The Ralphie Report - All Posts

We Did It, You Guys! The Goal Has Been Met, But There's Plenty of Time Left.

2013-06-14T17:10:06Z

It only too 3 days, so there's still almost the entire month to donate! Remember, $1,000 was our minimum goal. And no one likes the guy who does the bare minimum. Ever been driving behind a guy who insists on driving the speed limit? No one likes that guy right? Right. So to keep you donating with no clear goal in sight, we're changing the rules. Remember this from the donation page?

"For this, you will be given no prize"

It was right below me taking a slap at the stupid goat up the road. Well sucks to that- WE'VE GOT A PRIZE! A Sur-prize, actually (puns!) because I have no idea what it is. We contacted Gail Pederson, who is the boss of Ralphie, and told her about our efforts, and she has graciously agreed to give us... something. Everyone likes mysteries! Our campaign is now like an M. Knight Shyamalan movie, except not horrible. The twist is that the prize was within you all along! Or something. Never mind, let's just move on. Gail also mentioned this in her email:

It would be great someday if we could raise the $30k it takes to support the program, so everything certainly helps. Our new trailer we purchased last season was done solely on donations we received from generous fans!

So we raised 1/30th of her budget in 3 days. That's almost 2 weeks of the year! That's pretty great. I was actually terrified when I posted it and was writing my, "well that failed miserably" article in my head as soon as it went live, but you guys are better than me. We want to especially thank the good communities at Allbuffs and Buff Stampede for helping to publicize and support the cause. The Buffs Internet won the week. We've got 3 more weeks. Everyone who has already or will donate in the future will be entered to win our thing.

Donate: Check out the current amount raised and donate here

What have we learned? We learned that I am not alone in my frustrations with the athletic department fundraising efforts among donors of modest means. The comments section was eye opening. And look, I get it. Donating money to an institution that more and more resembles a professional sports franchise, for no tangible reward other than hopefully keeping up with Phil Knight is in many ways illogical. I mean, no one would ever just donate cash to the Broncos, right (unless it's put to a vote and the idiot voters gift them a stadium, of course). But we can, and should do better. It wasn't really that hard to crap out a bunch of words and set up a crowd sourcing page. It shouldn't be hard for people who actually derive their livelihood from raising money for the athletic department to do better. What does better look like? I have some suggestions!

First, and easiest- put a big shiny "DONATE" clicky on the front page of cubuffs.com and link it to a page outlining all of the opportunities to which to donate. The Ralphie Fund, the facilities project, every individual sport, whatever. Add a "click here to donate" line to every email you send out. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of ending up on a politician's email list should know that.

As I mentioned in the last post, I think a good idea would be a brick campaign. Put your name on a brick for $250. Everyone loves their name on things. Every kid who was lucky enough to be on a well funded little league team can tell you this. You sell a thousand bricks, that's $2.5 million. BOOM. Fix the sound system in Folsom. Start now. Set up a booth at every freshman orientation, and on move in day. If this was started, I guarantee you that I'd have a brick, my incoming freshman brother would have a brick, and my family would have a brick. That's $750 from the Frasers. If you ONLY sold a thousand, you should probably find a new line of work. For $250, you get your name on a brick, a picture of your brick, and some sort of map as to where it's placed. Plus, you get to come back in 20 years and show your kids YOUR brick, your permanent place on the CU campus (other than where you carved your name into a table at Norlin). And it's exclusive- future classes won't be able to do that, because they weren't here for the campaign, This is your special piece of CU. And you are quite literally helping to build the foundation of the future of our athletic department.

And it also works as a metaphor. I can't afford to donate a grand to Ralphie. You can't either. But we add what we can to the pot and suddenly we've built a tiny fundraising Voltron. Bricks are the same. One brick isn't worth a whole heap (I mean, unless you chuck it through a window or something), but add a bunch of brick together, and suddenly you've got a building, or a promenade leading up to your football stadium.

My third idea is even simpler. It's so easy, it's ludicrous that we haven't done it already. Donate $100, get your name in the program for the season. You also get a copy of your program with your name on the cover. Or $50, or $10. Who cares? It's a list of names somewhere near the back of the program. And you get a cool thing to put up in your office. Maybe more money gets you on a special list, or bolded, or in gold. Again, who cares? It costs next to nothing.

Donate: Check out the current amount raised and donate here

In closing, I want to sincerely thank all of you again for supporting our little experiment, and for supporting Ralphie. I'm guessing that many of you didn't even know there was a special fund for her. Hopefully you'll think of her the next time you've got a spare 5 spot. Please don't think that I'm ungrateful for raising the bar and going for more. I'm really, truly grateful. It's just that we've got another 26 odd days, and why the hell not? Ralphie can always use the money. We want to see her fat, happy, and trampling stupid Cam for years on end. Go Buffs!

RR Radio: Looking Ahead to 2013-14 Colorado Basketball

2013-06-13T21:26:30Z

Season 3 of Ralphie Report Radio is here with a ton of discussion on the state of the athletic department, the search for the next athletic director and a tons of preview coverage on Tad Boyle's Buffaloes.

For season 3 we are going to try and keep the episodes closer to a half hour and we are hoping to bring in some funa and unique guests every week. Since we wanted to talk basketball this week we reached out to the expert, Ryan Thorburn, for some insights on what to expect next year.

Apologies for a few small audio issues. We have a lot of really great guests in mind for the rest of the summer, but we want to hear from you. Who would you like to join us this season?

Season 3 Episode 1:

- Where does the Colorado athletic department go from here?
- 2013-14 Buffaloes basketball

To visit and subscribe to Ralphie Report Radio on iTunes click here.

To visit Ralphie Report on TalkShoe (there are multiple ways to subscribe there) c lick here.

By Jon Woods

Buffaloes Land Commit From Texas Cornerback

2013-06-12T13:00:07Z

The Colorado Buffaloes received a somewhat quiet, but no less needed and appreciated commitment from 3-star Texas cornerback Chance Waz last night. The prospect from just outside of Austin is an all-district performer from a very strong area of Texas. It's good to see the staff continue to have success in these areas of Texas. Waz is a recruit that was gaining a lot of interest from some powerhouse schools and he could be a huge get if he ends in up in Boulder.

Welcome aboard, Chance!

Chance Waz

Image courtesy of BuffStampede

Position: Cornerback
Measurables: 5-11/173 lbs.
40 Yard Dash: 4.5
High School: Hendrickson (Pflugerville, TX) H.S.

Rankings:
- Rivals: 2-star, 5.4
- 247Sports: 3-star, 80, #124 S
- Scout: No ranking
- ESPN: No ranking

Other Schools of Interest: Arkansas State, North Texas, Utah, UTEP

Status: Verbal to Colorado

Notes: From Rivals:
"Waz chose the Buffs over scholarship offers from Utah, North Texas, UTEP, Texas State and Arkansas State. He had also been hearing from Baylor, Kansas State, Michigan State, Oklahoma and TCU among others.

Waz earned first-team all-district honors after tallying 116 tackles, two interceptions and two fumble recoveries while playing safety as a junior. He is being projected by most colleges as a cornerback or nickel back."

The Ralphie Report Does Phil-anthropy.

2013-06-10T20:05:52Z

So I've been reading an interesting thread on AllBuffs regarding fundraising, which dovetails nicely with my "what's next" piece that was absolutely adored by espn dot com. I posted one thought there, and was going to continue, but I thought I'd take my talents to Ralphie Report so that you could chime in, in the comments!

In years past, we've heard a lot of people say, "I won't donate until...." followed by whatever they won't donate until. Hawkins is gone, Embree's gone, Bohn's gone, sociology is gone... whatever. Personally, I said that I wouldn't donate again until Barnett was gone, and I didn't. Then after the Kansas game, I said I wouldn't donate again until Hawkins was fired, and, well that lasted 3 days, but it was true. I know others had much less tolerance and refused to donate for quite a while before that. All well and good.

Of course they, and I, could've continued to donate - just not to football. Divert your donations to basketball, to physics, to volleyball, or like I did - to Ralphie. There will never be a time when donating to the Ralphie program is not worth your kind gesture..

But that comes to my biggest problem with the fundraising within the athletic department, and one that's been expressed elswhere consistently - it's just too hard to find ways to donate. The department should make it easy. Back to the Ralphie fund. The first time I donated... honestly I don't know how I found the link. There might have been scotch involved. But I donated, and I got back a framed picture of Ralphie and a little stuffed Ralphie, both of which currently reside on my desk at work. I then talked up the Ralphie program, had someone ask how they could donate, and I couldn't find the damn link to save my life. I spent 20 minutes, and I could. not. find it. How stupid is that? It's easier to find now, whether it was moved, or I was just an idiot previously, but it still stands- you shouldn't have to work hard to find a way to donate to the greatest symbol our athletic department has ever had.

And that goes for all other athletic fundraising as well. Go to cubuffs.com and tell me how to donate to the facilities capital project. I'm not saying you can't do it, but I'm saying I sure as hell can't do it. Unless you aren't already thoroughly engaged, it's impossible to find a way to specify where your donations will go, and that's important. People want to donate to the facilities, to football, to basketball, to whatever. Make it easy for them to do so.

The worst donors are those who say, "I won't donate until we get good again." One - no, you probably won't. Two - you're the very definition of a fair weather fan. Three- you can still donate, but just to a part of the university or athletic department that you would prefer. Like Ralphie. If you can't donate to Ralphie, you can't call yourself a Buffaloes fan. You only support winning, like an asshole? Well there's a skiing program that would gladly accept your donation:

One thing I believe would help this level of donor is micortargeting. Many schools utilize this with "brick campaigns." More important that actually raising funds is establishing a group of engaged, willing donors for the future. Do they only have $100 for a dumb brick with their name on it now? Well maybe they invent twitter and gift you a dumb building with their name on it in the future. Hell, the Rockies did this when they were building Coors Field. My alma mater did this when we were building a new gym. I am part of about 5 bricks in the courtyard outside our gym. One is from my religion class where my beloved teacher Mr. Haber charged us $5 every time he caught us chewing gum. I think I contributed 50% of that damn brick. There's also one for my family, me and my brothers, my grandparents... everyone loves their name on a brick. Why didn't we start with that for our facility project? "We're building new facilities, and you can literally get in on the ground floor by purchasing a brick." It's too logical. Hell, it would've been even more logical back during the kerfluffle of Embree bringing back the brick wall with the milestone games. But it didn't happen, because CU sucks at microtargeting.

So let's start it for them. I don't propose that we start a brick program. Mostly because I don't own any bricks or a place where we could lay the bricks or the authority to lay them anywhere or the skill or desire to actually lay bricks. I'm very lazy and delicate. What I do propose is that the Ralphie Report family raise $1000 to donate to the Ralphie Fund. I'll kick in the first $100, so we're ten percent of the way there already. We can raise more, and that would be fantastic, but our goal is $1000. $1000 to show that a bunch of loyal Buffalo fans coming from modest means can set a modest goal and achieve it. And we don't even have to put our name on Ralphie, because that would probably hurt her.

If you want to donate to our campaign, go here: www.gofundme.com/37mk7c

FAQ: Why don't we just donate directly to the Ralphie Fund? A fair question. The answer is- we're trying to prove a point. The point is, CU is bad at targetting and engaging small donors. The solution to this is to be better. And it's not hard to do. Yes, there are extraneous fees associated, but the lucrative world of unpaid bloggering will no doubt make up the difference. (ed. note: I did not approve this comment, but I make sure that it becomes true. TRR will cover any fees GoFundMe takes)

Meet Me at the Crossroads: Where to Go After Mike Bohn

2013-06-03T14:54:19Z

In what was possibly the most perfect CU moment in recent history, Mike Bohn was let go by the university as the athletic director. What made it so perfect is that on it's face it appears to be poorly thought out, ill timed, and unexplained. If Bohn was on thin ice, then he should've been shown the door at the same time Embree was. Instead, he was allowed to fire a coach, hire a new coach, announce an extremely aggressive facilities project that will require an unprecedent donations drive, restructure the fundraising arm of the university so that he has more control of it, embark on a state wide caravan of coaches designed to garner goodwill of alumni, fans, and prospective donors... and then unceremoniously fired. Good job, good effort you guys.

Obviously, there is a sound argument to be made for removing Bohn. That argument is called the performance of the football program. That's why virtually no one would've batted an eye had Embree and Bohn shared the same awkward exit press conference. But that didn't happen, so therefore cannot be an excuse. The official company line appears to be that CU wants a leader who will run the athletic department like a business and do better in fundraising effort. Sounds fair.

Or it did until Bohn held his own press conference and claimed that he had met all of his incentive bonuses. Fundraising? Bohn has brought in more $1 million plus donations than everyone else at CU combined, and it's not close. There's also been more outreach to alumni on his watch than I ever remember previously. Run as a business? Bohn claimed that he balanced the budget in his first 6 years, and the last 2 were expected and signed off on by the university. A leader? Well things get trickier there.

I've always liked Bohn. I've met him once, and had email correspondence multiple times, and I've always found him to be passionate about the sports programs he oversees. He was never a stiff autocratic business guy who only had time for the guys with fat wallets. But I never saw him as a particularly strong leader. I doubt that's entirely his fault, seeing as that he has bosses, but a strong manager has the will, vision, and license to drive his department in the way he sees fit, knowing that his superiors have the trust in him to succeed. Wether he didn't have that because Benson or DiStefano are micromanaging nightmare or because Bohn simply didn't engender himself to that trust is up for debate and likely only known to Benson and DiStefano. That said, the latter parties have hardly earned the benefit of the doubt.

But Bohn used a search firm to hire Dan Hawkins, and wasn't allowed to fire him when he wanted. He had Jon Embree forced upon him. We saw George Solich leading the tour of Folsom with Butch Jones, which was poor optics at best, and a complete debacle at worst. The roll out of the new facilities project seemed muddled and directionless at best. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement of his leadership. He did hire Tad Boyle when the popular choices were either Steve McClain or Mike Dunlap, and for that he deserves major credit. He also hired Linda Lappe, ushered in the new women's lacrosse program, and spearheaded the fantastic practice facility for basketball and volleyball. So "leadership" is... muddled at best. He did get results- just not football related results. Personally, my theory (and it's a tangentially sourced and extremely flimsy theory) is that Bohn never wanted Embree, and said he could not fundraise with Embree as coach. He was allowed to fire Embree and then... still couldn't fundraise at a level acceptable to his bosses. That's all I've got.

So that leads us to the crossroads- where do we go from here? First and foremost, we've got to hire a new athletic director. What does that mean? What are we really looking for? Whoever we hire will no doubt have difficult decisions to make in the future, but for now, his or her job is to implement the vision of Mike Bohn. All of Bohn's coaches are in place. The facilities plan is in place. A new athletic director's job at present is simply to raise funds based on the fact that he (or she) is not Mike Bohn, and can do a better job of being Mike Bohn than Mike Bohn, whatever that means. I've worked in sales, and you're only as good as the product you have to sell. The next AD has to sell Mike Bohn. How is that remotely plausible? And who would want such a job? I love that Mike was such a passionate proponent of CU athletics, but that does not a great AD make. If it was, I would be crowned king of the athletic department and Benjamin Burrows would be my assistant AD in charge of basketball and lacrosse (suck it up, Burrows!).

But that's not the case. We need a guy who can raise money, basically. He has to sell what is already available to be sold. We're not adding any new sports. If you like baseball- shut up. You're an idiot. When it comes time to add sports, I expect that baseball (and softball) will be behind swimming and diving, which would benefit from being cheap and gaining the same edge from training at altitude that track and cross country have. After that would be gymnastics, and other cheap ass sports that are sponsored by the Pac 12. Baseball is expensive and men's lacrosse isn't sponsored by the Pac 12, so please please please just forget about them. Also hockey.

The new AD will have to sell what we have, and be better at it than Mike Bohn. We've got a marketing guy. We've got a football coach. We've got a basketball coach. As for Mike Bohn? His termination agreement included over $900K and 8 season tickets for football, men's basketball, and women's basketball for the remainder of his lifetime. Tell me he isn't passionate about CU sports. If Mike gets a new AD job, I volunteer to use his seats for the Kansas game. I also wouldn't be surprised to see him find a job with Chuck Neinas's search firm, which would earn him a healthy salary, stay involved in college athletics, and maintain a base in Boulder. We could all wish for such a fate.

Mike Bohn's Legacy Has Yet to Be Written, But His Passion is Clear

2013-05-30T22:16:20Z

After a week of soul searching and a passionate public defense of his record during a press conference on Thursday at Broomfield's Omni Interlocken Hotel, Mike Bohn summed up his ouster as Colorado athletic director in three words as he exited stage left:

"This (expletive) hurts."

No matter how you feel about Bohn's shepherding of the Buffaloes over the last eight years, there is no question the Boulder High School graduate loves CU and made decisions based on what he felt was in the best interest of the long-term success of the athletic department and university.

The final time I personally experienced Bohn's, um, "devotion" to the place was during halftime of the key CU-Oregon basketball game at the Coors Events Center this March. That's when he was screaming at me like a madman for breaking the story that Andre Roberson was out indefinitely with mononucleosis.

Some stunned fans and peers who witnessed the heated and one-sided exchange wanted to know what Bohn's "problem" was. Maybe he cared too much.

CU's now former athletic director would do anything to protect a student-athlete or fight for one of his programs.

I would also like to note that Bohn - who I suggested in print should be fired after the debacle that was Jon Embree's farewell press conference and not allowed to hire a third football coach at CU - was one of the very first people to reach out to me when I was unceremoniously resigned from the newspaper business.

Unfortunately, as standup a guy as Bohn is, I doubt he's interested trading severance packages.

So why was Bohn safe after the disastrous 2012 football season and handed a pink slip by Phil DiStefano now?

"I don't know why," Bohn said.

The chancellor said during his less quotable press conference this week that he "made the decision that now is the time to bring in a strong leader to set the strategy that will step the department up to a new level of performance in fundraising and overall management."

Bohn pointed out that when he was hired the CU athletic department was facing a significant financial deficit in the neighborhood of $8 million. The decision to part ways with Gary Barnett after the 2005 Big 12 championship game added about $3 million to the problem.

There is no defense for the Buffs' 25-61 record over the past seven seasons under Dan Hawkins and Embree, but Bohn did his best to explain the .290 winning percentage of the program that is relied upon to pay the bills.

"Just think back when Gary talked to me and said, ‘Mike, I can't get out of this hole, I've basically got to go.' And I negotiated a separation with Gary. We owed him a lot more. My hat's off to Gary for meeting us at a happy place," Bohn said. "At that time we went out and recruited what many people in the nation thought was the No. 1 (coaching) prospect to come in and pull it together. That didn't work out for obviously lots of different reasons. I think the stain on the football program associated with the challenge is one that has been a bearcat to put together. ...

"Then there was a huge push to want a Buff. We felt excited about bringing in some Buffs that had some wonderful coaching experience and connections and we quickly saw that wasn't going to work. We made the tough decision; I made the recommendation to move there. I get that. A.D.'s are judged by the coaches they hire."

Bohn believes his final football decision, hiring Mike MacIntyre, will eventually prove to be as savvy as his decision to take a chance on a uncelebrated coach from Northern Colorado three years ago when the players were demanding Steve McClain and most "experts" were lobbying for Mike Dunlap.

Let's not forget Bohn was the athletic director who finally made a commitment to basketball at CU. He agreed to put language in Jeff Bzdelik's contract that led to the construction of the new practice facility and other long overdue upgrades at the Coors Events Center.

While moving from the Big 12 to the Pac-12 was a no-brainer that CU administrators and supporters had dreamed of for decades, it actually became a reality on Bohn's watch.

Trust me, Tad Boyle and Larry Scott are not pleased with DiStefano's decision to fire Bohn.

"I never had a negative evaluation," Bohn said. "I met virtually every expectation and all my incentives for eight years straight. I gave it my all, I carried the ball forward, and the program is positioned for a bright future. ... I have no regrets about that."

According to the CU Foundation, the athletic department raised $7.6 million in private donations in 2011 and $11.8 million in 2012. The department's overall budget almost doubled over the last eight years. Men's basketball season tickets went up 69 percent last season.

Bohn also believes his grandiose plans for "transformational" facilities upgrades would have been realized if not for this week's blindside sack. He said questioning his ability to run the athletic department as a business and to fundraise is "offensive."

But due to the penalties associated with changing conferences, a $2.6 million drop off in football ticket revenue, contract buyouts from yet another coaching change, and the fact that the revenue from the lucrative Pac-12 media deal has not started kicking in yet, CU's athletic department is seeing red again this year and will be again next year.

DiStefano wants a new athletic director to get CU out of this hole.

"We knew it was going to be a tough two-year window. And campus knew that," Bohn said. "This is my hometown and I'm proud of that. I will never, ever believe that we didn't put out whole heart, soul, mind and key resources into it to pull that all together. I let my record stand for what it is."

Perhaps CU's next athletic director will do a better job than Bohn. But it will be difficult to find one that cares about the Buffs as much.

Linebacker Grant Watanabe Becomes Colorado's Second Commit

2013-05-30T03:09:35Z

Nothing like a new commit to take our minds off of the disarray caused by the firing of former athletic director Mike Bohn. As reported by Rivals writer Wes Crochet, San Antonio linebacker Grant Watanabe has given his verbal pledge to Mike MacIntyre and the Buffaloes.

3-Star '14 SA Brennan LB Grant Watanabe has confirmed to me that he has committed to Colorado. Watanabe is 11th on @insideutsas SA22, 1st LB
— Wes Crochet(@InsideUTSAWesC) May 30, 2013

In 2012, he was named the Defensive Player of the Year in San Antonio after recording 167 tackles, 27 for a loss, three sacks and four interceptions. He was a junior All-American, first-team all-state, first-team all-city and unanimous first-team all-district selection. Sounds like a guy that makes plays with one heck of a resume. It's always good to keep the Texas pipelines active, especially with the increased emphasis in California.

Welcome aboard, Grant!

Grant Watanabe

Image courtesy of BuffStampede

Position: Inside Linebacker
Measurables: 5-10/225 lbs.
40 Yard Dash: N/A
High School: Brennan (San Antonio, TX) H.S.

Rankings:
- Rivals: 3-star, 5.6
- 247Sports: 3-star, 84, #68 OLB
- Scout: No ranking
- ESPN: No ranking (but an awesome picture)

Other Schools of Interest: Utah, UTSA, Baylor, Boise State

Status: Verbal to Colorado

Notes: From Rivals:
"Oh man, they were very convincing at Colorado. They just had a lot to offer. Everything I look for in a college, they pretty much had it all. I really like what the coaches are doing there. I feel like [head] coach [Mike] MacIntyre is going to make the program good again and I really liked everybody there; the whole coaching staff. I got to talk one-on-one with Coach MacIntyre and he told me all the things he liked from my film and talked about how well I would fit into their program, so I thought that was pretty cool. It was a pretty awesome trip."

The Search for the Next Athletic Director at Colorado

2013-05-29T22:38:25Z

The news that Bohn has been unceremoniously let go from CU came out of left field.

Well, this is something I didn't expect to have to write today. Originating with Mark Johnson and now being confirmed by multiple sources, Mike Bohn has resigned (been fired) as the University of Colorado athletic director. At this point, Twitter tells the story better than I can.

Mike Bohn has been let go as @cubuffs AD! @850koa
— Mark Johnson (@MJohnson850KOA) May 28, 2013

Trying to pay attention to Roy amid story that Mike Bohn has been let go by CU. Just received a text from Bohn:"I am floored".
— Vic Lombardi (@VicLombardi) May 28, 2013

"Hire a new football coach? check. Announce major new athletic facility plans? check. Reorganize your fundraising arm? check. Great- GTFO
— Phil (@Phyltopia) May 28, 2013

Interesting to watch CU AD search. Current Memphis AD Tom Bowen hired Mike MacIntyre at SJSU (they remain close) and is from Denver.
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) May 28, 2013

The man hired Tad Boyle, but he also hired Dan Hawkins and Jon Embree. We don't know how the Mike MacIntyre hire will turn out, but either way it won't help Bohn to keep his job. Lots to discuss in the coming days and more to come...

Update: More from CU

"Mike Bohn led CU-Boulder athletics in a time of great transition and change," said DiStefano. "We are grateful to him for his vision, passion and commitment, and for his key role in revitalizing men's and women's basketball, helping us to join the Pac-12 Conference, and in taking important steps to upgrade athletic facilities at CU-Boulder. We wish him well."

DiStefano said he will in the coming days appoint a search committee to conduct a national search for Bohn's successor.

DiStefano said the university will be seeking "a dynamic leader" as athletic director - someone who, he said, "can focus on our key goals of fundraising, building a dynamic organization, and creating long-term sustainability in the athletics mission."