Colorado State University has finally reached the big time, at least in the area of radio coverage for its football and men's and women's basketball games. On july 1st, CSU will begin a 5 year contract with ESPN 105.5, ending its deal with 560 AM. This is a much needed step on the way to a larger audience and relevance in the Rocky Mountain region. The new contact with ESPN will not only have the games but pre and post game shows in addition to the coaches' shows. AD Jack Graham has repeatedly found the weak links in CSU's marketing and branding strategies and has moved very quickly and decidedly to strengthen the Rams' approaches to these areas. The improvement in coverage and availability should be immediately noticeable and should also increase the availability of Rams' sports.
Also this week in CSU athletic news, CSU has decided not to renew its contract with Russel athletics, from which it received somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million per year. Instead, CSU athletics decided to switch to Under Armor for an undisclosed amount of money per year. Hawai'i is also an Under Armor school and is receiving around $4 million for a 5 year contract. Hawai'i and CSU both have green prominently displayed in their respective uniforms, which could allow quicker turn around times and greater availability as both need similar color availability. CSU will begin its process for designing and choosing new uniforms for next year, as the contract will likely begin on July 1st, 2013.
After deciding to build a $246 million on campus stadium, Coach Hilbert (Volleyball) getting his 400th win, 3 new coaches (2 basketball and football) and these two announcements, the CSU faithful are getting used to hearing big things.