 in Columbia)
Tulane vs. Central Florida (2002 in New Orleans, 2003 in Orlando)
West Virginia vs. Wisconsin (2002 in Madison, 2003 in Morgantown)

Many are still in the scheduling process for those years, and some won't add a 12th game (Stanford, for example). While the concept has been embraced by most, it is added pressure with academics, and schools will need to win seven games to qualify for a bowl instead of six. And in the case of Conference USA schools, since they're expanding that year to include South Florida and TCU, they wound up not canceling a game instead of adding one as they move to eight league games.

NEWSPAPER "MERGER"... In case you haven't heard, the owners of the Denver Post (MediaNews Group) and Rocky Mountain News (Scripps Howard) last week came together and announced plans to form the Denver Newspaper Agency, with each owning 50 percent of the company (one approved by the Justice Department). The two papers would combine operations in production, circulation and advertising, but would continue to maintain separate editorial staffs. Both would publish separately during the week, with the News to publish on Saturday and the Post on Sunday. They've already vowed to keep editorial competition at a premium. The developments took everyone by storm, including most people at both newspapers.

How does this affect CU athletics? It largely remains to be seen, but the obvious thing that comes to mind is there will be only one sports section on Sunday, the day after the bulk of our high profile sporting events (football and men's and women's basketball). It's too early to be alarmed-it could be one gigantic section and they could still send 6-8 writers to a football game or 2-3 to a basketball game. But what will be lost are two different takes on a game story. The stats and notes were usually about the same, but sidebars varied and can always be expanded. The key question is, if the one Sunday paper is a massive edition, what happens to deadlines? Deadlines can affect coverage more than anything. The earlier they are, the less in-depth the coverage will be. Also, the likelihood is that they will send fewer writers on the road for away games, unless it's a game with a lot of magnitude. And with the News not publishing on Sunday, what exactly will its game coverage of college athletics look like? One would assume the Sunday Post sports section will grow in size, but again, it's too soon to predict anything, including if the so called "newspaper war" is even over. That will rage until the merger is approved, and that could take up to two years, if not longer.

We actually have educated our student-athletes on the Denver newspaper war. They need to understand it, know the inner workings of it, and know where they may fit in, especially since it's one of the last five or six great journalism wars in the country.

STRATEGY... Don't be alarmed if CU's track teams finish down the line a bit in this week's Big 12 Championships. Head coach Mark Wetmore has a strategy in mind. Several of CU's top performers will be competing, but necessarily in their best events. The reason is that the NCAA Championships loom June 1-3 in Durham, N.C., and Wetmore and his staff have planned careful strategies for the Buffs to perform their best at nationals. "Would we rather finish seventh or eighth in the conference instead of 10th or 11th in lieu of having as many as five national champions?" Wetmore recently said. It's a valid point, as many members of the team are redshirting this spring, and a first division finish in the Big 12 isn't realistic.

THIS WEEK'S NUMBER... 73.00. That's the stroke average of CU freshman Kane Webber as the Buffaloes embark on their quest for a top 10 finish in the NCAA Finals next month. But first, CU must finish in the top nine of this week's Central Regional in Victoria, Texas, in order to advance, and Webber's team leading average is a key reason the Buffs have enjoyed a fine season to date. Webber has been very consistent, especially for a freshman, and 28 of his 29 rounds have counted towards team scoring. He was recently named the newcomer of the year in the Big 12 Conference.

TRIVIA ANSWERS... CU-Colorado and Ohio State each have had four alumni win the U.S. Open; Hale Irwin (1974, 1979, 1990) and Steve Jones (1996) are the Buffaloes who have won, while Jack Nicklaus has won all four for the Buckeyes. No other schools boast as many as four. Grad assistant SID Brendan McNicholas notes a common link between Irwin and Nicklaus: "They're both Fiji's." Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brothers, that is (as is McNicholas). Now that's trivia! Godfather-While trying to be controlled by Vincent (Andy Garcia) and Al (Richard Bright), he screamed the names "Altobello," the old don who betrayed him, and "Fredo," his younger brother he ordered Al to kill at the end of The Godfather, Part II.

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"Plati-'Tudes" features notes and stories that may not get much play from the mainstream media; offers CU's take on issues raised by those who have an interest in the program; answers questions and concerns; and provides CU's point of view if we should disagree with what may have been written or broadcast. Have a question or want to know CU's take on something? E-mail Dave at david.plati@colorado.edu, and the subject may appear in the next Plati-'Tudes.