Weber Sees Opportunities Abound for CSU

When he was hired roughly a year ago, John Weber was very adamant about what he saw for the future of Colorado State Athletics, and that it was all positive.

Every instance someone pointed out an upcoming change in the college athletics landscape, the director of athletics spoke of opportunity, not hurdles. Revenue sharing, NIL, conference realignment, it didn't matter. He saw a pathway toward improvement for the Rams, one leading to national recognition.

Nothing happened in the past 12 months to deter his vision, one which has been bolstered by the number of fans who attended Colorado State events at Moby Arena and Canvas Stadium.

"It's the way that everyone showed up over the last year. We built a lot of excitement since this time last year," Weber said at the first real press conference he's held since the interim tag was removed from his title on May 30, 2024. "We built a lot of excitement going into the fall, going into the winter, going into the spring. And everyone believed and everyone showed up. And that's what I want to see continue to happen. When we show up, it makes a difference for our teams.

"But I think another reason for us to be optimistic is the way that we're coming together as a department and doing all the things off the field, off the court, out of the pool, off the track to really support our student-athletes and give them an opportunity to compete at the absolute highest level. And we're incredibly serious about it. And the opportunity that we have here for CSU, by every metric, we're a powerful institution. And the opportunity for growth for us and to make noise on the national stage is very, very real and something that we're all excited to be able to do."

Beyond the record attendance numbers for football and volleyball – and enhancements were .made to the game-day experience for fans -- Weber noted academic success and investments made in nutrition. He highlighted the record of the four ticketed sports – 42-14 between football, volleyball and both basketball squads. He was proud Colorado State was one of 14 schools to have a qualifier for a bowl game, the NCAA men's basketball tournament and the NCAA volleyball tournament, and just one of 25 schools to boast both an NFL and NBA draft pick.

There were five conference team titles won, a large number of individual conference championships and even the national championship won by Mya Lesnar in shot put at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

It helped spur record donations to the department, including the launch of the McGraw Society, with more than 70 members already making donations of at least $25,000. Canvas Stadium attracted the PBR Last Cowboy Standing event for two successful days, with an agreement for the event to return in a year.

It only makes him – and his staff – want to push for more. As he said, to run into fires to find those opportunities. His push to his team was there were two games each day – one on the field, the other off it – and he wanted to win both.

"We do have further plans. If you're talking about football, we've also been hard at work on what our volleyball intros and what our basketball intros are going to be like as well," he said. "So, there will be some changes that we'll announce here shortly relative to what pre-game looks like.

"Out there in the tailgating area, we've got some elements that we're going to introduce out there that I think is going to be a good reason for people to come early and be engaged with the programming out there. As we lead into football season here, we're going to simplify a little bit of what we did last year, but I think we're going to do all those elements even better with more energy. We're really excited about ways to get the energy up in the crowd and get them loud and proud as the ball games are."

While in-season focus for each program and the department as a whole will always remain contending for conference titles and postseason berths, there will be attention focused on what is next, that being a move into the Pac-12 on July 1, 2026. The idea is to exit one strong to create momentum to move into the next wave of opportunities.

Weber said they have to capitalize on all they can, especially with the new age of college athletics and where he sees CSU factoring into the landscape.

"The long-term goals for us is to maximize the rev-share cap. It's going to take sponsorships, it's going to take naming rights, it's going to take ticket sales, it's going to take engagement with our donors to figure out ways to make that happen," he said. "Our goal that we openly talk about is how do we become the first non-A4 school to get to that rev-share cap.

"It's going to take us a while to get there, but the opportunity I think is real, the support is real, and I'm excited to see us grow along those lines."

Just as important as the future is to Weber and what it means for the athletic department, he was just as thrilled to announce a way the school is honoring the past with the creation of the Ring of Honor, a program designed to keep the names of the legends of the past, those who created the school's legacy, front and center.

Seven will be honored in total, four from football – coach Sonny Lubick, Joey Porter, Bradlee Van Pelt and Al "Bubba" Baker. Three others – Jason Smith (men's basketball), Amy Van Dyken (swimming) and Angela Knopf (volleyball) will also have their names represented at their arenas of play.

Reflecting on those conversations he had made him emotional all over again.

And it all stemmed from a recruiting visit, one where he wondered what the student-athlete was pondering.

"I was thinking about her experience as she walked around here and took a look at what was going on at Colorado State and making a decision on whether she wanted to come here or wanted to go to another institution. I stood down on the floor of Moby and I looked up and there wasn't a lot of names up there," he said. "When she looked up there -- and I don't know if this was her thought process at all or not, but it was mine -- one conclusion that she could have drawn was that there hasn't been very many people of significance that have played in Moby.

"That couldn't be any further from the truth. When I look at an opportunity like Walk of Champions, like the Ring of Honor, like the number that we retired for Lt. Col. John Mosley last year, honoring those that have made a huge difference for our programs, it's important. We need to recognize that. We need to embrace that. We need to welcome those people back. They did great things for us, and we are incredibly grateful for them."

A year later, nothing has changed for Weber with the exception of his growing enthusiasm for what the future holds. A move to a rebranded conference will come with many late nights, he said, but he's used to those. Every success he experiences at Colorado State leads him to pondering what will come next, and how the department can make it happen.

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Weber Sees Opportunities Abound for CSU

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