Colorado State sent a brochure to sell itself to the Big 12

The Big 12 is slowly moving toward a decision to expand or not and with that decision looming teams from the non-power leagues are hoping to catch the last train out of town and join a league that will forever change a school's athletics program.

Colorado State is already known to have sent info to the Big 12 and according to some as one of four teams in consideration, based on the Denver market and a conference TV network to join the Big 12.

What we did not know is exactly what was sent, well we do know. SB Nation has obtained the 12-page document that Colorado State sent to the Big 12.

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Within the documents Colorado State discusses the academics that the school brings -- bare in mind that the Big 12 does not really have a unified academic landscape similar to the Pac-12 or Big Ten.

Athletics are the big picture and the Rams make it clear that they are upgrading in that area, and specifically to the revenue driving sports in football and basketball. The Colorado State on-campus football stadium will open up the 2017 season and the basketball facilities are currently undergoing upgrades as well to their facilities.

The upgraded stadium is set to hold between 35,000 and 40,000 and that would be the smallest in the conference and approximately 20,000 behind the average within the Big 12. However, it is going to be a massive upgrade compared to where Colorado State has been playing home football games.

As for on the field success, the Rams boast they have a winning record against Power Five teams, which they did at the time of submitting this before the 2015 season That year the Rams fell to Colorado and Minnesota to drop that record. The sample size is very small as Colorado State plays very few Power Five teams per year, however they did beat Colorado, Washington State and Boston College between the 2012 and 2014 seasons.

The Rams were on the right track with Jim McElwain but his success allowed him to be poached by Florida and it is too early tell on Mike Bobo who enters his second season as the Rams coach this year.

The Rams also mention awards they have received on the football field from individuals, 20-straight NCAA tournament appearances in women's volleyball, 14 NFL Draft picks since the turn of the century, noting that former Ram basketball player Becky Hammon was the first full-time female assistant coach in North America on a men's pro sports team.

One interesting note is that there are over 30,000 Big 12 alumni living in the Denver-area as researched by the Coloradoan, and over 50,000 in the state of Colorado.

Geography apparently is a big deal in the Big 12 since the league decided to add the eastern outpost of West Virginia, but Colorado State notes that it can take about two hours to fly from either Denver or Colorado Springs airport in about 2.5 hours. Not sure where Colorado State found that number to fly to the East Coast and using commercial flight information.

Searching various flights from those two locations not only show no direct flights but the fastest flight is just over five hours and has at least one stop. Flying a chartered plane for the athletic teams likely would be non-stop but for fan travel that is quite a ways to travel if someone wants to make that lengthy trip. I would be curious to how they came up with that number.

The big question is will this information help, and the answer is maybe. If there was a slam dunk team the Big 12 would already have that team in its conference, but they do not. That is what can help Colorado State try to move up in the sports world and land in a Power Five conference.

The TV market is the strongest reason to consider Colorado State as a team to consider, and it does help that the football team has gone to multiple bowl games and a decent history over the past 20 years, and the basketball team has been improving under Larry Eustachy who took over what Tim Miles was building.

Now all Colorado State can do is wait and hope that this brochure was well received by those in charge at the Big 12 -- insert joke here about who is in charge -- and keep winning in the major sports.

Colorado State recently published to its website to boast its wins over the past two years.