Colorado State Athletic Director Joe Parker has a lot on his plate for a first time AD. Being an AD is hard enough when you simply have to worry about keeping the department in the black, but add to that a volatile college landscape and a $220 million stadium to be built, and the gig can quickly become overwhelming. Yet Parker has jumped in head first and made the role his own despite some tough questions to answer like...

What's going on with the $220 million stadium?

Utility work began the start of summer with official groundbreaking set for September 12th. Most of the groundwork was done prior to Parker's tenure, but there are still many questions to answer before the expected 2017 kickoff. Parker is continuously working with design firm Populous to hone in the design plan to keep inside the budget. You can view renderings here, but expect more changes throughout the next two years.

What's CSU doing to prepare for possible conference expansion?

The biggest question many CSU fans have for Parker is what CSU plans to do regarding possible Power 5 expansion. There is no question it is on the mind of many Athletic Director across the country and Parker is no different. He said this to the Denver Post's Terry Frei on CSU's strategy,

"What I've been telling people is that we need to be the very best version of Colorado State that we can be. We need to work hard to be good peers with our partners within the Mountain West. In doing that, we need to aggressively work hard to dominate them on the field of competition and on the courts every time we match up. The pathway, if that dialogue opens up, was pretty well proven by a program like TCU. If you can prove you can compete at the highest levels and you've made the appropriate investments in your program, you have a chance."

Parker hits it on the head with his comments. There is no doubt CSU is in communication with Big XII officials in some capacity, but Colorado State can only focus on maximizing its own value regardless of what conference that may be in.

What's the future of the CU-CSU rivalry?

One of the biggest news items to come out the past few weeks is the possible demise of the Rocky Mountain Showdown. The University of Colorado recently announced a home-and-home with the Air Force Academy starting in 2020, likely meaning at least a hiatus for the first time since 1994. CSU and CU will play their last scheduled game at Fort Collins in 2020. Talks between the schools to extend the current agreement died out prior to Parker's tenure and never recovered. Most the difficulty revolves around CU's desire to avoid a straight home-and-home in the series. Parker had this to say to Frei regarding the current talks,

"Right now, we have an agreement that has them coming here in 2020. That's one year we can point towards that they're going to be here. . . There's interest in them extending beyond 2020 and if they were to do that, I think they're most comfortable with home and homes, which I think we would be, too. There will be opportunities for us in the future, if we don't play CU beyond 2020 in Denver, there will be opportunities for us to play power fives, with our return game being at Sports Authority."

Parker brings up an interesting opportunity to schedule other Power 5 teams to play at Sports Authority Field. This is a strategy basketball coach Larry Eustachy has employed, scheduling a "home-and-home" with Kansas State featuring two games in Wichita, KS and the Pepsi Center in Denver. There have not been any rumors regarding a possible opponent, but with Parker's Big XII roots, it would be interesting to see a possible Big XII matchup.

Parker is just a couple months into the role and has been very active engaging the community and building his mark on the program. As he gets deeper into his tenure, there will be many more questions to answer and he is ready for them.