University of Colorado at Boulder Parent Guide
CU Buffaloes Charging Into the Pac-12
On July 1, 2011 the Pac-10 Conference officially became the Pac-12 with the additions of CU-Boulder and the University of Utah, signaling a new beginning in intercollegiate athletics west of the Mississippi.
Already known as the “Conference of Champions,” the Pac-10 celebrated its 400th NCAA championship in May when Arizona State won the women’s softball title. Fast-forward six weeks, and the number jumped to 442, when the crowns won by Colorado (22) and Utah (20) were officially added to the count. The new Pac-12 has almost 200 more titles than its nearest competing conference (the SEC).
What does this mean for the University of Colorado Boulder? It’s not like the 15 years the Buffaloes spent in the Big 12 was chopped liver, but joining the Pac-12 is a step up athletically across the board, as no one does Olympic sports like CU’s new brethren who occupy the Pacific Time Zone.
While the Buffaloes are at the top nationally in skiing and cross country, CU-Boulder arguably is now in the nation’s best conference for men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer, tennis and volleyball, and men’s and women’s outdoor track.
And the conference is no slouch in football or men’s and women’s basketball. In short, most of CU-Boulder’s programs will have to ratchet things up a notch to be competitive with their new colleagues, but that’s being viewed as a good thing. Top programs want challenges, and this may be the biggest one facing the overall athletics program in its 122 years of existence.
And academically? The Pac-12 is light years ahead of the Big 12, where some schools awarded academic credit for sport or weight room participation, had open enrollments, and even accepted Ds for transfer students. In the Pac-12, CU now shares a core set of academic values with similar institutions, and has several well-established research collaborations with a number of universities in the conference, including Cal, Stanford, the University of Washington, and the University of Arizona.
Everyone associated with CU-Boulder is excited about the move, especially the nearly 40,000 alumni in the Pac-12 states of Arizona, California, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, more than three times the number in the old Big 12 footprint.
Who knew when Horace Greeley uttered the phrase, “Go west, young man,” that it could still apply to the University of Colorado Boulder almost 150 years after he said it.
By Dave Plati Director, Athletics Media Relations
