Everything we learned during Rick George’s media availability

BOULDER — We’ve got news!

Colorado athletic director Rick George spoke with reporters during a 45-minute Zoom call Thursday morning. He discussed a range of topics, including the NIL changes, the financial situation and, of course, Ralphie.

Here’s what went down.

A lot of congratulations

George started out his opening statement by talking about all of the things he’s proud of over the past year. The list included:

• A 3.139 cumulative GPA this spring, the best ever at CU
• The women’s basketball team’s progress
• The soccer team earning an NCAA Tournament berth for the sixth consecutive season
• The lacrosse team appeared in the Pac-12 title game
• The men’s basketball team
• The football team making it to a bowl game
• The tennis team “maybe” having the best season in its history
• Sage Hurta, John Dressel, Abby Nichols and Eduardo Herrera’s performances in track
• Joe Klecker, Morgan Pearson, Emma Coburn and Val Constien for qualifying for the Olympics

CU ran an $18 million deficit

We knew the financial news was going to be bad, but it could have been a lot worse.

Although George won’t have the official numbers for the fiscal year that ended after last month for about three more weeks, he said that revenues decreased by $40-45 million and Colorado ran a deficit of about $18 million. Considering Colorado couldn’t sell tickets last season after making $23 million in ticket revenue in the previous fiscal year, the deficit isn’t all that big.

“To operate the way we did, I feel really good about it,” George said. “We had to do some difficult things with furloughs and layoffs. We’re starting to bring people back so I’m excited about that.”

The Pac-12 secured a loan for all of its member institutions to fund the deficits caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Colorado will pay back the loan over the next seven or eight years, according to George.

He’s excited about the NIL change

George spent close to half of his availability speaking about the new name, image and likeness rules in the NCAA, mostly because of the questions he was asked.

The overwhelming takeaway is that George likes the change.

“I’m excited for our student-athletes and I’m excited for student-athletes around the country to be able to monetize their name, image and likeness just like the students on our campus,” George said. “I think it’s a natural progression, as I’ve said before, that I think we need to do. We’ve done a lot for student-athletes over the last five to 10 years, at least in the almost eight years that I’ve been here; we have unlimited meals, full cost of attendance, the tutors, the investment that a lot of departments like ours have made in the area of mental health. There’s just a number of things that we’re doing to provide for our student-athletes. I think the name, image, likeness is a natural step in that progress.”

George also noted that a consistent NIL policy across the country should be a priority.

“I think it’s important that we have one set of rules,” George said. “I think having 19 states that have different rules that people are going to follow and you’ve got 31 states where they can make up their own — that doesn’t work. It causes confusion, particularly for a high school student-athlete that’s coming out.”

George wants his athletics department to look at it as an opportunity rather than a hurdle, and he noted that even though Colorado doesn’t have the same flexible parameters of other schools, it still has plenty to offer student-athletes.

“Our whole student-athlete program, I think, is one of the best in the country,” George said. “They’re collecting all those data points on career leadership, mental health, academics, sports, medicine, nutrition, all those areas — there’s a lot more than NIL.”

Look for more on George’s NIL comments from Thursday on TheDNVR.com in the coming days. So much was said that everything can’t be boiled down here.

Colorado scheduled more football games

Maybe the biggest news of the day was George’s announcement of seven new football games that have been added to Colorado’s schedule between 2025 and 2037.

The Buffs will now play Wyoming, SMU, North Texas and Oklahoma State, with all but the Wyoming game being part of a home-and-home series.

Check out all the details here.

No update on Ralphie

Ralphie V retired halfway through the 2019 season and Colorado announced over a year ago that a potential Ralphie VI had been identified.

Since then, there’s been no news. The new buffalo could be ready to go, or it could have been rejected. It’s anybody’s guess what is going on.

George was asked for an update and didn’t give much of a response.

“Well, you know, I can’t talk about Ralphie too much. You know, she’s a secret. But no, I’m just kidding.”

Read what you want into that.

Later on, when talking about full capacity at Folsom Field, George brought Ralphie up again. I’ll include a long version of the quote for context.

“I think we’re gonna have a lot of people in our stands and I can’t wait to see them come back,” he said. “And I can’t wait for some of our freshmen that didn’t get to run behind Ralphie or get to experience big crowds be able to see what Folsom delivers.”

It might be nothing. It might be a good sign. Decide for yourself.

Vaccinations are going well

George was asked about whether CU will continue testing for Covid-19. He said that the school will work with the Pac-12 to make those decisions, noting that there’s different protocols in different states and cities.

He also noted that a high percentage of the student-athletes have been vaccinated.

“I’m really happy about that,” George said. “I think that’s going to be good for Colorado.”

He also said that the university will allow students and faculty to apply for an exemption and that student-athletes who decline the vaccine can go through that process.

He’s excited about George Kliavkoff

George Kliavkoff officially took over the Pac-12 commissioner job July 1.

George, along with the rest of the Pac-12 athletic directors, met with Kliavkoff in Las Vegas recently, and everything went well according to George.

“He’s very knowledgeable,” George said. “He’s got the right enthusiasm and excitement about his role and what it means.”

George noted Kliavkoff’s background in digital media, in particular.

“I think that’s going to bode well as we talk about our TV partnerships and our TV process moving forward,” George said.

According to George, Kliavkoff will visit Boulder a couple of times in the near future to meet with student-athletes, coaches, donors and administrators.

Ticket sales are solid

Single-game tickets for the upcoming season just went on sale this week, and so far the results are promising.

“Our public sales was one of the best we’ve had since I’ve been here,” George said. “We’ve got a quality home schedule with (Texas) A&M in Denver, and Minnesota, and USC, Washington, Arizona and Oregon State, and UNC-Greeley.”

While it’s a good home schedule, not having a game against Nebraska — like CU did in 2019 — makes the season-ticket package a little less appealing than the last time Colorado had fans in the stands. That’s what George credits for the decrease in season-ticket renewal rate from 86% in 2019 to 77% so far this year.

“I feel really good about where we’re at with that and I think it’s gonna continue to get better,” George said.

Basketball season-tickets are underway as well, and George was happy with those numbers as well.

It’s time to upgrade some facilities

George has a laundry list of facilities investments he wants to make, including:

• Upgrading the sound system at Folsom Field
• Improving the west side of Folsom Field
• Improving the flooring at Folsom Field
• Building a lacrosse stadium
• Building a tennis stadium

George said he’s “hopeful that in the next five or six years we can accomplish a lot of those things.” He wants to have a plan in place within six to nine months.

Of course, money is a concern.

“I don’t like being in a deficit and we’ve always managed our resources really well,” George said. “But we’ve got to think big if we’re going to do big things and we’re going to thing big because there’s a lot ahead of us.”