Connelly’s Colorado takeaways: Huge 12’s huge dreams and the Pac-12’s

• Costs Connelly, ESPN Staff WriterJul 31, 2023, 07:00 AM ET

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  Bill Connelly is a personnel author for ESPN.com.Give Colorado credit

for one thing: While its football prowess has actually diminished dramatically in the 2000s, it remains among college sports’crucial realignment weather condition vanes. Wherever the winds are blowing, that’s where you’ll discover the Buffaloes.Thirteen years ago, Colorado got an invitation to leave the significant uncertainty of the Huge 12 for what felt like an interesting, up-and-coming Pac-12, a conference with substantial plans and a big-dreaming commissioner in Larry Scott.Last week, the school did the same thing in reverse, ranging from a Pac-12 that

had actually lost 2 members and hadn’t yet had the ability to secure an elusive, brand-new media rights deal. Back to the Big 12 the Buffs will enter 2024, wooed by an ambitious and bold commissioner in Brett Yormark.Scott’s huge dreams clearly didn’t concern fruition out West. While it promised he would land Texas, Oklahoma and

half the Big 12 for a couple of days in spring 2010, the relocation fell apart due to some combination of conservative Pac-12 presidents and Texas ‘cold feet. And thanks to pure location, there disappeared home run swings to try after that. Scott made a variety of ill-advised choices in establishing (and failing to get appropriate circulation for )the Pac-12 Network, and the conference went from striving powerhouse to stuck in the mud.Two years back, it seemed the Pac-12 had another chance at a Big 12 knockout blow. The Huge 12 found out it was losing Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC, and the Pac-12 seemed to have an opportunity to land some of the Big 12’s remaining Texas schools. However new commish George Kliavkoff couldn’t get those stodgy presidents aligned, and the minute passed. The Big 12 added 4 durable football brand names, employed a new commish and here we are.Kliavkoff has yet to really score a win of any kind, and after months of teasing out a media rights deal that has never ever pertained to fulfillment, the Pac-12 is for the minute a Pac-9, with Yormark intending to take at least one more program. This is the most vulnerable a power conference had been given that, well, the last time Colorado changed conferences. Let’s take stock as we await the next shoe to drop.