Kelly Lyell

kellylyell@coloradoan.com

CSU isn’t auditioning for a spot in the Big 12 Conference this football season, no matter what fans, television commentators and radio talk-show hosts might say.

Coach Mike Bobo knows it, and he wants to make sure his players understand it, too.

The Rams planned to gather Wednesday, he said, “lock ourselves in a room, and we’ll talk about how we’ve got to ignore all that other noise out there.” Colorado State University begins practices Thursday for the upcoming season.

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CSU is one of a half-dozen or so schools mentioned as possible expansion candidates for the Big 12 should the conference move forward with plans to add two or four teams. Football success is one of the criteria expansion candidates will be judged upon, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said, but not the only one. The league also will look at the strength of a school’s academic programs, including its standards and research, integrity, size of its fan base, media market and the competitiveness of all of its athletic programs.

A good football season, on the heels of three straight appearances in bowl games and a combined 25 wins in the past three years would probably boost the Rams’ chances. But only so much, given all the other factors involved.

“The only thing we can control is how we play this season, and if it happens, it happens,” CSU senior linebacker Kevin Davis said last week at the Mountain West’s football media days in Las Vegas. “If not, the Mountain West is a great conference. All we can control this season are the wins and losses.”

And those wins and losses might not matter at all if the Big 12 reaches a decision quickly.

CBS’ Dennis Dodd reported multiple Big 12 sources want decisions on expansion to be made before the football season begins to avoid detracting from what conference schools are doing on the field. The first game involving a Big 12 team this season is Sept. 2, when Baylor hosts Northwestern State.

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CSU begins its season that day, too, facing the University of Colorado, a former Big 12 member, in Denver in a nationally televised game on ESPN. There’s bound to be talk of Big 12 expansion and the Rams’ chances of getting into the conference leading up to that game and during the broadcast.

Bobo knows his players are going to see that kind of talk on Twitter, Facebook and other social media. They watch SportsCenter, read what’s in the news and listen to sports radio.

He said he’s used to dealing with life under the microscope after playing quarterback at Georgia and spending 14 years there as an assistant coach. He hopes to use that knowledge to help his assistant coaches and players maintain their focus.

“I’m kind of used to being at a place where the passion and the media and every single day was just nonstop, and I thought we handled it pretty well there of making our guys stay focused,” Bobo said. “… I was at a place where you turn on ESPN, and they’re liable to be on it, talking about your team. We haven’t had that level of media coverage, but here’s some more talk. They might be talking about expansion on ESPN, they might be talking about ‘Hey, the commissioner’s talking about Colorado State or school presidents are meeting," so that’s something we’ve got to do a good job as coaches of not ignoring it and addressing it with our players.

“We’ve got to address it and say, ‘Hey, this is what we can control,’ and you can’t just say it once. You’ve got to constantly preach the message.”

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

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