Colorado’s first game against a conference opponent as a new member of the Pac-12 Conference in 2011 will be against California on Sept. 10 in Boulder. And it won’t count in league play.
“We’ve told them we would not object,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said. “But if they choose to play, it won’t count in the conference standings.”
When the Pac-12 announced its 2011 schedule Friday, it gave Colorado only four league home games, and those did not include California, which had been scheduled for years in Boulder as a nonconference game.
Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn is negotiating with Cal officials about a solution, which might mean finding another opponent. The easiest solution would be to keep the game but not count it as a league contest.
“When the presidents talked about schedules going forward and some (teams) missing playing each other, some suggested maybe that would be a solution,” deputy Pac-12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said. “I don’t know if it’ll be replicated. I’m sure coaches wouldn’t prefer it.”
Weiberg said the conference did not want to make it a conference game so that the league schedule would start on the same week in October. Colorado opens league play at home Oct. 1 against Washington State. The league made a similar ruling on an Oregon-Utah game already scheduled for next year.
Scheduling Cal-CU as a league game also would have complicated the conference’s delicate cross-division scheduling format.
The Pac-12 gave Colorado only four home league games, which still leaves the school one game short of its contractual obligation of six games at Folsom Field. The Buffaloes are under contract to play at Hawaii on Sept. 3, against Colorado State on Sept. 10 in Denver and at Ohio State on Sept. 24.
Bohn wasn’t available for comment, but in a statement he said joining the Pac-10 would make this scenario impossible to avoid at least once.
“We recognize that having only five home games in Boulder is an anomaly, as we have always strived to have six for several reasons,” Bohn said in the statement. “While there is a virtual sixth down the road in Denver, we want to play in Folsom six times annually and are working to secure that number of games as we schedule forward for the long term.
“Every school is making what to them is some kind of sacrifice to get the Pac-12 up and rolling, and, as for us, we were faced with having only five home games in either 2011 or 2012.”
Besides Washington State and Cal, Colorado’s other home games are Oregon, Southern California and Arizona. The Buffaloes travel to Stanford, Washington, Arizona State, UCLA and Utah, in addition to Hawaii.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
