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  • Keeler: CU Buffs transfers wonder what 2025 under Deion Sanders would’ve looked like if they stayed: ‘They missed out’

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    Noah Fenske had his luggage with him Saturday. It wasn’t Louis.

    “Just Under Armour,” the former CU Buffs offensive lineman texted me from his vacation in Nashville.

    While on the road with his fiancée, Fenske’s also been keeping an eye on an old CU teammate, Alex Harkey. Oregon’s starting right tackle? Yeah, he used to be a Buff.

    Harkey, a 6-foot-6, 327-pound redshirt senior, is prepping for a Friday night showdown with Indiana — and another former CU player, the Hoosiers’ Kahlil Benson — in one College Football Playoff semifinal. The Ducks’ bruiser helped Oregon put up 245 passing yards and convert four fourth-down conversions on The Best Defense Money Can Buy, blanking Texas Tech 23-0 in the Orange Bowl.

    He’d transferred into CU as a 305-pounder out of Tyler (Texas) Junior College, a 3-star who was weighing offers from Middle Tennessee and Old Dominion. After appearing in 12 games, largely as a reserve guard, Harkey was one of the kids from CU’s 2022 recruiting class swept out in the great Deion Sanders roster purge during the spring of 2023.

    Fenske, who played in seven games with the Buffs in ’22, was Harkey’s roommate at CU. He got swept away, too. Under Armour was out, Louis Vuitton luggage was in.

    “(Harkey has) done incredible, man,” Fenske gushed. “Because when he first came in (to CU), he wasn’t what he is now. And just seeing his transformation from being a (backup) guard on a 1-11 team to being a first-round or second-round (NFL) draft pick …”

    Big Alex could play. So could wideout Jordyn Tyson (Arizona State). And cornerback Simeon Harris (Fresno State). And quarterback Owen McCown, once he’d had some more brisket. McCown, who played as a wafer-thin true freshman at CU in ’22, threw for 30 touchdowns at UTSA this past fall — including three in a 57-20 win over Florida International in the First Responder Bowl.

    “We just stay connected, support each other’s success,” Harris, who still belongs to a group chat of former Buffs, told me over the weekend. “You’ve got to expect the unexpected. That (purge) hit us all in the mouth.”

    CU fans talk a lot — a lot — about 1-11 in 2022. About rock bottom. About Coach Prime lighting the candle for the climb out of obscurity.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Keeler: Deion Sanders isn’t enough. CU Buffs football needs a sugar daddy for Christmas.

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    Omarion Miller finished Julian Lewis’ passes the way Meg Ryan finished Billy Crystal’s sentences in “When Harry Met Sally.”

    Alas, there won’t be a happy ending. Or a sequel.

    Miller — the CU Buffs’ leading receiver in 2025 — announced Wednesday that he was entering the transfer portal. And apparently Tawfiq Byard will have whatever Miller’s having. The Buffs safety, CU’s best defensive player this past fall despite playing much of it with just one working hand, also plans to transfer out of BoCo next month.

    Pain is a process. The gut says, “If we can go 3-9 with you, we can go 3-9 without you, dude.”

    The head says something else. Something along the lines of, “Man, Deion Sanders could really, really use a sugar daddy this Christmas.”

    Remember when the Buffs hired Coach Prime and finally got out ahead of the college football curve?

    That lasted about 16 to 18 months.

    Celebrity coaches are out.

    Celebrity investors are in.

    Texas Tech, per YahooSports.com, raised about $49 million for student-athletes from July 2024 to July 2025. A new Red Raiders donor group, called the Athletic Donor Circle, had already pledged roughly $35 million as of early November.

    Last week, Utah became the first Power 4 athletic department to formally partner with a private equity firm. ESPN.com reports that Otro Capital out of New York is ready to pump $400 million into the Utes.

    Texas Tech bought the best team on the planet, went 12-1, won the Big 12 title and earned a bye in the College Football Playoff. Utah posted a 10-2 record and beat the Buffs 53-7 in late October.

    CU athletics, meanwhile, is reportedly staring at a potential $27 million deficit for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, according to multiple outlets. Thank players and Prime, primarily.

    Sanders’ salary went up by nearly $5 million for 2025 after his new extension kicked in. The House vs. NCAA settlement required CU to share revenues with student-athletes starting this past July 1, with a cap of $20.5 million for this fiscal cycle. Yet it’s hard to imagine good players such as Miller and Byard taking pay cuts at their next ports of call, isn’t it?

    Buffs officials saw the train coming years ago, even as the bills keep piling up. Which is why the indoor practice facility is now sponsored by Mountain States Ford Stores. And why artificial turf was installed at Folsom Field — so the stadium could be utilized more often as a host to revenue-driving events outside the athletic calendar.

    Concerts and uniform sponsorships — UNLV will reportedly collect about $2.2 million annually over the next five years from Acesso Biologics, its new “Official Jersey Patch Partner” — will only cover so much. The student-athlete revenue sharing pool is expected to increase by 4% next year. Sanders is slated to make $11 million in 2027, $11 million in 2028 and $12 million in 2029.

    The Buffs can’t play at the same poker tables as the Red Raiders and Utes — or retain star players — without a serious influx of cash. Utah is pointing the way now. Not CU.

    College football is so broken. The system? The system — and by that, we mean greedy college presidents and the corporate suits they propped up as conference commissioners — for too long took advantage of student-athletes as a pool of indentured labor, as entertainment contractors on the cheap. A free market for talent was overdue. But the pendulum has swung so hard the other way that roster retention is the stuff of satire now.

    Bowls? Bowls are nothing more than three-hour infomercials for some random chamber of commerce or provincial company you’ve never heard of; exhibitions propped up by Disney stiffs to eat up programming blocks over the holidays. When Iowa State and Kansas State would sooner eat a million bucks in league fines than join in, that ship’s sailed. (Not you, Pop-Tarts Bowl. You’re weirdly perfect. And perfectly weird.)

    Fans? Fans are caught in the crossfire, casualties in the battle of dollars over sense. Ticket prices and point-of-entry fees will skyrocket. Pay-per-view will become more the norm than the exception. Universities will pass the cost to the consumer.

    The Buffs vow that they won’t cut sports — and with only 13 non-football options offered, they don’t have much room on that front to cut, anyway. They’ve vowed that they won’t lop student-athlete services, although outgoing athletic director Rick George laid off two track coaches last spring.

    Something’s gotta give. Of course, if Coach Prime wanted to help retain student-athletes, he could donate half of his $10 million salary to the revenue-sharing pool. That’s not happening.

    In an effort to slow the chaos, FBS scholarships could require a minimum of two years of service at your initial college of choice coming out of high school. But that’s not happening, either.

    As of early Friday morning, at least 11 CU players had expressed interest in transferring out. Among the Big 12 programs that didn’t change coaches (Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State), only West Virginia had seen more defections (19) as of mid-December than the Buffs.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Keeler: Broncos won’t just be playing in Super Bowls. Thanks to Burnham Yard, we’ll be hosting them

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    Second stadium down, one Yard to go.

    Before you blow your top over the lid at Burnham Yard, the prospective home of the Denver Broncos starting in 2031, did you know that, since 1990, the average temperature of a playoff home game in the Mile High City was 40 degrees?

    And that of the Broncos’ last 15 postseason games in Denver, eight of them — per Pro-Football-Reference.com — were played in temperatures 37 degrees or warmer? The last five Empower Field playoff temps: 43, 46, 40, 41, 63.

    Snow down, Broncomaniacs.

    Denver won’t just be playing in Super Bowls over the next decade.

    We’ll be hosting them.

    “The Broncos have been, since Day 1 of the franchise, an important fabric and part of the community in Denver,” Broncos CEO Greg Penner told The Denver Post’s Parker Gabriel in an exclusive interview. “Finding a site of that size that we could weave into the downtown area and all that just was incredibly unique, combined with the historic nature of the site. …

    “We have the bones of the old railyard and a couple of buildings and a unique site that we think enables us to create something unique and special, both with the stadium and the mixed-use development around it.”

    The Walton-Penner Group just raised the roof without raising taxes. Despite overtures from Lone Tree and Aurora, they’re keeping the Broncos in Denver. Where they belong.

    In other words, Penner and his wife Carrie Walton-Penner read the room the way Peyton Manning read defenses at the line of scrimmage.

    “We’re really thrilled that they came with that partnership mentality and not, like we’ve seen in other cities, ‘You give us a bunch of money or we’ll leave,’” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis told The Post. “I think the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group is deeply committed to Denver and deeply committed to the community.”

    No overt public money.

    No political campaign.

    No drama.

    No games.

    Well, except the big stuff. The biggest. For decades, the Super Bowl, the Final Four, the College Football Playoff, the World Cup or WrestleMania had a reason to fly over the Front Range and wave to us while they were taking their respective parties elsewhere.

    Not anymore. You want a venue with 60,000-plus seats that can host Taylor Swift in March or April? Check. You want a venue where football fans can still feel the elements on an autumn gameday? Got that, too. Open that bad boy up and let the Colorado sunshine in.

    We don’t need the cool kids on the coasts to tell us Denver is the best darn sports city in America. But building a multi-purpose stadium at Burnham Yard gives the Front Range many more chances to prove it — and on the largest stages imaginable.

    New Orleans officials recently estimated that Super Bowl LIX was worth more than $1.25 billion in economic impact to the Crescent City. San Antonio boasted an economic bump of $440 million from hosting the Men’s Basketball Final Four this past April.

    You wouldn’t want a piece of that?

    The Penners do. And thank goodness.

    “The goal is to create something that is active on gameday,” Penner stressed to The Post, “but also (for) the rest of the year.”

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    Sean Keeler

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  • CSU Rams announce decision to join Pac-12 Conference

    CSU Rams announce decision to join Pac-12 Conference

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    CSU is joining a revamped and re-stocked Pac-12 Conference.

    According to a report published late Wednesday night by Yahoo Sports, the long-standing collegiate league, which was ravaged by membership defections — including that of the CU Buffs — over the past 18 months, is moving forward with plans to expand.

    The first wave of that expansion includes four of the top athletic brands from the Mountain West: CSU, Boise State, San Diego State and Fresno State, will all four becoming members on July 1, 2026.

    “We are taking control of our future at CSU by forming an alliance of six peer institutions who will serve as the foundation for a new era of the Pac-12,” CSU President Amy Parsons said in a news release announcing the move.

    “This move elevates CSU in a way which benefits all our students, bolsters our core mission, and strengthens our reputation for academic and research excellence. CSU is honored to be among the universities asked to help carry on the history and tradition of the Pac-12 as a highly competitive conference with some of the nation’s leading research institutions.”

    The Rams, whose football program hosts rival CU in the Rocky Mountain Showdown for the first time at Canvas Stadium on Saturday, are a founding member of the Mountain West Conference, a league which began operations in January 1999.

    By accepting an invitation from the Pac-12, CSU will gain association with what the athletic department has sought for decades — membership within a “power” conference.

    “This moment has been a long time coming,” CSU authentic director John Weber said. “I know our students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and fans are hungry for this move and are going to love what comes next as CSU charts a transformational new course as a member of the Pac-12.”

    The Pac-12, which was founded in 1915, has historically been the most prestigious collegiate league west of the Central time zone. However, that prestige, and indeed its membership, were crippled by the defections of CU, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State to the Big 12; USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten; and Stanford and Cal to the ACC.

    Washington State and Oregon State were left with the conference’s holdings, trademarks and media rights. Per Yahoo Sports, the remaining Pac-12 programs believe they can rebuild the brand with the likes of the Rams, Aztecs, Broncos and Bulldogs as peers.

    They’re also not done looking at new members, as the NCAA requires a minimum of eight schools to qualify as an FBS conference.

    CSU football plays at Oregon State on Oct. 5 as part of a scheduling alliance between the MW and the remains of the Pac-12, a partnership that Yahoo Sports reports will not continue for a second fall.

    Mountain West members are contracted to pay a $17 million exit fee to leave the league.

    The primary motivations for CSU are the same reasons CU left the Pac-12 this past summer — money, prestige, potential access to the College Football Playoff, and stability.

    While the mass defections from the Pac-12 would denounce the latter, Yahoo Sports reports that the remaining Pac-12 members feel a new-look league would reach a media rights agreement worth more than the current or expected payouts presented to MW members.

    The Mountain West has a $270 million television contract with CBS and Fox that runs through 2026.

    Published reports have estimated that non-Boise members of the MW, including CSU, receive roughly $3.5 million annually from that deal, with the Broncos receiving an additional $1.8 million per year.

    CSU noted in its financial report to the NCAA for the 2022-23 fiscal year, the most recent public report available, that its media rights revenues from all sources, including conference distributions, was $3.3 million.

    The Yahoo Sports report infers that the Rams could also have access to Pac-12 assets such as “monies from the Rose Bowl contract, College Football Playoff, NCAA basketball tournament units and Pac-12 Enterprises, previously the Pac-12 Network.”

    CSU indicated in its announcement Thursday morning that the four new schools “will have immediate voting privileges” within the conference.

    “We have nothing but the utmost respect and appreciation for the Mountain West and its members,” Parsons said. “There will be conversations going forward about the Mountain West exit fees and Pac-12 support for our transition. We are confident the path forward will not impact our current university budget and will set CSU up for incredible opportunities to come.”

    However, the two-team Pac-12 recently lost its status as a Power 5/”autonomous” conference within the CFP — and it’s not clear whether supplementing the expanded league with Group of 5 programs would restore those privileges.

    CSU athletics reported revenues of $64.3 million to the NCAA for the ’22-23 fiscal year this past January. The Rams’ revenues of $61.2 million, per a USA Today database, ranked fourth among known MW athletics budgets in ’21-22, behind Air Force, San Diego State and UNLV. Wazzu and Oregon State had revenues of $85 million and $83.5 million in ’21-22, respectively.

    Originally Published:

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Georgia Bulldogs crush the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs 65-7 to win second consecutive College Football Playoff National Championship | CNN

    Georgia Bulldogs crush the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs 65-7 to win second consecutive College Football Playoff National Championship | CNN

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    CNN
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    The No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs scored on their first six drives and dominated No. 3 Texas Christian University 65-7 to win their second consecutive College Football Playoff championship game on Monday night in Inglewood, California.

    In the convincing win, Heisman Trophy-finalist quarterback Stetson Bennett passed for four touchdowns and ran for two more to lead the Bulldogs (15-0), who became the first team to win back-to-back national titles since Alabama in 2011 and 2012.

    Bennett finished 18-of-25 with 304 yards passing in his final collegiate contest. He left the game with 13:25 remaining in the fourth quarter.

    Georgia built a 38-7 halftime lead, scoring the final 28 points before intermission after TCU’s Max Duggan, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, rushed for a touchdown that made it 10-7 with 5:45 left in the first quarter.

    The Bulldogs controlled play and the clock in the half, having the ball for almost 19 of the first 30 minutes and outgaining the Horned Frogs (13-2) 354 yards to just 121.

    The onslaught continued in the second half until Georgia head coach Kirby Smart effectively called off the dogs and began using more second-team players in the fourth quarter. By then it was 52-7.

    Georgia’s Ladd McConkey, a sophomore wide receiver, had two touchdown grabs, including a wide-open, 37-yard reception that brought the first six of the Bulldogs’ 55 consecutive points.

    Sophomore tight end Brock Bowers, the national player of the year at his position, had one touchdown catch in his seven receptions and 152 yards receiving.

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