PHOTOS: See how Colorado State pitched themselves to Big 12

Colorado State to the Big 12? It could happen. Now, let’s take a look at how the school pitched itself to the Power 5 conference.

SB Nation has obtained a 12-page document sent by CSU to the Big 12 sometime before the 2015 college football season. This comes after ESPN’s Jake Trotter reported last week of a letter sent to CSU, and other potential Big 12 additions, from Gordon Gee who’s in charge of exploring expansion candidates.

The 12-page packet sent by Colorado State’s athletic department has several important selling points that are worth noting.

First and foremost is the Denver metro area and all the potential it brings to the Big 12 conference. The packet states:

“Colorado State University has built a powerful position in one of the nation’s most attractive and fastest-growing regions, the Denver metropolitan area. This metro area, which includes Fort Collins, has 1.6 million TV households, ranking it 17th nationally… This thriving metro area includes 3 million people, $158 billion in gross domestic product from 115,000-plus businesses, and 1.5 million workers.

In Denver alone, Colorado State has nearly 50,000 living alumni, and that figure jumps to more than 85,000 living in the entire metro area along the Front Range.”

In addition to a robust Colorado media market. CSU social media channels have almost 760,000 subscribers and CSU in-house publications reach an audience of 2.2 million.” While adding, “Big 12 schools have more than 52,000 alumni living in Colorado.” Some 30,000 of those Big 12 alumni live in the Denver area per LinkedIn. Simply, the Denver market is a huge selling point. As is the growth of the Metro Area and marketing potential.

Not just potential growth but actual growth was a big part of CSU’s packet to the Big 12. It stated, “Our University commitment to Athletics has increased 45.7% in the past five years…total university commitment to Rams football has increased 47.4% in five years.”

The commitment to Athletics was also shown through several of the recent upgrades made for the Athletic Department in the recent past or that are currently in the works. Highlights were:

– $7 million, Anderson Academic Training Center

– $13 million, Indoor Practice Facility

– 41,200 capacity of the under construction on-campus football stadium

– $11.5 million expansion and renovation of Moby Arena

The monetary commitment is important to showcase, but the new football stadium’s capacity is also very important here and in fact necessary to get CSU to acceptable Big 12 levels.

Aside from the potential for financial growth, actual growth is absolutely a theme throughout. The document also highlights the recent athletic success the Rams have had. From Garrett Grayson as a Heisman Trophy Aspirant, to Rashard Higgins coming in second for the Belitnikoff Award, to the Volleyball team’s 20 year NCAA run; the Rams are throwing the sink at the Big 12 on this one. The highlights were:

Football:

• Rams have produced 14 draft picks since the turn of the century
• A winning record against the Power 5 in the last three years (true at the time but not after overtime losses to CU and Minnesota in 2015)
• 12 Bowl games in 21 years (that’s now 13 in 22)

Volleyball: (Surprisingly maybe, but rightfully the second sport mentioned on this list by CSU)

• 20 consecutive years in NCAA tournament
• Advanced to Sweet 16 for the ninth time
• Just won sixth straight conference championship
• Among national leaders in attendance

Men and Women’s Basketball:

• Ranked in Top 25 for second time in three seasons
• 4 of 5 postseason appearances in five years, three in NCAA tournament
• Becky Hammon gets a mention as does the ladies 2014 MW regular season title

There’s lots to like there and almost all the highlighted achievements are directly trying to remind the reader of recent success, while pointing out the growth Rams’ athletics has experienced in recent years. There’s no denying that CSU has inched into being one of the best non-Power 5 programs out there. The commitment to athletics, highlighted with some of the figures we talked about above, have certainly paid off in recent years, making this a selling point the Rams tried to drive home. Another important athletic success that is repeated in several pages of the document is CSU being “…one of the fewer than 20 division I institutions with no major NCAA infractions in our history.”

In another section of the packet the Rams listed a chart comparing CSU to other potential Big 12 suitors such as UConn, South Florida, Cincinnati, Central Florida and BYU. As it’s put in the packet the “…fundraising and alumni engagement numbers really stand out.” The figures reported by the university are of $172M raised in the 2014 fiscal year and of over 10-percent increase in total Alumni donors in the 2015 fiscal year. These are certainly impressive numbers that are far better than any of the other suitors.

SB Nation clarified this above document came from the President of the university’s office (Tony Frank).

 

In these two slides, we see Colorado State comparing themselves to the Big 12 in terms of enrollment, student to faculty ratio and more. Then, CSU goes onto explain recent gifts to the school, both in terms of academics and athletics. They’re showing the Big 12 what we all already know; the university is trying to and excelling in both areas.

The final interesting selling point that CSU proposed was the geographic proximity to all of the Big 12’s current members. The list shows that the only team farther than a two hour flight is West Virginia, which is still listed as only 2.5 hours away (this is largely and rightfully disputed by SB Nation’s article, but that’s beside the point). The packet also mentions the proximity of CSU’s campus to both Denver International Airport and the Fort Collins Municipal Airport. Suggesting that travel from CSU will won’t be an issue both for traveling teams and fans. Geography has always been a big selling point for CSU in the Big 12 and this is an important thing to highlight.

“Rams Own the State” is of course from when the men’s basketball team and football teams defeated CU in 2014. Here, we see a look into the future by CSU; not just what they’ve been doing, but where they’re going next. Cool stuff.

We see the reiteration of Colorado State’s facilities, reminding the Big 12 Fort Collins’ school is up to par with the conference they’d like to join.

Overall, the Rams make a strong case for themselves and lay it out well on all sides.

The market and growing Denver metro area are a slam dunk. The athletic growth is undeniable both economically and how that has translated onto the on-the-field success. The continued commitment is evident with the ongoing stadium project and the large investments made in facilities over the last few years. What’s also finally clear is that whether they will admit it publicly or not, the Rams athletic department is very interested in making this move and joining the big boys of the NCAA.

Time will tell soon if that’s a reality or not.