On Friday, district judge Claudia Wilken in Northern California approved the House v. NCAA settlement, which will allow schools around the country to directly pay student-athletes through revenue sharing beginning July 1.

The settlement is a landmark change in college athletics and one that CU is ready to embrace.

“We’re all in,” CU athletic director Rick George told BuffZone in a recent interview. “We’re going to be all in, and this is going to be a group effort. … We’re going to be very aggressive, going out and looking at revenue streams, and obviously our donations that we get from donors is an area that we’re going to emphasize.”

Schools can pay student-athletes up to $20.5 million during the 2025-26 school year, to be divided among different sports. It’s widely expected that football and men’s basketball teams — the two sports that generate the most revenue — will receive most of that money.

While schools don’t have to reach the cap (which is expected to increase every year), George said CU plans to hit the cap. George and his administrative team have been working for nearly a year to be ready for the July 1 start date, including how to earn the money and how to allocate the funds. CU is still figuring out a plan of how to allocate money to different sports.

“It’s a challenging time for our peers and for us, because you just don’t have $20.5 million lying around,” George said. “So it’s going to require some difficult decisions and we’ve just got to be willing to make them. But our goal in all of this is that we want to compete at the highest level, so we’re going to participate at the highest level.”

CU has already made some decisions, including installing artificial turf at Folsom Field this summer, which carries an upfront cost of about $1 million, but will allow CU to host more concerts at the stadium and generate revenue. Also, BuffZone reported last week that CU is eliminating the positions of long-time track and field coaches Casey and Lindsey Malone, as the Buffs plan to focus more on their distance programs going forward.

“It requires a lot, and it’s going to require us to manage our expenses,” George said. “It’s going to require us to generate more revenue. You just don’t, in a year’s time, figure out how you can be able to revenue share at that number.

“It’s going to be incumbent on our base out there, our Flatiron Society, our Buff Club donors, to get involved. And I think we’re showing them our commitment. I feel really strongly that for us to be in a great position three to five years from now, we need to participate at the highest level, and we need to make sure that it’s sustainable. I feel like we’ve got a good plan in place.”

While George acknowledges there will have to be some expense cuts, he said generating more revenue, through donors, outside events, etc., will be the priority. And, he maintained, as he has throughout his tenure at CU, that he does not want to cut from the programs that benefit the student-athletes.

“One thing that I’ve told our student athletes and I’ve told our coaches is we will continue to provide the great benefits for our student-athletes that we always have, and that’s in the areas of mental health, nutrition, sports medicine, strength and conditioning, academic support, all those things that touch our student athletes,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that we still maintain those at a very high level.”

In addition to revenue sharing, a big piece of the House settlement is roster limits.

For football, CU will remain at the previous NCAA scholarship limit of 85, but the full roster is now capped at 105. That is likely to impact other schools more than CU. On average, FBS schools have kept around 125 players on a roster, but under current head coach Deion Sanders, the Buffs opened the 2023 season with 113 and the 2024 season with 110. Unofficially, CU has 102 players slated for this year, with 77 on scholarship.

Basketball will be capped at 15 roster spots, which will potentially eliminate a couple of walk-on spots.

“We’ve had discussions about roster limits, and we’ve had discussions about scholarships and those kinds of things that we’ve had with our coaches,” George said.

The timing of the House settlement, on June 6, means CU and other schools have to make some big decisions in a hurry before the fall season begins, but George expects growing pains for a lot of schools.

“It’ll be a little clunky, I think, in year one, but then I think as we get to year two, in July of 2026, it’ll be a little smoother,” he said.

While the House settlement will bring some challenges to CU and many other schools around the country, George said the Buffs are eager to embrace the new world of college athletics. And, he’s focused on helping CU be in a great position for potential changes in the future.

“We’ve still got to operate as efficiently as we can, but at the same time, we’ve got to compete if we’re going to compete at the highest level,” he said. “And as conversations go on over the next three to five years on what’s going to happen in the future, another potential realignment, you’ve got to put yourselves in a position to be in that conversation, and that’s what we plan to do.

“We’ve been meeting every couple weeks to talk about the newest thing that comes out that we have to be ready for. I feel like we’re in a really good position. We put a lot of work in behind the scenes.”

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Yet while the Colorado men’s basketball team continues its summer program with a wide-ranging cast of new faces, there remains roster spots to fill.

Head coach Tad Boyle confirmed former Fossil Ridge High School star Nick Randall will return as a walk-on, and Boyle remains confident frontcourt help can still be found for the Buffaloes this summer.

The long-awaited House settlement, which finally was approved on Friday, caps men’s basketball rosters at 15 players. The final approval of the settlement doesn’t necessarily change anything for Boyle and his staff, which has been operating this offseason on the assumption the 15-player limit would be in play for 2025-26. The return of Randall, a 6-foot-8 forward, leaves the Buffs at 13 players, but whether Randall remains the Buffs’ lone walk-on remains to be seen.

“It’s unusual because it’s run so late, but it’s about getting the right guy,” Boyle said of the offseason recruiting process. “It’s not just about filling a spot. We could’ve filled a spot six weeks ago. We want to fill spots with the right guys, who can fit into what we’re about, what the culture’s about. And quite frankly, most of the guys that are still available are kids that are from overseas. Because you have a lot of European kids that have been playing with European clubs that now can make more money playing college basketball in America.”

With Randall set to return as a walk-on, the Buffs have begun summer workouts with 12 scholarship players — transfers Barrington Hargress and Jon Mani; freshmen Jalin Holland, Fawaz “Tacko” Ifaola, Ian Inman, Isaiah Johnson, and Josiah Sanders; and 2024-25 holdovers Andrew Crawford, Bangot Dak, Felix Kossaras, Elijah Malone and Sebastian Rancik.

Adding frontcourt help is one offseason priority that has not yet been met for the Buffs, who lost three of their most active rebounders in Andrej Jakimovski, Trevor Baskin and Assane Diop, who recently committed to San Diego. Boyle said the Buffs still intend on adding a frontcourt piece that can be capable of contributing right away.

When that happens, the Buffs will be at 14 players on the roster. After saying toward the end of last season that the program planned to remain at 13 scholarships — the limit before the House settlement became official — Boyle again hinted a 14th scholarship player could be an option, depending on the player and the fit.

“We need someone who can help us right away for sure,” Boyle said. “If we add one player, that player has to be able to help us and play some minutes for us in the frontcourt. We’re looking at frontcourt spots for both spots. And the other one can either be a depth piece or an upside guy or possibly a solid walk-on.”

Notable

The Buffs will host Grace College for an exhibition game on Oct. 19. An NAIA school in Northern Indiana, Grace is Malone’s former home. … Mani, a transfer from Denver, will join the Buffs later this summer, as he is set to compete for the Israeli national team. … The Big 12 pairings for conference play are expected to be released this week.

On Monday, CU and Payne announced that Jordynn “JoJo” Hernandez has been hired as the team’s new assistant coach. She replaces Bianca Smith, a former CU great who took a job at Michigan State in April after one year back in Boulder.

Hernandez has been an assistant coach at Stephen F. Austin the past two seasons.

“JoJo has quickly built a tremendous reputation as one of the most talented young coaches in the country,” Payne said in a press release. “Her passion for recruiting, player development and mentoring student athletes is truly exceptional. We’re confident that JoJo will make a significant impact on our program and our community. Her energy, vision and commitment to helping our students reach their full potential align perfectly with our values. We can’t wait to have her here and get things rolling.”

Hernandez helped SFA go 51-21 with two conference tournament championship game appearances in the last two years. SFA won the Southland Conference Tournament this past year to advance to the NCAA Tournament.

Hernandez coached at UT Arlington for two years before going to SFA. She was a graduate assistant in 2021-22 and was the director of player development for the 2022-23 season. The Mavericks went 20-8, won the Sun Belt tournament and reached the NCAA Tournament in 2022.

“I am truly blessed and excited to be joining the Colorado women’s basketball family,” Hernandez said in a press release. “This opportunity means so much to me – having the opportunity to work with an incredible staff and student-athletes at a place that values both excellence and community. I can’t wait to get started, building relationships and help push this program forward. Sko Buffs!”

A native of McKinney, Texas, Hernandez started her college playing career at Collin College before transferring to UT Arlington. She sat out the entire 2019-20 season due to a knee injury but returned to the court in 2020-21, when she averaged 8.0 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.9 steals in 13 games.

In addition to hiring Hernandez, CU recently announced that assistant coach Matt Hower will now serve as the team’s basketball strategy and roster management assistant coach.

En route to All-American honors at the University of Florida in 2024, the then-junior was fretting to her teammates about carrying a 93% in the class. Otis’ fellow Gators couldn’t help but laugh, if only because they knew exactly what was coming.

Otis demolished the final with a 112% … and finished the course with an A-plus.

“She was joking about having a really low A, and we were like, ‘Korbe, what are you talking about? It’s still an A,'” recalled Florida teammate Keagan Rothrock. “And she was like, ‘But it’s not good enough. It’s not high enough.’ We were like, ‘Korbe, it’s an A, sister, you’re okay.’

“When she ended up bringing that grade up by acing the final, we were like, ‘See, you had nothing to worry about. You prepare for everything.'”

Such is the approach for Otis, the Columbine High School alum whose blue-collar work ethic made her one of the best college players in the nation. In the final weeks of a Division I career that started at Louisville and ended in Gainesville, Otis was the sixth pick in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League’s inaugural college draft on May 3. After her Gators were eliminated in the Women’s College World Series last week, the 22-year-old began her professional career with the AUSL’s Blaze.

For Otis, playing professionally is likely just a detour en route to her ultimate career goal of becoming a surgeon. Otis graduated from Florida with a biology degree, earned the NCAA Elite 90 Award for having the highest GPA (4.0) at the WCWS, and is currently in the process of applying to medical schools.

So yeah, she’s prepared for everything. But even the meticulous Otis didn’t prepare for this: Having the chance to go pro in both her sport and as a doctor.

“Playing professional softball is never something I thought I would be able to do,” Otis said. “I’m so happy to be able to do it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to enroll in medical school in the fall of 2026. What that’s going to look like for my playing career, I’m not sure yet, but I’m just here along for the ride as long as I can be.”

Otis was a centerpiece of two straight Women’s College World Series teams at Florida, where the outfielder was a force in the middle of the lineup. She hit .377 with a .519 on-base percentage, 15 homers and 109 walks across her two seasons with the Gators.

This season, she hit a homer in her first at-bat, homered in her final at-bat at the Women’s College World Series, and also had a walk-off grand slam in between to punctuate a college career that seemed unlikely when she was young.

In her early seasons of travel ball when she was 10, 11 and 12 years old, the 5-foot-6 Otis was routinely told college softball was out of the question for her. Coaches said she was too small. Even as Otis progressed, emerging as an ace pitcher, there were still doubters as to whether she could play Division I.

But by the time she reached high school, she was committed to Louisville and well on her way to stardom.

“As a young kid, I was told I was going to have to pursue JuCo and D-III schools because I wasn’t good enough, strong enough or tall enough to play D-I,” Otis recalled. “Hearing that as a young kid can be discouraging, but my dad and I chose to fight, for as long as it was going to take, and as hard as it was going to take, to accomplish those dreams.”

So that’s what Otis did.

For about six years from age 12 through 18, she and her dad, Matt, traveled to California most weekends. She started with the Orange County Batbusters, then switched to the Corona Angels for her high school years. She arrived in Southern California on Fridays, did hitting lessons with Angels coach Marty Tyson that night, then practiced or played tournaments with the Angels all weekend.

“We found flights that were cheap, we rented rental cars for $28 a day, and my wife (Jami) found every hotel that was under construction in Southern California — with an elevator that was down, or something that had discounts every weekend,” Matt Otis said with a laugh. “Korbe would sit on the plane and do her homework, sit in the hotel room and do her homework.

“We just put our head down and were determined to build on her strengths, even though she was small. She was always a really fast kid, super intelligent, really hard working. We made the determination that if (college softball) was really what she wanted to do, we had to put our foot on the gas and outwork everybody.”

Otis often practiced six hours on Saturdays and Sundays, with her Angels team as well as the club’s older team. She started working with a mental coach. And when she was back home in Littleton, she spent hours each evening hitting and pitching in the cage that Matt built in their unfinished basement.

“I approached the sport like it was my job,” Otis said. “… I saw what my parents were investing in me and my career, so I needed to also invest the time and make the sacrifices to show the same investment.”

With the Angels, Otis had her first coming-out moment as a hitter at the final tournament in the fall of her freshman year.

She blasted a no-doubt homer, which made Tyson believe the two-way player was probably going to be a pure hitter at the Division I level. Tyson’s had an array of Colorado phenoms play in his program, most notably Legacy pitcher Rainey Gaffin, who went on to star at Tennessee, and most recently, Eaton catcher Emma Anderson.

“Korbe hit a ball about 250 feet, turned everybody’s heads, and I told her, ‘Your future is going to be in hitting,'” Tyson recalled.

While Otis continued pitching for the next couple of years, helping lead Columbine to the Class 5A title as a junior, the impetus for her switch to full-time outfielder came a few weeks before the start of her senior season. At a national club tournament, she dove back into second base on a back-pick, and the shortstop spiked Otis’ right pinkie.

It shattered the finger into three pieces, injured the ligament and sidelined Otis from playing for the Rebels that fall. Even when she got healthy again, she wasn’t able to grip the ball the same on her pitches.

“It was a sign for me that my pitching career was over,” Otis said.

The change in trajectory worked out for Otis — the lone Coloradan playing in softball’s new-look professional era.

The AUSL is the latest attempt at a professional women’s softball league, picking up where National Pro Fastpitch (2004-2019) left off and what the Women’s Pro Softball League (1997-2001) began.

The AUSL is a 24-game regular season across 10 cities with four teams in a barnstorming format, culminating in a championship series in Tuscaloosa from July 26-28. The average player salary is $45,000, according to the league’s website.

The league plans on becoming a city-based entity in ’26, and it’s arriving at a time of intense growth for the sport. Softball will return to the Olympics in 2028 and AUSL broadcast partner ESPN recently announced it had its highest-rated pre-finals Women’s College World Series games ever, with an average of 1.1 million viewers.

Perhaps most important to the league’s long-term sustainability, Major League Baseball recently announced its first partnership with a women’s professional sports league. MLB’s “strategic investment” as an equity partner in the AUSL includes joint sales and marketing efforts, promotional support and broadcasts on MLB Network and MLB.com. The AUSL is helmed by former Marlins GM Kim Ng, who is the league’s commissioner.

All of which points to the AUSL being the best chance yet for professional softball to find its footing.

“The coolest part to me is I get to be part of inspiring the next generation of players to play in the pros, and work toward that goal,” Otis said. “What the AUSL is doing to amplify the presence of professional softball is huge for all the little girls like I used to be, and with MLB’s backing, it makes that dream that much more tangible. To send the sport in that direction, it’s incredible to be a part of.”

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

If CU followed Klatt’s advice on expanding the College Football Playoff, Bronco Mendenhall would be coaching his beloved Buffs right now.

Low risk. High floor. Safe. Boring, but safe.

You know what the Buffs did instead? The athletic department bet on itself.

AD Rick George bet on himself. CU, a football graveyard for most of its decade-plus in the Pac-12, pulled out all the stops to nab the most head-turning, camera-loving, scene-stealing name in college coaching.

CU outkicked its coverage with Deion Sanders. And kicked a dead program into three straight years of season-ticket sellouts and must-see TV.

So why should the Big 12 go the Bronco route? Why should it accept its status as a second-tier conference and concede more playoff spots, and playoff dollars, to the Big Ten and SEC?

CFP expansion is coming, as we all knew it would once TV got a taste. A 12-team championship bracket is now being pitched as a Sweet 16. It’s just a question of how many seats each conference gets at the table.

The Big 12 and ACC prefer what’s known as the “5+11” model, in which the five highest-ranked conference champions would receive automatic bids. The remaining 11 slots would be at-large and divvied up according to the CFP selection committee’s rankings.

According to reports, the Big Ten would prefer a “4+4+2+2+1” model, in which that league and the SEC would automatically get four bids each, guaranteeing that the two richest and most powerful conferences always take up half the 16-team field.

“I think it is absolutely bananas that the Big 12 and their ADs and their coaches would argue for (a 5+11 model),” Klatt, the venerated FOX Sports analyst, said on his podcast Monday. “Because they’re going to get crushed by this. If you want the sport to continue coalescing power in only two power conferences, then go to a 5+11 model. Because that’s exactly what will happen.”

Fair enough. Yet why not make them earn that power, instead of handing it over in return for scraps?

Look, if you’re Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, every avenue stinks. Yet each of the 12 CFP teams in ’24-25 pocketed at least $4 million just for making the bracket, plus another $3 million to cover expenses incurred over each round. I’ll be darned if I’m going to concede that before the games are even played.

Want an equitable field?

Settle it on the field.

Give the Big Ten an inch, they’ll take 2,846 miles. Which is the distance between the University of Washington in Seattle and Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. — a 43-hour drive that now separates a pair of conference rivals.

Now that’s not to say Klatt, the former Buffs and Pomona High QB, doesn’t raise a point. At-large bids are subjective beasts. The Big 12 in 2024 wouldn’t have produced a top 16 team outside of league champ Arizona State last fall (although BYU was 17th in the final CFP rankings, while Iowa State and CU wound up 18th and 23rd, respectively).

It’s less than ideal to put the fate of multiple Big 12 berths in the hands of a committee that already looks upon the league the way the world used to look at the Big Ten West: Scrappy, bizarrely competitive and totally weird — just not nationally relevant.

That said, the problems for the Big 12, and CU, with the “4+4+2+2+1” model are threefold.

One is that it would officially codify the Big 12 — along with the ACC — to second-tier status. And if we’ve learned anything about business deals with the Big Ten and the SEC, it’s that they don’t concede and they never give anything back once it’s in their mitts. Enough — money, marquee schools, TV eyeballs — is never enough.

Two, good luck selling your “+2” to potential recruits. Especially when Big Ten and SEC peers are out on the trail waving a “+4” designation and “+4” cash in their families’ faces.

Third, it’s about access. Relevance. Opportunity. Remember TCU? Boise State? America loves an underdog story. TV viewers love an underdog story. Even if Big Ten presidents don’t.

Just because bean-counters always win in the end doesn’t mean you forfeit the fight.

Do you trust a committee to treat a 10-2 CU team better than, say, an 8-4 Georgia or Alabama bunch? That’s a risk. But in a world of bad options everywhere, it might be the only one worth taking.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

At 40, on his fifth team, he is not interested in being a mentor. And this ties back locally to Shedeur Sanders.

Flacco is favored to start for the Cleveland Browns, where he went from the couch to the playoffs in 2023.

But this is Cleveland. Rhymes with dysfunction. So nothing about Flacco’s return smacks of a feel-good story. Not with three other quarterbacks on the depth chart — Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Sanders — and a fourth hurt (Deshaun Watson) that the franchise never wants to take a snap again.

So, Flacco was asked this week about helping the kids. Since his last season in Baltimore and definitely in his first and only season in Denver in 2019, he has been in the #no(bleeps)given portion of his career.

He torched the Broncos in his last press conference, wondering aloud if the coaching staff was even interested in scoring on a final drive before losing to the Colts.

His candor remains refreshing. Especially about leading. He sees it as eyewash.

“If I say, ‘I don’t want to be a mentor,’ I look bad. If I say, ‘I do want to be a mentor,’ I look like an idiot who doesn’t care about being good,” Flacco said. “And in a quarterback room, there have been a ton of times where there have been learning experiences, and I have a lot of experience. I can talk on things. And hopefully, they listen. But it’s not necessarily my job to make sure they listen to me.”

Based on talent, Sanders should push to start by midseason. Pickett is a failed prospect, and when asked about Gabriel after he was selected in the third round, former Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum blurted, “He has a future in the NFL — as a coach.” But Sanders must overcome his fifth-round status and fewer reps.

There are no shortcuts. He needs to put in the work and put his head down when not learning from Flacco. Yes, watching Flacco can help. Pay attention to how he studies film, his pre- and post-practice routine. Take it all in. Even if there are minimal words involved.

It is not Flacco’s duty to train his replacement. If Sanders wants the job — he is the fan favorite — he has to take it.

Rockie Road: The Rockies continue losing at a record pace and making decisions that make little sense. With their Triple-A shortstop Ryan Ritter posting back-to-back player of the week honors, they signed veteran Orlando Arcia to replace struggling prospect Adael Amador. They did the same thing when Ezequiel Tovar was hurt, adding Alan Trejo before cutting him when Tovar returned. Why not play Ritter at second? Or move Ryan McMahon to first, put Ritter at third and demote human windmill Michael Toglia to the minors? The Rockies want you to believe in their young players. But they have few who are any good, and when one pops, they elect not to give him a chance. Another reason their record defines their process.

Coach speak: David Adelman made a strong impression in his introductory news conference. He insists the players will continue to respond to his principles of collaboration and meritocracy when he reminds them of back-to-back second-round playoff exits. His explanation is believable, but the Nuggets have reached prove-it mode with an aging roster and suspicious bench.

Final thought: Watching the college baseball regionals rekindles frustration that CU doesn’t have a team. There are plenty of players in state, and, while the lack of funding is known, it remains hard to believe Utah has baseball and the Buffs don’t.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Former Wyoming cornerback Tyrecus Davis and former UCLA offensive lineman Walker Andersen both joined the herd last weekend.

Davis, listed at 5-foot-10, 188 pounds by Wyoming, was a 12-game starter for the Cowboys last season. He was rated by Pro Football Focus as the second-highest graded defensive back on the team while playing the most snaps (781) of anyone on the defense.

In 2024, Davis recorded 42 tackles, one interception and eight pass breakups. He also blocked a kick and forced a fumble.

Davis played in nine games with five starts in 2023 and was Wyoming’s top-rated cornerback on PFF. He finished with 27 tackles, one interception and seven pass breakups.

Prior to his two seasons in Laramie, Wyo., Davis played at Navarro (Texas) Community College for three years. That included the 2020 season, which was canceled due to COVID.

During his time at Navarro, he played in 26 games, posting 80 tackles, five interceptions and 13 pass breakups. He had one interception return for a touchdown. In 2022, he earned second-team All-Southwest Junior College Football Conference honors. He also returned punts and kickoffs that year.

Although Davis has played four full seasons, he is taking advantage of a new NCAA rule that has granted all players from the 2024 season that played at least one year in JUCO one more year of eligibility.

Davis is the fourth transfer addition of the offseason to the cornerback room, joining Teon Parks (Illinois State), Makari Vickers (Oklahoma) and Noah King (Kansas State).

The cornerback room also includes returning starters Preston Hodge and DJ McKinney, as well as returning backups Ivan Yates and RJ Johnson.

Andersen, meanwhile, joins the Buffs after one season at UCLA. He did not see any game action while redshirting in 2024.

Listed at 6-5, 290, Andersen starred at El Dorado (Calif) High School before going to UCLA.

The addition of Andersen brings some depth to the offensive line. He is the 15th scholarship lineman for the Buffs, and is the eighth who has been added via the transfer portal.

Andersen is also one of the youngest Buffs on the line. Of the 15 on scholarship, eight are seniors and two are sophomores. Andersen is one of two redshirt freshmen (along with Yahya Attia), and the group includes two true freshmen.

With the weekend additions, CU is unofficially at 75 scholarship players and 100 overall.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Once upon a time, when the CU Events Center first opened its doors, that often was Bart Emery’s chore — fetching musicians from Stapleton Airport and getting them to Boulder for the then-frequent concerts at the arena, as well as Folsom Field.

Emery’s history has interlaced with the Events Center since well before he started calling the place his work home 15 years ago. The facilities director at Colorado, it’s been a dream job for the Colorado native for more than a decade and a half. But that run is coming to a close, as Emery will lock the doors to the Events Center for the final time when he retires at the end of the month.

Emery is the man who unlocks the doors at the crack of dawn every day, and the man who turns out the lights at the end of another long day. His fingerprints have been an integral part of every athletic event held on campus since 2008, and his departure will leave a huge void in the game-day preparation for CU football games as well as the basketball and volleyball games at the Events Center.

“I was 50 years old when I came back to work here,” Emery said. “To be able to work in college athletics, it’s been a lot of fun. It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of nights, weekends, holidays. But I knew that going in, and it’s been a nice way to make a living. It’s long hours for sure. There’s been some Thanksgiving dinners I haven’t been able to go to because we were hosting a basketball tournament, and every other year a football game or a men’s basketball game. But I don’t regret any of it.”

A Lakewood-area native who graduated from Green Mountain High School, Emery returned to his alma mater in 2008 as one of the facility directors at Folsom Field before moving to the Events Center in April of 2010 — the same month in which Tad Boyle was hired as CU’s men’s basketball coach.

Since then, Emery has been a staple at CU sporting events. He has worked at every home football game since 2008. Same with every Boyle-era home game — 251 in a row, through this past season — as well as every women’s basketball game. Emery also has worked home volleyball game since 2010. Since the CU lacrosse program began play in 2014, Emery has worked every home game except three early-season games that conflicted with basketball games.

Of course, that’s only accounting for Emery’s work during the actual games. The time he put into each and every event was far more expansive.

Many of Emery’s duties have been the practical sort, such as changing toilet seats or light bulbs at the Events Center. But his influence and skill set go far beyond the mundane. The pregame microphone check with referees at football games? That’s Emery. Running the sound at basketball postgame press conferences? That’s Emery. Making sure the media tables and the visiting network broadcasters are wired appropriately at the Events Center? Also Emery.

It was almost fitting that Emery ended up at the Events Center, as he was a key part of the events at the arena when it opened in 1979. A student at the time, Emery worked in whatever role he could grab — security, manning the spotlight, helping run the sound — for concerts held at CU.

Emery’s personal T-shirt collection, all from shows held at either the Events Center or Folsom Field, could easily be mistaken for a collection stolen from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Who. Stevie Wonder. The Grateful Dead. Cyndi Lauper. He has the stories to match, such as the time he was asked to fetch Alice Cooper’s boa constrictor, which was shipped to Colorado in a crate on a different flight. Or the time Emery was sent to pick up REO Speedwagon at Stapleton, only to overhear the band members venting to their manager at having a kid in a car without air conditioning for the commute to the gig instead of a limo.

The hours and the labor won’t be missed. The people and those moments, however, are other matters.

“The people for sure,” Emery said. “We work such long hours together, we get to know each other pretty well. I’m going to miss that. I’m going to miss just being on the sidelines for football. I’m going to miss being on the edge of the court for basketball and volleyball. But that’s another thing that I’ve really enjoyed, the variety. It’s not just one thing or one sport. I’ve worked really closely with the table crews at the basketball games, and now I’m going to be calling them for tickets.”

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

So we’re out of the gate with sunshine and rainbows to launch today’s installment. Starting with a belated tip of the cap to one of our favorite Front Range unicorns.

Travis Hunter, CU’s all-around good dude — A

Given the man’s vertical leap, is it any surprise that the Travis Hunter era in Jacksonville has already taken off like one of Richard Branson’s rockets?

The reigning Heisman Trophy winner and ex-CU Buffs player is having a pretty sweet spring, even by his standards. The two-way star walked the stage at the NFL Draft in Wisconsin late last month as the No. 2 overall pick to Jacksonville. Duuuuuuuval is an acquired taste, but the GTW wonks think it could be an ideal fit for the wideout/cornerback on several fronts.

We also had a notion that once people in North Florida got to know him personally, they’d grow to love him. The humility. The humor. The politeness. The work ethic. The dance moves. Sure enough, Hunter stole the show at the Jags’ rookie minicamp, where he ran routes on offense at wide receiver (new coach Liam Coen promises that reps at defense are coming next) while his No. 12 became the hottest jersey purchase in the area.

“It’s more just his presence and the energy he does provide,” Coen told reporters, “both in the classroom in the meeting rooms and also out here on the field.”

But our fave Hunter news item from the past few days wasn’t about football at all. It was the Facebook post that went viral from Ms. Sandy Hawkins Combs, who just happened to be sitting next to the greatest athlete in CU football history on a recent United flight out of DIA.

“I met the nicest young man who sat next to me,” Combs wrote. “He offered to put my bag in the overhead compartment and helped me with my tray. He was always polite, saying ‘Yes, ma’am,’ or ‘No ma’am.’ Anyone would be proud to have him as a son or grandson — so polite …

“He’s so humble and down-to-earth — I would have never guessed he was a professional athlete. JACKSONVILLE JAGS, you did good!”

They sure did.

The Schaeffer Rockies look like the Black Rockies so far — D

In the first three games after Bud Black was fired, the Rockies went 0-3 in Texas, hit .190 as a team in Arlington and got outscored 14-5. They’re headed into a weekend series at Arizona with a record of 7-36. Not to say Team GTW told you so, but … yeah. We did. Like, many, many, many times. Sure, Buddy wasn’t helping. But Buddy wasn’t the biggest problem, either.

We wish all the best to interim skipper Warren Schaeffer, of course, a decent feller by all accounts. It’d be hard for anybody chucked into the middle of the Indy 500 about 48 laps in to keep pace in a Plymouth Breeze. Hey, if the owner ever decides to fire himself, Team GTW will get matching Darren Holmes shoulder tattoos. Just don’t hold your breath on that front.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Coach Prime vs. Coach Glime.

Deion Sanders vs. Bill Belichick.

CU vs. North Carolina.

Home and home.

Make it happen, Rick George.

Don’t tell me you don’t want that smoke. You never go down the Deion road in the first place if you don’t want every last bit of smoke west of Vatican City.

Come on. It’s gotta happen. Doesn’t it? Remember those empty seats at the spring game? Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders have moved on. You need some juice to get the kids to eschew the slopes and spend their Saturdays at Folsom. You need some sizzle to get Broncos-mad Denver knee-deep in Buffsmania again.

So how’s this for sizzle? NFL legend vs. NFL legend. An iconic cowboy hat vs. an iconic hoodie. Viral on viral. Marshall Faulk leading one running backs room. Natrone Means leading the other.

Who needs AI? These stories practically write themselves!

Ralphie vs. Rameses.

The Flatirons vs. The Stone Knoll.

Chris Fowler vs. Stuart Scott.

OK, so a rumored spring scrimmage with the Hoodie didn’t pan out.

Keep swinging.

If TV executives still had souls, they’d be selling them on eBay for the rights to televise a matchup of Deion and Bill.

“There are a lot of questions,” WBD Sports analyst and Broncos great Champ Bailey told me over the winter. “We all probably have questions about how (Belichick) is going to work, because the structure of college is different from the NFL. It’s just different. There are no boundaries. It’s an evolving thing.”

Remember when Chapel Hill was a hoops haven? And when Boulder was a drinking town with a football problem? Not anymore. Nobody in college sports — not Nick Saban, not Donald Trump — moves the needle right now the way Sanders and Belichick do.

Coach Prime’s got people arguing on social media about the pros and cons of helicopter parenting your way through the NFL draft. Coach Glime’s dating a woman who’s about 78 years his junior.

What self-respecting, ratings-hungry network wouldn’t want a piece of this action?

CU has already seen two of its September 2025 games flexed into prime-time Friday night kicks, where the big money and juicy ad slots reside. Meanwhile, UNC’s opener vs. TCU, the Hoodie’s debut, kicks at 5:30 p.m. MT on Sept. 1 — Monday night football.

Mountain Sun Pub vs. Dingo Dog Brewing Company.

The Sink vs. Merritt’s Grill.

Eric Cartman vs. Barney Fife.

The future dates even line up. Eventually. CU’s earliest published vacancy is Week 1 (Aug. 30-Sept. 1) of 2029, the last season of both Sanders’ and Belichick’s current contracts. Alas, the Tar Heels sadly have that weekend booked, as they’re contracted to host South Carolina on Sept. 1, a Saturday.

All is not lost! The Buffs, as of Monday, don’t have another non-conference opening after ’29 until Weeks 2 and 3 of September 2032, with one home game already booked (North Texas on Sept. 4). There’s also a vacancy on Week 2 of 2033.

The Big 12 requires nine conference games; The ACC just eight. September fight cards get eaten up in a hurry.

Yet lookie here: UNC hasn’t published any scheduled non-conference opponents between 2031 and 2036. Clear sailing!

’32 in BoCo. ’33 in Tobacco Road. Done and done.

“Coach Bill Belichick is a coaches Coach to All us Coaches along with my man Coach Saban!” Sanders wrote on X last December, when Belichick was hired at UNC. “They’re game changers and they know how to move people forward. I know this is a great thing for College Football & for North Carolina. God bless u Coach, if you’re happy I am 2!”

More smoke, please. That genie’s having too much fun right now dancing with Miss Peggy and stuffing its face at Pasta Jay’s. No way it’s ever going back inside the bottle.