CSU Rams Q&A: John Weber discusses first few months as full-time athletic director

LAS VEGAS — No one wants to see Colorado State athletics succeed more than John Weber.

A 1991 graduate and former student-athlete at CSU, all Weber has done since retiring from his executive role in the private sector in 2020 is serve the Rams, previously as the executive director of the Green and Gold Guard — CSU’s name, image and likeness (NIL) collective — and now as the university’s athletic director.

Weber replaced Joe Parker, who was let go in February, on an interim basis but was given the job on a permanent basis back in May. His experience in the NIL world will certainly come in handy in this new era of college athletics, but there’s plenty more that comes with the role.

Here’s what Weber had to say when he met with local media members last week at Mountain West football media days in Las Vegas:

Q: An eventful first half-year on the job, what are your thoughts on the state of CSU athletics and how have things gone for you?

A: In terms of looking at where we are from an overall perspective, I’m incredibly proud of all the coaches, all the players, the staff that we have here. There’s a phenomenal foundation here for us to really work with. I look at our football program and what Coach (Jay) Norvell has done over the last couple of years to really set that foundation and to be able to start to climb from where he is. We are all incredibly excited about what he’s been doing with that program, the way he’s been recruiting into that program, the way he’s been developing those student athletes. I think the future is really, really bright for our football program?

Q: What is your relationship with Jay like? Obviously, it can be a bit awkward when you have a new AD come in that didn’t hire the coach. What is that process like and do you have to reassure him at all?

A: I was in a fortunate position where I’ve known him for a couple years and really worked well with him. That really transitioned nicely to working with him from a full-time perspective.

Q: What’s your view on what CSU needs to do — and college athletics as a whole — wrangle in the current era of NIL, potential for more compensation for players, etc.?

A: Every school is going to have its own special challenges, its own special environments. We are a very fortunate Group of Five school. We’ve gotten into a position where we have built out a lot of our facilities before we need to start working in a different way and investing in a different way. We’re in a great community. It’s a world-class university. We’ve got a lot of stuff that’s working for us and in terms of us being able to grow from here, it’s gonna be fantastic.

Q: What’s your philosophy on football nonconference scheduling, especially now that the College Football Playoff has expanded, and the Mountain West winner has a chance to get an automatic playoff bid each year?

A: How much time you got? (Laughs). It really has changed the way you schedule and the way you look at who you want to play. Traditionally, we’ve gone to some really great environments (against) some really upper end Power 5 schools — Power 4, now. When you look at that opportunity to go and have that slot in the CFP, we want to make sure we’re scheduling in a way that we’ve actually got an opportunity to go and earn that spot. What that means is we’re going to have to go 12-0, 11-1 in the season to get to something like that. When you count the championship game for the conference on top of that, it’s something that’s really changed the dynamics for honestly every school in the way they schedule. It’s no surprise we’re seeing some scheduling changes across the nation right now.

Q: How important was it to secure home-and-home (series), especially for like a BYU?

A: That’s a great opportunity to revive an old Mountain West rival. There’s a long history between Colorado State and BYU. An opportunity to revive that and bring that back regionally with a focus on that, that’s a huge opportunity. That’s a great deal for their fans, that’s a great deal for our fans. I’m really looking forward to that.

Q: When you’re talking to Power 4 schools and trying to schedule football games, what goes into the decision making with some of those schools probably being a little more hesitant to do a home-and-home? How do you weigh the decision to commit to one road game against a historically solid program?

A: You never know what a team is gonna look like five years from now. There’s a lot of changes right now in the way you can move rosters around and invest in your program. There’s just no way you can understand what that team might be like in five years, but you’ve got some history to go off and you gotta place a bet on that, in terms of what that program looks like and how we view ourselves and how we view where we might be in three, four, five, six years down the road when we’re looking at a potential game. It’s a guessing game right now, but we try to make as much of an educated guess as we can.

Q: Given the uncertainty of scheduling games so far out, do you think it would be more beneficial if football was more like basketball in terms of scheduling where it’s a year-to-year (process), maybe even two years?

A: The size of a football operation in comparison to some of the other teams, it’s hard to move something like that around as much. If you’re just trying to do something in the springtime and play those games in the fall, it's a logistics issue to some degree. But it’s an interesting question. Do we really need to be scheduling seven, eight, nine years in advance? We very well may see that stuff retracted into a two, three-year window.

Q: I know you still have some football games with Colorado still on the books, but is that an ongoing conversation in terms of (scheduling in) some of those other years in the future or do you view it as, we have what we have in place for the future?

A: At the moment, we have what’s in place for the foreseeable future.But Coach Norvell talked about the value of that in-state game, the in-state rivalry. It’s certainly something we would like to play every year.

Q: Jay Norvell was talking a lot (in Las Vegas) about NIL and some of the offers schools are sending some of his players, how important are those conversations with him about what you guys can do to improve in that regard to make sure you keep some of the star players CSU does have in Fort Collins?

A: It’s an incredibly important, if not the most important thing right now. If you look at the way programs need to manage that roster, that’s a full-time job in making sure that we’re not only watching our roster but making sure we’re watching what’s happening in the rest of the programs out there so we understand what may be trending in the transfer, who might become available, etc.

Q: How would you assess the strides CSU has made in developing and keeping talent on the football field?

A: Outstanding strides. Coach Norvell mentioned how he’s had 50-plus new members on the team the last two seasons and he’s done it the right way. He’s getting folks we can develop; he’s getting the right types of folks into our program. He talked about size and speed and length and all that kind of stuff.He’s setting us up very well for the future. As we head into year three with him at the head of Colorado State football, I think there’s a lot of exciting expectations about how that’s gonna play out on the field for us.

Q: How much does the continuity with the coaching staff and players help from an NIL perspective in a community like Fort Collins where people really get to know the key figures in the program?

A: Any business, any roster, any team, continuity is absolutely important and making sure you find the right people to ‘put on the bus,’ so to speak, and then you keep the people on the bus. There’s absolutely no replacement for that.

Q: Speaking of the football schedule with seven home games and a couple rivalry games this year, do you have any update on season tickets and what kind of numbers you’re anticipating?

A: We’ve actually already sold more ticketing and parking revenue than we did all of last year. We’re well ahead of what we did last year. We’re over 11,000 season tickets at this point and that’s a great transition to see that climb in the right direction for us?

Q: Is it possible there won’t be a single-game ticket sale for the Rocky Mountain Showdown because the season tickets and the mini-plans have gone so well?

A: It’s definitely very possible. I would encourage any plans out there that want to come to that CU game that they’re gonna have to get in on the season tickets, they’re gonna have to get in on that mini plan in order to be in our stadium.

Q: Do you change the student ticket allotment at all for that game given how high the demand is? What’s the balance in wanting to make sure as many students as possible can go but you also want to make as much money as you can?

A: We don’t change the allotments. We want that student body to be able to experience that and create that raucous game day atmosphere, for sure.

Q: What does it mean to have this game on CBS in the prime time slot?

A: It’s certainly something we want to take advantage of. Anytime you’ve got a chance to show up on a television broadcast, and especially in prime time on that Saturday night, we’re gonna come out in full force and we’re gonna have a really good time with it.

Q: Switching to basketball quickly, coach Niko Medved re-upped his contract after another NCAA Tournament appearance. How impactful has that been for you to have that continuity with him and not having to make a new basketball hire this offseason?

A: When we look at that basketball program, the thing we can all be proud of is the quality of people that Niko has on his staff and the quality of people he recruits as student athletes at Colorado State. He runs a style of ball that takes a specific type of player, and he does a great job of recruiting those people. From a continuity perspective, it’s really, really important.

Q: What would you like to see happen with the Mountain West in terms of potentially adding Oregon State and Washington State?

A: I think there’s a really, really big opportunity to own the western half of the U.S. When that comes to bear, I think we’re going to see some really interesting things start to happen.

Q: Lastly, what’s been the biggest challenge for you so far in this new role?

A: It’s gonna be a challenge for everybody when you look at how sports are evolving at the collegiate level. We’re in a position with how fortunate we are at Colorado State at the Group of Five level that we’ve got the really good foundation here and we’re ready to really start to build on top of that and see the progress that all of us expect to see. When we look down the road about how things are evolving over the next year or two and how we start to work with our student athletes and change that relationship a little bit (with potential legal settlements on paying athletes), making sure we are ready for that and leaders in the NCAA in terms of how we come out of the gate with that, that’s a really hard challenge but that is what’s taking most of our times.