The CU football team was ranked as the worst investment by Forbes magazine. (fair use photo by the Daily Camera)

There was a recent article in Forbes magazine that ranked the University of Colorado football team as the worst investment in terms of budget spent ($51.4 million) to wins (seven) over a three year period or $7.1 million / win.

Contrast that with the University of Cincinnati that spent $1.6 million / win over the same three years.

“Across the last three seasons, no team has spent more per football victory than Colorado, our pick for the sport’s worst team for the money … To put that into perspective, Mississippi State has built a competitive SEC program while spending $44 million across the same time period,” Forbes wrote of its CU pick.

Utah split from the Mountain West and CU from the Big 12 to join the PAC 12 in 2011. Utah had a 9-4 season this year and defeated a highly touted CSU team in the Las Vegas Bowl last week.

Meanwhile, when will CU be a contender in the Big 12?

I think it will happen when CU starts bending the rules like all the other high-value teams do. Penn State was, pretty much, given the death sentence when one of Joe Paterno’s assistant coaches was busted for sexual assault. The Nittany Lions have bounced back.

Here’s an interesting scholarly article that studies the relationship between NCAA infractions and striving for BCS championships. Seems that the SEC has the highest number of violations followed by other BCS conferences, including the Big 12.

The paper’s review of the literature cites a study that finds that the benefits of winning games as a result of recruiting violations raises more money for a program regardless of the NCAA sanctions which may limit the number of scholarships. So breaking the rules is worth the risks.

The researchers also find that 77% of NCAA violations between 1970 and 2007 were accessed against BCS conference schools. Although the Big 12, Pac 10, Big Ten, and SEC have the highest mean violations per team member per year, these conferences also have the most football championships won from 1970 to 2007. From the 1970 to 2007 seasons, teams from the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac10, and SEC combined for 35 football national championships or co-national championships.

Buff Nation, can either have a corrupt program that has a good chance of competing for a national championship or a clean program that provides kids a good education and finish their football careers with degrees.

CU staff and administration, IMO, have the idyllic view that they can have a clean program and win, not with the best kids, but the best “good” kids.

The new BCS quasi-tournament national championship format  won’t reduce NCAA violations, it will only make cheating more enticing for the Mountain West, Conference USA and others when the playing field is leveled.

In college football, cheaters prosper.