BOULDER – The first thing eager new CU athletic director Fernando Lovo must learn is the massive gap between wishful thinking and what it actually takes to win the Big 12 Conference football championship.

Here’s a hint: Start with a $5 million quarterback.

In 2026, that’s the going rate for success in college athletics.

Are the Buffs truly ready, willing and able to win that battle?

As Lovo stood Monday in the Dal Ward Center and enthusiastically led a “Go Buffs!” pep rally, Texas Tech billionaire booster Cody Campbell was bragging on a huge electronic billboard in New York City’s Times Square about luring coveted quarterback Brendan Sorsby to the Red Raiders with an obscene amount of money.

“Players and coaches win games,” Lovo said. “Administrators win championships. That’s what I believe,”

From flamboyant coach Deion Sanders to distinguished Board of Regents member Wanda James, approximately 100 CU luminaries essential to the Buffs’ athletic success stood shoulder to shoulder in the Touchdown Club to welcome an obviously bright and uncommonly poised 37-year-old administrator from the University of New Mexico.

Taking over as athletic director from CU legend Rick George, Lovo got right into the spirit of the thing, saying he couldn’t wait to charge Folsom Field alongside Ralphie.

“Coach Prime,” Lovo said, “I’m running right behind you.”

The crowd ate it up.

But looking around the room, I did not spy one billionaire booster willing to write unlimited checks among the CU boosters.

Fair or not, it’s money that now matters the most in college sports.

And the Colorado athletic department is facing an annual deficit of more than $25 million, as the shine begins to fade from Coach Prime, who has watched some of his most talented players on both sides of the ball depart for greener pastures.

While dusty brown plains of Lubbock, Texas, will never match the Flatirons for beauty, Campbell has turned it green with the lure of football riches. 

The Texas Tech football team won the Big 12 title in 2025, winning nine conference games by an average margin of 30 points. After losing 23-0 to Oregon in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff, Campbell brashly told USA Today: “We will double down.”

The Red Raiders, scheduled to visit Folsom Field in the upcoming season, were already spending in the very rich neighborhood of $25 million on its football roster.

And that was before Campbell helped Texas Tech make the biggest early splash in this year’s transfer portal, landing Sorsby from Cincinnati for a reported $5 million.

How much is a diploma at a fine academic institution worth these days in college football? Less than the paper it is printed on.

Sorsby is projected to make nearly five times as much playing quarterback for the Red Raiders as CU alum Shedeur Sanders could earn as the starter for the Cleveland Browns next season.

So I asked Lovo if the Buffaloes can compete for championships in this era of wild NIL spending without a sugar daddy like Campbell to underwrite all their fun and games.

“I think you can. There’s the old adage about Jimmys and Joes and X’s and O’s, right. The Jimmys and Joes matter. That’s real. To acquire the Jimmys and Joes, it takes resources,” Lovo told me.

“But the X’s and O’s still matter. And the culture matters. … It starts with great coaches. And I think we have great coaches here.”

One of those great coaches is men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle, who has won more than 300 games at Colorado the old-fashioned way: By recruiting good players of strong character and patiently developing them until standouts like Spencer Dinwiddie and Tristan da Silva become NBA ready.

“We’re still taking the same approach. We’re evaluating and recruiting good, young talent. Now the challenge will be retaining that talent,” Boyle told me. “At Colorado, we will be testing that model for success. Can we pass that test? That’s our challenge. That’s my challenge. That’s the challenge of our athletic administration. It’s the challenge of our whole university system. It’s the challenge of our alumni.”

With Lovo at the helm, can CU athletics build a village of boosters capable of doing battle with the war chest of Campbell at Texas Tech and any other billionaire who believes a football or basketball champion is a real cool toy?

“That literally is,” Boyle said, “the million-dollar question.”