Colorado Buffaloes fans have been waiting in limbo as they wait for word to come down on whether they will be moving to the Pac-10 conference in the 2011 or 2012 season. In June, the University gave notice to the Big 12 conference that they would be moving to the Pac-10 in 2012, satisfying the conferences requirement of two years notice. However, after Nebraska and Utah announced they would be joining the Big 10 and Pac-10 respectively in 2011, it makes much more sense for Colorado to make that same move a year early. Doing so would allow the conferences to go ahead and start scheduling for the future now and would avoid any years of 11 teams in both the Big 12 and Pac-10.
Source says the Buffs will move in 2011 after the jump...
The holdup has always come down to finances, as the Big 12 requires a higher exit fee if a school leaves on only one year's notice. Hopefully, we will see some resolution on the issue soon as the Colorado regents are meeting today to "discuss a specific legal matter and will likely meet in public session afterward to talk about "athletic conference negotiations.":
When Colorado announced in June it would be leaving the Big 12 for the Pac-10 in 2012, school officials said they believed it would cost between $9 million and $14.5 million to make the move. That is not money the school pays the Big 12. It is conference distribution revenue the athletic department forfeits under Big 12 bylaws as a withdrawal fee for leaving the league.
Conferences distribute revenue from television, postseason appearances and other sources to their members at the end of every fiscal year. Colorado would simply lose somewhere between 50 and 80 percent of its slice of the pie from the Big 12 for the two years for which it gave notice, regardless of when it leaves.
When it invited Colorado to join its ranks, the Pac-10 offered to help defray the up-front cost of switching conferences by supplementing the lost distributions from the Big 12. Colorado could then pay back the Pac-10 by taking smaller conference distributions in the first few years it is in that league.
**Update** 9:45 am: Chip Brown is now reporting that he is hearing that CU will be making the move to the Pac-10 in 2011:
Sources tell Orangebloods.com Colorado will join the Pac-10 in 2011 with an announcement likely next week. ... http://bit.ly/pajFd
Chip Brown
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