Buffzone mailbag

The Buffs get back to practice today to start the second week of spring ball and we’re all filling out our NCAA Tournament brackets. Seems like a good time for another edition of the mailbag.

Kyle, I read your article about WR Simas suspension being lifted and I was happy for him while reading his “learning experience” until I got to the part that ended “be smart, and, and if anything, I’ll pass out wherever I am”. (Don’t youth today ever think “moderation”?)

Simas admitted he felt the same way the last 3 incidents ago.  Glad he is aware of the past, but certainly hasn’t really learned from them. I will be pleasantly pleased to see him make it, but I am not into betting on the long odds Simas faces.

Frank.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Frank. I have to admit I was somewhat surprised by those comments as well. Some guys need to do a better job of thinking through what they’re going to say before they say it.

Simas didn’t do himself any favors there. That’s for sure. He knew he was practicing and he had to know he would be requested for interviews afterward. He had time to give it some thought.

On the other hand, there are some guys who don’t talk at all after making a mistake like Simas did. He deserves credit for doing the interview and taking responsibility for the mistake he made. I believe he’s a good young man who really does want to do well and make his family, friends, teammates and coaches proud. Here’s hoping this is the last bump in the road for him.

Kyle,

I read all of the Camera’s series on the possibility of CU moving to the Pac-10. Seems like nothing but speculation at this point, but I appreciate your work. I’m wondering what’s next? When can we expect to know more and do you really think this has any chance of happening considering the cost?

Mike, Sedalia

Mike, Thanks for reading and sending your questions. The next move will have to come from the Pac-10. The conference has to decide if it wants to expand and which teams it will invite. That decision could be made as soon as later this spring, and it could come as late as next January.

I have to believe that if the Pac-10 wants to expand, it will do its best to give the teams it invites all the time they need to separate from their existing conferences. As you know, CU would need to give the Big 12 two years notice and would probably need to do that by July or August at the latest. I’d be surprised if we don’t have an answer to the question by then. It could come much earlier (June 5-6 is the next meeting of the Pac-10 CEO group).

I’ve heard almost nothing negative about the idea of CU moving to the Pac-10 from all the people I talked to on and off the record at CU over the past month. So I believe that if the invitation comes, CU will make the move and find some way to foot the bill.

Kyle

I thought it very interesting that our CU renewal football tickets this year require our yearly donation without any apparent change required for the right to purchase our seats in Folsom Field. Hard enough to swallow it doubles the face value of our tickets. These are some of the best seat in the stadium that I can hardly give away if it’s a game we can’t attend. Here is the catch for this year the CU vs. CSU game at Invesco Field they have down graded our seat location in Folsom Field section 118, row 22 to the 5^th level for the game at Invesco Field. Of course you can pay an upgrade for better a seat which is what they are gambling on. In light of their particular failing football program and the current state of the economy I find this to be just another case of poor decisions made by the athletic department. This is an extra game or 7^th game added without an option out for purchasing the tickets. Its just simply part of the package. This maybe forces us after 18 loyal years to consider not renewing our tickets this year. I wonder what would happen if everyone stayed in the seats as part of the package not upgrading their seats and everyone stayed in the 5^th level; how this would this back fire.

Charles, Boulder

That’s a good question and one I already posed to the athletic director and the senior associate athletic director last month. They were very skeptical that they would ever face that scenario. They believe more than enough people will decide to upgrade for the CSU game, but they told me that if few people upgraded and they did run out of seats in the fifth level, they would work to find seats for everyone and would not charge the upgrade fees to those who didn’t want to pay it but were not able to fit into the fifth level.

My understanding is they would probably offer those folks with the most priority points upgrades first and work down the list to get everyone accomodated. But I should stress, they don’t believe this is going to be a problem. I guess we’ll see how it all works out.

Thanks for the questions. Hope to see more of them in the coming weeks.

If you would like to submit a question for the mailbag, please email me at ringok@dailycamera.com